Product and Feature Updates Archives - LayerStack Official Blog

Latest Product and Feature Updates: December 2020

LayerStack is consistently committed to improving and providing our valued customer with superior cloud computing service. We have made some adjustments on the plans and offers on LayerPanel, the highlights are listed below:

New Dedicated CPU Cloud Server: It is pleased to announce the launch of our new cloud server plan – the Dedicated CPU Cloud Server. The server is installed with entire 2^nd Gen AMD EPYC CPU cores which are accessible only by your instances, thus users’ software and applications can always run at peak speed. The plan and pricing information is available at https://www.layerstack.com/pricing-cloud-servers.

Updates in High Memory Cloud Server: High Memory Cloud Server has been officially renamed as Memory Optimized Cloud Server. All the specification and cloud performance remain unchanged.

Price Adjustment on Auto-Backup: The cost of Auto-Backup is calculated proportionally to the plan subscription fee, the rate is increased from 15% to 20% of plan price. Full Backup details at: https://www.layerstack.com/backups.

Price Adjustment on DDoS Attack Protection Service: The price of DDoS protection add-on is adjusted from US$ 20.5 to US$30.5 per month. Full DDoS Protection details at https://www.layerstack.com/ddos-protection.

It is very appreciated if you have any ideas for improving our products, please let us know your comments on LayerStack Community.

Product and Feature Updates: November 2020

New High Frequency CPU Cloud Server: We are exciting to announce that High Frequency CPU Cloud Server is officially launched, it is powered by 2^nd Gen AMD EPYC 7742 with base clock speed 2.25GHz and a turbo boost of 3.4GHz. Specially designed for most demanding and CPU-intensive workloads. The plan and pricing information is available at https://www.layerstack.com/pricing-cloud-servers.

Withdrawal of High Storage Plan: The High Storage Plan is no longer available on LayerPanel. It is removed from our official website on 27/10/2020.

Changes in LayerStack Template: Template is now integrated with VM Import on LayerPanel supporting five VM image format including VDI, VMDK, VHDX, QCOW2, and RAW. Every account can create or import 3 templates with max. size 150GB each. Full Template details at https://www.layerstack.com/templates.

New Feature to Private Networking: Labeling function is now available, cloud users can add customized label to different Private Network.

Price Adjustment on Acronis Offsite Backup Service: A new price list is applied to Acronis Offsite Backup Service. The updated pricing can be reached at https://www.layerstack.com/pricing-acronis.

Price Adjustment on DDoS Attack Protection Service: The cost for DDoS protection add-on is adjusted from US$ 18 to US$20.5 per month. Full DDoS Protection details at https://www.layerstack.com/ddos-protection.

You can also check out all the previous updates at LayerStack Release Note. It is very appreciated if you have any ideas for improving our products, please let us know your comments on LayerStack Community.

Templates Officially Integrated With VM Import

It is pleased to announce that LayerStack Templates is officially integrated with VM Import on LayerPanel. Users can export a virtual machine image from your virtualization environment to LayerStack. Those images will be shown as templates in the panel which you can use to launch instances. With the upgraded Templates function, users can benefit from the scale of LayerStack while using your own custom environment.

What is VM Image

A virtual machine image is a snapshot of your disk at one point in time, those images are usually installed with operating systems and software such as databases or operational applications. VM image is useful for users to move workloads from the current virtualization environment to the cloud. Besides, It is also effective when users want to deploy multiple servers with a consistent cloud environment.

Which image formats are supported?

LayerStack Template is now supporting five image formats including Virtual Disk Image (VDI), Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK), Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX), QEMU Copy-On-Write 2 (QCOW2), and raw. If you are using any other image formats for cloud migration, please directly contact our CS team for a free consultation.
　

Pricing and Applications

Importing VM image to LayerStack Template is free of charge. Every account can create 3 templates with max. size 150GB each. Users who reached the template limit can simply delete outdated templates on LayerPanel and import new images for cloud deployments.

Quick Start Guide:

Create Template
1. Log in to LayerPanel (https://www.layerpanel.com/#/login)
2. Go to Services section and select Templates
3. Click Create or Upload to build your templates
4. It will be shown as Working on the list once the templates are successfully created.

Install the server with Custom Template
5. Select the relevant cloud server at “Service – Cloud Server”.
6. Click the Rebuild button at top right corner.
7. Scroll down the OS options and select the custom template at the bottom.
8. Follow the in-built guide and proceed with template installation.
　

* Let us know your comments and suggestions on LayerStack Community.

Cloud Server Auto-Backup Solution For Business

Cloud Server Backup Solution For Business

Businesses are moving to the cloud in recent years, many security techniques have been innovated and applied to ensure maximum data protection. Cloud Server Auto-Backup is one of the most popular method of off-server data storage for businesses to protect invaluable data and works. It captures a copy from disk at a single point in time and save it in a separate secondary server, cloud user can finish restoring the data within a short period to minimize the negative impacts on human error or other disasters.

How Cloud Server Backup Works?

Cloud server backup, also known as online backup, is a type of data backup whereby a copy of the data is sent to a separate server. Once users have enabled the add-ons, their cloud server will be scheduled to be automatically replicated. Cloud-based backup are taken once per week, the first copy will be taken on the second day after cloud backup is enabled. Each backup is retained for four weeks with maximum 4 most recent backups storing on separate data drives. Cloud users can restore backups of the entire server from the Cloud Servers Details section on LayerPanel.

Common Use Of Cloud Server Backup

Cloud-Based Auto-Backup Option For Business

Human error, both purposely issues and unintentionally mistakes, is very common in daily works which may create a big loss to businesses, especially when your customer databases were damaged. With LayerStack’s user permission management, only cloud owner has the rights to disable cloud server backup option and delete all the backup copies, it reduces the potential loss taken by businesses. On the other hand, auto-backup is also helpful in disasters like server breakdowns and cyber-attacks. All damaged data can be restored shortly with one click.

Advantage Of Cloud Server Backup

Firstly, it is easy for non-IT specialist to manage and protect valuable data, it is just one click to restore data from copies. As the backup system works automatically, it does not require additional time commitment for you or your customers, it works properly even through you are not connecting to the internet. Furthermore, cloud-based backup solution is cheaper than many data security options, it costs just 15% of cloud monthly fee on LayerStack. In conclusion, cloud backup is user-friendly and effective data security solution, it helps to keep businesses away from irretrievable loss.

　
* Let us know your comments and suggestions on LayerStack Community.

China Direct CN2 Route

China Direct CN2 Route (China Telecom Next Generation Carrier Network) is successor of ChinaNet Assess. CN2 has highest resilience, redundancy, low latency, meanwhile providing direct connections to all major global ISPs via fiber optic data delivery in order to serve global enterprises which are seeking for a high-quality connection with China. There are two types of CN2: Global Transit (CN2 GT) and Global Internet Access (CN2 GIA).

CN2 GT

CN2 GT is providing global customers with the transfer service of accessing global Internet resources at a low cost. It has more than 350 POPs locating in all China’s cities and major cities worldwide. Although CN2 GT has its own independent line for international connection, however the link is still in the domestic 163 backbone network which is comparatively slow.

CN2 GIA

CN2 GIA offers a premium access between mainland China and counties outside China. GIA is the abbreviation of global Internet access. It is working with dedicated path and acknowledged as the most reliable with the lowest latency network for overseas enterprise. It has dual-POPs in 161 cities and dual-PEs installed in 148 single-POP cities., covering nearly 200 major cities in China.

Business Class Solution For Oversea Enterprises

The LayerStack China Direct CN2 GIA Route offers a business class solution for overseas enterprises seeking a high-performance connection with China. This route is backed by the top three Chinese carriers including China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile, ensuring high capacity, superior performance, solid reliability, and excellent connection speed. CN2 GIA route is now available to all LayerStack cloud server plans as an add-on service. With the addition 2-way direct connection, users will significantly reduce network latency and receive throughput improvements at a very small cost (US$ 2.5/month) .
　

* Let us know your comments and suggestions on LayerStack Community.

Application Programming Interface

Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of tools and protocols for integrating services and features. It simplifies programming by abstracting the underlying implementation and only exposing those major objects or actions the developer needs. Cloud API, thus, serves as a gateway or interface that provides direct and indirect cloud infrastructure and software services to users. The complicated command setting is reduced and providing a full picture of cloud condition to non-specialist users. Cloud users can also be benefited from faster platform access and a more efficient management of platform security with APIs.

RESTful API

One of the most popular type of API is REST (Representational State Transfer), also known as RESTful API, it can be used over nearly any protocol. REST is a logical choice for building APIs which allow users to connect to, manage and interact with cloud services in a distributed environment. One key advantage of REST APIs is that they provide a great flexibility, data is not tied to any resource or methods which allow user to manage different types of calls. In fact, RESTful APIs are used by global brands like Amazon, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Multi-functional LayerPanel

LayerStack RESTful API gives clients maximum control over their cloud management and provides an easy way to build and adjust the cloud servers programmatically. On LayerPanel, a new cloud server can be purchased and deployed in 3mins without any complicated command setting. The Operation System (include custom ISO) and Firewall setting can be easily configured on panel. Moreover, user can guard server health and track with the CPU and RAM usage, disk read/write, and bandwidth usage, through a simple web-based interface.

More Features to Come…

Furthermore, LayerStack API is effective tools for businesses because it supports multi-users, cloud owner can set different access authorities for different parties to work in a single cloud environment with user permission management. LayerStack commits to provide our valued customers with superior cloud experience, with the powerful support of LayerPanel, more useful and innovative cloud features can be developed and released in the coming future in order to make further improvements on customers’ work effectiveness and efficiency.
　

* Let us know your comments and suggestions on LayerStack Community.

User Permission Management

LayerStack’s cloud servers are featured with user permission management which is designed for businesses to connect with clients, employees, and partners for greater resources management. Cloud owner can assign permissions to different parties authorizing them to access specific instances and payment options, thus the server security can be easily maintained. “Users can create their own customized solutions for businesses. The APIs help control specific cloud resources and their distribution. For example, the rapid provisioning of cloud resources or network configurations is something that our APIs can help with.” said Dennis Ng, the Founder in LayerStack.

Advantages of User Permission

Obviously, the system provides cloud owners with an absolute power to control their cloud servers, owners can add, edit and remove any assigned permission at any time. It could be really useful when they have partnerships with outside vendors, a limited permission can be directly assigned to those parties without any safety concerns. The Permission system is even more important for service providers as they are handling numerous projects at a time, different permissions can be generated for clients in order to minimize the cross connections between projects.

Major User Authorizations

Owner: Full authority to add cloud servers and products, manage all cloud resources and access all account information.
Member: Ability to manage specific instances with limited features on assigned accounts.
Billing: Empowered to manage specific instances with limited features and access to read invoice records and manage payment options.
Billing Admin: Ability to read invoice records and manage payment options on assigned accounts.

Quick Start Guide

Log in to LayerPanel, go to the Account section and click Manage Users.
Click the +Invite User button.
Select the Proper role and input the user’s Email address.
An Invitation email will be sent once the Send button is clicked.

For more permission details of roles: https://www.layerstack.com/resources/docs/Roles-and-Permissions

Official Launch – Virtual Private Cloud

User data security is always LayerStack’s major concerns, today we are pleased to announce that Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is official launched on LayerPanel. LayerStack VPC is a virtual isolated network dedicated to any of your LayerStack cloud servers aiming to provide user with completely isolated cloud servers to place sensitive data and works.

Progression of Private Networking

LayerStack VPC is the natural progression of our existing Private Networking features. Although they are both sharing similar operating principle, VPC goes one step further by hiding the Public IP of isolated instances. It results in each private instance that you created is logically isolated from other private networks and the public Internet.

Thus, VPC cannot download and upload any data to the public network directly, all data transfer has to pass through gateway server which maintains the true privacy and data security inside the private instances.

Data Transfer

Efficiently transmit data over a dedicated VLAN circuit which is unreachable from the internet, data can be transmitted via a high capacity and low latency isolated network. Unlimited traffic is available for inbound and outbound transfers, unlike many cloud providers in the market like Linode, DigitalOcean and Vultr, no extra cost will be charged for data transfer.

Furthermore, enterprises can achieve data mirroring with the ultra-low latency bandwidth, the system can real-time copy sensitive data to multiple isolated instances as a part of crisis prevention plan.

The Use of VPC

VPC can be very useful when users want to store their business sensitive data separately in order to further improve the data security level, those sensitive data can be something like backend system, client’s personal information, transactions data etc.. VPC makes it extremely hard for third parties to stumble across data and employ them in negative way. In fact, multiple isolated instances can be deployed with one gateway server, the independence of different business projects can be enhanced. Multi-VPC may works for project-based companies like web and apps developers which resources do not need to communicate with each other, the clients’ data can be more secure and better managed by the service providers.

Once private network has been deployed on the clouds, a private IP would be auto-generated, then either one server can be configured to behave as the internet gateway. A complete VPC setup guide is available at https://www.layerstack.com/resources/tutorials/How-to-configure-Virtual-Private-Cloud.

New Release – Custom ISO Installation Guideline

Custom ISO features has been officially activated on LayerPanel 2 in all regions. Custom ISO is usually used for installing custom operating systems or booting custom rescue disks on Cloud Servers. With using the Custom ISO feature, user can be benefited from saving download and setup time while installing identical OS and applications in different computing server or VPS. In fact, some industrial software solutions are only compliable to specific operating systems which is supported by LayerPanel 2 from now on.

The process involves the uploading of an ISO file through FTP or HTTP. The LayerPanel offers this uploading feature where a user can upload one ISO file per client as a default limit. The following steps will give user the correct method to upload and run a custom ISO.

1. Upload Custom ISOLog in to LayerPanel 2, go to the Services section and click Cloud Servers, then choose the Cloud Servers that you want to detach ISO file.

2. Click the ISO button.

3. Click the Upload option and choose from 3 options – FTP / HTTP / Google Drive URL for ISO uploading process. For more details: https://bit.ly/2LVOYKA

4. Once the upload process is completed, please click Switch, choose your custom ISO file and click Mount ISO and Restart for mounting this ISO into your Cloud Servers.

5. Click Console button to access the server console.

6. Click the Send CtrlAltDel button in the Console window, then immediately left-click inside the Console window, press the Escape key (ESC) as soon as the “Press ESC for boot menu” message appears in order to access the boot menu for the server. Lastly, press 4 to boot the server from DVD/CD (boot from ISO)

* If the Escape key (ESC) is not pressed on time, the below screen will pop-up when user accessing Console.

7. You may detach & delete ISO file after all installation is completed.

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LayerStack雲端伺服器擁有高 CPU 和 SSD 效能，平衡了運算、記憶體和網絡資源的各方面配置，具備私有網絡、自動備份、用戶權限管理等精選功能，能高效地協助您轉移網頁及中心業務至雲端，以實踐虛擬桌面基礎架構（VDI）- 讓企業使用者隨時隨地存取公司文件遙距工作。除此之外，公司更能受益於數據安全、可擴展性、災難恢復及全球部署等企業上雲的好處。

「遙距營商計劃D-Biz」於5月18日至10月31日正式接受申請，歡迎電郵我們: [email protected] ，讓LayerStack為您訂製最合適的雲端方案。