EC2 image opinions

print · 2010-12-14 03:09:37

I'm planning on using EC2 for some stuff. All qualitative differences aside, and from a *stability* standpoint, does anyone have ideas pro or con regarding which you would choose as a base install, as between canonical's latest or a public arch AMI (e.g., those by Yejun Yang): http://thecloudmarket.com/image/ami-4e0 … ge#/readme

Thanks in advance,
print

sjnims · 2011-01-02 15:34:04

So far I'm not a fan of the AMI by Yejun Yang. Plus I'd rather build the AMI myself so I know exactly what is on it, but haven't found a set of directions that really make any sense (to me anyways).

print · 2011-01-02 20:01:29

sjnims wrote:

So far I'm not a fan of the AMI by Yejun Yang.

Could you be more specific? I've been developing on a rebundled AMI based on the one by Mr. Yang and so far it's working perfectly. However, the idea of using it in production does give me pause, because for some reason the default filesystem is btrfs (!?). I don't know much about that FS, and I'm puzzled by that choice.

I would usually pick something "safer" like an ext3 FS if for no other reason than force of habit.... aside from that the instance appears to be a stock arch install.

sjnims · 2011-01-02 23:19:37

In addition to the FS choice, it uses ZSH for the default shell (which is not Arch default). I'll have to dig deeper for other differences.

print · 2011-01-03 00:31:13

I use zsh, so that is fine with me. If you do find other differences please post here.

elliottcable · 2011-01-04 00:10:59

Have y'all really looked around much?

http://github.com/elliottcable/ArchLinux-AMIs

Build your own. You can use my pre-builts, instructions are in the README for searching for my prebuilt betas; or you can utilize the system in that GitHub repo (it's all shell scripts, nothing complex) to build your own entirely customized AMI.

There aren't any step-by-step *human* instructions in there, but anybody with a basic knowledge of shell scripting (no complex backflips, really) should be able to follow what's going on. You can also create a new folder alongside "Nucleus" to plan your own style of AMI (I have others beside Nucleus that I haven't yet made public.)

print · 2011-01-04 06:19:10

Hey Elliot, I did find your scripts and even cloned your repo a while back. I'm sure with sufficient effort I could grok your work. My reason for posting here was to figure out how other people are running arch on EC2, and I should clarify that I'm much more interested in a pre-rolled base install because I don't really have the bandwidth to build and maintain my own. It is rather time-consuming for me, given that my knowledge of EC2 is best described as intermediate, and I have no desire to become an expert in the intricacies or keep up with the platform as it evolves. For example, I'm not really sure how I would modify your Nucleus to make it a base ebs volume. It really seems like a job that is too big for little old me. Then again, it's either arch or bust at this point so I'll do what I have to do.

Canonical and several distros provide "official" EC2 instances and I think this is something that's sorely lacking in the arch world. In any case it's something I would be willing to work on if there is interest. Any arch devs out there care to weigh in?

aeosynth · 2011-01-05 08:13:16

+1 for a prebundled image consisting of just base + ssh.

I tried Yejun Yang's image too, and was immediately put off by the zsh default shell, and the litter of random dotfiles.

I asked on the amazon forums about creating an ebs, and was pointed to the following blog entries:

Ubuntu - http://alestic.com/2010/01/ec2-ebs-boot-ubuntu
CentOS - http://www.philchen.com/2009/02/14/how- … -image-ami
Gentoo - http://rich0gentoo.wordpress.com/2010/0 … m-scratch/

It's pretty lame that they don't have official documentation about creating an ebs image from scratch.

yejun · 2011-01-26 08:39:30

sjnims wrote:

In addition to the FS choice, it uses ZSH for the default shell (which is not Arch default). I'll have to dig deeper for other differences.

Just one more difference. I used custom kernel dhcp instead of normal dhcpc daemon.

To build a custom EBS, all you need is a working root with correct fstab, everything else works exactly like a normal installation.

synthead · 2011-03-29 03:02:27

I'm trying to put together an EBS-based micro instance right now and it's being a real pain. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "a working root with correct fstab"? What is a correct fstab in terms of a micro instance? Does a "working root" mean the kernel, a menu.lst, device.map, etc?

Arch Linux

#1 2010-12-14 03:09:37

EC2 image opinions

#2 2011-01-02 15:34:04

Re: EC2 image opinions

#3 2011-01-02 20:01:29

Re: EC2 image opinions

#4 2011-01-02 23:19:37

Re: EC2 image opinions

#5 2011-01-03 00:31:13

Re: EC2 image opinions

#6 2011-01-04 00:10:59

Re: EC2 image opinions

#7 2011-01-04 06:19:10

Re: EC2 image opinions

#8 2011-01-05 08:13:16

Re: EC2 image opinions

#9 2011-01-26 08:39:30

Re: EC2 image opinions

#10 2011-03-29 03:02:27

Re: EC2 image opinions

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