BitNami Cloud Tools Now with s3cmd

We are happy to announce a new addition to the lastest BitNami Cloud Tools version (v1.6): s3cmd tool. Thanks to user suggestions, we added this useful tool and its required dependencies to assist with uploading, retrieving and managing data in Amazon S3.

The BitNami Cloud Tools installer packages the Amazon Web Services (AWS) command line tools together with pre-configured Java, Ruby, Python and Perl language runtimes. It is a self-contained, easy to use distribution that makes it simple to get started using AWS services from the command line.

Previous versions already included the following components:

• EC2 API to register and launch instances, manipulate security groups, and more.
• EC2 AMI to help bundle an Amazon Machine Images (AMIs).
• AutoScaling to create auto scaling groups and define triggers to launch and terminate Amazon EC2 instances automatically.
• CloudWatch to monitor, manage, and publish Amazon CloudWatch metrics, as well as configure alarms.
• CloudFormation to create and delete stacks and to view resources and events associated with a stack.
• Simple Notification Service
• Simple Email Service and more!

You can check the full component list and versions at http://bitnami.org/tools/cloud

With the new s3cmd tool, you can easily manage your data in an Amazon S3 bucket. For example:

Start the Cloud Tools environment on Linux or OS X:

$ cd installation_directory

$ ./aws-shell.sh

Or you can also start the "aws-cmd" command prompt from the Start menu on Windows.

Create a new bucket:

$ s3cmd mb s3://my-new-bucket

Upload a new file to your bucket:

$ s3cmd put example.txt s3://my-new-bucket

List the elements:

$ s3cmd ls s3://my-new-bucket/

Download the file:

$ s3cmd get s3://my-new-bucket/example.txt

In addition to this, s3cmd lets you encrypt your files before sending them to Amazon or use HTTPS for encrypting the communication. Enjoy!

New BitNami Stack for Plone!

We are happy to announce a new addition to the BitNami Application Library, Plone CMS. It is a free and open source content management system built with Python on top of the Zope application server. Plone can be used for all types of websites, including blogs, internet sites, webshops and internal websites.

The BitNami Plone Stack simplifies the installation and configuration process of Plone and its dependencies. It includes a pre-configured version of Plone 2.4.1, Python 2.7, Apache 2.2 and all other required dependencies.

The BitNami Plone Stack is configured for both development and production environments. The default configuration is the following:

• Apache is configured as a proxy server. It is running in the default port (80 or 8080) and you can also configure it for serving your static content in production.
• Zope is running as a one instance cluster. You can easily add more instances to the cluster in your production environment. It is running in port 8081 by default.
• Zeo server is running in port 8100 by default.

Once you have downloaded and installed the free native installer, virtual machine or deployed the Amazon Machine Images (AMI's) in the cloud, you can access the Zope management interface and create your first Plone site.

Zope management interface

New Plone site

Check our Quick Start Guide to learn more about how to start working with your BitNami Plone deployment. 

We also provide simplified deployment and management of Plone in the cloud with BitNami Cloud Hosting. Sign up for our free developer plan to check it out!

New RubyStack for Ruby On Rails Developers

We are happy to announce a new version of BitNami RubyStack. If you are not familiar with RubyStack, it is a self-contained, easy to use distribution with one goal in mind: to make it simple to get started developing Ruby On Rails applications. BitNami RubyStack is available in the form of free, ready-to-run installers, virtual machine images (VMs) and Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for the Amazon Cloud.

The following versions of BitNami RubyStack are now available on the RubyStack download page:

• 1.8.7-0:  It ships Ruby 1.8.7 and Rails 2.3.14
• 1.9.3-0:  with Ruby 1.9.3 and Rails 3.2.8

These Stacks also include RVM, so it is possible to install any Ruby version on top of any of the Stacks. Check our RVM quick guide to know how to install more Ruby versions. In addition to the Ruby runtime and its dependencies, BitNami RubyStack ships the components listed below:

- Apache 2.2.22 with Passenger module

- NGinx 1.3.4 with Passenger module

- MySQL 5.5.21

- Git 1.7.11.3

- Subversion 1.7.5

- Sphinx 2.0.4

- SQLite 3.7.10

- Memcached 1.4.13

- Varnish 3.0.1

- DevKit for Windows

- PHP and phpMyAdmin (optional)

To simplify the process even more, RubyStack also installs and configures most popular Ruby gems:

- Bundler

- MySQL

- SQLite

- Nokogiri

- Passenger

- RMagick

- Mongrel and Thin

- and more.

One of the improvements in this version of RubyStack is that the dependencies for gems that require compilation are already bundled and pre-configured so they will run out of the box. If you need a different version of one of the gems, you can run the "bundle install" command and it will be automatically download, compile and install the gem in your RubyStack.

In addition, we have also been working on improving our documentation. There is a new Quick Start Guide that addresses the most common questions that we get about BitNami RubyStack. You will also find a step-by-step guide on how to create your first Ruby On Rails project on top of RubyStack. For more advanced users, you can will also find information on how to deploy your application with Passenger in production environments.

Welcome page

In addition to BitNami Stacks, we provide simplified deployment and management of Ruby on Rails development environments in the cloud with BitNami Cloud Hosting. Sign up for our free developer plan to check it out!