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From the FreeBSD product page[1]: Please note that for technical reasons this AMI only runs on high-performance (cluster & high-I/O) instances. L

by pestaa 14y ago

From the FreeBSD product page[1]: Please note that for technical reasons this AMI only runs on high-performance (cluster & high-I/O) instances. Looking at Mr. Percival's other resources, other contributed AMIs don't run on arbitrary instances, either. Being a broke student, I wanted to put it on the smallest micro instance. What are these technical reasons that prevent me from doing so? In any case, thanks for the great work. [1]: https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B00AA25MLK/ref=sp_mpg_product_title/189-3526635-0298104?ie=UTF8&sr=0-2 https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B00AA25MLK/ref=sp_mpg_...

whalesalad 14y ago
In my past experience, the micro instances are slower than molasses when it comes to the ports system. All the initial install/verification sucks a lot of CPU and the micro's can't handle it.
- cperciva 14y ago
  When I set up new micro instances, I usually launch them as c1.medium to set things up, then stop and restart them as t1.micro -- EC2's ability to change instance types is very useful here!
  - whalesalad 14y ago
    I had no idea that this was possible. Great strategy that I will add to my bag of tricks.
zootm 14y ago
I believe it's because the "normal". EC2 instances are paravirtualised through Xen, whereas the types listed are hardware virtualisation. Not sure though.
- sdfjkl 14y ago
  Used to be that only the Windows instances were HVM (thus the defenestration hack using them to get FreeBSD onto AWS) and all the Unix ones used paravirtualization - has this changed?
  - zootm 14y ago
    I think cluster instances are always HVM, not sure about high IO.
    - cperciva 14y ago
      Cluster, high-I/O, and M3 all have HVM available. Basically, all the new instance types released since I started complaining to EC2 engineers about how HVM is so much easier to work with than PV... ;-)
    - sdfjkl 14y ago
      Ah, so we could've had FreeBSD by coughing up the cash for one of those - or was there any special porting needed for it?
      - cperciva 14y ago
        Porting was needed, but I've done it for you.
cperciva 14y ago
You can run FreeBSD on all instance types, but some of them (everything except cluster, high-I/O, and the new m3 instances) need to have FreeBSD pretending to be Windows -- meaning that you have to pay the higher rate for the Windows license. I don't think Amazon wants to "officially" support a route which involves people paying for a Windows license they're not using, but the route does exist.
sliverstorm 14y ago
What are you trying to run? Even EC2 micro instances are not all that cheap, if you just want a VPS to tinker with.
- pestaa 14y ago
  I have several low-traffic sites already on a cheap FreeBSD VPS with 128Mb RAM and looked for alternatives that are more mainstream. Paying for Windows-like licenses puts EC2 out of the question, though.
  - sliverstorm 14y ago
    What does "mainstream" buy you?
  - dchest 14y ago
    New Rackspace Cloud (pretty mainstream, right?) lists FreeBSD 9 as one of the supported OSes: http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public/servers/techdetails/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public/servers/techdetails/

by pestaa 14y ago

whalesalad 14y ago

In my past experience, the micro instances are slower than molasses when it comes to the ports system. All the initial install/verification sucks a lot of CPU and the micro's can't handle it.

cperciva 14y ago
When I set up new micro instances, I usually launch them as c1.medium to set things up, then stop and restart them as t1.micro -- EC2's ability to change instance types is very useful here!
- whalesalad 14y ago
  I had no idea that this was possible. Great strategy that I will add to my bag of tricks.

zootm 14y ago

I believe it's because the "normal". EC2 instances are paravirtualised through Xen, whereas the types listed are hardware virtualisation. Not sure though.

sdfjkl 14y ago
Used to be that only the Windows instances were HVM (thus the defenestration hack using them to get FreeBSD onto AWS) and all the Unix ones used paravirtualization - has this changed?
- zootm 14y ago
  I think cluster instances are always HVM, not sure about high IO.
  - cperciva 14y ago
    Cluster, high-I/O, and M3 all have HVM available. Basically, all the new instance types released since I started complaining to EC2 engineers about how HVM is so much easier to work with than PV... ;-)
  - sdfjkl 14y ago
    Ah, so we could've had FreeBSD by coughing up the cash for one of those - or was there any special porting needed for it?
    - cperciva 14y ago
      Porting was needed, but I've done it for you.

cperciva 14y ago

You can run FreeBSD on all instance types, but some of them (everything except cluster, high-I/O, and the new m3 instances) need to have FreeBSD pretending to be Windows -- meaning that you have to pay the higher rate for the Windows license. I don't think Amazon wants to "officially" support a route which involves people paying for a Windows license they're not using, but the route does exist.

sliverstorm 14y ago

What are you trying to run? Even EC2 micro instances are not all that cheap, if you just want a VPS to tinker with.

pestaa 14y ago
I have several low-traffic sites already on a cheap FreeBSD VPS with 128Mb RAM and looked for alternatives that are more mainstream. Paying for Windows-like licenses puts EC2 out of the question, though.
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  What does "mainstream" buy you?
- dchest 14y ago
  New Rackspace Cloud (pretty mainstream, right?) lists FreeBSD 9 as one of the supported OSes: http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public/servers/techdetails/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public/servers/techdetails/