A security problem has recently been found in the OpenSSL package. OpenSSL is used with Apache to provide SSL (HTTPS) security for websites.
The Ubuntu documentation for this problem can be found here.
We therefore recommend that all customers upgrade their OpenSSL packages to the latest versions as soon as possible.
The necessary commands are
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install openssl libssl0.9.8
We’ve been busy at work on new packages to provide the very latest versions of Ruby and Rubygems for Ubuntu.
We’ve been providing optimized Ruby 1.8 and Rubygems 1.3.7 packages for Ubuntu for years now but some technical issues prevented us from providing 1.9.3 packages alongside them. So we started out afresh from the very latest Debian 1.8.7 and 1.9.3 packages, and added:
So this gives you Ruby 1.8.7, Ruby 1.9.3 and Rubygems 1.8.21 on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid through to the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 Precise. You can install both Ruby 1.8.7 and 1.9.3 alongside each other and switch between them effortlessly. We’ve also updated our Passenger packages to work with both versions of Ruby (and our NGINX Passenger packages too).
All the above packages are available right now for testing in our experimental Launchpad package repository. You can add the repository to your servers like this:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:brightbox/ruby-ng sudo apt-get update
and you can install or upgrade ruby like this:
sudo apt-get install ruby rubygems ruby-switch
If you’re upgrading, some packages have been replaced so you will see apt removing some packages (such as rubygems1.8, irb1.8 and others) – don’t panic :)
To install Ruby 1.9.3:
sudo apt-get install ruby1.9.1
More about the packages and how to use them on our wiki.
We’re already using these packages in a few places and have found them stable but they need more testing. Whether you’re a customer or not, please do have a play with them and report back with any successes or failures (to support@brightbox.co.uk).
An ideal way to play with them would be on a Brightbox Cloud server ;)
We’ve just pushed new versions of our Phusion Passenger enabled NGINX packages for Ubuntu to the repositories and they’re available right now for installation.
Notably, NGINX version 1.1.17 fixes the recent information leakage bug (CVE-2012-1180), so this is an important upgrade.
As always, you can use our PPA, with versions from Lucid through to Oneiric, or our own repository with Lucid versions.
Documentation is available on our wiki.
A number of security problems have recently been found in the Apache webserver and associated packages. In some cases, these can permit Apache to be slowed or crashed, or reduce the security of SSL sites. In cases where unusual Apache configurations are used, hackers may be able to gain access remotely.
We therefore recommend that all customers upgrade at least their Apache and OpenSSL packages to the latest versions.
The necessary commands are
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install apache2.2-common openssl libssl0.9.8
If you're using PHP on any of your Brightboxes, there have been a number of security-related fixes for this released over the past few months, and there is evidence that these vulnerabilities are being exploited actively - so we'd recommend that this also be updated.
The necessary commands are
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install php5-commonWe’ve just released a new version of the Brightbox deployment gem. The gem has supported bundler for a long time, but now calls to rake tasks use bundler too (if the app is bundler enabled of course). This solves the problem some people were having where the right gems weren’t available during rake execution, or rake itself complained about a rake version mismatch.
We’ve built Ubuntu packages for the latest release of Phusion Passenger, 3.0.11. They’re available now on our apt repository and our Launchpad ppa. Instructions on how to get set up are on our wiki as usual.
Updated NGINX Passenger packages will follow shortly (they’ll be available via a separate ppa)
Brightbox Cloud is now out of beta and now publically available!
See the blog post for full details…
It’s been almost 4 years since we started Brightbox, and our little hand drawn box logo has worked hard and served us well over this time – brightly adorning the chest of many a well-dressed ruby developer!
However, we felt that as we launch Brightbox Cloud and continue to grow, it was time for a review of our brand identity.
We collaborated with the awesome guys at Fudge Studios and PJD to develop the new identity which conveys more clearly what we consider are the distinguishing characteristics of Brightbox as a company: “clarity”, “openness” and “transparency”. Also, we like the colours ;)
I’m happy to announce that the official launch of Brightbox Cloud will be on 3rd October 2011 (less than a week to go!), and the new website is now live.
Also, as you can see at the top of the page here, we’ve relabelled our established Ruby hosting service to “Brightbox Ruby”, to distinguish it from Brightbox Cloud.
Oh, and yes, there will be t-shirts.
A bug in the Apache webserver has recently been widely publicised. The bug is very simple to trigger remotely and causes almost-instant memory exhaustion (OOM) on the targeted server, which causes any sites hosted there to be unavailable until the server is restarted.
mitre.org has links to more information about this bug.
Ubuntu released new versions of the Apache packages last night, which contain a fix for this bug.
We recommend that customers who are using Apache on their Brightboxes, should upgrade as soon as reasonably convenient. The default Brightbox install uses Apache, so if you are unsure whether or not this affects you then you should upgrade Apache using the instructions below.
The upgrade requires a restart of Apache, which will momentarily interrupt service. In cases where your Brightboxes are behind a load-balancer, the impact of this is minimal.
We believe the upgrade to be low-risk; we have already upgraded a large number of our own servers today without incident, and the only changes relative to the previous package are this security fix.
The necessary commands are
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install apache2.2-commonIn preparation for the official launch (more on that to follow soon), we’re announcing the close of the private beta phase of Brightbox Cloud.
We’ve had around 750 beta testers taking part in the private beta programme and we’re grateful to all those who submitted bugs, provided feature requests, and gave both postive and negative feedback. We’re also grateful to those who built web crawlers, TOR exit nodes etc and generally gave things a good hammering :)
Private beta testers get free cloud resources to play with as well as a 50% discount for the first 3 months when we “go public”. We’ll be closing private beta registration on 25 August 2011 so this is the final call: sign up for the private beta before it’s too late!
Now, the bit we’ve all been waiting for… I’m excited to announce provisional pricing for our new cloud offering.
Brightbox Cloud is a metered service, with resources charged by the hour or by the gigabyte. These new prices do not affect our existing unmetered Rails hosting platform – Brightbox Cloud is a completely separate platform.
Cloud Servers are billed by the hour, depending on the “Server Type” which defines the RAM, disk size and CPU allocation of the server.
| Server Type | RAM (MB) | Disk (GB) | CPU cores | Price per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano | 512 | 20 | 2 | £0.025 |
| Mini | 1024 | 40 | 4 | £0.05 |
| Small | 2048 | 80 | 4 | £0.10 |
| Medium | 4096 | 160 | 8 | £0.20 |
| Large | 8192 | 320 | 8 | £0.40 |
Load Balancers are billed by the hour. Internet data in and out of Load Balancers is billed at the normal price. Each Load Balancer is highly available within a Region – designed to tolerate the loss of an entire Zone. Each Load Balancer supports multiple protocols and, at present, can handle 6000 concurrent connections (additional scaling options will be available soon to handle higher levels of traffic).
Price per load balancer instance (HA) = £0.04/hour
Cloud IPs are instantly re-mappable public IP addresses which can be mapped to any Cloud Server or Load Balancer within a Region. Each Cloud IP allocated to your account is billed by the hour. Cloud IPs can be allocated and released from your account at any time.
Price per Cloud IP allocated to account = £0.0035/hour (Free until 1 October)
Internet data is billed by the gigabyte. Usage data is collected every minute by our billing system. Local data transfer, i.e. data transferred within the same Zone, is free-of-charge. Regional data, i.e data transferred between separate Zones, is free-of-charge until 1 Dec 2011.
Internet data (inbound) = £0.08 per GB
Internet data (outbound) = £0.12 per GB
Regional data transfer = £0.01 tbc (Free until 1 Dec 2011)
If you’ve got any questions about the pricing or anything else about the new cloud platform, drop us an email.