Categories
Amazon Web Services Linux Rackspace

Is your Linux Timezone Reverting to UTC After Rebooting?

Being based in Perth (GMT +8), I have always thought it made sense to have our servers running in the Australia/Perth timezone (rather than UTC).

This makes sense for many reasons, mostly that when we set up a cron job, we can use local time (rather than UTC), which makes life very easy.

Recently our Rackspace Cloud servers and Amazon EC2 instances (both running CentOS) were rebooted after updating the glibc package, which caused each server’s timezone to revert back to UTC.

To set the timezone, I had always created a /etc/localtime symbolic link pointing to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Perth, however it turns out that there is one other thing that has to be done in order to make the timezone setting be persistent across updates and reboots.

Luckily, the solution was hidden away in the AWS user guide.

In addition to the symlink, it is also necessary to edit the /etc/sysconfig/clock file, and change it to your local timezone ( in my case ZONE="Australia/Perth" ).

After making both of these changes, be sure to reboot your server, and then use the date command to check that your server is still in your local timezone (rather than UTC).

Categories
Amazon Web Services Cloud News Rackspace

Amazon Web Services now in Australia (Sydney)

Big news this morning:

Amazon Web Services has just launched an AWS region in Sydney, Australia!

The new Asia Pacific (Sydney) region supports almost all of AWS’ services including EC2, RDS, S3 and many more.

After launching an Australian Edge Location in June 2012 for Route 53 and CloudFront, I (along with many other Australian developers) have been waiting for AWS to launch a fully-fledged Australian region.

Whilst there are already some Australian-specific Cloud Computing offerings, this is a big day for us now that the AWS juggernaut has launched here.

Rackspace (another large cloud computing provider) has previously committed to launching a Syndey-based datacentre in 2012, however we are yet to see that launch.

Overall, I think that more competition in the Australian cloud industry can only be a good thing for us. It’s likely to help drive down the high costs of Australia’s high bandwidth/data.

Onwards and upwards!

Categories
Amazon Web Services Cloud

AWS launches in Sydney, Australia

In June 2011, I suggested that:

…if Amazon is to have a presence in Australia, the first step would be adding an Australian-based CloudFront edge location. This would help them evaluate costs, and if things work out then Amazon could introduce their other services such as EC2 and S3.

As of today, Amazon Web Services have announced a CloudFront / Route 53 Edge Location in Sydney, Australia.

Fantastic news for Australian-based AWS users!

Now, the next question: How long will it be before AWS add an AWS Region for EC2 in Australia?

My guess is by the end of 2012.

Categories
Amazon Web Services Cloud Meetups

The Inaugural Amazon Web Services Melbourne Meetup

Last Wednesday was the first Amazon Web Services User Group Melbourne Meetup.

Simone Brunozzi (AWS Asia Pacific Technology Evangelist) kicked the night off with an informal presentation covering EC2 Security Groups, ElastiCache, SQS, and several other questions from the 35-person audience.

Categories
Amazon Web Services Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Australia?

Powered By Amazon Web Services LogoCloud solutions such as Amazon Web Services can be a cost-effective way for businesses to obtain a highly scalable online presence.

However, for performance (and privacy) reasons, many Australian business owners require their website and other data to be physically hosted in Australia.

As an Australian user of AWS, one of the recurring conversations I continue to have with other Australians is if (and when) will Amazon Web Services add an Australian region to their service offerings?

Categories
Amazon Web Services Cloud Meetups

Amazon Web Services Melbourne Meetup March 2011

Last night Simone Brunozzi, Technology Evangelist at Amazon Web Services Asia Pacific came to Melbourne for the Amazon Web Services Melbourne meetup.

Amazon Web Services LogoSimone and I organised the event – please read on for a summary.