williamparry/cloudRIG

Feature Request: Attach instance store on g2.2xlarge instances

Closed this issue · 4 comments

putty182 commented

g2.xlarge supports 1x 60GB SSD instance store at no extra cost; while it obviously won't fit most AAA titles and all data written to it will disappear once instances shutdown/terminate, for the casual cloud gamer it's pretty useful.

The following seems to work - I'll try pack this into a PR if I get a chance.

  1. Add instance store to ec2.runInstances()
ec2.runInstances(
    {
        BlockDeviceMappings: [{
            "DeviceName": "/dev/xvdca",
            "VirtualName": "ephemeral0"
        }],
        ...
  1. Run InitizlizeDisks.ps1 on each launch, or InitizlizeDisks.ps1 -Schedule (doco) while creating a new rig from the base image
williamparry commented

That's great! Does it appear as a separate drive, and detach/delete when you shut down?

Part of the reason the default instance storage is so low is so that the snapshot speed is quick for saving the state.

williamparry commented

Merged into dev

putty182 commented

The base parsec image is an EBS-backed AMI, so for us Instance storage != Root device storage.

I agree, keeping the root volume small for quick snapshots and lower costs are both good things!

From a users perspective the instance storage volume is more comparable to a "ramdisk" but backed by SSD hardware. While it's possible to attach multiple 60GB instance stores for extra storage, only one is provided free-of-charge with g2.2xlarge instances.

I've not tried customising what drive letter it appears as; the EC2-Launch doco mentions it's possible, InitializeDisks.ps1 seems to always format and assign it Z:\ which is good enough for me.

No need to detach/delete; AWS won't snapshot instance stores, and specifying them at launch seems to be more reliable than specifying them in an AMI (plus I didn't want to mess with the Lambda scripts :p)

I'm currently using this setup to:

  1. Start cloudRIG using the cli app
  2. Turn on the kettle
  3. Defy Blizzard's EULA and install D3 to Z:\
  4. Make a tea
  5. Play D3

10~20 minutes from start to gaming (when things go well).

williamparry commented

Thanks for explaining, and the new feature :) I've merged it into dev.

It's really cool to hear how people use cloudRIG. 10 - 20mins seems like a long time, but I'm not sure how much more can be done to speed it up. Any ideas?