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.

Popular posts from this blog

Freeing Disk Space on C:\ Windows Server 2008

By Will Beattie
  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\Temp Delete all EventViewer logs Save to another Disk if you want to keep them Remove any unused programs, e.g. Firefox Remove anything in C:\inetpub\logs Remove any file/folders C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles Remove any file/folders from C:\Users\%UserName%\Downloads Remove any file/folders able to be removed from C:\Users\%UserName%\Desktop Remove any file/folders able to be removed from C:\Users\%UserName%\My Documents Stop Windows Update service and remove all files/folders from C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution Deleting 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
Read more

3 Reasons Why Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) Won’t Replace Native Apps

By Will Beattie
Many people believe Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are the future of the mobile web, but in my opinion, PWAs are not a replacement for native mobile apps. Here are three reasons why: 1. Native mobile apps provide a smoother & faster experience  Mobile websites, progressive or otherwise are slower and not as smooth. 90% of the time spent is spent using apps vs the browser . The single most significant contributing factor to a smooth experience on mobile is the speed of the network and latency of the data downloaded and uploaded. When you visit websites on desktop or mobile, there is a lot of third-party code/data that gets downloaded to your device, which more often than not has zero impact on the user experience. This includes: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) JavaScript Ad network code Facebook tracking code Google tracking code The median number of requests a mobile website makes is a shocking  69 . On the other hand, native apps only get the data that is requi
Read more

Unit Testing Workflow Activities in .NET 4.0

By Will Beattie
  Recently during a catch up with my buddy Keith Patton I was (as I tend to do) singing the praises of the Workflow in .NET 4.0. The all important question about Unit Testing support was raised, I tried as best as I could to explain the new In and Out Arguments but I didn’t feel I was convincing enough, so I though I would clarify with a blog post. If you developed Workflows in .NET 3.5 then you will be well aware of the lack of Unit Test support which was due to many reasons but mostly in part to the complex Workflow hosting environment. When moving to .NET 4.0 Workflow Foundation from .NET 3.5 it pays to be conscious of that fact that there is no longer a distinction between Activities and Workflows. Everything derives from the System.Activities.Activity class. So the definition of a Workflow is just a collection of of 1 or more Activities. I have designed a very simple Rental Car Activity which takes the an Applicants age as the input and outputs a True or False depending o
Read more