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Storage management with automatic periodic snapshots
A while ago, we introduced the ability to take snapshots of a drive. This is a very handy feature that allows you to quickly and efficiently save drive states even on live systems. Thanks to ZFS, automatic snapshots will only consume the delta between the current state and where the snapshot was taken. This means that if your original drive …
cgroupspy and why is it cool
In order to meet with the performance needs of our customers, while maintaining a stable infrastructure, CloudSigma needs a way to control the resource usage of each virtual machine. We cannot allow for people to use more resources than they have specified because that will affect every customer’s performance. The first step in achieving this was to implement a smart …
How to securely use BitTorrent Sync for backups
A while back I wrote a guest post on BitTorrent’s blog about how to use BitTorrent Sync as an alternative to cloud storage services, such as Dropbox and Box. As a result, this post is an expansion of that post that provides more clear step-by-step instructions on how to securely deploy BitTorrent Sync. Security notes First, since the focus of …
An introduction to server provisioning with CloudInit
This month we announced a very exciting partnership with Canonical, the makers of Ubuntu. Above all, the main element in this partnership is the introduction of full CloudInit support between the CloudSigma cloud and Ubuntu. An introduction to CloudInit If you’re not familiar with CloudInit, it is the industry standard for bootstrapping cloud servers. To clarify, if you are using …
Five Tools You Need for Your Cloud Deployment
You have finally managed to get up and running with your application. It runs great. You’re happy and you’re customers are happy. One morning you wake up with an inbox full of angry customer emails and your Twitter feed full of complaints. While you were sleeping, something broke. You just didn’t know about it until this morning when you checked …
An update to CloudSigma’s Ansible module
Recently, we announced an Ansible module for CloudSigma (or rather, a Dynamic Inventory backend). I’ve personally started to use Ansible more and more for performing simple tasks. It did however become somewhat cumbersome to use when you have a larger pool of servers. While still not available in the web app, we have supported Tags for grouping resources for some …
Join us at PyCon!
PyCon 2014, the biggest Python event of the year, is taking place this weekend in Montréal, Canada. Since CloudSigma is a Python shop, we’re extra excited to both support the event as a sponsor, as well as attending the exciting talks. If you’re attending PyCon, make sure to stop by our booth (219) to say hi.
Build your own PaaS (with Dokku)
One of the most popular PaaS providers today is Heroku. Heroku, along with other PaaS providers like Engine Yard is loved by developers because it makes the deployment of a new application extremely fast and simple. It’s not hard that most developers would rather write code than setting up and troubleshoot servers. So it’s not hard to figure out why …
CompatibleOne, jclouds and LibCloud now support CloudSigma’s IaaS cloud
We try hard to make our platform as accessible and open as possible. This is an ongoing effort of continual improvement so we’re happy to announce a number of recent initiatives that back up these commitments. As you probably know, we already allow you to upload and download your disk images from our cloud making migration into and away from …
Spice up your servers with Salt
In recent times, the automation tool Salt has gained a lot of attention. In fact, Salt, along with Ansible, are seen by many as refreshing alternatives to the more established automation tools Puppet and Chef. Recently, a new tool was added to the Salt stack named salt-ssh, which enables you to manage servers without having to install any tools on …