Thought-Blorg

So, I am sure you all remember my previous post where I finally caved to the pressure and created a Linode server? Well, as a comparison, you might recall I looked into StormOnDemand as well. I’ve created a StormOnDemand server (for work, but I get to play with it!), and now I can give you my thoughts.

While I still have my Linode, and all of my sites and services are still hosted on it, I was tasked at work with creating a server that we can use for our upcoming sites and projects. After some further investigation (it came down to a choice between SoftLayer and StormOnDemand) I decided to take the plunge with Storm. So far, so good. They’ve got good things going for them. They’re support is good, I’ve had to open to trouble-tickets so far, one for more IP addresses (we have a lot of eCommerce heavy websites) and one because the Java console was acting up. Both requests were handled quickly and professionally. They’re “panel” is easy to navigate and you can get to where you need to be with minimal clicks. One area that I find they are lagging behind is their available OSes. Currently, they only offer CentOS, Debian, and two old versions of Ubuntu. Luckily the Debian image is up-to-date to 5.0.4, but I was looking for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (or at least 9.10) so that we could keep all of our Linux servers the same.

Will I be moving my stuff over to Storm any time soon? Maybe, but I really like Linode. I’m always looking for other options, and right now I am checking into RackSpace (I’m using them as a CDN currently). Everything on the CloudFiles loads quickly and controlling the files with their API is a piece of cake. They’re pricing is great too. Certainly can’t go wrong.

Anyway, look forward to more blogging from me in the coming weeks and months. There are going to be a lot of interesting things happing very shortly. Until then, be safe.

For the last couple of weeks, this computer would shut itself off periodically. I had figured it was either an issue with the CPU being too hot, or the PSU. One day, I decided to take the machine out of my “server stack”. (It’s actually a stack… of computers… that I use(d) as servers. Maybe I’ll post pictures). The machine used to shut off every 3 days or so, but now it would barely start up before it shut itself off. So after I hauled the computer out, I took off the cover, I hooked up the plug, and turned it on. Upon doing so, I notice that one of the chips is starting to glow. At first, I think it might just be a light that

Holy crap! It's on fire! Run!

normally turns on when the machine turns on.

Then I smelled the burning electronics smell.

Then I noticed the light was getting bigger.

Crap. Well, it looks like I might have to look at increasing the side of my Linode, or deciding if I want to go with Storm. I do still have one other server locally, but I may use that for development and computations.

Oh well. It was a good run zeus/derrial/uner2-1. I’ll miss you. I will make good use of your parts. Promise.