[NFBCS] USING LINODE CLOUD SERVERS

[tyler Littlefield]

brian:

I find Linode particularly easy to use. I've been with them for more 
than 5+ years, probably much longer now. The other provider I often 
recommend is digitalocean (https://digitalocean.com). They're both very 
similar in hardware, network, systems, etc.


On 8/14/2022 1:17 PM, Brian Buhrow via NFBCS wrote:
> 	hello.  A while ago, someone asked about the accessibility of cloud based services on this
> list.  This is something I've been thinking about for a while, but haven't been talking about
> very much.  However, after doing a bit of reading and learning about some of the cloud based
> service providers, I decided to take the plunge and set up an account with Linode.  While not
> as big as the big 3 cloud providers: Amazon, Google and Microsoft, Linode has a world wide
> footprint and all of the nfbnet.org services run off of a Linode server, which as far as I can
> tell, has been quite reliable for a number of years.  Add to that Linode's rich offering of
> add-on services, think: backups, managed databases, professional services, etc. and Linode
> seemed like a good choice to start with.
>
> 	My goal:
> To set up a NetBSD based cloud server using, as much as possible, the service provider's
> command line tools.
> Without boring everyone with the gorey details, I'm happy to say that I was quite successful
> and I can strongly recommend Linode as a cloud service provider for those who  want to manage
> their cloud services nonvisually.  Below are the highlights.
>
> O  The web site for setting up the account is very  accessible and quite straightforward.  I
> used iOS and Safari with VoiceOver as my browser for accomplishing this task.
>
> O  Linode accepts Paypal as a payment method for their services, which is good for me as I
> don't like giving my credit card number to every provider in town.
>
> O  To get the command line working, one must create what's called a personal access token.
> This must be done through the browser, but, once again, this is a very accessible process and I
> was able to transfer my token from iOS to a usable physical server without a problem.
>
> O  The command line documentation is very good.  Since the command line program is a very thin
> layer on top of their restful API, reading the API documentation is very helpful in terms of
> learning how to use the command line, with respect to which parameters to put where and  what
> options are available for various tasks.
>
> What can you do with the command line?
>
> With the command line, you can:
>
> O  Build a virtual server.
>
> O  Build virtual disks
>
> O  Assign disks to servers.
>
> O  Clone servers.
>
> O  Access your virtual server's console (via text based ssh)
>
> O  Configure networking, i.e. firewalls, virtual lans, etc.
>
> O  Set up alerts and notifications regarding the health and status of your virtual environment.
>
> O  check the status of your virtual server
>
> O  Check the status of your Linode account, including monitroring usage and charges statistics.
>
> Linode claims you can do everything through the command line that can be done through the
> browser.  In my experience, this is a true statement.  the only caveat I'd add to that is that
> the command line, including the details of their API, has a learning curve, so it may take a
> while pouring through different documents to figure out how to do what you want.  Having said
> that, just knowing that you can do a thing, however, is huge, since it just becomes a matter of
> learning how to do it.  In my case, I used the browser to set up an account and to create a
> personal access token.  After that, I repaired to the command line to set up and configure the
> cloud services I needed.
>
> 	One final note. I don't know if it's a permanent feature, but Linode is offering a 60- day
> $100 credit if you sign up for their services.  We'll see how it works in practice, but I think
> it means you get to use their service for free for 60 days, assuming you don't use more than
> $100 of their services.
>
>
>
> 	Feel free to write me with further questions if this is something that interests you.
>
> -thanks
> -Brian
>
>
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