Render farms, cluster nodes and other types of distributed computing often require using a lot of machines that don’t have a lot of stuff running on them and are only needed during certain times. Such is the life of a compute cluster, which is what EC2 is there for. Because cluster nodes are so homogenous by nature you can deploy them en masse. Picking up where I left off with deploying EC2 via the command line we’re going to look at spinning up let’s say 100 virtual machines with the large designation, from a pricing standpoint. As with the previous example, we’re going to use ami-767676 (although you’ll more than…
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Getting Started with Amazon's EC2 Cloud
Yesterday I did a quick review of the various cloud offerings from Amazon. Previous to that I had done a review of using S3, the Amazon storage service, with Mac OS X, primarily through the lens of using S3 as a destination for Final Cut Server archives. Today I’m going to go ahead and look at using EC2 from Mac OS X. To get started, first download the EC2 tools from Amazon. Next, log into Amazon Web Services. If you don’t yet have a login you will obviously need to create one to proceed. Additionally, if you don’t yet have a private key you’ll need one of those too –…
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Looking at Amazon's Cloud
There is a lot of talk about “the cloud” in the IT trade magazines and in general at IT shops around the globe. I’ve used Amazon S3 in production for some web, offsite virtual tape libraries (just a mounted location on S3) and a few other storage uses. I’m not going to say I love it for every use I’ve seen it used for, but it can definitely get the job done when used properly. I’m also not going to say that I love the speeds of S3 compared to local storage, but that’s kindof a given now isn’t it… One of the more niche uses has been to integrate…
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More on the Nehalem Xserve
I don’t often wax poetically on technical forums (and it’s my first time doing so on macenterprise.org), nor do I actually post any more overall given how persnickety *some* people are about how you go about posting (*some* of which btw is very understandable). But I like the new Xserve, and after seeing a number of posts on a list that were, well, knocking the new Nehalem Xserves, I had to pipe up on the wtf question about the new microprocessor, Nehalem, and why Apple would have chosen a seemingly desktop CPU for its only server product being offered: While it is correct that the i7/microprocessor architecture is going to…
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Iron Wars
Occasionally I say that everything I need to know I learned from the game Civilization (partially in jest). In Civilization, you need to amass a certain amount of resources in order to build things in your various cities (and generate armies). Iron is something you can use to build a number of things. There are other resources you need to be concerned about, of course… In modern times, in order to be able to sell iron, you need a compelling reason for people to buy it – and corporate wars ensue to end competition to this end. One really great reason is the best threading model on the market; another…
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The Tragedy of the Commons
I don’t like to talk about politics outside of my immediate family. But this isn’t political; it’s basic free market theory IMHO. Tragedy of the Commons: It is human nature to allow an individually rational decision to become abusive to that which is common between those making said decisions. For example, Hardin liked to use herding as an example. When you have a bunch of sheep herders sharing land, each wants to increase the size of their herd even though it will eventually destroy the land to have too many sheep. Now, Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith railed against governments for interfering at all in corporations or the affairs of…
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Revenue and the Big Boys
I have been known to be a little harsh towards Sun. This is because I expect so much from them, not because I don’t love ’em. Quality products that are truly enterprise scalable are not a commodity and few understand this as well as Sun. Given how I’ve given them crap, I should also give them kudos. Between Q2 of 2007 and Q2 of 2008 they experienced 29.2% in revenue growth. During that same time span, that’s almost more the aggregate of the other four big boys (from a percentage standpoint), Dell (14.2%), EMC (19.7%), IBM (2.6%) and HP (who actually lost revenue at -1.2%). So while I still…
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Spoliation and System Administration
In legal circles, spoliation means intentionally destroying or altering data in a way that destroys its value as evidence. This could mean editing time stamps, deleting email, editing files or deleting files. Basically, this could mean anything that can contaminate evidence. It’s often difficult to prove spoliation because of the word intent. For example, if you are using Retrospect to move data and it gets lost in a move then you may destroy the value of data, but if you can prove that you did the move of data every night and why a failure occured, then you are probably in the clear… Stick with me, ’cause there’s a point here.…
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Google Mail adds ActiveSync
Exchange/iPhone users, you’ve finally gotten the Google hookup. ActiveSync has been added to the Google repertoire allowing gmail users to sync their contacts and calendars in the same fashion that Exchange and Kerio users can, although mail will still need to go through IMAP, which is fairly straight forward to configure. This means that Google Mail is finally in serious competition with a few other players in the messaging market. At this point, Google has finally knocked down one of the serious barriers I had with gmail adoption for companies. I am glad to see that they realize (and I’m sure have realized but just got the kinks worked out)…
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Tech Predictions Rant
<rant> According to Mayan tradition if you jump into one of the cenotes by the Mayan pyramids you can make predictions as to the future. Apparently, one person predicted he would be a ruler and was thus anointed such. Funny how that works. Well, I cave dived into a cenote and then read the January editions of eWeek, ComputerWorld, NetworkWorld, CIO and about 10 other magazines that show up to my house despite the lack of funding on my part for them to do so. Let’s see if I can wade through the fluff… First off, January is a funny month for tech magazines as it’s all IT predications, “look…