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The Technologies Behind Cloud Servers
From the command line, you'll find that Cloud Servers™ look and act much like the traditional servers you
may be using now. However, some key technologies make Cloud Servers™ much more flexible than hardware
devices.
The Virtualization Layer
CPU Bursting
In-Place Resizing
Each Cloud Server is a virtual machine abstracted from the hardware. We use a software hypervisor with proven performance, reliability, scalability, and security. Launching a new Cloud Server happens in minutes since we only need to start up a virtual machine on already running hardware. Virtualization also allows Cloud Servers™ to be moved easily or even resized for more CPU and memory.
All Cloud Servers™ come with a certain amount of guaranteed CPU power based on the size of the servers you create. However, at times when there's extra CPU power available from the host hardware, we take advantage of it, providing your workloads extra processing power without any additional cost to you.
Scaling up your Cloud Server is simple–you don't need to reinstall anything. With the click of a mouse or simple API call, your Cloud Server is momentarily taken offline, the RAM, disk space and CPU allotment are adjusted, and the server is restarted. The entire process is automated and takes just a few minutes.
More Features of Cloud Servers™
- Manage your Cloud Servers on-the-go via your iPhone®, iPad®, iPod® touch and Android.
- Storage is RAID-10 protected for superior performance and redundancy.
- For Linux distributions, each Cloud Server is assigned four virtual cores (for servers up to 15GB) or eight virtual cores for the 30GB server size.
- For Windows images, each Cloud Server is assigned a number of virtual cores based on the size of the Cloud Server. 30GB Cloud Servers receive 8 virtual cores.
- You can spin up and scale a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard or Web Edition instance in just minutes. With utility-based pricing, you only pay for what you use. To find out which SQL edition is right for you, click here.
- No oversubscription. Reserved RAM and storage.
- SOC 1 Type II - pertains to the managed hosting customers, Cloud Servers™, Cloud Files™ customers and all data centers.
- API File Injection - put a file directly into the file system so that it's accessible inside the instance. It could be a license file—whatever you need.
- Separate public and private network interfaces. Private bandwidth is free and provides inter-Cloud Server communication as well as access to Cloud Files.
- Snapshot based server images—scheduled or on-demand. Useful for creating "gold" images or backups.
- Easily control your DNS. Rackspace Cloud DNS now available.
- Support for multiple public IP addresses.
- Shared IPs for high-availability configurations using standard failover tools.
- Linux distribution or Windows image of your choice.
- Web-based console access. Access your server if there is a boot or network problem.
- Bootable rescue mode. File system access to repair a troubled Cloud Server.
- Combine Dedicated Servers and Cloud Servers to match your compute needs with the hybrid hosting option.
"Amazon EC2 Cloud is most likely running on lousy hardware. [I'm] switching to Rackspace after an instance mysteriously crashed, losing data"
kaczoanoker via Twitter
"Didn't realize Rackspace [Cloud] servers were persistent. Cool."
Bretthoerner via Twitter
"I'm so sold on Rackspace Cloud Servers. Their backup functionality is sweet and being charged by the hour is much better than monthly."
terrcin via Twitter
Available Operating Systems:
| Linux Distributions |
|---|
| Arch 2011.10 |
CentOS 6.0  |
| CentOS 5.6 |
| Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) |
| Debian 5.0 (Lenny) |
| Fedora 16 (Verne) |
| Fedora 15 (Lovelock) |
| Fedora 14 (Laughlin) |
| Gentoo 11.0 |
| openSUSE 12.1 |
| Red Hat EL 6.1 |
| Red Hat EL 5.5 |
| Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) |
| Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) |
| Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) |
| Windows Images |
|---|
| Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise 64-bit |
| Windows Server 2008 SP2 Enterprise 32-bit |
| Windows Server 2008 64 Bit with SQL 2008 R2 Standard Edition* |
| Windows Server 2008 32 Bit with SQL 2008 R2 Standard Edition* |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 with SQL 2008 R2 Standard Edition* |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 with SQL 2008 R2 Web Edition* |
*Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 images available on 2GB and higher Cloud Servers. For 2GB - 15GB server sizes, add 72¢/hour for SQL Standard Edition or add 6¢/hour for SQL Web Edition. For 30GB server size, add $1.08/hour for SQL Standard Edition and 9¢/hour for SQL Web Edition.
Operating System also available with Cloud Servers with a Managed Service Level. Service level also provides support for Apache, MySQL (Linux) and .Net/IIS (Windows).
Some Thoughts on Rackspace vs. Amazon EC2
Jay Kuri wrote an interesting blog post comparing Rackspace Cloud Servers™ and Amazon's EC2 service. For the most common workloads, he concludes:
"In my opinion, the combination of lower cost, better base CPU/ RAM options and a smoother upgrade path make Rackspace's cloud-servers the clear winner."
Jay Kuri on catalyzed.org
Using the API
