http://www.apptheory.comRSS feeds for AppTheory60http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/541/Microsoft-Services-vs-Google-Apps-Premium.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=541http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=541&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/541/Microsoft-Services-vs-Google-Apps-Premium.aspxI am currently looking into the possibility of using a hosted email environment. AppTheory has used an internal Exchange server for mail since the company started.Max SchneiderFri, 20 Nov 2009 21:28:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:541http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/532/Scaling-Out-DotNetNuke-Professional-on-Amazon-EC2.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=532http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=532&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/532/Scaling-Out-DotNetNuke-Professional-on-Amazon-EC2.aspxAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a set of cloud based infrastructure web services that are offered to developers and companies. These services provide expandable and flexible infrastructure to user. The are several parts to the cloud infrastructure. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides compute capacity in the cloud. This compute capacity is provided by Amazon Machine Instances (AMIs). The machine instances can provide cloud based virtual servers with windows and *nix based operating systems.Max SchneiderTue, 10 Nov 2009 02:21:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:532http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/526/Be-Careful-Applying-Permissions-between-Security-Groups-on-AWS-EC2.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=526http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=526&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/526/Be-Careful-Applying-Permissions-between-Security-Groups-on-AWS-EC2.aspxI have noticed that a couple of tutorials have gone into the basics for setting up DNN on AWS with two separate instances. One instance is the frontend web server and the other instance is a backend SQL server. Two security groups are created one for the Web server (WebGroup) and one for the SQL server (SQLGroup). This is a common setup that we have performed many times at AppTheory.Max SchneiderFri, 30 Oct 2009 19:38:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:526http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/519/Auto-Scaling-and-Elastic-Load-Balancing-with-Amazon-Elastic-Cloud-Computing.aspx#Comments1http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=519http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=519&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/519/Auto-Scaling-and-Elastic-Load-Balancing-with-Amazon-Elastic-Cloud-Computing.aspxLast week I talked about how AppTheory uses Amazon CloudWatch to help monitor our DNN instances on AWS EC2. CloudWatch also allows AWS EC2 users to enable Auto Scaling. Auto Scaling allows for the seamless scaling of Amazon EC2 instances “during demand spikes to maintain performance.” Auto Scaling also allows for an application to gracefully scale down “during demand lulls to minimize costs.Max SchneiderFri, 16 Oct 2009 21:40:43 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:519http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/517/CloudWatch-on-Amazon-Elastic-Cloud-Computing.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=517http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=517&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/517/CloudWatch-on-Amazon-Elastic-Cloud-Computing.aspxOne of the tools that I have been using for quick monitoring of the DNN web and SQL instances AppTheory manages at AWS is CloudWatch. CloudWatch is a monitoring system much like the taskmgr on your server that lets you see a quickly monitor your instances CPU, Disk Reads/Writes, In/out network traffic.Max SchneiderFri, 09 Oct 2009 19:39:16 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:517http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/511/Tools-for-Monitoring-Performance-Issues-on-AWS-Instances.aspx#Comments1http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=511http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=511&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/511/Tools-for-Monitoring-Performance-Issues-on-AWS-Instances.aspxMysterious performance issues can occur with physical servers and virtual instances. I have been experiencing that issue with a client’s SQL server. This SQL server is the backend server for a couple of DNN web servers. The servers are all virtual instances on Amazon Web Services(AWS) Elastic Cloud Computing(EC2). One of my duties at AppTheory is to fix performance issues with client servers and instances. I thought a list of tools that can help detect and resolve performance issues would be handy. Here are the tools that I have used. AWS Tools : Cloud Watch – Allows for the monitoring of instances on AWS (CPU, Disk Activity, and Network) Diagnostic Tools – These command line tools require AWS Premium Support  and collect System and Network information (If you instances are in production sign up for AWS support) Windows Tools : Perfmon – Server tool that provides performance counters for Monitoring system Performance (Good for web servers, SQL servers you name it) Debug Diagnostic Tool – Great tool for troubleshooting hangs, slow performance, memory leaks, and crashes of processes. Special focus on IIS and COM+ SQL Profiler – Tool to monitor the performance of an SQL Server instance Log Parser 2.2 – Universal query access to txt files, XML files, CSV files, Event Log, Registry, file system, and AD. SQLdumper.exe – Generate dump files for SQL Server. SQLdiag Utility – General diagnostic collection utility that can be run from console or as a service. Process Explorer – Sysinternals answer to the Task Manager Sysinternals Utilities – Besides Process Explorer Sysinternals has a collection of useful applications covering File and Disk, Networking, Processes, and System InformationMax SchneiderFri, 02 Oct 2009 19:32:28 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:511http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/508/Managing-the-Root-Drive-Space-on-AWS-Instances.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=508http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=508&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/508/Managing-the-Root-Drive-Space-on-AWS-Instances.aspxAt AppTheory here is how I would become aware of a drive space problem. I would get an email notification from the monitoring system that a client DNN web site has suddenly become unavailable or it’s performance has started to decline. I would then remote into the server to identify the issue. I would see that the root drive was down to 100MB. After a little investigation I find that a log file or temp file is eating up the drive space. Has anyone seen a few 250 MB log files? The resolution is fairly simple, either delete or move the offending files to another drive.Max SchneiderFri, 25 Sep 2009 20:32:16 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:508http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/504/Amazon-Elastic-Cloud-Computing-Bundle-Management.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=504http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=504&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/504/Amazon-Elastic-Cloud-Computing-Bundle-Management.aspxAt Apptheory we have been using Amazon Web Service (AWS) Elastic Cloud Computing instance bundles as part of our backup strategy for clients. The DotNetNuke (DNN) installs that we run for clients regularly receive updates to the operating system, new modules and DNN updates. Bundling instances while a nice option and a critical step is a bit cumbersome in its current configuration.Max SchneiderFri, 18 Sep 2009 21:25:53 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:504http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/498/AWS-and-Spam.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=498http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=498&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/498/AWS-and-Spam.aspx If you plan on running a DotNetNuke solution on Amazon Web Services you need to lock down your servers.  This same rules that apply in a traditional hosted environment apply to a virtual environment like AWS. At Apptheory we specialize in deploying and managing secure DNN environments. For those of you out there that don’t think Amazon is paying attention to your server you were wrong.  Amazon does pay attention and if your server is not locked down you will get a nice email that starts with(instances and IP addresses have been edit to protect the victims): Dear EC2 Customer,We have received a report that your instance(s):Instance ID: ******* IP Address: ***.***.***.**** Start date: 2009-**-** 09:15 +0000* End date: Nonehave been sending spam/unsolicited email.  You have a 24 hour window within which to reply or face suspension of your instance or termination of your account. I would suggest several things to solve and prevent your instance being used for spam: Check your security groups and authorization  Check your active sites for open relays Audit your sites regularly Read Amazon’s Whitepaper on securing your instances Max SchneiderThu, 10 Sep 2009 15:40:28 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:498http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/497/Amazon-EC2-Wish-List.aspx#Comments2http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=497http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=497&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/497/Amazon-EC2-Wish-List.aspxFor the last year I have been using Amazon Web Services(AWS) to host DotNetNuke(DNN). In that time I have noticed that AWS  Elastic Cloud Computing is missing a few features. Most of these missing features have not been deal breakers for our clients at AppTheory.  To truly offer a robust environment I believe that Amazon will need to start offering these features.   In no particular order here are the features I have noticed that are missing are: Multiple IPs This is a must for servers that will house multiple sites with ssl. Windows Server 2008 For windows users 2003 is nice but with the Windows Server 2008 R2 on the horizon it is time to look into making Windows Server 2008 available. Reverse DNS This is a standard feature provided by most ISP’s. Reserved Windows Instances They offer discounted reserved instances for linux servers but not for windows servers. I know it is most likely a licensing issue but reserved instances should be made available to windows instances. Bundles Improvements Bundling an instance should not require shutting down the instance. A graceful scale-up procedure would also be good. Amazon offers multiple instance types and for smaller companies you often need to scale-up before you scale-out. Scaling-up right now requires creation of a new instance making sure that it matches your current environment and rolling over to the new instance. Elastic Volume Improvements There needs to be shared volumes between instances. Amazon is offering a great service with AWS but they need to start realizing that clients will expect to see a few things: lower costs scalability a feature set that equals or rivals ISPs and Hosting solutions  Max SchneiderThu, 10 Sep 2009 15:06:42 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:497http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/492/Windows-7-using-VHDs-for-Development.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=492http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=492&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/492/Windows-7-using-VHDs-for-Development.aspxOkay a cool feature included with Windows 7 Ultimate is the ability to boot from a VHD. These VHDs are treated as separate partitions and have a lot smaller performance hit than running a virtual instance. I have recently created two VHDs to boot from my windows 7 laptop.Max SchneiderFri, 28 Aug 2009 21:09:35 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:492http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/488/Using-SQL-Server-2008-and-Visual-Studio-2008-on-Windows-7-RTM.aspx#Comments2http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=488http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=488&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/488/Using-SQL-Server-2008-and-Visual-Studio-2008-on-Windows-7-RTM.aspxSince the release of Windows 7 RTM most of us at AppTheory have installed it on a secondary system for testing with DotNetNuke.Max SchneiderFri, 21 Aug 2009 16:08:26 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:488http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/483/Understanding-the-AWS-ec2bundleinstance-utility.aspx#Comments1http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=483http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=483&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/483/Understanding-the-AWS-ec2bundleinstance-utility.aspxAt AppTheory we like to bundle our instances whenever a change to the root drive has occurred whether it be updates or adding new software. I have noticed that occasionally bundles will hang when executing a bundle tasks on AWS EC2. This happened the other night when I was bundling a DotNetNuke web server instance. The bundle task would update once and show the ‘waiting-to-shutdown’ as the bundle state.  The task never changed it’s status, after 40 minutes I cancelled the task.  I then performed a reboot of the server and attempted to perform the bundle again.  The bundle quickly went from a bundle state of ‘waiting-to-shutdown’ to ‘bundling 3%’  and completed in about 40 minutes. I was happy that the bundle had succeeded but I was also a bit worried about it failing. I decided to do some research to better understand the bundling process for AWS instances. A couple of key point according to Amazon when you are bundling a server: Instances are shut down and remote connections are disconnected Only the root drive is bundled Bundle start time can be reduced by deleting temporary using the Disk Cleanup tool, defragment the hard drive, and zero out free space with sdelete The Ec2configSetup folder contains the info contains the logs and settings for reboots and bundles On a 32 bit instance the Ec2configSetup is located at C:\Program Files\Amazon\ On a 64 bit instance Ec2ConfigSetup is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Amazon\ Ec2ConfigSetup depends on .Net so don’t remove .Net If you want to get a better idea of what goes on during a bundle take a look at the Ec2ConfigLog.txt. This contains the logs for bundles.  Look for the information after the line: action: shutdown reason: bundle-pending.  When I checked my log I did not see anything that would show the bundling process  as being failed.  I think that the bundle was waiting for a thread to close out. The thread would not gracefully close out so a restart was required. But without a specific error code I am not certain. I would like to see Amazon adopt a more detailed log of bundle events.  A format that would give error codes for bundle failures or timeouts to make troubleshooting a little easier. I am not to fond of the idea restarting a server to then have it shutdown for a bundle.       Max SchneiderThu, 13 Aug 2009 21:20:49 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:483http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/478/Regularly-Audit-old-sites-ndash-donrsquot-abandon-sites.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=478http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=478&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/478/Regularly-Audit-old-sites-ndash-donrsquot-abandon-sites.aspxAccording to netcraft there are 239,611,111 hostnames on the internet only about 72,000,000 of those hostnames are active sites. Some times these sites fall into a state of neglect. The client may loose interest in maintaining or updating the site. The site may not generate much traffic and not receive any updates. The site may be considered a demo of past work. Last but not least the site might just be forgotten and ignored. During my time at AppTheory I have seen several DotNetNuke sites suffer due to neglect or abandonment.Max SchneiderThu, 06 Aug 2009 21:38:18 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:478http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/472/Protect-Ya-Neck-ndash-Bundle-your-AWS-EC2-instances.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=472http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=472&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/472/Protect-Ya-Neck-ndash-Bundle-your-AWS-EC2-instances.aspxAt Apptheory we have been deploying DotNetNuke instances on Amazon EC2 virtual servers. Amazon EC2 is an Infrastructure as a Service run on Amazon’s data center. So how does the title to a song from Wutang Clan relate to DotNetNuke and Amazon EC2? Bundles on EC2 help protect your data, protect your resources, and limit your downtime. Bundle to “protect ya neck”.Max SchneiderThu, 30 Jul 2009 17:14:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:472http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/455/Keep-the-Same-Name-for-Multiple-Instance-launches-on-AWS-EC2.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=455http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=455&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/455/Keep-the-Same-Name-for-Multiple-Instance-launches-on-AWS-EC2.aspxThe nice thing about Amazon Web Services Elastic Cloud Computing is the ability to setup testing instances. You only need these instances to be available part of the time. The problem with launching new bundles is that sysprep is run and the instance is renamed each time a launch occurs.Max SchneiderThu, 25 Jun 2009 15:11:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:455http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/432/Questions-to-ask-before-migrating-DotNetNuke-to-the-cloud.aspx#Comments1http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=432http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=432&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/432/Questions-to-ask-before-migrating-DotNetNuke-to-the-cloud.aspxThere are a lot of questions and concerns when it comes to moving your DotNetNuke installation to a cloud solution. I have currently been doing a lot of work with Amazon’s EC2 service. There are other options that are available or quickly becoming available.Max SchneiderFri, 01 May 2009 21:16:40 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:432http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/424/Manage-Multiple-DNN-instances-Easily-Switch-between-Amazon-EC2-accounts.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=424http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=424&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/424/Manage-Multiple-DNN-instances-Easily-Switch-between-Amazon-EC2-accounts.aspxIn one of my earlier blogs I talked about tools to use with Amazon EC2 instances.  A common situation is managing multiple Amazon accounts for clients.   I have user 1 who has his own EC2 account. I also have user 2 that has his own EC2 account.  I am provided the Access key and the private key for both their accounts.  How do I insure that I can easily switch between their two accounts with my different tools and have some separation between the accounts? When using the AWS console I simply login as each user when I need to use the web based console.  With Elastic Fox you are able to add multiple accounts to the add-on and then switch between the two.  This is done by selecting the Credentials button and adding your keys and the account name to Elastic Fox.  You can then switch by using the dropdown arrow in the Credentials box. To get use of all the commands available with EC2 you will want to use the API tools.  To switch between clients I create a batch file for each client which will remap the EC2 API tools variables to the correct keys for each account.  I then create a shortcut to each batch file so that I can quickly change between the accounts. Another good idea is to add the API Tools bin folder to your path so that the commands are available outside the bin directory. Below is an example of the batch file. Change the path to … to the physical path for the required file. set EC2_CERT=path to your 509 key set EC2_PRIVATE_KEY=path to your private key Max SchneiderFri, 24 Apr 2009 15:33:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:424http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/417/DNN-in-the-Cloud-ndash-Root-Drive-Management.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=417http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=417&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/417/DNN-in-the-Cloud-ndash-Root-Drive-Management.aspxThe question that will make most IT staff cringe “Hey the site is down, any idea why?”  This is a question you don’t want to have to answer.  Well someone asked me that question the other day.  After a moment of panic, I logged into the web server and found that the root drive only had about 50MB available.  This had caused the site to go down. The server in question was a DNN web server.  The server was also a virtual instance hosted in the cloud at Amazon.   One thing to note with Amazon hosted and created EC2 instances is that your root drive is limited to 10GB.  This not a problem if you plan carefully.  You must take into account all applications that might write to the root drive.  I would suggest moving any logs, cache files, configuration setting, and any files that might increase in size to another EBS drive.   After some quick investigation with  portable version of WinDirStat on the root drive it appeared that a third party application had been installed and the the cache and log files had been left on the C drive.  I quickly cleared the cache for the application and moved the the cache folder and log folder to another drive.  This released about 5GB of space on the root drive and the site was up and running.  Here are a few pointers for managing drive space in the cloud: Know your programs log and cache settings don’t settle for the defaults. If a folder our file can live on another drive besides the root, move it. Use portable versions of tools (WinDirStat) and leave them on a utility drive which can be mounted when needed. Monitor your root drive to minimize surprises. Max SchneiderFri, 17 Apr 2009 16:51:39 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:417http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/411/Tools-for-using-Amazon-Web-Services.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=411&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/411/Tools-for-using-Amazon-Web-Services.aspxWe have recently moved a few DNN instances to the Elastic Compute Cloud(EC2) on Amazon Web Services(AWS).  I had a friend ask me a question, “ What tools do I need to use Amazon Web Services to setup and manage my DNN instance?”   The answer is just a few tools.  The tools are all provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).  Here is a description of a few free tools that you can use to setup and manage EC2 on AWS. AWS  Management Console The AWS Management Console is a web-based user interface that allows management of your cloud environment.  Management Console features include the option to start new instances, view and register AMIs, bundle instances, create EBS volumes, make EBS snapshots, configure elastic IPs, configure key pairs, and configure security groups. The Management Console is a work in progress with Amazon offering more services and features in the future.  To get an idea of what is new or coming soon check  https://console.aws.amazon.com/. Elasticfox Elasticfox is a firefox plugin that  acts as a browser based management console for EC2.  The options that are available in the AWS Management Console are also in Elasticfox.  Elasticfox can be downloaded from http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=609.  There is also a quick start guide on using Elasticfox at http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=1797.  The nice thing about Elasticfox is that the source code is available on sourceforge http://sourceforge.net/projects/elasticfox/. Amazon EC2 API Tools The API tools are the command line version of the management console.  The API tools does not handle the bundling and uploading of AMIs.  The API Tools are available at http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=351&categoryID=251.  With these three tools you can setup and manage your EC2 on AWS. Max SchneiderFri, 10 Apr 2009 17:00:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/287/Installing-DotNetNuke-5RC2-on-Server-2008.aspx#Comments0http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=411&ModuleID=1002&ArticleID=287http://www.apptheory.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=287&PortalID=2&TabID=411http://www.apptheory.com/DotNetNuke/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/287/Installing-DotNetNuke-5RC2-on-Server-2008.aspxDotNetNuke provides two ways to associate help with any module. The first way is referred to as module online help and will touch on it in a moment. The second way, referred to as module help, is controlled via localization and module actions.Max SchneiderFri, 05 Dec 2008 18:07:00 GMTf1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:287