Engine Yard Cloud Updates July 2012

The updates described are either important (where you need to take action) or of interest (you might want to know about these changes but you don't need to do anything).

Major: Database-less environments general access (GA)

July 31st, 2012

Action: To access the feature, you need to create a new environment and on the Database Stack environment option, select No Database.

We have been testing database-less environments for the last couple of months and we are happy to announce its GA release today.

The No Database option is available if you choose to use an alternative data store. For example, you can use a utility instance and create your own data store. Or you can use this option along with a database offering from the Engine Yard add-on program.

Notes:

• You must have upgraded your stack since May 15, 2012 to access this feature.

• If you have an existing environment with a non-used database and you want to remove that database, contact Engine Yard Support.

For more information, see the Engine Yard Blog.

Minor: Engine Yard stack upgrade

July 31st, 2012

Action: You automatically apply these changes the next time you click the Upgrade button for your environment:

• Fixes Passenger worker memory monitor: overgrown worker processes will once again be culled.
• Resque workers no longer fail because of assuming rake is in Gemfile.
• DJ workers now explicitly uses bundler if Gemfile is present.
• Adds support for QUEUES environmental variable in Resque configuration.
• URL Health checks in HAProxy, if enabled, applies only to http backend. (You need to contact Engine Yard Support to enable this feature.)

Minor: Engine Yard stack upgrade

July 24th, 2012

Action: You automatically apply these changes the next time you click the Upgrade button for your environment:

• Cleans up Nginx Passenger configs when user switches to a different app server.
• Fixes missing server monitor daemon when using the new add-on version of New Relic.
• Fixes unexpected restart encountered when starting MySQL when a database repair is required.
• Updates Rubinius to use the 20120427 release. (Rubinius is in Early Access.)

HOTFIX for regression of single instance support on stunnel-enabled accounts

July 17, 2012

Action: You automatically apply these changes the next time you click the Upgrade button for your environment:

Support has been restored for users with single instances who have accounts with stunnel enabled. 

Minor: Engine Yard stack upgrade

July 17th, 2012

Action: You automatically apply these changes the next time you click the Upgrade button for your environment:

• JRuby now uses built-in RubyGems for improved compatibility.
• Ruby Enterprise Edition (REE) now supports threads.
• Enhanced security for new 32-bit AMI instances. For more information, see Engine Yard Cloud default change below.

Action: On existing JRuby environments, you need to stop then start any existing Ruby processes after the upgrade.

Note: For Trinidad, a restart (sudo monit restart) is not sufficient. Instead do this:

monit stop all -g trinidad_[app_name]
monit start all -g trinidad_[app_name]

Minor: Engine Yard Cloud default change

July 12th, 2012

Action: The next time you create a new environment, you will get the new AMI by default.

Existing customers creating new environments will now default to the new Engine Yard AMI. (New Trial customers have been using the new AMI before now.)

The new Engine Yard AMI provides these improvements:

• New kernel - 2.6.32.
• Allows several different instance types.
• Improved file system stability.
• Third extended file system (ext3) reliability upgrades.
• Improved boot time (~1-2 minutes on average).

For more information, see the Engine Yard Blog.

Minor: Engine Yard stack upgrade and ey-cloud-recipes updates

July 10th, 2012

Action: You automatically apply these changes the next time you click the Upgrade button for your environment:

• Fixed detection of Unicorn gem in Gemfile so it no longer fails when using tabs.
• Restored X-Forwarded-Proto for single instance environments where stunnel was enabled.

Action: If your environments use a custom Chef cookbook based on our ey-cloud-recipes repository, you will need to merge the current master branch into your fork or clone to take advantage of the following fixes:

• Fixed race condition in memcached recipe where a failed update would cause an empty server list, causing an error and not allow an update.
• Configurations for ssmtp are now symlinked to EBS on utility instances.
• Chef method enabled_package now works without requiring a version.

For more information, see Customize Your Environment with Chef Recipes.

Major: Limited Access: Add multiple instances to an environment at one time

July 5th, 2012

Action: This is an optional Early Access release. No action required.

Engine Yard Cloud customers can now add multiple application or utility instances to an environment at one time. (For database integrity reasons, you cannot add multiple database instances at once.)

Adding multiple instances at once means that you no longer need to serially add instances, waiting for separate Chef runs and cluster reconfiguration each time. This feature allows you the ability to scale quickly, as needed, based on your unique app and environment.

Enable the add multiple instances feature

You need to enable the Early Access feature before you can participate in the program.

To enable the add multiple instances Early Access

1. Log in to your account.

2. In Engine Yard Cloud, click Account > Account Settings on the toolbar.

3. On the account settings page, click Manage Early Access Features.

4. Next to the Add cluster feature, click Enable.

Use the add multiple instances feature

The next time you click the Add button on the environment UI, you will have the ability to add multiple application or utility instances at once.

Start adding instances

1. Verify that you will not exceed your current limit for additional instances; read the note at the top of the page. 

   In this example, there are 3 existing instances and 17 more possible:

   

   If you need to increase your limit, click the link to open a ticket with Engine Yard Support.

2. (Optional) Select a specific availability zone or allow Engine Yard Cloud to distribute the new instances for you.

   

3. Continue to add application, database, or utility instances. See below.

To add application instances

1. Select the number of application instances you need to add.

   

2. Choose the application snapshot date. (This functionality has not changed.)

3. Click Add to Cluster.

   Engine Yard Cloud adds and configures your new application instances in parallel. After the new instances have been added, the entire cluster is then reconfigured to recognize the new app instances.

About database instances

Note: You can only add one new database instance at a time. (This functionality has not changed.)

To add utility instances

You can add multiple utility instances at a time. You should give each new utility instance a meaningful name.

1. Name the first utility instance.

2. Select the appropriate size, snapshot, and volume size for the new utility instance.  (This functionality has not changed.)

   

3. Click Add Utility Instance.

   The new instance name and specifications appear in the list.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 until you are finished specifying the utility instances to add.

5. Click Add to Cluster.

   Engine Yard Cloud adds and configures your new utility instances in parallel. After the new instances have been added, the entire cluster is then reconfigured to recognize the new instances.

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If you have feedback or questions about this page, add a comment below. If you need help, submit a ticket with Engine Yard Support.