http://blog.softlayer.com/2010/the-custom-made-cloud/ A Behind the Scenes Look at the Best Hosting Provider in the World Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:22:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 http://blog.softlayer.com/2010/the-custom-made-cloud/comment-page-1/#comment-6758 Ronny Ong Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:24:48 +0000 http://blog.softlayer.com/?p=2389#comment-6758 I would agree that SL's offers above-average flexibility for cloud instances in terms of virtual hardware configuration. However, SL still loses badly to Amazon EC2 when it comes to OS template flexibility, which can often be more important to a customer than virtual hardware choices. You could fix this shortcoming in a hurry if you would just implement RescueLayer for CCI. For example, if I wanted to set up a dedicated server with the Linux system on an LVM partition, I can do it today without making a special request and waiting for a support person. I've got no complaints about SL's support crew, but they're not instantaneous like automated provisioning. I would simply order the server with standard partitioning, then boot in RescueLayer to repartition it myself. With SL's current cloud offering, I can't do the same. Can I maybe build a paravirtualized VM image on my own local Xen and upload it to my cloud template storage? Nope. Is there perhaps a way to temporarily connect one CCI's primary disk as a secondary disk on another CCI (while the first CCI is shutdown)? Nope. Best I can do without a ticket is to settle for LVM on a second virtual disk and organizing my filesystem mount points to compensate. Amazon EC2 allows me to do a zillion things using their AMI templates without opening tickets and waiting for somebody. I don't realistically expect SL to implement the same level of template flexibility, but if you would implement RescueLayer, that would let me handle everything on my own. I would agree that SL’s offers above-average flexibility for cloud instances in terms of virtual hardware configuration. However, SL still loses badly to Amazon EC2 when it comes to OS template flexibility, which can often be more important to a customer than virtual hardware choices. You could fix this shortcoming in a hurry if you would just implement RescueLayer for CCI. For example, if I wanted to set up a dedicated server with the Linux system on an LVM partition, I can do it today without making a special request and waiting for a support person. I’ve got no complaints about SL’s support crew, but they’re not instantaneous like automated provisioning. I would simply order the server with standard partitioning, then boot in RescueLayer to repartition it myself. With SL’s current cloud offering, I can’t do the same. Can I maybe build a paravirtualized VM image on my own local Xen and upload it to my cloud template storage? Nope. Is there perhaps a way to temporarily connect one CCI’s primary disk as a secondary disk on another CCI (while the first CCI is shutdown)? Nope. Best I can do without a ticket is to settle for LVM on a second virtual disk and organizing my filesystem mount points to compensate. Amazon EC2 allows me to do a zillion things using their AMI templates without opening tickets and waiting for somebody. I don’t realistically expect SL to implement the same level of template flexibility, but if you would implement RescueLayer, that would let me handle everything on my own.

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