GoGrid Blog

As GoGrid continues its record breaking sign-ups, we get asked repeatedly how we compare against Amazon’s EC2. While not exactly an apples to apples comparison, there are enough similarities to warrant a few matrices to illustrate the differences.

Feature Comparison Matrix

Server/Instance Price Comparison

* Pricing is based on the Advanced Grid service plan.

Load-Balance Server Network Price Comparison***

*** Pricing is based on the Advanced Grid service plan

Data Transfer Price Comparison

** Pricing is based on the Transfer 200 GB service plan.

While not officially sanctioned by our Product Management team, I added this for good measure.

Deployment Time Comparison

**** A bit of humor after watching a long video showing how to deploy EC2 images.

If there is another GoGrid comparison that you would like to see, just leave a comment and we will do our best to post in the future.

A few days ago, I had an interesting conversation with a very excited GoGrid user. So much so, that he was working on getting all of his production websites migrated over to GoGrid, but only after he fully installed cPanel. Using cPanel, he said, would enable him to seamlessly migrate all of his clients’ sites. He kept running into little tweaks that he needed to do here and there, but kept working on it, happy that he could so easily build up and rip down server instances with GoGrid. Eventually, he got it to work. His ultimate suggestion? Get an Operating System image with cPanel installed, or at a minimum, have a bare-bones install of CentOS so that cPanel could be installed easily.

As we continue to build out the GoGrid Operating System images (shortly to roll out some new ones), I thought that it would make sense to ask what Open Source software you might want to see in upcoming template releases.

My list of Open Source apps that I would want on Windows and/or Linux is growing and includes:

• WordPress
• Joomla!
• Bugzilla
• Trac
• Moodle
• Subversion (maybe with Trac)
• SugarCRM
• MediaWiki
• Webmin
• cPanel
• Alfresco
• Twiki
• Community Server

What about actual Operating Systems like Ubuntu or Debian?

How about combinations of the OS and Open Source app?

I realize that these are simple Open Source applications but do you really want to spend hours installing and configuring your server for these to work? The whole goal of GoGrid is “control in the cloud” and make server deployments quick and easy. With these templates, we hope to make the process even easier, turnkey and ready-to-go out of the box! Post a comment with your wish list and we will see what we can do.

8.27.08 - Note: Facebook and MySpace-enabled servers are currently unavailable on GoGrid. However, we have added other server images since the writing of this article. The table below has been slightly modified to reflect some changes. For a comparison of GoGrid to Amazon’s EC2, please see this page.

With the Facebook QuickStart Servers available now on GoGrid, we have received questions as to how the GoGrid service compares with others in the cloud computing and Facebook space. While this is not the “end-all” comparison, it does provide a point of reference between GoGrid, Amazon EC2 and Joyent.

Chart updated on 8/27/08.

*Pricing based on GoGrid Advanced Cloud and Transfer 200 GB plans

With GoGrid there are other choices as well for RAM and Storage allotments (1GB RAM servers have 60 GB disks and 2 GB RAM servers have 125GB disks). Key differentiators are the FREE support and Load Balancing offered by GoGrid as well as support for both Windows and Linux servers (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and CentOS 4.4.) More OS images are added on a regular basis so check back regularly.

Being your humble servant, I have a special discount available to all of my readers. Contact me directly for a discount on your first GoGrid account! (Limited time only!). So what are you waiting for? Get a new GoGrid account now!

As part of our regular updates to GoGrid code and functionality, we have released several new Web/Application and Database Sever Templates to GoGrid. This is part of a two set release with the next round coming tomorrow. (More information on the second set of templates in a subsequent blog post.)

One of the great features of GoGrid is the ability to instantly create new servers based on precompiled and tested templates. Our goal is to provide a significant number of templates to match many different development needs and do so in a timely manner.

Yesterday, we released the following templates:

Web/Application Servers:

• CentOS 4.5 (32-bit) with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) stack
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with LAMP stack
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with IIS, ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express

Database Servers:

• CentOS 4.5 (32-bit) with PostgreSQL 8.2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with PostgreSQL 8.2
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express

These 6 additional server images now compliment the original list of servers:

Web/Application Servers:

• CentOS 4.4 (32-bit) with Apache 2.2 and PHP 5
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with Apache 2.2 and PHP 5
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with IIS 6.0

Database Servers:

• CentOS 4.4 (32-bit) with MySQL 5.0
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with MySQL 5.0
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup (additional charge of $99.99/month)
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard (additional charge of $249.99/month)

With 13 templates and growing, GoGrid is rapidly becoming the de facto source for scalable, on-demand servers. Also, remember that we are the first to bring FREE web-based load balancing into the mix, as well as an allotment of static IPs, free inbound bandwidth and a “utility” type of pricing model (pay as you go). So what are you waiting for? Sign up for GoGrid and get your development or production environment running in minutes.

It is pretty obvious that the interest is high with GoGrid. And to that end, you have plenty of questions. We have been listening and hope that this first set of answers will help you in choosing GoGrid as your next hosting solution.

General

Question: Do I have full root access to each machine I’m running?

Answer:
Yes. All Linux machines have “root” access. All Windows machines have “administrator” access.

Question: Do I have to add new machines manually?

Answer:
Yes. Currently all new machines must be added via the GoGrid web interface.

Question: Can I set up a rule to have my GoGrid server scale automatically with demand?

Answer:
Not currently. However this is a feature that is on the product roadmap.

Question: Am I charged when my GoGrid server is in a stopped state and if so, how much?

Answer:
Servers in a “stopped” or “shut down” state will still count against your server RAM hour allotment and will still incur charges. This is because a stopped server still occupies RAM on our grid as well as “reserves” the resources for your server should you need to restart it quickly. At this time the only way to stop being billed for a server is to “Delete” the server, and in this case your server will be deleted forever and any data will not be recoverable. We are working on developing a solution so that stopped servers do not incur charges since we understand this is not an optimal solution for some of our customers.

Server Images

Question: Will you support Windows Server 2008?

Answer:
Yes, we will support Windows Server 2008 in the July time-frame.

Question: Can I use my own server image?

Answer:
Not initially. However this functionality will be supported in the future. And, as you have root and administrator access to your servers, you can customize your instances as you see fit (with the exception of modifying the kernel on Linux instances).

Question: Will GoGrid offer a scalable environment to support Facebook applications?

Answer:
GoGrid currently offers scalable servers for Facebook and other applications. Simply create new servers and load balance as needed. There will be a Facebook-ready server template (Facebook accelerators) added shortly.

Question: If I do set up an environment and I add another server, I would like to be able to clone my existing server as a new server. Is this possible?

Answer:
While server cloning is not available in the beta launch, it will be available soon as this is a popular request. Other customers of GoGrid have had success using some OpenSource tools to clone their servers across multiple instances.

Question: I want Windows, but I have no interest in IIS or MS SQL. I suppose I could get either server type and just turn off the services I don’t need, and install what I want (PostgreSQL, Java, etc.).

Answer:
Yes, you have full Administrator access to your Windows server which means that you can enable or disable the services that you want, as well as install other Third Party applications.

Technical Specifications

Question: Can I have more than just 1GB of RAM per server?

Answer:
GoGrid servers can be added with 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB of RAM today. We plan on increasing the maximum deployable amount of RAM to 4GB and 8GB very shortly.

Question: What load balancer do you use?

Answer:
F5 Networks LTM (http://www.f5.com/products/big-ip/). Our load balancers are configured in active-standby clustered pairs to prevent outages caused by hardware failures. These load balancers are included with each GoGrid account free of charge.

Question. Can I modify the type of load balancing or the persistence of my F5 load balancer?

Answer:
Yes. We give you the option to choose one of the following two load balancing types: “round robin” or “least connection,” and also provide the following persistence options: “SSL sticky” or “source address.”

Question: How much CPU do I get with every server?

Answer:
GoGrid is built upon a Grid of servers (nodes), managed by a hardware virtualization layer (Xen-based hypervisor) which allows several guest operating systems (virtual servers) to be executed on the same computer hardware at the same time. Our nodes are custom built multi-processor, Intel-based computers. In order for GoGrid to guarantee a minimum CPU to a virtual server, we will always maintain a ratio of 1 Xeon core (equivalent to a P4 2.0 chip) to 4 GB of RAM across our entire grid.

The maximum CPU utilization per virtual server is equivalent to the amount of cores assigned to that virtual server, per the below table.

The Xen CPU scheduler allows us to control CPU priorities per virtual server so that adjacent virtual servers cannot “steal” your CPU resources. The table below illustrates the current breakdown in CPU allocations and burst-ability by server-RAM configuration:

Server RAM	Core Guaranteed (P4 2.0 GHz equivalent)	Core Burst
512 MB	1/8	1
1 GB	1/4	1
2 GB	1/2	1

Note: you will soon be able to add 4GB & 8GB virtual servers.

Question: Can my GoGrid server support more than 1 Xeon processor if I’m running Windows OS?

Answer:
Not at this time. When we implement the 4GB and 8GB server options, that server will be guaranteed 1 full core and 2 full cores on both Windows and Linux respectively.

Question: Is my RAM dedicated to my server?

Answer:
Yes. The Xen hypervisor guarantees that the RAM is allocated to only your server.

Question: How much Storage can I have?

Answer:
In GoGrid, server storage is tied to the amount of RAM in your server.

Server RAM	Storage
512 MB	30 GB
1 GB	60 GB
2 GB	125 GB

Question: Can I add additional Storage?

Answer:
You cannot add additional storage to a server at this time.

Question: Why am I seeing a load above 1.0 when I do ‘top’ on my Linux server? This is happening even when my server is completely idle.

Answer:
The Xen hypervisor will report the load baseline as the number of cores assigned to your GoGrid server. This means that if your system has 1 core assigned to it, ‘top’ will report a baseline load of 1.0. To ascertain your actual load, subtract the number of cores assigned to your server from the load reported by ‘top’, in order to get the actual load of your server.

Question: What happens if there is a failure of a physical server node?

Answer:
The GoGrid resource scheduler ensures that your GoGrid servers are spread across as many different physical nodes as possible. This is to minimize the impact of an unlikely hardware failure to as few GoGrid servers as possible. Please also note that GoGrid hardware nodes are enterprise-grade machines with dual-power supplies connected to two different UPS systems, and RAID protected storage volumes. All nodes are proactively monitored by the GoGrid Network Operations Center (NOC).

More FAQs are in the works. Keep your questions coming!

For those of you who have already signed up for a Trial or Paid GoGrid account, WELCOME! For those who have not, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? As many of you have already started using GoGrid for a variety of purposes, I felt that it might make some sense to provide some more information and clarification about your new service.

As always, please feel free to contact us should we need to clarify anything, to simply suggest some new or improved feature or to just RAVE about GoGrid in general.

For starters, I definitely recommend reading through the FAQ section of the GoGrid site as there are some answers to your questions there. You can get information on:

• How to access and update your account
• Change your billing information
• Learn about the fundamentals of administering your account and servers
• …And much more!

However, if you are like me, frequently you pass over all of the “Welcome” emails that you receive when you sign up for things. So, for those of you who have GoGrid accounts, here is a refresher; for those of you who do not, here is what you are missing.

What is the fastest way to get up and running?

While we don’t always recommend diving in head first, you are welcome to do so. It is actually extremely easy! Here are 5 fast steps to set up a simple account consisting of :

• 1 Load Balancer
• 2 Web/Application Servers
• 1 Database Server

All within 10 minutes! Ready? Hold on to your hats!

1. Review your External IP addresses in the Network Widget. This way you know what IP addresses you have allocated to your account and which ones you can use.

2. Create 2 Web/Application Servers using the green ADD button
   
   

   Be sure to use the Public IP addresses for this so that you can connect to these servers once they are active.

   
   
   Do this again with a different IP address for the second Web/Application Server.

3. Create a Database Server using the same process as in #2
   
   
   
   Fill in the server information:

   

4. Create a Load Balancer.

   

   
   Be sure you have the IP addresses of the two Web/Application servers that you want to balance (e.g., the ones you just set up).

   

5. Access your servers. Use either RDC (Remote Desktop Connection - for Windows) or SSH (Secure Shell - for Linux). Once you have access, set up FTP or install the applications you desire to get yourself going. That’s it!

If you have questions about this, that is completely understandable. Just comment on this article or contact GoGrid Support. What are listed below are some helpful tips on understanding the GoGrid environment.

How many IP addresses do you get?

With your new GoGrid account, you are immediately provisioned 16 static IP addresses as well as both private and public VLAN support. Should you need more than 16 IP external addresses, you need to fill out a “Justification Form” which is handily included within the GoGrid UI.

If you would like to set up a Private Network, you have a block of 256 IP addresses that can be used. Using a Private Network is recommended for ensuring that certain servers, like a Database, are not accessible to the Public Network or only by pre-defined Application or Web Servers.

Also included within the Network Widget are Gateway and Net Mask of the subnets which are used to configure your public and private NICs (Network Interfaces). This widget will soon also include information about which IPs are in use and which are available.

Viewing Server Information

Currently the RAM amount is not displayed within the GoGrid interface after a server is created. We understand that this could be confusing, so we will be adding this data field to the display in an upcoming release shortly. In the meantime, we recommend that you simply put the RAM configuration that you chose in the name field (e.g., “My Win2003 Server - 1 GB RAM”). The External IP address is displayed under the Server Name:

The colored dot in the top right corner illustrates the server state. Green means the the server is currently on. Yellow means that the server is changing states (from start to stop or visa versa). Red indicates that the server is in a stopped state. When a server is created, it will come up in a Stopped (Red) state. You will need to start it in order to access it.

When a server is newly created within GoGrid, a unique Administrator or Root password is created automatically and stored within the GoGrid web interface. To access the password list, simply right click on a server and choose “passwords” from the menu (or single-click on a server and select “passwords” from the left-hand menu).

When the passwords menu item is selected, the Passwords section of the Support tab is automatically opened, listing all of your servers and the Administrator/Root users and associated passwords. Your passwords are never transmitted insecurely via email, but rather contained within this secured sections of the site (all of https://my.gogrid.com is secured with 128-bit encryption via SSL). This section of the site can be used as a notepad to store other users and their passwords by simply clicking on the “Add a Password” menu item on the left. If you modify a password on an actual server, it is recommended that you update the password on this list since it is NOT updated automatically. Also, changing a password here does NOT update the password on your server.

Network Interfaces for your Servers

Each Application/Web or Database Server that you create within GoGrid comes with 3 network interfaces (NICs). Two NICs are automatically physically attached to the public-facing network and the third NIC is connected to a private switch fabric. These two networks are completely separate and supported by different switching and routing infrastructures.

It is very important that all GoGrid users understand the configuration and setup of these three NICs. For simplicity, the table below outlines how they are configured, named and their use;

So that you can access your GoGrid server when it is first added, the Public_1 NIC is configured with DHCP and the MAC address of that NIC is automatically associated with the IP that you chose when you initially configured your server. That means that if you try to “renew” your IP address on that NIC, you will always get the same IP address; it is bound to the MAC address. Note that if you disable or shut down the Public_1 NIC, you run the risk of not being able to access your GoGrid server.

You do also have the option of binding or assigning other IP addresses (public or private) to the Public_2 or Private interfaces at your convenience should you want to create a private network, for example.

Creating and Editing Load Balancers

Load Balancers can easily be created on-the-fly and are extremely easy to configure. Once created, the virtual IP address of the Load Balancer is displayed next to the icon. Currently, the GoGrid web interface limits the possible actions for Load Balancer to Create and Delete only, which means that if you need to make changes (add/remove IP addresses) you will need to delete the existing Load Balancer and create a new one with the correct or updated information.

Any additional questions?

Please feel free to post a comment to this article with any questions or comments that you may have. We understand that while extremely easy to use, GoGrid takes some getting used to. With each new software iteration, new or enhanced functionality will be added so if you add a feature request, most likely it is already on our road map. Any new or improved features will be highlighted within this blog.