Increasing your AWS EC2 root partition (Windows)

As we now have instances which can be booted from EBS (hurray for that), you’re root is also increased to 30gb. But sometimes this still isn’t enough. Here is how you can increase your root partition drive using the AWS Console.

  1. login to  your AWS Console
  2. Go to [Instances], right click your instance and select [create image (EBS AMI)]
    This will make a backup (just in case)
  3. Your instance will reboot, and come up again when the image is created. After that stop your instance (do not terminate it :-) )
  4. Next is to go to [Volumes], you will see a 30Gib volume somewhere which is attached as /dev/sda1 to your instance

    Volume 

    Right click it and select [Create Snapshot from this volume].

  5. Next, go to [Snapshots]. Right click the snapshot that you created in the previous step and select [Create Volume from Snapshot], you can then specify how big this volume has to become (for example 50 Gib).

    Create Volume from Snapshot

  6. After the volume is created go back to volumes again. You will see a volume which is as large as you specified in the previous step. The status of this volume is “available”.
    Now select the volume which is currently attached to your instance. It is the one you located in step 4. Right click it and and select [Detach Volume], it will then become available.
  7. Now select your newly created volume, right click it and select [Attach Volume]. Select your instance (which will have a status of “stopped”). In the textbox “Device” type: /dev/sda1. Now click [Attach]

    Attach Volume

  8. Fire up your instance and log in.
  9. Open up computer management and select [Disk Management] (underneath the option [storage]). You will see that your root partition has some more space behind it.
  10. Right click your root partition and select [Extend Volume], walk through the wizard. Eventually your root partition will be extended.

New Powerful Amazon EC2 Boot Features

Yesterday Amazon announced some cool new feature on their EC2 platform: Boot your instance  from EBS (Amazon Block Store).

Your root partition of your image will be EBS, so this will give you the ability to:

  • fine-grain control of software and data configuration
  • increase the size of the local disk up to 1TB in size
  • boot faster
  • stop an instance and restart it at a later time with the disk configuration intact
  • restart an instance and choose to use a different instance type (e.g., with more memory or CPU), a different operating system (e.g., with new security patches installed), or add new user data

read more @ source

Cloud Computing interview with Whitfield Diffie

Whitfield Diffie is a cryptographer and one of the pioneers of Public Key Cryptography. In 1976 he introduced a new method of distributing Cryptographic keys solving one of the fundamental problems of Cryptography….key distribution. This method became known as the Diffie-Helman Key Exchange (D-H…. you might have heard about it).

Technology Review had an interview with him about the security of Cloud Computing, you can read the full interview here.  He has a nice insight on Cloud Computing, especially this one:

The effect of the growing dependence on cloud computing is similar to that of our dependence on public transportation, particularly air transportation, which forces us to trust organizations over which we have no control, limits what we can transport, and subjects us to rules and schedules that wouldn’t apply if we were flying our own planes. On the other hand, it is so much more economical that we don’t realistically have any alternative.

This one is also nice:

A serious potential danger will be any laws intended to guarantee the ability of law enforcement to monitor computations that they suspect of supporting criminal activity. Back doors of this sort complicate security arrangements with two devastating consequences. Complexity is the enemy of security. Once Trojan horses are constructed, one can never be sure by whom they will be used.

Google Chrome OS

Yesterday, Google presented their Google Chrome OS. This OS is all about the Web. It all works inside the browser (which is Chrome).  All application’s you use will be on the internet, so no worries anymore about program updates.
Let’s see A video that can explain it better:

let’s see the OS in action. It boots in 7 seconds on a netbook.

I’m eager to see it working on my machine and test it out.

SharePoint access for live@edu

Live@edu is a service that Microsoft offers for students. As a student you can direct your IT administrator to this site. He can register your school, so you can take advantage of the services that Microsoft offers like:

  • Exchange Online (10GB)
  • Sky Drive (25 GB)
  • Office Live Workspaces

But now Microsoft is announcing the addition of SharePoint Online. The Service will be available starting in the second half of 2010. You can read more here.

SMTP enabled for BPOS Worldwide

According to the BPOSitive blog, SMTP is now enabled for BPOS.
If you have some clients who require to send email through your online exchange environment, you can do so now (all info below thanks to BPOSitive).

To connect to the Microsoft Online Services SMTP server, open your SMTP client application and provide the information below.

The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the Microsoft Online Services SMTP server. The FQDN will be slightly different depending on which Microsoft Online Services datacenter your company is connected to. The server FQDNs are:o North America Datacenter:

  • Smtp.mail.microsoftonline.com
  • Europe Datacenter: Smtp.mail.emea.microsoftonline.com
  • Asia Pacific Datacenter: Smtp.mail.apac.microsoftonline.com

The user name and password of a Microsoft Online Services user account with an Exchange Online license. On most client applications, this is under “My outgoing mail server (SMTP) requires authentication” – this should be configured “Yes”, and the corresponding Microsoft Online username and password supplied.

The SMTP port to use: 587
On most client applications, this is under “Server Port Numbers for Outgoing Server (SMTP)” – this should be configured to use port 587

Make sure that Transport Layer Security (TLS) is enabled in your SMTP client.
On most client applications, this is under “My outgoing mail server (SMTP) requires an encrypted connection (SSL)” – this should be configured “Yes”