The easiest way enlarge an EBS volume is obviously by creating a snapshot ,create a new volume using that snapshot with a higher capacity. Unfortunately, once you mount the new EBS volume,you will notice that it's size is the same. Below are the tips how to fix it.
If filesystem of the volume is EXT3:
I got a chance to create a snapshot of 200Gb EBS volume previously formatted using EXT3. After the snapshot which takes a little longer, need to create another 500GB volume from the snapshot because the older EBS about to be filled up with more data. Following steps posted by izyboyd found at:
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?messageID=112259𛚃%20%20%20%20(RESIZING%20EXT3)
It's was easy, though the time it takes to snapshot and wait for e2fsck command to finish takes sometime. I leave it overnight to finish the process. It's important to do e2fsck to the new volume to ensure integrity of data.
If filesystem of the volume is XFS:
While EXT3 volume need to be unmounted while executing the resize, XFS is very simple and can be resize while it's mounted and live using the command xfs_growfs.
The link of the post messages is at:
http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?messageID=100198𘝦
Whether using ext3 or xfs in the next volume in EC2, the links above are very helpful. Anybody have a chance snapshotting bigger than 500GB volume? How long does it takes for you to finish?
Enlarge Amazon EBS Volume Saturday, June 27, 2009
Introducing Monitoring, Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing for Amazon EC2 Monday, May 18, 2009
"New Features for Amazon EC2: Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, and Amazon CloudWatch
We are working to make it even easier for you to build sophisticated, scalable, and robust web applications using AWS. As soon as you launch some EC2 instances, you want visibility into resource utilization and overall performance. You want your application to be able to scale on demand based on traffic and system load. You want to spread the incoming traffic across multiple web servers for high availability and better performance. You want to focus on building an application that takes advantage of the powerful infrastructure available in the cloud, while avoiding system administration and operational burdens ("The Muck," as Jeff Bezos once called it)." -Amazon Web Services
Now, that AWS has this services, it's good to play this new services and put to production. A web interface would be great though, maybe something that contains information about scaled running and monitored instances inside AWS.
For companies like RightScale, Scalr and and others AWS management providers, how it will affect their business?
Amazon AMI Cloner using SmartGWT and Grails Friday, April 24, 2009
As what I have posted earlier this month about the Amazon EC2 AMI cloner/migrator. Where it can launch and bundle a new AMI to another EC2 account, here comes it's basic web interface :).
I'm no expert in Ajax and just luckily found Gooogle Web Toolkit(GWT) and finally the SmartGWT for this application. See sample screen shots using SmartGWT application. A Grails service works to fetch the AMI list, using the same cloner codes. The service generates a page with JSON string which can easily be use for SmartGWT datasource. I've learned that for me it's much easier to get the web interface using SmartGWT and build the services inside grails. So far, I'm having fun and while keeping myself on the edge of these technologies.
Amazon EC2 AMI Cloner Thursday, April 2, 2009
Since 2007, I've been architecting, implementing, and part of it is bundling EC2 images for my client's projects. Some clients cannot provide they keys/certs for security reasons and so my usual option is to bundle the AMIs using my account, and once these images are tested or proven to meets my client's requirements, I'd share those AMIs and let my clients do the bundling.
I was working with Informascale currently doing lots of fun stuff with Amazon AWS, Puppet, Linux, MySQL, Java and Groovy, Apache and Haproxy servers..obviously, most of these are related to scaling virtual servers, on demand applications, and cloud computing technology ideas.
Going back to this EC2 Image Cloner, the good thing about this tool is that you can run its CLI (command line interface) to bundle a shared AMI from AWS accountA to another AWS account(let's say accountB). Or call it from a PHP application and run the cloning process in the background.
This cloner application needs to save AWS keys and certs of the AccountB to a database, and use this information to launch, bundle and upload the bundle S3.
Currently, it bundles all shared AMI from accountA to accountB. AccountA however needs to set Launch permission to any of its private AMI to be shared to accountB. Before bundling process exits, it tries to make sure to shutdown each of the launch instances being cloned. More features are underway for this tool, one is to be able to have a drag n drop option for setting launch permissions with any AWS account listed on the tool's db :) Hope there a lot more we can think of. I hope we can get this into a usable tool for everybody.
We had tested to run the cloner inside PHP app and was able to get ubuntu,debian,centos x386 AMIs successfully cloned. I'm about to test Canonical AMI images with this cloner, they have only two AMI's for now, (checking how it handles x64 machines), so it safe for me to clone them all. :)
The cloner is written using Groovy 1.5.2-1, Typica 1.5, and Trilead SSH2 API.
To bundle AMI manually to another account, see these references:
http://entxtech.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-move-amazon-ami-ec2-image-from.html
http://austinmills.name/?p=26
Rough screenshot/codes of the EC2 Cloner in action:
Announcing the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse Wednesday, March 25, 2009
"Dear Amazon EC2 Customer,
We are excited today to introduce the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse, a plug-in for the Eclipse Java IDE that makes it easier to develop, deploy, and debug Java applications on Amazon Web Services. With the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse, you'll be able to get started faster and be more productive when building AWS applications. "
While working on Java terminal application(actually using Groovy and Typica API library), I receive this announcement message from Amazon. Checking it out immediately with my Eclipse Ganymede version :)
A screenshot after installation:
Announcing Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances Friday, March 13, 2009
"Reserved Instances are complementary to existing Amazon EC2 On-Demand Instances and give businesses even more flexibility to reduce computing costs. Because Reserved Instances function identically to existing Amazon EC2 On-Demand Instances, you can now plan for an anticipated amount of capacity using Reserved Instances and then instantly spin up On-Demand Instances if your compute needs exceed you reserved capacity. Of course, you can also choose to handle all of your capacity needs using only On-Demand instances or only Reserved Instances -- it's entirely up to you. Reserved Instances are available in 1-year or 3-year terms."
---The Amazon Web Services Team
http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2009/03/announcing-ec2-reserved-instances.html
http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/
Really worth it for an on demand application.
AWS Client API Library to build EC2 Management Console Thursday, March 12, 2009
Open Source Client libraries for Amazon Web Services are available to build AWS manager console.
http://code.google.com/p/typica - Java
http://code.google.com/p/ctypica/ - C
http://tarzan-aws.com/ - PHP
http://code.google.com/p/php-aws/ - PHP
Now comes AWS manager built using the above libraries:
DirecEC2 for iPhones and iPod touch
http://awsmanager.com/
http://cloud42.net/
What about setting up a Cloud42 application on a webserver and offer the services same with Ylastic? :)
Amazon EC2 Management console for users who will win?
What if to include the feature to easily manage 1000 servers using iPhone? :)
Ylastic offers application for iPhone and iPhone and Android based smartphones. But I bet they built their own client library for their application.
