Slicehost

We have a new article series up on using the logrotate service to, well, rotate logs. I recommend it to anyone with a slice, especially if they've never heard the term "log rotation" before (or did, but thought it had something to do with lumberjacks).

Understanding logrotate

It's a two-parter, with the first part discussing the basics of logrotate and why you'd want to use it, while the second part describes how to set up log rotation for virtual hosts and gives some troubleshooting tips.

Quite often when a customer comes to us with a disk space problem, or are concerned because their slice resize is taking a long long time, the culprit is a giant log or two. That's especially the case for virtual host logs, but it can also happen with custom applications that write to their own logs. Once logrotate is set up it will take care of those logs for you, making sure they don't get too bloated.

In the "worth mentioning" department, earlier this month Matiu posted the steps he used to upgrade PHP on an Ubuntu Hardy slice. Plenty of people are still using Hardy, so the instructions may prove useful to others.

Upgrading PHP on Ubuntu Hardy

As always, we have people sitting in slicechat and monitoring requests sent via email to support@slicehost.com. If you have questions, concerns, or an aching need for human contact, we're around 24/7.

Thanks for reading!

Earlier this week, we introduced a new kernel, 2.6.33.5, in the SliceManager. This kernel is currently available for all slices located in our STL-B, DFW, and ORD data centers and is now set as the default when creating any new slices.

In order to upgrade your pre-existing slice to the latest kernel available, we recommend that you follow the steps discussed in this previous blog post.

As always, please remember that this process does require a reboot of your slice.

Additionally, for those who wish to delve into the advanced practice of building kernel headers or compiling a module on their slice, we are pleased to be able to provide you with the following articles that we hope prove useful:

Downloading and using kernel source code

If you have questions or run into any issues, our friendly and knowledgeable support staff is available in SliceChat 24 hours a day. As well, please feel free to email us at support@slicehost.com if there if there is anything we can assist you with.

Arch Linux 2010.05 64-bit is now an available option in the SliceManager when building a new slice as well as rebuilding an existing one.

As always, please note that any existing data on the slice will be erased if you choose to rebuild a slice using this image.

On Tuesday, June 15th, we will be removing the previous Arch Linux image, 2009.02, as an available option. If you wish to continue utilizing this image, you can take a backup of an existing slice in the SliceManager.

If you have any questions or concerns, please come visit with us in SliceChat or via email at support@slicehost.com. We are available 24 hours a day.

We are pleased to announce that 32-bit and 64-bit support for Fedora 13 (Goddard) images are now available in the SliceManager.

In order to take advantage of these images, you can add a new slice to your account or rebuild an existing slice in the SliceManager. Please keep in mind that the rebuild process will erase any existing data on the slice.

We also have a few Fedora 13 specific setup articles to help you in configuring and securing your slice as soon as possible.

Fedora 13 Setup Part 1

Fedora 13 Setup Part 2

Furthermore, please be aware that Fedora will no longer support Fedora 11 (Leonidas) after June 25th, 2010. At this time, we will also remove this image as an available option in the SliceManager. If you wish to retain a Fedora 11 image after June 25th, you can take a backup of an existing slice to do so.

If you have any questions or run into any issues our support staff is available in SliceChat 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We can also be reached via email at support@slicehost.com

A new kernel, 2.6.32.12, is now available for slices in our STL-B, DFW, and ORD data centers. This kernel is not affected by the memory calculation bug that was present in our last two releases.

If you wish to upgrade the kernel on your slice to the latest available, you can do so with just a few clicks in the SliceManager. The following blog post details the steps that are necessary to upgrade your slice's kernel.

Please note that this process does require a reboot of your slice.

As always, we are available 24/7 in SliceChat or via email at support@slicehost.com to assist you with any issues you may have.

New articles on installing and configuring apache are up. They should be less version-bound than the older articles on the subject. Which were pretty good, mind you. The new ones are just, um, gooder.

There are eight articles in the series, with versions for Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. A convenient portal to the first article of each is nestled in this article:

Installing apache

The subjects covered in each article are, in order:

• Installing apache

• Installing PHP

• Apache configuration files

• Configuring the Apache MPM

• Apache configuration part 1

• Apache configuration part 2

• Apache Virtual Hosts part 1

• Apache Virtual Hosts part 2

I did want to highlight the articles on "Configuring the apache MPM". The MPM is apache's engine for handling connections, and if it's misconfigured it can lead to apache trying to use more system resources than are actually available. Indeed, the default settings for the MPM tend to favor servers with 1 GB of memory available, which means a smaller slice with less memory runs the risk of becoming unstable when it's getting heavy traffic.

With that in mind, some direct links to the MPM article for each distribution, for people who already have apache running but have never tinkered with the MaxClients setting: Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Debian, and Red Hat.

If you run into any trouble with those articles, or just with stuff in general, our friendly and knowledgeable support staff are waiting in SliceChat for your questions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thanks for reading!

CentOS 5.5 was released earlier this afternoon and we are happy to bring you a 32-bit as well as a 64-bit image that are now both available in the SliceManager.

These images are ready to be put to use for any rebuilds or new slice builds. If you do choose to rebuild your slice, please note that any existing data will be erased.

A big thank you to Major from our operations team for his hard work in making these images available.

If you come across any issues or have any questions, please feel free to come see us in SliceChat at any time. We are available 24 hours a day in chat and can be reached via email at support@slicehost.com as well.

Update: We have setup articles for CentOS 5.5 available as well:

CentOS 5.5 Setup - part 1

CentOS 5.5 Setup - part 2

On Monday, May 31st, we will be removing CentOS 5.3 as an available option from the image repository. As always, if you wish to continue utilizing this image, you can take a backup of an existing slice in the SliceManager. The CentOS 5.4 and 5.5 images will still be available.

Canonical released Ubuntu Lucid Lynx earlier today and we are pleased to announce that the 32-bit and 64-bit version are now available for your slice as well.

Something to take notice of is that this release is an LTS (Long Term Support) version. This means that Canonical will continue to provide security updates and bug fixes for the applications available from their repositories for a period of five years, as opposed to 18 months with a normal release.

If you wish to take advantage of this new Ubuntu Lucid image, please login to the SliceManager to create a new slice or you can perform a rebuild of an existing slice. Keep in mind that a rebuild will erase any existing data on the slice.

Our community liaison, Jered, was nice enough to put together a few setup articles to help you get started right away with configuring and securing your Ubuntu Lucid slice.

Ubuntu Lucid Setup Part 1

Ubuntu Lucid Setup Part 2

There is also an Ubuntu Lucid category where you can find other articles that have been tested for this distribution.

On another note, Canonical will end support for Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex tomorrow April 30th, 2010. Therefore, we will be removing this image as an option in two weeks time to avoid any complications. If you wish to preserve a base image of Ubuntu Intrepid, you can do so by creating a backup in the SliceManager.

If you have any questions or would like to speak directly with a member of our support team, we are available 24 hours a day in our official SliceChat room. Additionally, please feel free to email us at support@slicehost.com at any time.

We've added setup articles for our current CentOS, Fedora, Red Hat, and Ubuntu slice images. Each of the links below is to the first page (of two) for each tutorial. If you're setting up a new slice, the articles offer advice on some basic security practices and configuration tweaks. They're worth a look.

CentOS 5.3 Setup
CentOS 5.4 Setup

Fedora 11 setup
Fedora 12 setup

RHEL 5.3 Setup
RHEL 5.4 Setup

Ubuntu Jaunty Setup
Ubuntu Karmic Setup

Forum user dlrush is seeking feedback on a tool to dynamically and easily change a slice's firewall settings. The tool includes a tie-in to the Slicehost API so permissions can be automatically updated when you create new slices.

Slicehost isn't officially associated with the project in any way, but it does sound useful enough to link to. If this looks neat to you, check the forum post on the offering:

Easier Firewall Configuration - Safe Private IPs, using IPtables

As always, our friendly and knowledgeable support staff are waiting in SliceChat for your questions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So are the surly and knowledgeable ones that are good at acting friendly. Just you try and tell the difference!

Today, Slicehost is excited to announce that we now support the following full 32-bit images:

• Fedora 12 32-bit
• Gentoo 10.1 32-bit
• CentOS 5.4 32-bit
• Debian 5.0 Lenny 32-bit
• Ubuntu 8.04.2 (Hardy) LTS 32-bit
• Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) 32-bit
• Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) 32-bit

The new images are readily available in our STL-B, DFW and ORD data centers.

In order to take advantage of these offerings, you can either rebuild your current slice or opt to use the 'Add A Slice' feature under the 'My Slices' tab in the SliceManager.

We understand there may be some questions regarding these images, so please allow me to answer a few of them:

Q. What's the difference between these new 32-bit images and the the ones we previously provided?

A. Prior to the release of these full 32-bit images, each BETA 32-bit instance ran a 64-bit kernel. This caused the odd amount of confusion with some package managers and other software.

These new instances will allow you to run a full 32-bit Linux image - that is to say, a 32-bit kernel and a 32-bit userland.

Q. What happens if I am already running a slice that uses the previously provided 32-bit instances?

A. Your instances will not be affected by this change. You can continue running your mixed instance for as long as you need to. However, it's recommended you update to the 32-bit kernel that is available via the SliceManager. This will provide you will the full 32-bit experience.

Q. What if I currently have a slices located in STL-A, but would like to take advantage of this offer as well?

A. If you would like to build a 32-bit instance but currently have slices located in STL-A, we would be happy to build a slice for you in one of our other DCs. Simply contact our support team by submitting a request through the SliceManager and we'll get you a new Slice in just a few minutes.

If you experience any issues or have any further questions regarding these images, please visit us in SliceChat, open a ticket or drop us a line at support@slicehost.com.

We've added a couple more articles to our series on munin. The first covers munin monitoring additional slices beyond the master slice, and the second involves enabling munin plug-ins to monitor additional services on a slice. Both links below lead to overview pages that point to distribution-specific instructions.

Installing additional munin nodes

Enabling munin node plug-ins

The next munin article will cover downloading new plug-ins, as well as customizing the hosts list on a munin reports page.

Since there's been a lot of talk about the iPad this week I thought I should mention that I don't plan to buy one, but would happily accept one as a gift. That said, I will be hanging a stocking over my chimney with care, in the hopes that the Vernal Equinox Fairy soon will be there. And will give me a popular gadget to celebrate the coming of spring.

Hey, a fellow can dream. And try to start a new holiday tradition too!

As always, our friendly and knowledgeable support staff are waiting in SliceChat for your questions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They also accept iPads. Though let's face it, they also accept sandwiches, they aren't picky.

Thanks for reading!

I am delighted to announce that we have expanded our operation into Rackspace's newest state-of-the-art datacenter, ORD1. This datacenter is located in Chicago, Ill. and boasts 34,000 square feet of floor space. We are excited to provide the greater geographic diversity this datacenter allows to our customers when building out their Slice infrastructure.

Security, as with all our facilities, is rigorous―on-site 24/7 staff, alarm system, card key access, CCTV archived video. With fully redundant power supplies, multiple backup generators, hosts of Tier 1 Internet providers, and laser-based early smoke detection, ORD1 has been fitted out to maximize safety and contingency planning.

This brings our total datacenter count, as it stands, to four (STL-A, STL-B, DFW1, and ORD1).

ORD1 is now set as the default facility for all new customers. If you would like to change the default datacenter for an existing account or would like to have a slice built in a different datacenter than your current slices, please submit a ticket through the SliceManager and our support team would be happy to take care of that for you.

We are currently hiring employees in this region. So if you are a budding DC Infrastructure Tech or a Network Engineer, then be sure to check out the Rackspace careers page. Click on the Elk Grove, IL location for specific DC vacancies.

Additionally, as part of Rackspace, we are working towards our international presence. We are working hard to ensure a global offering is available utilizing our own DCs which allows for complete control and expansion for the future.

If you have any questions, please come visit with us in SliceChat

We recently added a new section for security tutorials to our articles repository, and it contains some familiar articles as well as new ones.

A couple security articles were updated:

Scanning for rootkits with chkrootkit
Scanning for rootkits with rkhunter

Because two just isn't enough, an article was added that covers setting up a third rootkit, Rootcheck:

Scanning for rootkits with Rootcheck

And we have the first two installments in an article series on diagnosing a compromised slice:

Security Checks During Possible Compromise - Part 1
Security Checks During Possible Compromise - Part 2

Over on the apache front, we have distribution-specific entries on setting up and interpreting apache's mod_status module:

Enabling and using apache's mod_status (Overview)

And in our forum, a user wrote an excellent post about setting up the latest version of PHP 5 on his CentOS 5.4 slice that may prove useful to others:

CentOS 5.4 and PHP 5.3.2 by wetnun

Matiu wrote a post on a quick-and-dirty caching DNS server setup for applications that make a lot of DNS queries (like Facebook applications):

Speeding up DNS queries (especially for facebook apps) by matiu

Of course, along with the articles and the forums, we have support available in SliceChat twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Pop in with any questions you may have.

Thanks for reading!

We have added support for a new 2.6.32.9 kernel that is now available in the SliceManager. We highly recommend that you upgrade your slice to this version as it does include around 90 total fixes, many of which are security related. All of the updates are included in this rather lengthy changelog.

Additionally, we introduced a new Red Hat kernel, 2.6.18-164.15.1, last Thursday, that is now set as the default for all new RHEL 5.3 and 5.4 slices. The security updates included in this kernel can be found here.

If you are running an older kernel and would like to upgrade your slice to the latest version available, you can do so by following the steps described in this previous blog post.

If you experience any issues regarding these new kernels, we are available in SliceChat to assist you 24 hours a day.

The support staff here at Slicehost work tirelessly to help customers manage their slices and keep things running smoothly. They can be easy to overlook when you don't need their help, so I'll try to regularly highlight some of their more tangible efforts (the bits that are etched in HTML, as it were).

We published some articles to our repository recently that hopefully some folks will find useful.

Using ServerDensity to monitor a slice: How to set up a commercial monitoring service for your slice to try it out.

Installing munin: How to set up a free monitoring solution on your slice.

Barebones postfix install: Installing postfix on a slice with a minimal configuration.

How to use rescue mode: Using rescue mode from the SliceManager to fix a slice that's stubbornly uncooperative.

Speed up resizes: A two-part series on how to minimize downtime when resizing a slice.

Matiu from our support staff wrote a handy forum post last year that listed several server management consoles, and he updated it recently. Given that new slice customers are usually interested in their options on that score, giving the post some extra exposure in the blog seemed like a good idea:

Web Panel Options: Free and commercial administration panels.

Of course, that support staff is lurking in SliceChat twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Be sure and drop in if you have any questions for them.