Dotcloud is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that enables rapid deployment and scaling of applications, offering a range of services including web, worker, and data services in a configurable platform. It allows developers to focus on coding without needing to manage infrastructure, providing features like hot-patching and automatic failover. Pricing is flexible, with options for free sandbox applications and a pay-as-you-go model for live services based on resource usage.

1. dotCloud,
use Perl;

2. What is dotCloud?
● Platform as a Service
– Computing Platform
– Solution Stack
– Horizontally and vertically scalable
● Sane defaults in a configurable platform.
● Rapid deployment
– From create to live in a couple of minutes.
● Hot-patching
– Changes can be pushed with zero-downtime.
● Complexity and Reliability management.
– So you can sleep at night.

3. Why use a Cloud platform service?
● Developers don't have to pretend to be system administrators.
● Clients don't have to maintain an infrastructure or expand the IT
department.
● Start-ups don't have to waste limited funds on hardware and
fiber into their garage.
● Quickly and easily scale to meet popular demand.
● Reliability, Availability.

4. Services
Perl
Python
Ruby
NodeJS
Redis
MySQL
PostgreSQL
SSL
WebSocket
Java
PHP
MongoDB
Static
RabbitMQ
ApacheSolr
SMTP
Opa
Custom

5. dotCloud services
● Service types include
– Web services (Served by nginx)
● Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, Java, Opa, NodeJS (sans
nginx), and static.
– Worker services
– Data services
● MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, redis.
– Other services
● Apache Solr, RabbitMQ, SSL, SMTP, WebSocket

6. Custom Stacks
● Web/Database ● Select stack
– Perl components to
match the
– PostgreSQL
application's needs.
– SSL
● As many or as few as
– Redis
necessary.

7. A dotCloud stack...
● Mix and match services as you see fit.
– We're here to talk about Perl.
● Hosted on EC2.
– Scaled apps get multiple availability zones.
● Stack components fit together like building
blocks.
● Add or remove components as the application
evolves.

8. A typical Perl stack...
● A Perl web service.
– Plack sits on nginx. Your framework sits
on Plack.
● Catalyst, Dancer, Mojolicious, bare Plack...
anything that can ride on Plack.
● A database?
– MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis.
– Multiple if necessary.
● A “Perl Worker”?
– Daemons, and long-running processes.
– Custom webservers.
● Websocket support.
● Maybe an SSL service with custom
domain.
● It's up to you, and you can change at
any time.

9. Perl services...
● Web or worker.
● Perl web services spawn four processes.
– If a process dies it is re-spawned.
– If an EC2 instance goes wonky dotCloud reboots it
and restores from backup.
– “Scaled applications were not affected...”
● Perl worker service is for long-running
services that don't need nginx/Plack.

10. What is Scaling?
● Horizontal
– Concurrency – Handle more requests.
– Redundancy – High availability.
– Master/Slave – Database Replication.
● Vertical
– Memory – Breathing room.
– Storage – Persistent data.
– Processing – More CPU.

11. Horizontal Scaling with dotCloud
● Horizontal:
– Multiple Perl services under the same application
● Multiple EC2 availability zones: Automatic.
● Load balancing: Automatic.
● Failover: Automatic.
● Dedicated cluster.
– Multiple Database Services
● Multiple EC2 availability zones.
● Replication: Automatic.
● Failover and re-syncing: Automatic.

12. Vertical Scaling with dotCloud
● Vertical scaling reserves more memory and storage.
– Scale memory in 32MB increments.
– Storage is allocated as 10x the RAM allotment.
● Examples:
– A Perl service that needs 256MB to breathe in, and 2GB
storage: Scale to 256MB.
– A database that needs 4GB storage: Scale to 416MB RAM.
● CPU scaling isn't featured at this time.

13. What does it cost? – Sandbox
● Sandbox Applications – FREE.
– dotCloud clearly wants to be friendly to developers.
● Non-scaled applications without custom domains are free.
● RAM, availability, and bandwidth are on a “best effort” basis.
● Piggyback SSL is free.
● Develop for free.
● Test for free.
● Deploy and use for free.
● No time limitations.
● No limited introductory periods.
● Even multi-service stacks are free.
● PLAY, enjoy!

14. What does it cost? – Live
● When you need....
– Horizontal or vertical scaling.
– Reliability and performance guarantees.
– Custom domains.
– CA-certificate SSL.
● $4.32/month per service-instance per 32MB
RAM.

15. Pricing – Example
● A Perl web service that needs 64MB RAM: $8.64/month.
– Four processes are spawned. An app consuming 16MB deploys in
64MB RAM after four workers spawn.
● Horizontally scale that same service to two service-instances
for reliability and load balancing:
– $17.28.
● Add a horizontally scaled (master/slave) database with 640MB
storage allocation:
– Total cost: $34.56/month.
● More breathing room:
– Scale Perl to 128MB and database to 1GB storage: $69.12/month.

16. Scale as needed
● Hit by a swarm?
– Up-scale to as many as five Perl service-instances (20 total
processes).
– Higher scaling levels are available by explicit arrangement.
● Nobody clicks at night/weekends?
– Down-scale during low-volume times.
● Usage is measured hourly.
● Scaling adjustments are “one liners” with the CLI.
● Nearly instant spin-up.

17. Getting started
● Create an account
● Download and configure the CLI
$ sudo easy_install pip && sudo pip
install dotcloud
● Ubuntu required sudo apt-get install python-
setuptools first... bleah!
● Windows and MacOS versions also exist.
$ dotcloud
● Enter the API key from
http://www.dotcloud.com/account/settings

18. Create an application
● Set up a local application directory.
$ mkdir myapp
$ cd myapp
● We'll use a Mojolicious “Lite-App”.
$ mojo generate lite_app myapp
● Plan, program,test, etc...
● Initialize the dotCloud repo.
$ dotcloud create myapp

19. Prepare the configuration files
● Makefile.PL
PREREQ_PM => {
Test::More => '0',
YAML => '0',
Mojolicious => '3.0',
Plack => '0.9974',
};

20. Configuration files
● app.psgi
$ENV{MOJO_MODE} = 'production'
require 'myapp.pl';
● dotcloud.yml
www:
type: perl

21. Deploy!
$ dotcloud push myapp myapp/
– dotcloud command name path
Deployment finished successfully. Your
application is available at the
following URLs
www: http://myapp-
daoswald.dotcloud.com/

22. What just happened?
● Relevant files were uploaded.
– “rsync” “mercurial”, or “git push”.
– You do have some control over this process if necessary:
● dotcloud push –all
● .gitignore
● .dotcloudignore
● cpanm pulls in all dependencies.
● Application is built per Makefile.PL.
● A supervisor starts Plack and spawns the workers.
● Zero-downtime upgrades.

23. dotcloud.yml
● List all the services.
– Give each a unique name.
● List dependencies that don't fit Makefile.PL.
– cpanm used internally.
● Even pull tarballs by URL and build them out.
● List an application root directory (per service)
– Useful for apps that reside in a more scalable
directory structure.
● Set environment variables.
● Define prebuild and postbuild actions.

24. A simple directory structure
project_root/
dotcloud.yml
app_root/
app.psgi
Makefile.PL
myapp.pl
static/
...

25. A more scalable directory structure
project_root/
dotcloud.yml
dotcloud.yml
database_init.sql www:
myapp/ type: perl
app.psgi approot: myapp
Makefile.PL db:
myapp.conf
type: mysql
lib/
Model/
MyApp.pm
Controller/ app.psgi
log/
public/ $ENV{MOJO_MODE} = 'production';
script/ require 'script/myapp.pl';
myapp.pl
t/
templates/

26. The database connection
● dotcloud.yml:
www:
type: Perl
approot: myapp
db:
type: mysql
● environment.json
– Readable by the application.
– Contains database host, port, login, password info, custom variables, etc.
● Inside my app, I merge its contents into my configuration data-structure.
$ dotcloud info myapp.db
– View service parameters.
$ dotcloud run myapp.db – mysql
– Get a mysql> prompt.

27. environment.json
{
"DOTCLOUD_WWW_HTTP_URL": "http://myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com/",
"DOTCLOUD_WWW_SSH_PORT": "XXXXX",
"DOTCLOUD_WWW_SSH_URL": "ssh://dotcloud@myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com:XXXXX",
"DOTCLOUD_DB_MYSQL_LOGIN": "XXXXXX",
"DOTCLOUD_WWW_SSH_HOST": "myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com",
"DOTCLOUD_PROJECT": "myapp",
"DOTCLOUD_SERVICE_NAME": "www",
"DOTCLOUD_WWW_HTTP_VHOSTS_LIST": "myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com",
"PORT_SSH": XXXXX,
"DOTCLOUD_DB_SSH_PORT": "XXXXX",
"DOTCLOUD_WWW_HTTP_HOST": "myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com",
"DOTCLOUD_DB_SSH_URL": "ssh://mysql@myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com:XXXXX",
"DOTCLOUD_ENVIRONMENT": "default",
"DOTCLOUD_DB_SSH_HOST": "myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com",
"DOTCLOUD_DB_MYSQL_HOST": "myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com",
"DOTCLOUD_DB_MYSQL_PASSWORD": "some_passphrase",
"DOTCLOUD_DB_MYSQL_PORT": "XXXXX",
"DOTCLOUD_DB_MYSQL_URL": "mysql://USER:PASS_XXXXX@myapp-daoswald.dotcloud.com:XXXXX",
"DOTCLOUD_SERVICE_ID": "0",
"PORT_HTTP": 80
}

28. environment.json simplified
● DotCloud::Environment
– Easy handling of environment in dotcloud.
● (In case a simple JSON file isn't simple enough.)

29. Other dotcloud.yml options
www:
type: perl
approot: helloperl
requirements:
http://example.com/something/not/on/cpan/yet.tar.gz
config:
perl_version: v5.16.x
uwsgi_memory_report: true
uwsgi_buffer_size: 8192
uwsgi_processes: 4
prebuild: ./prebuild.pl
postbuild: ./postbuild.pl
worker:
type: perl-worker
…

30. Odds and ends
● Static content will be served out of static/
● nginx.conf: override the default nginx configuration.
● Crontabs may be set in the Perl service, in a separate worker service,
even in a database service.
– Beware of horizontal scaling and crontabs.
● Off-site backups scheduled via crontabs.
● dotCloud is the first PaaS with WebSocket support.
– Mojolicious is also WebSocket friendly.

31. The CLI tool
$ dotcloud create myapp
$ dotcloud create myapp -f live
$ dotcloud info myapp.www
$ dotcloud push myapp
$ dotcloud stats myapp.www
$ dotcloud scale myapp db:instances=2
$ dotcloud scale myapp www:instances=4
$ dotcloud scale myapp www:memory=512M
$ dotcloud destroy myapp
$ dotcloud logs myapp.www
$ dotcloud run myapp.db -- single-command
$ dotcloud ssh myapp.worker

32. A sample use-case
● Client requires high availability web, and database redundancy:
– Perl web service scaled to two 256MB instances.
● Load balancing, automatic failover, separate availability zones.
● 4 processes of 64MB each per service instance.
– Enough for Mojolicious, DBIx::Class, Moose, and some breathing room.
– Database scaled to two instances of 512MB (5GB storage).
● Replication/syncing, automatic failover, separate availability zones.
– A single 64MB Perl worker for cron jobs (backups, etc.)
● Cost: $216/month.
● A custom domain with SSL certificate, add $21.60/month: total, $237.60.
– DotCloud configures a dedicated load balancer instance (since SSL requires at
least one IP address per domain, or more accurately, per certificate).
● Client and developer each get to sleep at night: Priceless.
– Sorry IT department – nothing to see here. ;)

33. Communications
● @dotcloudstatus
– Exceptional events and are tweeted out.
– Get used to “Scaled applications were unaffected...”
● http://status.dotcloud.com
– The same as the tweets.
● http://platform-status.dotcloud.com
– A quick overview of cluster status.
● $ dotcloud status myapp.www
● irc://irc.freenode.net#dotcloud
● support@dotcloud.com
– Real (useful) replies within a few hours – No dialog script.
● http://support.dotcloud.com
● http://help.dotcloud.com

34. Conclusions
● Much more than bare EC2.
● Supportive of the developer community.
● Can-do attitude.
● Innovative.
● Reliable.
● It's easy.
● Deploying an application takes minutes.
● Hot-patches take seconds, with no downtime.

35. A Working Example
● The Perl Regex Tester
– http://retester-daoswald.dotcloud.com
– Uses a single dotCloud Perl service and less than 96MB RAM.
● Deployed as a “Sandbox” app.
● Configured for two uwsgi processes (low volume, so conserve memory)
● If deployed “Live”, it would cost abpit $13/month.
– A Mojolicious::Lite application.
– Includes the application script, a model module, Twitter Bootstrap
CSS/JS.
– Pulls in many CPAN dependencies (mostly to handle the paranoia of
executing user-supplied regexes).
– Source on Github: https://github.com/daoswald/retester.git

36. David Oswald
daoswald@gmail.com
davido@cpan.org
http://www.slideshare.net/daoswald/deploying-perl-apps-on-dotcloud

37. Experiment! Play!
$ dotcloud push my_cool_idea
Next month let's look at what you deployed to
dotCloud.