All-in-one Mephisto Server

Objective

RightScale offers a collection of free ServerTemplates, which will help you get up-and-running on the cloud.   This tutorial will show you how easy it is to launch a server on EC2 with one of our preconfigured ServerTemplates.  In less than 10 minutes, you'll have a running server on EC2 that is hosting your new Mephisto blog.  

NOTE: You do not have to be a Premium RightScale user to complete this tutorial.

Step 1 - Launch a Server

Go to Design -> ServerTemplates.  Under the RightScale tab, you will see a list of preconfigured ServerTemplates that you can use to quickly launch a server on EC2.

Use the "Filter by Nickname" feature to find the latest version of the "Mephisto all-in-one" ServerTemplate and click the launch icon.

This will launch an EC2 instance with the the most recent RightScale CentOS base image.  At boot time, it will install a full Rails stack plus the Mephisto blog software, which is written in Ruby on Rails. 

Provide a nickname for your new server.  (Ex: Blog in the Cloud)
Keep the default SSH key and Security Group.

• SSH key - The SSH key is passed into the new instance to allow root login access to your instance via SSH.
• Security Group - Defines which ports are opened in Amazon's firewall to allow incoming connections to your instance.

Click Launch.

Next, you will need to review the input parameters that will be used to configure the new server.  For this example you can keep the defaults.  Scroll to the bottom and click the Launch button.

A server is now being built on EC2.  You can track its progress in the Recent Events pane, which will update in real-time to highlight any recent changes in your deployment.

In a couple of minutes, the server will be fully operational.

Troubleshooting

If you receive an error message saying that your account has insufficient funding to perform this action, you need to verify your email address.  Go to your email account and check for an email confirmation from notifier@rightscale.com.   It may be in your bulk/spam folder.  Click on the email link and your account should be activated.  Refresh the screen and launch the server again.  If you are still experience problems, please contact support@rightscale.com.

Step 2: Preview the Server

Let's take a closer look at the new running server.  Click the nickname of the server.

The Info tab will provide general information about the new server including its unique AWS id, the instance type, the ServerTemplate that was used to create the server, etc.  You can also click the SSH Console button to ssh directly into your instance.

Now we're ready to preview the new Mephisto blog in a browser window.  Click the server's Public DNS name.

 You should now see your new Mephiso blog that's being hosted on a server in the cloud! 

Step 3: Terminate the Server

Don't forget to terminate your server when you are done.

Once terminated, refreshing your browser on the launched Mephisto blog should fail (e.g. Connection Interupted, Page Load Error) because the public DNS name is no longer valid.