Skip to main content

GoGrid MyGSI First Thoughts – follow up

Image
By

I recently embarked an creating my first GoGrid MyGSI and in my previous post I mentioned that I had an open support case to resolve the fact that I could not create an instance from the image that I saved.

After five long days of waiting for some sort of resolution finally the Engineers decide that the image is “unclean” and they can’t debug the issue any further.

They did suggest however that I create another MyGSI from scratch. 

I wasn’t happy to accept this as a one off problem as I still needed to move an instance over from EC2 so I decided to test the system myself.

I created another instance without installing any application files or additional components and connected to the Cloud Storage then ran the prep script.

Again I got the same result. It booted me out of RDP but did not change to the status which allows saving the image.

I submitted another support request and the finally the cause was identified.

Assigning an Internal IP Address (which is required for Cloud Storage)was the culprit.

Admittedly this does make sense from a technical perspective, however as an end-user it would be nice if this was detailed in the documentation or if there was some sort of error or log message.

I’m pleased to say that after the cause of the problem was identified I was able to successfully migrate from EC2 to GoGrid albeit 2 weeks later than anticipated.

After becoming confident that service did in fact work it came time to create images for my running instances that were created before MyGSI was available.

The requirements for the machine are:

  1. Windows Server 2008
  2. SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services SP1
  3. IIS7.0
  4. SMTP Server
  5. FTP Server
  6. MSMQ
  7. .NET 3.5 SP1

I created my instance and set about installing all of the required components. I then came to installing SQL Server and to my dismay found that there wasn’t enough room left on the sandbox.

This is before even installing any application files or databases.

Again another waste of time. In a world where data is cheap why put unnecessary restrictions? My guess is they are aiming at start-ups with very small databases, but not allowing enough space to do a standard web server install is pretty weak. 

This whole experience has been nothing short of frustrating but I guess that’s the price you pay for being an early adopter and working with Beta software. It should be said that the support is really good and you can always get quick responses on Twitter.

GoGrid MyGSI shows good potential but there are a few thing’s you need to be aware of before diving in.

  • 20GB Limits on the Image Sandboxes.                           Actual limit of 6.18 GB on Win2008 after OS footprint.
  • No way to create an image from a running instance.
  • No Windows Server 2008 Pre-Installed Images at present
  • No equivalent EBS solution
  • Light documentation
  • Setting up the Private network for Cloud Storage causes the Image shutdown to fail. Remember to remove any routes and disable the LAN2 before running the prep script.

Comments

  1. Michael Sheehan19 September 2009 at 06:30

    Hi Will,

    Thanks for your analysis and recommendations on MyGSIs on GoGrid. Per our Twitter conversation, I have asked development to investigate increasing the size of the MyGSI from 20GB (which is more than adequate for Linux installs but a bit tight on Windows Server 2008 instances) to something larger (perhaps 30GBs). I cannot promise when this may be available nor how much larger the instances will be - if at all - but the request has been made.
    Thanks,
    Michael Sheehan
    Technology Evangelist for GoGrid

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Freeing Disk Space on C:\ Windows Server 2008

By
I just spent the last little while trying to clear space on our servers in order to install .NET 4.5. Decided to post so my future self can find the information when I next have to do this. I performed all the usual tasks: Deleting any files/folders from C:\windows\temp and C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Local\TempDelete all EventViewer logs Save to another Disk if you want to keep themRemove any unused programs, e.g. FirefoxRemove anything in C:\inetpub\logsRemove any file/folders C:\Windows\System32\LogFilesRemove any file/folders from C:\Users\%UserName%\DownloadsRemove any file/folders able to be removed from C:\Users\%UserName%\DesktopRemove any file/folders able to be removed from C:\Users\%UserName%\My DocumentsStop Windows Update service and remove all files/folders from C:\Windows\SoftwareDistributionDeleting an Event Logs Run COMPCLN.exe Move the Virtual Memory file to another disk However this wasn’t enough & I found the most space was cleared by using the Disk Cleanup to…
135 comments
Read more

CPF Contribution Rates for new Singapore Permanent Residents (SPR’s)

By
Recently my wife and I applied and got approved for Singapore Permanent Residency. After completing the formalities the most significant immediate change is the contribution to CPF which is Singapore’s mandatory social security savings scheme requiring contributions from employers and employees. CPF contributions start from the date you obtain SPR status, which is the date of the entry permit.   Being a relentless budgeter I needed to know exactly how much I and my employer would have to contribute so that I could adjust my budget accordingly as the employee contributions get deducted from the monthly salary. After doing some research I discovered that there is a “graduated” approach to CPF contributions for new SPR’s where the contributions gradually increase in the first and second year and then upon reaching the third year are at the full amount. Note: There is an option for employers to contribute the full amount for year 1 and year 2 and the employee can use the graduated rate, b…
119 comments
Read more

Implementing Custom Castle Windsor Facilities

By
If you’ve been following my posts you would know that I love Castle Windsor. One of the many useful features I have found is the Facility and I’m going to try and give a good example how you can make use of this. In a recent post I showed how you can add Cross-Cutting concerns to your application by using Interceptors.Now when configuring the Container you can explicitly configure each Interceptor per Service but when you have lot’s of components it can get pretty hard to maintain after a while and can also introduce subtle issues if someone forgets to configure it correctly.Below is how you would configure your Container without using a Facility. On the last line we are specifying the Interceptor explicitly. public void Configure() { container = new WindsorContainer(); container.Register( Component.For<CacheInterceptor>(), Component.For<ICacheProvider>() .ImplementedBy<WebCache…
24 comments
Read more