I’ve been wanting to get a write up done for WordPress on AWS, the fact that it is free for a year, since they’ve released the free-tier many months ago. Well I finally got around to it, however it isn’t a write up. I went ahead and put the work in to produce a video of the steps for setup & configuration. Enjoy.
The commands to install php, mysql, httpd (apache), and manipulate the config files are included below for copy and paste needs.
Create a Linux Instance on AWS – create & assign an IP Address
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# Web application to manage MySQL
# Order Deny,Allow
# Deny from all
Allow from all
Alias /phpmyadmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin
Alias /phpMyAdmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin
Alias /mysqladmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin
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service httpd restart
service mysqld start
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ‘somepassword’
vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/phpmyadmin.conf
vi /usr/share/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php
Here’s the basic outline of what I intend to speak on at the upcoming presentation I have for the Bellingham, Washington .NET Users Group. If you happen to be in the area you should swing by and give it a listen (or heckle, whatever you feel like doing).
On April 5th I have a talk lined up with the Bellingham .NET Users Group. So far here’s a quick one over of the talk:
What Cloud Computing REALLY is to us techies
Geographically dispersed data centers.
Node based – AKA grid computing configurations that are…
Highly Virtualized – thus distributed.
Primarily compute and storage functionality.
Auto-scalable based on demand.
What kind of offerings exist out in the wild?
Amazon Web Services
Rackspace
Orcs Web
GoGrid
Joyent
Heroku
EngineYard
…many others and then the arrival in the last year”ish” of…
Windows Azure
AppHarbor
Developing for the cloud, what are the fundamentals in the .NET world?
Well, let’s talk about who has been doing the work so far, pushing ahead this technology.
Linux is the OS of choice… free, *nix, most widely used on the Internet by a large margin, and extremely capable…
Java
Ruby on Rails
Javascript & jQuery, budding into Node.js via Google’s V8 Engine
The Heroku + EngineYard + Git + AWESOMESAUCE capabilities of pushing… LIVE to vastly scalable and distributable cloud provisions!
So where does that leave us .NETters?
AWS .NET SDK released a few years ago.
Windows Azure & SDK released about a year ago.
These two have however been lacking compared to Heroku and EngineYard for those that want something FAST,
something transformative, easy to use, without extra APIs or odd tightly coupled SDKs.
Enter…
AppHarbor
In Summary the .NET Platform has primarily:
AWS for the top IaaS and most widely available zones & capabilities at the absolutely lowest prices,
Windows Azure for the general build to PaaS Solution, and for the people lucky enough to be going the Git +
MVC + real Agile route, AppHarbor is the peeminent solution.
I’ve been wanting to do a quick write up on the state of cloud apps from my perspective. What’s my perspective? Well I’m keeping up with the SDKs from the big players; AWS and Windows Azure. I’m also working on several cloud applications and providing consulting for some people and companies when approached related to which stack to go with, how to apply their current stacks (such as Ruby on Rails or .NET) in migrating to a cloud service provider. Cloud services, or really more accurately utility computing has my personal and professional interest. Above all, I keep trying to stay informed and know what the best path is for anyone that seeks my advice for moving into hosting & working in the SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS Space. Feel free to contact me in regards to cloud questions: adronhall at the famous gmail dot com. 🙂
Now on to the good tidbits that have been released lately.
These two SDKs are great for customers who want to build on the bare bones X platform. Now whatever language & stack one builds in they are tied to that. Ruby on Rails, .NET, Java, PHP, or whatever. But getting tied to the stack is kind of like breathing air, one has to live with what air they have. You can’t exactly get a refund very easily on that.
The Cloud SDKs though for Azure & AWS provide a certain amount of lock in, in addition to the stack lock in you’re using. One of the easiest ways to prevent this lock in is to use a general deployment method backed by source control on something like Git or Mercurial. So far though, .NET has been left out the cold. There has been almost zero support for pushing .NET via Git or Mercurial into a cloud.
Heroku
Ruby on Rails however has had support for this since… well since the idea popped into the minds of the people at Heroku, EngineYard, and the other companies that are pushing this absolutely amazing and powerful technology pairing.
Engine Yard
Again, for .NET, the problem is it has been left in the dust. Smoked. It has left a lot of .NET Developers moving to Ruby on Rails (which isn’t new, this is just one more thing that has pulled more developers away from the .NET stack).
Well, that’s changed a bit. FINALLY someone has gotten the Git + .NET Pairing in the Cloud put together! FINALLY you can get a cloud application running in a minute or two, instead of the absolutely inane amount of time it takes on Windows Azure (15+ minutes most of the time). So who has done something about this?
AppHarbor is the first fully deployable solution for the cloud that allows Git + .NET to get going FAST! I don’t work for these guys at all, so don’t think I’m shilling for them. I’m just THAT happy that .NET has been pulled out of the dust bins and the community has this option. I am flippin’ stoked matter of fact.
Currently, because of pricing and ease of deployment, I’ve been solely using AWS. I can have a .NET MVC app running in AWS in about 5-10 minutes. Between that speed of setup and the pricing, I pay 2/3 as much as Azure would be and can deploy much fast with a completely traditional .NET deployment. No special project type needed, no extra configs, just a straight deployment with full control over the server (i.e. I can RDP in with no problem). Anyway, the list of reasons I went with AWS over Azure really deserve an entire blog entry unto themselves.
AppHarbor
With AppHarbor though I can step into the realm of doing exactly the same thing a Ruby on Rails Developer would do with Heroku or EngineYard. Fully PaaS Capable with the scalability and features without needing to port or migrate to an entirely new stack! I’ll probably keep a number of things running on AWS (such as the pending WordPress Websites I am about to push up to AWS), but will absolutely be starting up some applications to run in AppHarbor.
If you’re a .NET Developer and you’ve been wanting, looking for, and frustrated that the .NET Community didn’t have a Git + Cloud Deployment option for .NET, wait no longer. Give AppHarbor a look ASAP!
Over the past few weeks I’ve been posed with the “your biased claim” from some people. I decided that I would put together a write up on what my motivations are for cloud computing, how I’m involved, and what my intent is for future involvement.
First off, I need to point out that I’m a software developer (which is probably obvious). I build applications, mostly on the .NET Platform but also with other stacks such as Ruby on Rails, PHP (rarely), and of course the respective tools around those stacks. I’ve also spent a lot of time working on enterprise architectures with massive scale (think 150k employees). I have dug through REST at its core, implemented SOA and other such things. Lately I’ve had the fortune of developing against Amazon Web Services (AWS) and also Windows Azure, again primarily using the .NET Framework (ala C# and such).
My interest in cloud computing really got started while I was working at Webtrends. The company has a geographically dispersed, somewhat virtualized, network of hundreds of computers. The way the company was moving made multi-tenancy easier and brought costs down for the company in a big way. Something that cloud computing does from the beginning. This whetted my appetite for large horizontally distributed and scaled systems. Recently I moved from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington to get even more involved in the heart of cloud technologies.
However, a major problem arose.
In addition to cloud technologies I’m also very pro-agile ideals. I believe in the individual developer, working with others in pairs or however. Learning better ways to build great applications and software solutions. I try to live and breath the solid and great ideals behind the Agile Manifesto and Software Craftsmanship Manifesto.
I like to stay as unbiased as I can in regards to my technology stacks, and initially I was working out at Microsoft (As a Consultant). I was forced into the antithesis of the Agile & Software Craftsmanship Manifestos. It was depressing and I realized I couldn’t keep a good clear view of the various cloud technologies while hunkered down in the belly of the beast. Two things weighed on my mind; my intent to stay unbiased was clouded by working closely with the Azure team writing white paper materials and researching and the second was that so much of the work is done in a very anti-agile & anti-craftsman way. It wasn’t serving me morally, ethically, or technologically.
I had to get out of that. So I did.
I joined Russell Financial. I am now doing Scrum Agile with a team of exceptionally talented individuals including @codereflection, @notmyself, @ang3lfir3, @terryhughes, and several others. We use a lot of open source, unbiased software, that happens to primarily be on the .NET stack. The ideas are shared open and with bias in regards to a whole host of things from Heroku and Salesforce, current enterprise ideas about Cloud technologies, and other things. I now have a solid work environment that doesn’t provide me with a skewed view of the cloud technologies.
From here I can see the clouds and research, develop, and identify which cloud provides the best opportunities for each specific need that a company is working on. Sometimes I might sound biased this way or that way, but every judgement I make toward one cloud service or another is based on specific criteria.
In other words, if I’m providing consulting to you for your efforts to utilize the cloud, I’m going to provide you honest, company specific advice on what your strategy for deployment, development, and return on investment should be. So if you think I’m being biased, check your premise, my research, development, and general efforts around cloud technology are to find the best of breed options for whatever task, need, or want a company may come up with for cloud services.
Now, back to my regularly scheduled technical bits.
I recently did a clean install of Windows 7 64-bit. It had been a really long time since I listed the current tools, SDKs, and frameworks that I’ve been using. Thus here’s my entourage of software that I use on a regular basis that is installed on my primary development machines.
In addition to these packages of software another as important, if not more important to my day-to-day software development includes these software services and cloud hosting services.
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