Getting Started

Adding your cloud credentials

You'll need to input your infrastructure keys so we can manage your infrastructure. Go to Accounting (top right in the menu) and select "Environments" (here's a direct link: https://my.scalr.net/#/environments/view)

Select the environment you want to add or update keys for (in most cases this is "default"). You can edit this under "Options", then click Configure.

Then add your cloud credentials to by clicking the appropriate icon:

Create a server farm

To create a server farm for your infrastructure, click Server Farms > Build new:

Name that sucka, like "ServerTron 2000" or I guess something practical like "My First Farm":

Click on the Roles tab to add servers like Apache, MySQL, or Postgres to your farm:

Now we'll add nginx, an excellent software load balancer, from the Load Balancers category. We'll direct web traffic to the servers of this Role, which will spread it out evenly to your applications servers. Click "Add" underneath your desired option:

Then confirm the IaaS cloud you want to deploy in as well as the location:

Voilà! You have added nginx to your server farm (seen below). No servers are running yet, but we've set up the blueprint for your operations.

Add Apache from the Application Servers category and MySQL from the Database Servers category, and you now have the standard three-tier infrastructure setup:

You can click on each role to configure it. Below you can see the scaling options. By editing scaling options, you can set the paramers that tell Scalr when to add or remove servers.

Certain categories of servers have settings that the others don't. The Database category, for example, has a tab for scheduling backup frequency and snapshot rotations.

A bundle is a snapshot of the storage volume, like EBS. A backup is the file generated through mysqldump or equivalent.

Poke around a bit to familiarize yourself with your options. Good? Click "Save" and you'll get the option to launch your farm, and now Scalr will launch servers with your cloud credentials.

You can return to this view by clicking Server Farms > View all ...

and then selecting Options > Edit of your farm.

Setting DNS

Once you have your Server Farm running, you'll want to set up DNS, which Scalr manages for you. Log in to your domain name registrar, and change the name servers to point to ns1.scalr.net (the planet - a), ns2.scalr.net (the planet - b), ns3.scalr.net (ec2 eu-west), and ns4.scalr.net (ec2 us-east). This will allow Scalr to create and update DNS records as your infrastructure changes.

Alternatively, you can skip this step and use subdomains of scalr.ws like yourapp.scalr.ws, if you want to test things out first.

Once you've done this, running the WHOIS command for your domain (whois example.com) will display this output:

You can tell Scalr to create your DNS records (dns zone) by going to Websites > DNS Zones > Add new:

If you don't have a domain to use (or haven't set nameservers to Scalr's), Scalr can create a subdomain of scalr.ws for you. All you other domain fancypants can enter your domain name (or your subdomain). Choose to which role in which farm you want to direct traffic, then click "Next."

Add any other DNS records you might have (e.g. for Gmail and Google Apps), and click "Create DNS zone." Now your domain is all set up. It's okay; we'll wait while you do a little victory dance.

Setting Apache virtual hosts

If you have multiple websites, you may want them to share the same infrastructure. If so, you can use virtual hosts to put them side by side on the same Apache servers. Go to Websites > Apache virtual hosts and click "Add new":

Add your domain or subdomain, and choose the farm (and the role if you have multiple Apache roles) that should have the virtual host:

Set the virtual host parameters, such as the directory where your website is located.

Hit save and you're done. If you want https or SSL, enable the option and upload your key and certificate (CA certificate is not always required):

You can set more options for SSL too:

Uploading your site and database

Now you have a farm that scales, is redundant, and brings you coffee, but doesn't yet do anything for your website.

If you use a code repository, you are in luck. Simply use this guide to Scalr-tools to upload your site code.

Otherwise, select the adequate role (most likely an "app" role like app-apache) and choose an instance from the list. SSH into that instance by clicking the little black terminal icon. (You can also download the private key: farm's Role View link > Options of the role you want to log into. Use your own terminal with the command ssh -i /path/to/private/key root@host). Make all the changes you would like, and when you are done, choose "Create server snapshot" in the dropdown menu corresponding to the instance you just modified. You will get a prompt to rename the role; think of this as the "Save as" option.

If you need to upload files via FTP, use the FTP install script on a server to enable access, but be prepared to check the logs of the install script under Logs > Scripts to troubleshoot execution.

To configure your database, or any other role, just do the same, or if you prefer a web-based tool, click "MySQL Status" in your farm's options drop-down, and click "Launch PHPMyAdmin."

Using scripts

Scripts are cool! You can use scripts to execute commands on instances, or you can trigger scripts in certain events or even periodically to replace cron jobs.

Pro tip: you can use the SVN or Git script to automate deployment of code from your repository to your servers. Here are the parameters to the SVN script:

Svn Repo Url: URL to your code repository
Svn User: user authorized to checkout code
Svn Password: user's password
Svn Revision: any particular revision of your code
Svn Co Dir: directory to checkout code to, for example /var/www/html

To trigger scripts in certain events, go to "Farms View", click Options > Edit for the right farm, then select the role on which you would like events to trigger scripts. One of the tabs on the side shows "Scripting" and allows you to select from a list of events and scripts. You can find more details on scripting here.

Keeping up to date

For important announcements and status updates, follow @scalr on Twitter. Scalr also has a Facebook page where you can discuss new features and ask questions with the rest of the Scalr community. You like us, don't you? Don't you?!