We are very happy to announce that Node Version Manager, best known as nvm, is now available on Simple Hosting Node.js.

You are now able to run any version of Node.js distributed via nvm and not limit yourself to the ones pre-installed on your Simple Hosting instance.

All you need to do is add a ".nvmrc" file to your project's root directory and deploy your code.

For example, for a project deployed with Gandi CLI:

$ cd myapp
$ echo "4.4" > .nvmrc
$ git add .nvmrc
$ git commit -m 'Use Node.js 4.4'
$ git push gandi master
$ gandi deploy

Simple Hosting's deploy and build process will detect the presence of the ".nvmrc" file and install the required version if necessary.

Please check out the Node.js instance documentation to learn more:

https://wiki.gandi.net/en/simple/instance/nodejs#selection_of_nodejs_version

Bonus: Run a Parse server on Simple Hosting!

Facebook has recently announced that they will be discontinuing the Parse service and have released the code as free software. Users can now self-host parse-server.

The "parse-server" package requires the latest version of Node.js 4, which wasn't previously supported on Simple Hosting. Thanks to ".nvmrc", nothing is stopping you from running your own Parse server on your instance.

Follow our complete tutorial and example project to set up your own Parse server on Simple Hosting Node.js:

https://wiki.gandi.net/en/tutorials/simple/nodejs/parse-server

Enjoy!

If you have a PHP 5.4/MySQL Simple Hosting instance you can now upgrade to PHP 5.6 in a single click. All you need to do is go to your instance’s control panel and click on the “Update” link.

This operation will move everything over to PHP 5.6 automatically, though you might experience some issues during the next few days as we still consider the feature to be in Beta. We also highly suggest checking our guide to learn more about the differences between versions and about the issues you might encounter, since you won't be able to rollback this update.

Users of other types of PHP instances, such as PostgreSQL or MongoDB databases, unfortunately will still have to upgrade manually. Our documentation also includes instructions and examples to help with manually migrating your instances. 

As always, don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Care team, join us in our IRC channel #gandi (on Freenode) or tweet us @gandibar if you have any issues.

On February 16 a security issue on the GNU libc was published [CVE-2015-7547]. This library is used by almost all Linux distributions.

We recommend that all IaaS platform users update the glibc and reboot their VM, or restart the affected services.

Our technical team fixed this security issue on the Gandi platform.

The fix is currently being installed on all the Simple Hosting instances. Our other managed products have also been fixed.

You will find more technical information in this post:
https://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.fr/2016/02/cve-2015-7547-glibc-getaddrinfo-stack.html

PHP version 5.6 is now available on Simple Hosting and becomes the new default choice for instance creation.

You can create PHP 5.6 instances right now, or keep creating PHP 5.4 instances by specifically selecting them from the list.

We have published a guide to help you migrate from PHP 5.4 to PHP 5.6. You'll find testing and migration tips if you plan to move your projects to the new instances.

We also plan to release an automatic upgrade feature for PHP 5.4/MySQL instances on March 22nd, 2016. Other instance types will always have to be migrated manually.

Our Customer Care team is ready to answer your questions and assist you during the migration. Please contact them should you need any help.

The new PHP 5.6 instance runs on a new system image based on Debian 8 (Jessie) in anticipation of more novelties. Your feedback is very important!

Bonus: Dependency management with Composer

You can now use Composer, PHP's most popular dependency manager, to easily install your application's dependencies on Simple Hosting (supported on PHP 5.6 and 5.4 instances).

Dependency management tools make it easy for web developers to keep track of third-party code included in a project. Instead of having to manage the files and versions manually, these tools offer a simple way to list an application's external dependencies and then take care of downloading, installing and including the correct files.

Simple Hosting already supported dependency managers for Node.js, Python and Ruby instances using the "npm", "pip" and "bundler" tools respectively. With the addition of Composer to the PHP instance, we now cover modern development workflows on all instance types.

Check out the example project and the documentation to learn more and get started with Composer on Simple Hosting.

3.18 is now the default kernel on the HVM platform

Linux kernel 3.18 is now the new default on the HVM platform, replacing 3.12.

Docker usage is now easier out-of-the-box on the HVM platform, since 3.18 supports the "overlay" storage engine. You can learn more about Docker usage on our platform from our Wiki.

Deprecation warning on 3.10 kernel, including AUFS (Xen platform)

On March 10, 2016, we will be upgrading the kernel to 3.10.96. The new version includes security fixes (also related to CVE-2016-0728) but will, notably, drop AUFS support.

If you are using AUFS technology and wish to continue using it, please note that once the update goes through, your system may not function properly and we nonetheless recommend migrating to our HVM platform.

Users wishing to continue using AUFS technology can opt to use their own kernel with the "raw" or "grub" boot options.

Docker users that don't need AUFS can also migrate to HVM and use the 3.18 kernel with their current system, which supports the the "overlay" storage engine by default, but does require you to tweak Docker settings.

You can learn more about migrating to the new HVM platform and more about Docker usage from our Wiki.

Security patch and minor version upgrades to 3.2, 3.12 and 3.18

Xen platform kernel 3.2 has been upgraded to 3.2.76 and HVM platform kernels 3.12 and 3.18 have been upgraded to 3.12.53 and 3.18.26. To start using the new versions, just reboot your server.

EOL warning on grsecurity-enabled kernels

On March 10, 2016 we will remove our "grsec" kernels (2.6.32-x86_64-grsec and 3.2-x86_64-grsec) from the platform, following recently announced updates to grsecurity's distribution policy.

On this date, “non-grsec” kernel versions will become the default.

Users who wish to continue using these features can use the "raw" and "grub" boot options on our HVM platform[1] to set up their systems with custom kernels.

We are excited to announce the release of the Gandi plugin for Let's Encrypt, making it easy to create and install free certificates on Simple Hosting instances.

Gandi is a sponsor of Let's Encrypt, a free, automated and open Certificate Authority, with whom we share the objective of making the Internet a better and safer place for everyone.

Simple Hosting PHP and Ruby users are now among the very first PaaS customers in the world to enjoy an integrated experience with Let's Encrypt.

Head over to the letsencrypt-gandi project page to install and use the plugin. 

Users of other Simple Hosting instance types, as well as Gandi Server and Web Accelerator customers, can also use certificates issued by LE. 

We have created a complete tutorial about Gandi and Let's Encrypt that shows you how to create and install certificates, covering the entire process.

We are proud to support Let's Encrypt and will continue to work towards making it as easy as possible for our users to obtain and install TLS/SSL certificates. 

Don't hesitate to contact us at feedback@gandi.net if you have any questions about Gandi and Let's Encrypt or to reach out to our Customer care team if you have any trouble getting your certificates up and running with our products.

In order to provide better support for the system images offered on our IaaS platform, we will reduce the number of available systems starting January 14, 2016. We have decided to focus our efforts on the more commonly used systems and encourage you to deploy your favorite images on our HVM platform yourself.

At the same time, we have decided to also introduce something new. We are happy to announce that FreeBSD is now officially supported by Gandi, after several weeks of beta testing by developers, community members and enthusiasts.

Starting January 14, 2016, only these systems will still be maintained by Gandi staff:

• Debian 8.x and 7.x
• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 12.04 LTS
• CentOS 7.x and 6.x
• FreeBSD 10.2 (a ZFS version and a UFS version)

All other images will be flagged as deprecated on January 14, 2016 and will be removed on June 14, 2016, at which point you will no longer be able to create new servers or disks with them. You will therefore have a six-month period to transition to newer systems or maintain your own legacy images using snapshots. 

As part of our ongoing effort to transition our customers to the new HVM platform, supported images will only be available for one architecture (x86_64) as we are also deprecating all 32-bit images on our Xen platform.

Going forward, we will offer the latest stable versions of selected systems according to the release schedules of the upstream developers. Please see our wiki article for detailed information about supported and deprecated images.

We encourage our customers to take advantage of the new HVM platform features to build their own images. Please contact our developers and support agents through the usual channels if you need any help.

Packet-journey (pktj) allows network operators to mount easy-to-configure, scalable software routers. To accomplish this, the application is based on DPDK drivers and libraries and utilises functionalities which are native to the Linux kernel, forming a bridge between fast-forwarding and flexible software routing.

The software provides features like:

• choice of the best route with LPM
• ACL L3/L4
• learning of routes via the netlink kernel mechanism
• the ability to communicate certain packets to the kernel
• performance which is proportional to the number of receipt queues and CPU cores configured at boot
• dynamic ratelimiting

Have a look at the project on our GitHub page. We'd love to hear what you think!

The new default way to start your Node.js application on Simple Hosting is now the npm start script instructions found in your ''package.json'' file. We have added support for npm start scripts a couple of months ago and have now promoted it to default.

Start scripts allow you customize how the Node.js application is started. You get to decide what file is used for booting, instead of having to use a ''server.js'' file. To make sure your application boots locally as it does on Simple Hosting, simply run "$ npm start".

You can also set environment variables and pass flags to the Node.js process itself. For example, you can activate ECMA Script 6 features on your Simple Hosting instance by passing the --harmony flag.

This new boot method also offers better support for pre-packaged apps, as Node.js apps typically provide start scripts in their ''package.json'' files.

Along with this major change, we have pushed Node.js 0.12.9 (LTS) to production, along with versions 0.8.28 and 0.10.41. These minor upgrades mostly provide security enhancements.

If you're not yet a Node.js user on Simple Hosting, you can create your first instance now. If you're already a Domain customer, you can try Node.js for free as you get a 10-day free trial, and 50% discount during one year for any Simple Hosting instance creation. 

As usual, we're here to help so please contact us if needed.