Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

blog.linode.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 31 posts

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#21

Post by ryanwaggoner »

melito wrote: post #20
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.

Very nice! In terms of suggestions:

  a) info on versions would be nice
  b) more options (ftp, mail, sphinx, lucene, etc)
  c) maybe a short questionnaire about usage to optimize config
  d) I'd like to see more about security and who you are before I hand over username/pw
PS - You should post this as a "Tell HN" here if you haven't already...

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#22

Post by oomkiller »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #21
melito wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Very nice! In terms of suggestions: a) info on versions would be nice b) more options (ftp, mail, sphinx, lucene, etc) c) maybe a short questionnaire about usage to optimize config d) I'd like to see more about security and who you are before I hand over username/pw PS - You should post this as a "Tell HN" here if you haven't already...

Also, it would be nice if you supported more than Ubuntu.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#23

Post by melito »

oomkiller wrote: post #22
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice! In terms of suggestions: a) info on versions would be nice b) more options (ftp, mail, sphinx, lucene, etc) c) maybe a short questionnaire about usage to optimize config d) I'd like to see more about security and who you are before I hand over username/pw PS - You should post this as a "Tell HN" here if you haven't already...

Also, it would be nice if you supported more than Ubuntu.

I'd say that support is coming, but everything currently available on the menu are things that I actually use for dev work.

If I find myself in a situation where I suddenly need to support CentOS, Debian, whatever, then the first thing I'll do is add it to sliceapp :)

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#24

Post by gtani »

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…

Brute forcing:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1025520

I think a new admin needs to read up on locking down ports in iptables, Bastille, snort, filesystem fingerprinting and some checklists:

http://www.mnxsolutions.com/blog/apache/securing-your-server...

http://blog.dhananjaynene.com/2009/10/configuring-a-secure-u...

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#25

Post by jackowayed »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #21
melito wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Very nice! In terms of suggestions: a) info on versions would be nice b) more options (ftp, mail, sphinx, lucene, etc) c) maybe a short questionnaire about usage to optimize config d) I'd like to see more about security and who you are before I hand over username/pw PS - You should post this as a "Tell HN" here if you haven't already...

Very nice job. I'll be using it soon. I second the idea of submitting it as a "Tell HN."

I don't think the security is a huge deal because, since it's setting up a new server, you really should just change the password afterward. But it probably wouldn't be bad to reassure people (or say "don't worry about security! just use a throwaway password for us and then change it"). It doesn't matter if security shouldn't be a concern if prospective customers see it as a concern.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#26

Post by hoop »

I helped beta this and it works great. Since it just just a typical script you can write the script in whatever language the distro has an interpreter for. Bash, Ruby, Python, whatever. If the distro doesn't have the interpreter you want, you could always write a StackScript to install it ;)

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#27

Post by larrywright »

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…

I always run ssh on a really high port, which does a decent enough job of keeping the password guessing bots.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#28

Post by andrewvc »

slig wrote: post #11
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…

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

Oddly enough, from the command line, I don't get the point of UFW, straight iptables is much easier for me. I mean, if you understand the concepts of iptables, UFW is just an alternate but by no means easier way of manimpulating iptables.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#29

Post by melito »

jackowayed wrote: post #25
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice! In terms of suggestions: a) info on versions would be nice b) more options (ftp, mail, sphinx, lucene, etc) c) maybe a short questionnaire about usage to optimize config d) I'd like to see more about security and who you are before I hand over username/pw PS - You should post this as a "Tell HN" here if you haven't already...

Very nice job. I'll be using it soon. I second the idea of submitting it as a "Tell HN." I don't think the security is a huge deal because, since it's setting up a new server, you really should just change the password afterward. But it probably wouldn't be bad to reassure people (or say "don't worry about security! just use a throwaway password for us and then change it"). It doesn't matter if security shouldn't be…

It doesn't matter to a lot of the people that use it. I don't store their passwords and I pipe everything going on in the server to the user's web browser. User's are invited to snoop TTY's.

But yes I agree totally. It's meant to work with cloud servers so if you grow weary or distrustful of the box, tear it down and start over. One thing I've been playing with is API integration. Not that its any more secure, but I think fewer people would confuse an "API key" input field as a "Login here" form (which some have).

Security aside, I'm slowly attempting to monetize this and to be quite honest I'm more interested in people giving me their money than their passwords. I can't pay rent with passwords.

Re: Linode introduces StackScripts - Custom recipes for your Linode

#30

Post by slig »

andrewvc wrote: post #28
slig wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Oddly enough, from the command line, I don't get the point of UFW, straight iptables is much easier for me. I mean, if you understand the concepts of iptables, UFW is just an alternate but by no means easier way of manimpulating iptables.

Agreed. UFW is just simple to copy/paste commands from tutorials on how to set up your own server.
Post reply on HN