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Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

blog.linode.com

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Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#11

Post by slig »

poutine wrote: post #3
fortes wrote: post #2

This is neat. Similar to EC2 AMIs, right? Something I've these -- who is responsible for security updates? I assume it's the deployer, which can often be someone who may not have much experience as an sysadmin. What's the best way to keep a system secure? Cron + Apt-get update?

I wouldn't suggest cron'ing apt-get update, it may break something while you're not there. Better to do a manual update once a month or so and do a quick test afterwards. Ideally you'd do this on a identical non-production QA machine, but if you're only a one box sorta guy then you can likely get away with no issues. Of course, security issues these days are more often the result of misconfiguration but if you're doi…

Setting up UFW on ubuntu is so simple that I really don't see why not use a firewall.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#12

Post by Joe_Bananas »

fortes wrote: post #2

This is neat. Similar to EC2 AMIs, right? Something I've these -- who is responsible for security updates? I assume it's the deployer, which can often be someone who may not have much experience as an sysadmin. What's the best way to keep a system secure? Cron + Apt-get update?

I have a cron job set up to mail me if there are packages to upgrade. Avoids potential breakage with automated updates while still letting me act reasonably fast.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#14

Post by weaksauce »

slig wrote: post #10
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #7

I would love it if they had this at Slicehost. It seems so stupid to have to configure a basic web server from scratch again when it's been done millions of times before me. Set up a great standard setup and then let me tune from there.

From what I've seen, the scripts looks like shell script, so they can be used elsewhere, or am I missing something?

The only thing that you would have to do is include the "helper" file and it should work if you copied it. It looks like linode is doing some extra preprocessing but I do not do much bash scripting.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#16

Post by pie »

hypermatt wrote: post #9

Looks like a simpler Puppet or Chef, very cool. Anyone want to comment on the differences ?

This looks like an organized collection of bash scripts with standard libraries for basic configuration processes, much like the fundamentals of Puppet and Chef.

This is great for simple initial setup (I'm sure a lot of us already have some short bash scripts to similar effect). However, Chef is great for maintaining multiple similar servers and keeping things standardized across machines with minimal effort. Chef also gives you some handy tools like automatic deployment and ERB templates.

I'm using Chef with 7 servers on Slicehost right now, and it's easy as pie once the recipes are set up and your server is deployed.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#17

Post by caker »

carson wrote: post #15

I would be up for building some StackScripts myself but I hate to have to buy a complete plan to do it. I really wish Linode would offer a more fine grained billing.

It's pro-rated to the day - so if you add a Linode for the month but remove it after one day, you've ended up being credited back all but $0.67, in the case of a Linode 360.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#18

Post by poutine »

fortes wrote: post #8
poutine wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't suggest cron'ing apt-get update, it may break something while you're not there. Better to do a manual update once a month or so and do a quick test afterwards. Ideally you'd do this on a identical non-production QA machine, but if you're only a one box sorta guy then you can likely get away with no issues. Of course, security issues these days are more often the result of misconfiguration but if you're doi…

Thanks for the info. Are exploits rare enough these days that updating once a month good enough for a well-configured machine? (If so, that's great -- I was worried about taking a vacation :))

Depends on your risk profile, but in general if you update once a month you're probably ahead of 95% of the servers out there.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#19

Post by wizard_2 »

fortes wrote: post #8
poutine wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't suggest cron'ing apt-get update, it may break something while you're not there. Better to do a manual update once a month or so and do a quick test afterwards. Ideally you'd do this on a identical non-production QA machine, but if you're only a one box sorta guy then you can likely get away with no issues. Of course, security issues these days are more often the result of misconfiguration but if you're doi…

Thanks for the info. Are exploits rare enough these days that updating once a month good enough for a well-configured machine? (If so, that's great -- I was worried about taking a vacation :))

I don't agree - I try to do security patches every few days, and major upgrades when I have time to test them. The hard part is keeping tabs on what servers need them. I have 7 or 8 vm's and when they're not involved in a project they're easy to forget about.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#20

Post by melito »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #7

I would love it if they had this at Slicehost. It seems so stupid to have to configure a basic web server from scratch again when it's been done millions of times before me. Set up a great standard setup and then let me tune from there.

I built SliceApp.com to solve this problem.

Spent the past couple week reworking it. It will work with Slicehost, Linode, Rackspace Cloud...anything running Ubuntu accessible via SSH.

Actively working on it and open to suggestions on what would make it better.

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