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Stackato 2.0 integrates Iron Foundry!

Today ActiveState released a new version of their Stackato PaaS built on Cloud Foundry. In this new version they've done a spectacular job integrating the Iron Foundry code into the solution, just add a Windows DEA and you're set.

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Iron Foundry Support for Stackato 1.2 Released

With the latest changes from the Cloud Foundry team (re: anniversary of Cloud Foundry) comes a new and improved Stackato & Iron Foundry Micro VM combo. We've checked and tweaked things to run even better in your Stackato + Iron Foundry environment with the latest downloads. So check out the latest available micro image downloads for Stackato. The ActiveState Stackato team provides images available in:

• Virtual Box VM
• VMware VMDK
• vSphere OVF
• KVM

Some of the changes and additions include...

• Introduction of group management to Stackato managed applications
  • Support for separate per-user and per-group limits
  • Users can be in zero or many groups
• Heroku buildpack framework support, with built-in buildpacks for Clojure, Go, Java, JRuby, Play! and Python
• Updated Stackato App Store
  • Multiple App Store sources supported
  • Stackato admins can control App Store sources from the console

For Iron Foundry one of the key changes is the way DEA droplets spec handles things. So get the latest to be sure you have the best compatibility between these two Cloud Foundry Micro Environments. Find out about even more of the Stackato features here: http://community.activestate.com/node/8626 We've been testing this release and have added to the Iron Foundry VMs to include the following formats:

• VMware VMX
• OVF Format

We've posted release notes on our latest VM images here:  http://help.ironfoundry.org/entries/20950078-micro-cloud-release-notes For information on setting up these images follow the previously posted instructions "Iron Foundry, Stackato, a New Micro Image Pair". More news is coming here at the Iron Foundry Project so stay tuned. We'll be back with more soon.

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PDX Cloud Foundry Hackathon

Members of the Iron Foundry Contributors Team will be attending the PDX Cloud Foundry Hackathon this coming April 14th at Puppet Labs in Portland, Oregon. If you're in Portland or want to come to Portland for a great day of Pizza, Beer, and DevOping come and check out the event. Ok, so I got your attention with the beer and pizza, but what's the hacking really about? The event is going to be multi-track with a focus on hacking the Cloud Foundry (and Iron Foundry) Code base. This track will dive into what is in the code base and how it is put together. The other track will focus on working to deploy and build applications specifically for the Cloud Foundry + Iron Foundry based platforms. In addition to the main tracks there are a few other workshops we'll be putting on. These include:

• On Premise, Off Premise Cloud Foundry - As quoted on the description "You have internal infrastructure and external infrastructure in this "cloud" thing and would like to utilize both... we'll dive into that."
• Cloud Foundry + Iron Foundry and Bridging the Gaps - "Now we're talking FULL stack across every major stack. Iron Foundry, the missing linq in Cloud Foundry. Adding .NET & having it play nicely with Node.js, Ruby on Rails, and more. We'll also dive into SQL Server, Mongo, and how to make the best use of RDBMS + NoSQL bits. Making the most of the abilities with PaaS."
• The Interoperable Cloud App Gallery - "Ingy döt Net would like to see a huge collection of apps that have been made to work on any PaaS solution. Think of it as the http://rosettacode.org/ of PaaS. Ingy started a GitHub organization called Cloud-Apps that is meant to curate forks of popular apps that have been made to work with one or more PaaS solutions like:  Cloud Foundry, Stackato, AppFog, PaaS.io, Iron Foundry, OpenShift, Heroku, DotCloud, etc. He is giving out commit to whomever wants it!"

 

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Iron Foundry, Stackato, a New Micro Image Pair

Today we’re releasing a new update for the Iron Foundry Micro Instance. The biggest changes are two fold. One is our full support of the Stackato from ActiveState powered micro instance. We’ve taken the great work that the ActiveState Team has done with Cloud Foundry and rolled that into our Iron Foundry enabled Micro Instance! The second big addition is full support for the Cloud Foundry Micro Cloud Foundry 1.2 release.

For those of you that have dived heavily into the overall framework, some of the specifics include changes that enhance the reliability of the controller and self-healing nature of the system.

How to get it up and running? Easy…

First download and get the Stackato Micro Cloud Running.

1. Download the Stackato Micro Cloud here: http://www.activestate.com/stackato/download_vm
2. Unzip the image to the location you want the image to execute from.
3. Set the network on the staccato image to bridged.
4. Startup the Stackato Image.
5. When it boots up get the IP and Hostname Address. Note both the host name and IP address.
6. The Hostname will need to be added to your hosts file, either /etc/hosts in OS-X or Linux and c:WindowsSystem32Drivershosts. Add the IP & host to the file like ‘192.168.NNN.YYYY stackato-XXXX.local’ and  ’api.stackato-XXXX.local testwebapp.stackato-XXXX.local‘ (add additional entries at the end for other web apps you intend to push)
7. Navigate to http://stackato-XXXX.local and it will redirect to the initial setup page where you enter an email address and password. These credentials are added to the Stackato Instance, so be sure to remember them.

Next step get the Micro Iron Foundry VM Running & Communicating w/ The Stackato Micro Cloud.

1. Download the Micro Iron Foundry VM here: https://ironfoundry.org/download (Use 7-zip to unzip, or on the Mac use a tool like the “Unarchiver”(http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html or get it from the App Store)).
2. If VMWare asks if you have moved or copied the VM, choose “I copied it”.
3. It will show “Setup is starting services” as this is a Windows VM. After it goes through the inital setup it will continue and require your input
4. Set the timezone. Click Next
5. Accept the licensing terms. Click Next
6. It will now say that the users password must be changed before logging on the first time. Click OK and set the password (make sure to remember the password!)
7. After setting the password you will now be logged into the core terminal prompt. You can now enable Iron Foundry on your Cloud Foundry Micro Cloud. (Make sure your Cloud Foundry Micro Cloud is running at the same time)
8. Boot up the Micro Iron Foundry instance. It will prompt you for a password for the Administrator user.
9. At the command prompt (C:UsersAdministrator) execute these commands:
10. C:UsersAdministrator>cd C:IronFoundrySetup
11. C:IronFoundrySetup>RunSetup.cmd
12. At the prompt enter your domain stackato-XXXX.local, IP address and password.
13. It will then connect via ssh, patch the system, restart the cloud controller, and setup the local SQL provisioning services in the Iron Foundry VM.

Once the setup process is done you can use Cloud Foundry Explorer (https://ironfoundry.org/download) to push an ASP.NET application. I’ve attached a sample ASP.NET application. Click the gear icon to add a cloud, click the green + button to add a New Server. Rename server to something and add an api url of api.stackato-XXXX.local, email and password. Clicking ”Validate Account” should succeed. Once the cloud is added, you can use push and choose that cloud to publish to it. You should use “testwebapp” as the name since you added it to the hosts file above. Once pushed, you can visit http://testwebapp.stackato-XXXX.local to browse to your application, and http://testwebapp.stackato-XXXX.local/env to see more detailed info.

To get involved with Iron Foundry check out the project at https://ironfoundry.org and Cloud Foundry at http://www.cloudfoundry.org/. With the code available on github at https://github.com/IronFoundry or https://github.com/cloudfoundry.

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