[NFBCS] USING LINODE CLOUD SERVERS

[dandrews920 at comcast.net]

The NFBNET.org server, all the lists, and many of the affiliate and division
web sites are on Linode. We don't do anything that sophisticated, but they
have always been good.

Dave



-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of tyler Littlefield via
NFBCS
Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2022 4:22 PM
To: Brian Buhrow via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: tyler Littlefield <tyler at tysdomain.com>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] USING LINODE CLOUD SERVERS

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
>