Manage your AppFog data from your workstation

Jeremy Voorhis

While operating MySQL and MongoDB for AppFog, our users often requested direct access to their data, bypassing things like running phpMyAdmin or writing custom management code. We have been listening, and while we had our own ideas for solving this problem, the CloudFoundry project has recently offered up a solution that exceeded all of our expectations.

Enter Caldecott

As described on the CloudFoundry blog, Caldecott is an extension to the CloudFoundry command line that allows you to establish a tunnel to any CloudFoundry service. It works by proxying TCP traffic on localhost via HTTPS, and uploading an app to your CloudFoundry account to direct it any service hosted by CloudFoundry. With Caldecott, you can use the mysql and mysqldump commands, Sequel Pro.app, or even rake db:migrate to rule your data. The best part? It works with AppFog now!

Getting Started

Caldecott is currently in beta, so here are the steps for getting started. First, if you don’t already have an AppFog account, head on over to http://appfog.com to request one. Then install the latest beta CloudFoundry command line and the Caldecott extension via RubyGems.

$ sudo gem install af $ sudo gem install caldecott

Now, login to AppFog and establish your tunnel.

$ af login --email jvoorhis@gmail.com


Attempting login to [http://api.appfog.com]

Password: *********

Successfully logged into [http://api.appfog.com]
$ af tunnel

1: mysql-ed8f9

Which service to tunnel to?: 1

Password: ********

Getting tunnel connection info: OK
Service connection info:

username : uaLDy9EhhvMLq

password : p5Odjf6E5O7uW

name : dc1aaa897343f4eb1aed047ec7c86f19f
Starting tunnel to mysql-ed8f9 on port 10000.

1: none

2: mysql

Which client would you like to start?: 2

Launching 'mysql --protocol=TCP --host=localhost --port=10000 --user=uaLDy9EhhvMLq --password=p5Odjf6E5O7uW dc1aaa897343f4eb1aed047ec7c86f19f'
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.

Your MySQL connection id is 12250844

Server version: 5.5.12-log Source distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,

and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it under the GPL v2 license
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql >

Now you’re in! In this sample, I chose to connect with the mysql command, but had I chose “none”, vmc would remain in the foreground, proxying TCP traffic to my MySQL database on port 10000.

In summary, the cloud is no longer a barrier between you and your data, with AppFog and CloudFoundry!

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http://dharanasoft.com Vagmi Mudumbai

Couldn’t you always do a “ssh -TNL localport:localhost:remoteport server”?
Jeremy

Good question. As I mentioned on our Hacker News thread (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3300891), we have not offered SSH tunneling because of the high impedance mismatch between OpenSSH and platform as a service in general.

We have looked at other SSH server implementations and held internal hack days for this, but VMware has created an elegant solution and we’re proud to support it.
Hector

Wow, you guys are so behind with other clouds like dotcloud.com. No ssh, no tunneling for mysql, you stage git changes and have to wait minutes for your changes to appear on the live site. Plain pathetic, you really need to get going if you want this service to ever be mainstream. I like to use navicat and guess what no tunneling. Wow! very pathetic.
Anonymous

No, the tunnel command does not currently work with PHP Fog
Anonymous

No, the security in most PaaS prevent you from getting direct access to ssh into services like this.
Xchidalgox

hello

I Have a one problem …

root@chidalgo:/var/www# af tunnel
1: dbMysqlTest
2: yii
Which service to tunnel to?: 2
Stopping Application ‘caldecott’: OK
Redeploying tunnel application ‘caldecott’.
Uploading Application:
Checking for available resources: OK
Packing application: OK
Uploading (1K): OK
Push Status: OK
Binding Service [yii]: Error 500: Service not found

Thanks!
Obefiend

translate easy appfog step in Malay: http://web-scents.blogspot.com/2012/12/upload-website-anda-ke-appfog.html
Munim

Not sure what is wrong, but this is what I get..

af tunnel

1: mysqldb

Which service to tunnel to?: 1

Deploying tunnel application ‘caldecott-ap-aws’.

Uploading Application:

Checking for available resources: OK

Packing application: OK

Uploading (1K): OK

Push Status: OK

Binding Service [mysqldb]: Error 503: Unexpected response from service gateway
czwzgs

why JSON 500 error?
http://www.akitaonrails.com/ AkitaOnRails

What does it mean when I try to connect to mysql through the tunnel and it refuses with the error: ERROR 2013 (HY000): Lost connection to MySQL server at ‘reading initial communication packet’, system error: 0
eric

how do i debug appfog mysql with cloud9? thanks

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