{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-author-jsx","path":"/blog/author/yilun_zhang_nkn/","result":{"data":{"prismic":{"allFeaturedblogs":{"edges":[{"node":{"featured_blogs_enabled":true,"heading":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"Featured posts","spans":[]}],"featured_blog_1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":395},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/6d8d81b1-971a-4313-b033-b4e125cb14a0_MondoDB-blog-header-790x395.PNG?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"Introducing DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB – a fully managed, database as a service for modern apps","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-06-29","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"MongoDB is one of the most popular databases, and it’s ideal for apps that evolve rapidly and need to handle huge volumes of data and traffic. It offers advantages like flexible document schemas, code-native data access, change-friendly design, and easy horizontal scale-out.","spans":[{"start":22,"end":44,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://db-engines.com/en/ranking","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"However, building and maintaining MongoDB clusters from the ground up can be a huge undertaking. Developers often complain that they have to spend their valuable time and resources on database management. Well, we’ve been listening and have some great news: accessing and managing MongoDB on DigitalOcean just got a lot simpler!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We are excited to announce that DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB is now in General Availability. Managed MongoDB is a fully managed, database as a service (DBaaS) offering from DigitalOcean, built in partnership with and certified by MongoDB Inc. It provides you all the technical capabilities that make MongoDB so beloved in the developer community. Together we have ensured that you will get access to all the latest releases of the MongoDB document database as they become available.","spans":[{"start":32,"end":91,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/managed-databases-mongodb/"}},{"start":230,"end":241,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.mongodb.com/","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB simplifies the MongoDB administration. Developers of all skill levels, even those who do not have prior experience in databases, can spin up MongoDB clusters in just a few minutes. We handle the provisioning, managing, scaling, updates, backups, and security of your MongoDB clusters, allowing you to offload the complex, time consuming –yet critical – database administration tasks to us. This empowers you to focus on what really matters: building awesome apps.","spans":[]},{"type":"embed","oembed":{"height":113,"width":200,"embed_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvHQSV7jnKA","type":"video","version":"1.0","title":"Create a MongoDB Database on DigitalOcean","author_name":"DigitalOcean","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/c/Digitalocean","provider_name":"YouTube","provider_url":"https://www.youtube.com/","cache_age":null,"thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NvHQSV7jnKA/hqdefault.jpg","thumbnail_width":480,"thumbnail_height":360,"html":"<iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/NvHQSV7jnKA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>"}},{"type":"heading2","text":"Benefits of Managed MongoDB","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Easy set up and maintenance: We create the database clusters for you. Simply choose the cluster configuration (e.g., memory, disk size, number of nodes, etc.), and the data center in which you want to host the database. Follow a few simple steps and your database cluster will be up and running in a matter of minutes. You can spin up clusters using the cloud control panel, CLI, or API.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":28,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Automatic daily backups with point in time recovery: Data is one of the most important assets of an app, so it’s critical to backup your database. We take backups of your entire clusters automatically on a daily basis, for free. We also provide a point in time recovery for 7 days, that way if things go wrong due to human error, machine error, or some combination of both, you can easily restore the database as it was at any point in the previous 7 days. \n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":52,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Automatic updates and access to latest MongoDB releases: You get access to MongoDB 4.4. This is the latest release of MongoDB and comes packed with numerous enhancements like hedged reads, rust, and swift drivers. Since we have developed Managed MongoDB in partnership with MongoDB Inc, you will always get access to new releases as they become available. With Managed MongoDB, the updates happen automatically. Just select a date and time for the updates and we take care of the rest. This makes it easy to stay up to date with MongoDB releases without disrupting your business.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":56,"type":"strong"},{"start":148,"end":169,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.mongodb.com/new","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"High availability with automated failover: If your database goes down, it can take down the entire app, leading to bad customer experiences. With Managed MongoDB, you can easily minimize the downtime for your database and make it highly available with standby nodes. Standby nodes add redundancy, so if for example the primary node fails, the standby node is immediately promoted to primary and begins serving requests while we provision a replacement standby node in the background.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":42,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Scale up easily to handle traffic spikes: As your app gains traction and the usage grows, it’s important to have a database that can keep up with the increased demand. With Managed MongoDB, you can easily scale up the size of database nodes when needed.\n\n","spans":[{"start":0,"end":41,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Secure by default: Since data is critical, it also needs to be secure. We encrypt data at rest with LUKS and in transit with SSL. When you create a new cluster, it’s placed in a VPC network by default that provides a more secure connection between resources. You can also restrict access to your nodes to prevent brute-force password and denial-of-service attacks.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":18,"type":"strong"},{"start":178,"end":189,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/networking/vpc/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The need for Managed Databases","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"DigitalOcean’s mission is to simplify cloud computing so developers, startups, and SMBs can spend more time building software that changes the world. While databases are a critical component to any application, building, maintaining, and scaling them can be complex and time consuming. For developers that are building apps for their business, database administration is often not a core focus area. But it’s quite common to find developers that write the code and then also roll up their sleeves to maintain databases. Such users would rather offload the tedious database administration and focus their limited time and energy on building and enhancing their apps. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With this in mind, we introduced Managed Databases a couple of years ago and are excited to add Managed MongoDB to our portfolio. With this release, DigitalOcean Managed Databases now supports the following engines:","spans":[{"start":33,"end":50,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/managed-databases/"}}]},{"type":"image","url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/87745cc1-1c5f-4463-b104-104b7fc30dc7_managed-databases-logos.png?auto=compress,format","alt":null,"copyright":null,"dimensions":{"width":849,"height":104}},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB launch comes on the heels of DigitalOcean App Platform, a modern, reimagined PaaS (Platform as a Service) that we released a few months ago. App Platform makes it very easy to build, deploy, and scale apps and static sites. You can deploy code by simply pointing to your GitHub and GitLab repos, and App Platform will do all the heavy lifting of managing infrastructure, app runtimes, and dependencies. App Platform, along with Managed Databases, helps fulfill DigitalOcean’s mission by empowering developers, startups, and SMBs to focus more on their apps, and less on the underlying infrastructure and databases.","spans":[{"start":45,"end":70,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"How Managed MongoDB works","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"DigitalOcean provides you with various compute options to build your apps like:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Droplets: On-demand, Linux virtual machines suitable for production business applications and personal passion projects.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":8,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"DigitalOcean Kubernetes: Managed Kubernetes with automatic scaling, upgrades, and a free control plane.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":23,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"DigitalOcean App Platform: A fully managed Platform as a Service.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":25,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/app-platform/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"No matter which compute option you choose to build your apps, you can easily add Managed MongoDB to it. In addition to this, Managed MongoDB also integrates with the Node.js 1-Click App from DigitalOcean Marketplace making it a lot easier to build Node.js apps.","spans":[{"start":166,"end":215,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/nodejs"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Simple, predictable pricing","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Just like all DigitalOcean products, Managed MongoDB provides simple, predictable pricing that allows you to control costs and prevent any surprise bills. You can spin up a database cluster for just $15/month, or a highly available three-node replica set for $45/month. Click here for more information.","spans":[{"start":270,"end":301,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/#managed-databases"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Regional availability","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Managed MongoDB is currently available in the following regions:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"NYC3 (New York, USA)","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"FRA1 (Frankfurt, Germany)","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"AMS3 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We will be making Managed Mongo available in other regions soon. Please check out the release notes for most up to date information on regional availability.","spans":[{"start":86,"end":99,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/release-notes/"}}]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Join us at deploy, DigitalOcean’s virtual user conference","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Today we have deploy, DigitalOcean’s signature user conference, which focuses on celebrating, educating, and connecting awesome builders from all over the world.","spans":[{"start":14,"end":20,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://deploy.digitalocean.com/home"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Check out the keynote session from DigitalOcean's CEO, Yancey Spruill, in which he talks about where we're headed as a company and shares some exciting product updates. His keynote will be followed by sessions from community members, engineers, customers, and other experts that are building technologies and businesses powered by the cloud. With live Q&A and an active Discord server, there’s ample opportunity to engage and learn something new. Click here to attend the deploy conference.","spans":[{"start":14,"end":69,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://deploy.digitalocean.com/agenda/session/552806"}},{"start":347,"end":384,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://do.co/deploy-discord"}},{"start":461,"end":489,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"http://do.co/deploy"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We are also launching a hackathon for DigitalOcean Managed MongoDB. Learn how you can participate, submit an app and get a t-shirt.","spans":[{"start":24,"end":66,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/mongodb-hackathon"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We hope you will give Managed MongoDB a try. Here are some sample datasets and sample apps that you can use to kick the tires. Check out the docs and let us know what you think!","spans":[{"start":22,"end":43,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cloud.digitalocean.com/databases/new?engine=mongodb"}},{"start":59,"end":90,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://github.com/do-community/mongodb-resources","target":"_blank"}},{"start":141,"end":145,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/mongodb/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"If you’d like to have a conversation about using DigitalOcean and Managed MongoDB in your business, please feel free to contact our sales team.","spans":[{"start":120,"end":142,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/company/contact/sales/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Happy coding!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"André Bearfield","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Director of Product Management","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Product Updates","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"product-updates"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"André Bearfield","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":553,"height":547},"alt":"André Bearfield","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/fdc7c85186f0a850b04083e1d4306bd1c19772e8_andre-bearfield.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"andre-bearfield"}},"_meta":{"uid":"introducing-digitalocean-managed-mongodb"}},"featured_blog_2":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":400},"alt":"Droplet Console","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/710499ae-78cc-4179-afc1-15793637b200_DODX3727-790x400-logo-2.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"Securely connect to Droplets with SSH key pairs using a new Droplet Console","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-08-10","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"The famous author Ken Blanchard once said, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.\" This is something we truly believe at DigitalOcean, and we always strive to enhance our products based on customer feedback.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With this goal in mind, we are excited to introduce a new Droplet Console that will make it much easier to connect to your Droplets securely. The new Droplet Console provides one-click SSH access to your Droplets through a native-like SSH/Terminal experience. It also eliminates the need for a password or manual configuration of SSH keys. Starting today, we’re pleased to announce that the new Droplet Console is now available to all Droplet users.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Why you should be using Secure Shell (SSH) ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Password-based security is notoriously insecure due to password fatigue and the overuse of passwords such as ‘123456’. Secure Shell or SSH is a network communication protocol that solves this by using passwordless solutions for encryption, enabling two computers to communicate and securely share data. At a high level, SSH works by creating cryptographic key pairs consisting of a public and private key, which are computer generated and stored separately to ensure their security. ","spans":[{"start":80,"end":117,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cybernews.com/best-password-managers/most-common-passwords/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"SSH has become the default encryption protocol for many industries, but it was difficult to use SSH keys with DigitalOcean’s current Recovery (VNC) console, which is why we developed our new Droplet Console. The new Droplet Console is backed by an agent that security supervises the key pair, while also providing one-click SSH access to our users. You can see the full list of features below.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The new Droplet Console: More time saving, less time wasting ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The new Droplet Console is for everyone who is looking to build fast, secure apps and avoid hassles with SSH access & usability issues.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"In addition to easier SSH access, the new Droplet Console comes with:","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Copy/paste text: Instead of typing lengthy key pairs and text manually, you can use copy/paste to save time. ","spans":[{"start":0,"end":17,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Multi-color support: Multi-color support makes the console more useful and intuitive, and breaks the conventional standard appearance which is black text on a white background. ","spans":[{"start":0,"end":41,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Multi-language support: DigitalOcean’s new Droplet Console supports multiple languages, meaning you can now type and view any content in any language that is supported by UTF-8","spans":[{"start":0,"end":24,"type":"strong"}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"OS/images supported: Linux distributions (Ubuntu(16.04 - 20.04), Fedora (32 & 33), Debian (9), CentOS (7.6 & 8.3), CentOS 8 Stream, Rocky Linux and Marketplace images.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":20,"type":"strong"},{"start":148,"end":159,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The new Droplet Console is available by default on any new Droplets you spin up. You can also enable it manually on older Droplets. Click here to learn more!","spans":[{"start":132,"end":157,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/connect-with-console/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Check out this short walkthrough video that shows the new Droplet Console in action: ","spans":[]},{"type":"embed","oembed":{"type":"video","embed_url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt7QihVuxiE","title":"Access Your Droplet Terminal Through the Web Console","provider_name":"YouTube","thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qt7QihVuxiE/hqdefault.jpg","provider_url":"https://www.youtube.com/","author_name":"DigitalOcean","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/c/Digitalocean","height":113,"width":200,"version":"1.0","thumbnail_height":360,"thumbnail_width":480,"html":"<iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qt7QihVuxiE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>"}},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We hope you’re excited about the new Droplet Console. You’re welcome to spin some Droplets up right now, and try out the new Droplet Console – why wait?","spans":[{"start":72,"end":103,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cloud.digitalocean.com/droplets/new"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Happy coding!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Harsh Banwait, Senior Product Manager","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Product Updates","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"product-updates"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"Harsh Banwait","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":600,"height":399},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/e83ff690-b20c-4d88-a2b6-57e562558cd6_download.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"harsh-banwait"}},"_meta":{"uid":"new-droplet-console-ssh-support"}},"featured_blog_3":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Blog","_linkType":"Link.document","blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":790,"height":400},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/588e28d3-d41e-480b-937b-8c3b19201f6e_DODX3568-790x400-Blog.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"How to scale your SaaS product without breaking the bank","spans":[]}],"blog_post_date":"2021-06-22","blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"These days, if you are in the business of software, chances are you are delivering or plan to deliver your services using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. A combination of internet-based delivery, subscription-based pricing, and low-friction product experiences have made SaaS solutions valuable tools for their users, and an excellent vehicle for software builders looking to distribute their products.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"These factors have made SaaS solutions ubiquitous; SaaS is the largest segment in the public cloud market, and is used to provide functionality ranging from personal finance apps for consumers, to productivity software for businesses, and even tools and services for software developers themselves to compose their applications and simplify their workflows. It is also not uncommon to find micro-SaaS applications being built for specific industries such as retail, job functions such as accounting or marketing, or tasks such as event management. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The best thing about this SaaS wave has been that it has allowed a new generation of software builders to build and monetize applications and participate in the digital economy. Previously, you had to be a big company with lots of resources, name recognition and distribution networks to successfully sell software products. Now, irrespective of whether you are a single person working on a passion project, a small team of developers in a startup, or a small and medium-sized business (SMB), the SaaS model enables you to express your ideas in the form of software and deliver them to customers anywhere in the world.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"The unique challenges of building SaaS solutions","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Despite the opportunities that come with the widespread adoption of SaaS products, software builders still have to answer key questions in their journey to building successful SaaS products. Understanding what customers to target, features to prioritize, how to price your product, and how to acquire customers are all critical questions to figure out while you are also doing the important job of actually building and operating the product. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Writing the code, testing, deployment, monitoring the usage in production, and ensuring that your apps are able to handle the additional demand when customer base and usage grows are all essential and time-consuming tasks.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Additionally, being able to test multiple ideas, pivot, and double down on the ideas that actually work is critical in early stages of SaaS development. Once growth comes, it is equally important to scale up without compromising on performance or reliability. Needless to say, all of this needs to be economically viable as well, since not everyone has the resources of large SaaS providers like Salesforce or Adobe.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"Cloud Computing enables builders but also poses challenges","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Fortunately, for the act of building and operating your apps, cloud computing can help take some load off your shoulders. Unless you have the scale and resources of Facebook, chances are you are not going to set up your own data centers to host the computing infrastructure that powers your SaaS company. Public cloud infrastructure providers can bring great value to SaaS builders by providing on-demand computing services with usage-based pricing. However, just like how the legacy software companies weren't built for the SaaS model, the early (and big) cloud computing services were not optimized for the unique needs of small SaaS building teams. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Smaller SaaS teams face challenges with large cloud computing providers, including:","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Too many technology options","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"There are just too many options for tech stacks on which to build your SaaS - programming languages, application development frameworks, libraries, runtime environments, architectural patterns, and deployment models - and the list is growing by the day.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Complexity of cloud computing services","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Even when you have decided on a technology stack, there is a lot of cloud vendor-specific terminology you need to learn and heavy lifting you need to do to build on the cloud, not all of which contributes to making your SaaS applications successful.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading4","text":"Unpredictable costs","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The experimentation necessary in early stages of SaaS development, as well as the scaling of applications required during the growth phase, call for affordable and predictable pricing from your cloud provider. The last thing SaaS teams want is surprising and indecipherable bills from your cloud provider. Unfortunately, smaller businesses often experience unpredictable costs with cloud providers who are busy serving only the large enterprises.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading2","text":"DigitalOcean provides a simple, cost effective solution for SaaS builders","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Fortunately, at DigitalOcean we have a laser focus on small software development teams, who are trying to build the next generation of applications. Today, DigitalOcean customers are already building SaaS applications which serve all kinds of customers.","spans":[{"start":191,"end":217,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/solutions/saas/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We believe SaaS builders should focus on building apps that power their business, and not spend their valuable time on managing infrastructure. That is exactly what we have been able to enable through our intuitive products that are built for scale and reliability.","spans":[{"start":205,"end":223,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/products/"}}]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Vidazoo is an advertising technology company specializing in video streaming and serving. It serves video ads to thousands of websites and handles close to 10 billion requests per day. \n\n“We are as much a data company as an adtech company. Our business relies on speedy and accurate data processing at massive scale. DigitalOcean provides us the perfect set of tools to operate our SaaS business profitably, while not making us feel the need to become full time system administrators. We plan to move a lot of our apps to DigitalOcean App Platform and other fully managed products.” - Roman Svichar, CTO of Vidazoo","spans":[{"start":0,"end":7,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://vidazoo.com/"}},{"start":187,"end":583,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We believe in meeting customers where they are. If they already have an understanding of cloud infrastructure technologies, they should be able to leverage that knowledge and get started with our products without any further ramp up.","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Whatfix is an enterprise SaaS provider that offers a digital adoption platform to businesses. The company helps enterprises gain the full value of their investments in enterprise applications by providing real-time, interactive, and contextual guidance to users of those applications. \n\n“What we really love about the DigitalOcean platform is the ease of use. We feel like we know infrastructure and can handle most of the configuration and management. What we needed from a cloud was not bells and whistles but efficiency and reliability. DigitalOcean provides us a platform to build our apps and then gets out of the way. Just how we like it.” - Achyuth Krishna, Director of Engineering of Whatfix","spans":[{"start":0,"end":7,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://whatfix.com/blog/driving-the-future-now-were-excited-to-announce-our-90-million-series-d-funding/"}},{"start":287,"end":648,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We understand that scaling while maintaining reliability of applications and profitability of business is important, so we provide robust solutions which minimize downtime.","spans":[]},{"type":"list-item","text":"Centra is a SaaS-based e-commerce platform for global direct-to-consumer and wholesale e-commerce brands. Centra provides a powerful e-commerce backend that lets brands build pixel-perfect, custom designed, online flagship stores. \n\n“How do we enable our customers to create differentiated online experiences? How do we ensure their e-commerce apps stay up and running at all times? How do we scale on-demand when traffic grows or new customers come in? These are the questions that we ask ourselves every day. Thankfully, we have a partner in DigitalOcean that provides just the platform to answer those questions enabling us to guarantee 99.9% uptime for our clients.” - Martin Jensen, CEO of Centra","spans":[{"start":0,"end":6,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://centra.com/"}},{"start":233,"end":673,"type":"em"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"These are just a few examples of SaaS businesses finding success on DigitalOcean. We are constantly amazed by the creativity and innovation that software builders are utilizing our platform for. If you are interested in learning more about product updates, technical deep-dives and best practices for building SaaS products and businesses, please contact us to learn how we can help you get started. ","spans":[{"start":340,"end":357,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/migrate/?utmmedium=blog","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Come build with DigitalOcean!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Looking to migrate your SaaS to DigitalOcean? Leverage free infrastructure credits, robust training, and technical support to ensure a worry-free migration.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":156,"type":"strong"},{"start":0,"end":156,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.digitalocean.com/migrate/?utmmedium=blog","target":"_blank"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Raman Sharma","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Vice President, Product & Programs Marketing","spans":[]}],"tags":[{"tag1":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Tag","tag":"Developer Relations","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"developer-relations"}}}],"author":{"__typename":"PRISMIC_Author","author_name":"Raman Sharma","author_image":{"dimensions":{"width":512,"height":512},"alt":null,"copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/497b4b14-d192-493a-8b66-7ae176ba99f3_raman.png?auto=compress,format"},"_meta":{"uid":"raman-sharma"}},"_meta":{"uid":"how-to-scale-your-saas-product-without-breaking-the-bank"}}}}]}}},"pageContext":{"limit":12,"skip":0,"numAuthorPages":1,"currentPage":1,"uid":"yilun_zhang_nkn","data":[{"node":{"author":{"_linkType":"Link.document","author_name":"Yilun Zhang, NKN","author_image":null,"_meta":{"uid":"yilun_zhang_nkn"}},"blog_header_image":{"dimensions":{"width":800,"height":600},"alt":"api token","copyright":null,"url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/1e6268d6-b745-4db1-be2b-ebe796066d37_freebsd_install_dribbble.png?auto=compress,format"},"blog_headline":[{"type":"heading1","text":"Using Packer to Create a 1-Click NKN Image on DigitalOcean","spans":[]}],"blog_post_content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"NKN is the new kind of P2P network connectivity protocol and ecosystem powered by a novel public blockchain. Our open source node software allows internet users to share network connections and unused bandwidth for rewards. By running an NKN node, you become part of the NKN network community helping to build the decentralized internet so everyone can enjoy secure, low cost, and universally accessible connectivity.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":3,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.nkn.org/#/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Recently NKN’s Testnet has grown to over 6,000 community full nodes and many of these nodes are running on DigitalOcean. In fact, one of the most frequently asked questions from our community is how to set up a NKN full node on DigitalOcean? We have a few tutorials on how to do that; however, having to properly and safely set up the Droplet environment creates significant friction for those who have just heard of the project and want to try it for themselves, preferably in just a few minutes.","spans":[{"start":15,"end":22,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://testnet.nkn.org/"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Luckily for all, DigitalOcean now provides a Marketplace where we can release a 1-Click App for NKN, a very convenient and user-friendly way to deploy preconfigured droplets in 60 seconds. You can quickly start a NKN 1-Click App from the \"Marketplace\" in your DigitalOcean cloud control panel, or by visiting DigitalOcean Marketplace directly.","spans":[{"start":78,"end":99,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/nkn-full-node"}},{"start":322,"end":333,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://marketplace.digitalocean.com"}}]},{"type":"image","url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/29fcdc77-d002-414a-b122-cccfbec7641e_NKN+blog+post+-+DigitalOcean+Marketplace+2019-03-07+10-41-16.png?auto=compress,format","alt":null,"copyright":null,"dimensions":{"width":2762,"height":1786}},{"type":"heading3","text":"Using Packer to Create a 1-Click Image","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"To make the NKN 1-Click App in DigitalOcean's new Marketplace, we recognized that creating a preconfigured production-ready image takes effort: not just to create the initial image, but every time that image needs to be updated. A few repetitive but necessary steps need to be done every time a snapshot is created, e.g. starting and stopping Droplets, removing user history and trace, creating a snapshot from Droplets. Doing these steps manually for each image update is not only time consuming, but can open the opportunity for mistakes. ","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Another headache comes when we want to create the same image for multiple cloud providers. Typically each cloud providers has their own steps and requirements when creating an image. For example, DigitalOcean requires an image to have `cloud-init` set up, while Google Cloud requires an image to be licensed. These differences need to be taken into account every time an image is updated.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Since creating and maintaining an app image is repetitive and has a lot of detailed steps that easily break when doing them manually, we chose to handle the process using Packer, which can automate all these processes across many different cloud providers.","spans":[{"start":171,"end":177,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.packer.io"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"With Packer, you provide the configuration scripts and your API key for your cloud provider, and Packer will do the rest. The result is a ready-to-use image for each cloud provider. Most importantly, everything is automatic, which means it's reproducible and can be part of continuous integration. Let's dig a little bit deeper to see how to do it in detail.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"There are quite a few ways to install Packer as you can see in the official documentation. The simplest way is to use the precompiled binary.  ","spans":[{"start":67,"end":89,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.packer.io/intro/getting-started/install.html"}},{"start":122,"end":140,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.packer.io/downloads.html"}}]},{"type":"heading3","text":"Obtaining a DigitalOcean API Token","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"To use Packer with DigitalOcean, we first need to obtain (or generate) a DigitalOcean API Token. This can be done on the DigitalOcean website:","spans":[{"start":121,"end":141,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://cloud.digitalocean.com/account/api/tokens"}}]},{"type":"image","url":"https://images.prismic.io/www-static/078cf34e-59bd-4cee-8ae7-e85313ff016c_api_token.png?auto=compress,format","alt":null,"copyright":null,"dimensions":{"width":1600,"height":526}},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Note that both read and write scope are needed for the API token.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading3","text":"DigitalOcean Packer Builder","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A builder in Packer will create an image on a certain platform from some configuration, and DigitalOcean is one of the supported builders. A basic Packer example which creates a plain Ubuntu image on DigitalOcean is as simple as the following Packer template:  ","spans":[]},{"type":"preformatted","text":"```[php]{`","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"    {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      \"builders\": [","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"type\": \"digitalocean\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"api_token\": \"Your DigitalOcean API Token\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"image\": \"ubuntu-18-04-x64\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"region\": \"nyc3\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"size\": \"s-1vcpu-1gb\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"ssh_username\": \"root\"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        }","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      ]","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"    }","spans":[]},{"type":"preformatted","text":"`}```","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"If you save the above Packer template as ```[php]{`packer.json`}```, include your DigitalOcean API token and run ```[php]{`packer build packer.json`}```, you will get a working Ubuntu image in your DigitalOcean account in a couple minutes!","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"If we look at the template above, the ```[php]{`image`}``` key specifies the basic OS image to use; the ```[php]{`region`}``` and ```[php]{`size`}``` are used for the temporary droplet packer creates (and will destroy automatically); and, the ```[php]{`ssh_username`}``` key specifies which user Packer will use to ssh into the machine.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"You probably noticed that builders in the Packer template are an array, so if we want to build the same image on multiple cloud providers, we just need to add builders into the array, and all of them will be built in parallel.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Packer supports quite a lot of builders. More information about Packer builder can be found here.","spans":[{"start":92,"end":96,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.packer.io/docs/builders/index.html"}}]},{"type":"heading3","text":"Provisioning the Image","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The above basic example only gives you a standard Ubuntu image, which is probably not what you want. To build a custom image, we need provisioners that customize an image by installing and configuring software before taking the Snapshot and turning it into an image. Let's add provisioners to the Packer template in the previous step:","spans":[]},{"type":"preformatted","text":"```[php]{`","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"    {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      \"builders\": [","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"type\": \"digitalocean\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"api_token\": \"Your DigitalOcean API Token\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"image\": \"ubuntu-18-04-x64\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"region\": \"nyc3\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"size\": \"s-1vcpu-1gb\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"ssh_username\": \"root\"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        }","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      ],","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      \"provisioners\": [","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"type\": \"shell\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"inline\": [","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"            \"sleep 30\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"            \"sudo apt-get update\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"            \"sudo apt-get install -y supervisor\"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          ]","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        },","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"type\": \"shell\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"script\": \"./scripts.sh\"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        },","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"type\": \"file\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"source\": \"./nkn.conf\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"destination\": \"/tmp/\"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        },","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"type\": \"shell\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"inline\": [","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"            \"sudo mv /tmp/nkn.conf /etc/supervisor/conf.d/\"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          ]","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        }","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      ]","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"    }","spans":[]},{"type":"preformatted","text":"`}```","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"We added quite a few provisioners to the Packer template, and they will be executed sequentially. Let's look at them one by one.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The first provisioner is an inline shell type, which contains a few commands to run on the droplet before creating the image. Note that the first command ```[php]{`sleep 30`}``` makes sure the system is properly initialized before executing the rest of the command.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The second provisioner is a shell script type. It's very similar to the first one but specifies a shell script file to run on the droplet.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The third provisioner uploads a local file to the droplet, and the fourth provisioner copies the uploaded file into the designated location. One can also upload it directly to the target location which works properly on DigitalOcean but not necessarily on other cloud platforms if ```[php]{`ssh_username`}``` does not have the required permissions.","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"You can find more information about supported provisioners in the official documentation.","spans":[{"start":66,"end":88,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://www.packer.io/docs/provisioners/index.html"}}]},{"type":"heading3","text":"Passing Variables to the Packer Template","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Currently, the Packer template contains your DigitalOcean API token in plain text, which is a very dangerous thing to do if you share it with other people. A much better way is to pass the API token as a variable to the template. Do this by modifying the Packer template (“provisioners” section does not need to be changed):","spans":[]},{"type":"preformatted","text":"```[php]{`","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"    {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      \"variables\": {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        \"do_api_token\": \"\"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      },","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      \"builders\": [","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        {","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"type\": \"digitalocean\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"api_token\": \"{{user `do_api_token`}}\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"image\": \"ubuntu-18-04-x64\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"region\": \"nyc3\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"size\": \"s-1vcpu-1gb\",","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"          \"ssh_username\": \"root\"","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"        }","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      ],","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"      \"provisioners\": [...]","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"    }","spans":[]},{"type":"preformatted","text":"`}```","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"To build the image, use the command ```[php]{`packer build -var 'do_api_token=XXX' packer.json`}``` where XXX should be replaced by your DigitalOcean API token. Using the variable is not only safer, but also makes it possible to create the same image in different DigitalOcean accounts with the same template.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading3","text":"A Few Final Tips","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Here are some tips based on our experience in creating a multi-platform images using Packer:","spans":[]},{"type":"o-list-item","text":"Updating an image is typically more complicated than updating the code, so it's better to create your image such that it will fetch the latest version of your software when the Droplet is initiated such that the image itself does not need to be updated every time your software updates.","spans":[]},{"type":"o-list-item","text":"For the same reason as above, it's useful to have some sort of auto-update mechanism so that existing one-click users will not need to update or even re-create the Droplet manually.","spans":[]},{"type":"o-list-item","text":"All Droplets created from the same image are nearly identical on DigitalOcean, so if you have any sort of \"account\" in your software, the credentials may need to be generated randomly and saved to disk so users can access it. In our case we also set the credential file permission so that only a certain user (plus superusers) can view the content of the file.","spans":[]},{"type":"o-list-item","text":"Do not assume ```[php]{`ssh_username`}``` is a superuser like root. Although we use root user on DigitalOcean, other platforms may have different user settings, and provisioners may not work properly due to lack of permissions.","spans":[]},{"type":"heading3","text":"Complete Code","spans":[]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The complete config we used to create 1-click image on DigitalOcean and other platforms can be found at GitHub.","spans":[{"start":104,"end":110,"type":"hyperlink","data":{"link_type":"Web","url":"https://github.com/nknorg/nkn-cloud-image"}}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Yilun Zhang is co-founder and CTO of NKN.org.","spans":[{"start":0,"end":45,"type":"em"}]}],"blog_post_date":"2019-03-07","tags":[{"tag1":{"tag":"Marketplace","_linkType":"Link.document","_meta":{"uid":"marketplace"}}}],"_meta":{"uid":"using-packer-to-create-a-1-click-nkn-image-on-digitalocean"}}}]}}}