We've been working on a new web-based management console.  This will not replace, but will rather supplement and rely upon, the console-gui and API. This is an in-development preview of the new interface.  It is a good time to make your voice heard, if there is something you'd like to see, or changes made.  Clearly, we'll be making many changes yet, and some features may be renamed, moved, or may not make it into the immediate release.  Screenshots below.

Technical details:  It will use our new RESTful API and is expected to be entirely self-contained within HTML, Javascript, and CSS.  This will allow for a high-level of customizability and as a reference application for those looking to utilize our API.

VPS/Cloud customers may now set user preferences via the cloud-shell application.  Currently, we're supporting two such preferences and will continue to expand this list to support a wide array of user-configurable options...

The current variables include:

 cpu_arch, which should be '32' or '64'. Default is 64.

 autoheal, which should be 1 or 0.  Default is 1.

The cpu_arch setting will be used to determine which architecture kernel should be loaded on boot.  Please note that the boot_method variable may override this setting.  WARNING: the legacy command 'boot32' has been removed in favor of this user-preference.

The autoheal setting will determine whether or not the configured instance pool will be automatically restored/rebooted upon failure.

To set or get these variables, use the commands 'setpref' and 'getpref' as such:

cloud-shell> setpref cpu_arch 32

cloud-shell> setpref autoheal 0

cloud-shell> getpref

$VAR1 = {
          'client:NNN:pref:cpu_arch' => '32',
          'client:NNN:pref:autoheal' => '0'
        };

It should be noted that reimaging your OS currently cannot modify these variables.  Thus, if you switch from a 32-bit or 64-bit OS, you must modify the cpu_arch variable manually. This is a forthcoming improvement we must make to the system.

UPDATE:  New 'boot_method' preference available!
Currently accepted boot methods are:

• pv - Paravirtualized (default)
• pv_part - Paravirtualized, Partitioned disk
• pvgrub - Paravirtualized, with GRUB
• rescue - Boot into rescue image

Boot methods internally implement CPU architecture support and may optionally ignore or reject a configured cpu_arch setting.

Today, we are formally introducing the GrokThis.net "VPS Cloud" with the official deployment of the Annelidous Cloud Infrastructure Interface (ACII).  The ACII is an application programming interface (API) by which developers may control virtual machines running on the GrokThis.net VPS Cloud.  The ACII is immediately available to all GrokVPS and VPS Village customers.

In the coming months, we will be extending and enhancing this API, and have plans to support industry standard APIs as they become available.  At this time, the ACII API allows developers to obtain a list of available virtual machines, manage and control virtual machines by issue shutdown, reboot, rescue, and boot commands.  Very shortly, this API will also allow the creation of new virtual machines.

At this time a utility billing model is not yet available, but the availability of utility billing is expected for Summer 2009.

At this time, an example client script in Perl has been posted:
Download Perl Example


The GrokThis.net VPS Cloud is powered by Annelidous, a free software cloud infrastructure management solution developed internally at GrokThis.net and released to the community under the AGPLv3 license.