A Noob Speaks to Noobs: Your First Site in the Cloud

Type:
Talk
Audience level:
Novice
Category:
Systems Administration
March 9th 10:50 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Description

A developer talks about her lessons learned with setting up her first server, and offers advice to others about to tread that path.

Abstract

  • My background (how did I get this far without mucking with servers?)
  • Lesson one: The first step is not to install the OS yourself
    • Get a Rackspace account!
    • Rough cost analysis
  • Lesson two: Use Ubuntu
    • The CentOS saga
    • Why Ubuntu?
  • Lesson three: Automate everything
    • What you need to know about fabric
  • Lesson four: Don't mess with production
    • The cost of a new slice
    • The cost of ruining everything forever
    • The magic of cloning
  • Lesson five: Your next steps
    • Security!
    • Virtualenv