# What is a good virtual machine rails hosting service? **URL:** \ **Category:** Deployment\ **Created:** [March 28, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-a-good-virtual-machine-rails-hosting-service/133122 "2008-03-28T02:09:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dewie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@dewie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dewie)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-a-good-virtual-machine-rails-hosting-service/133122/1 "2008-03-28T02:09:08Z")
I want to get a virtual machine hosting service (not shared hosting) that will scale up. Can people please recommend services that they like? I don’t want shared hosting because I want complete control over the environment. I like the slicehost model because it starts at $20 a month and you can play around with it until you start getting some real traffic. The problem I have with slicehost is that on their signup screen they say we will send you your root password, change it immediately. This is just security incompetence: (1) very dangerous and (2) there is an easy solution: just have me tell them my password on the https webpage where I give them my credit card number. ---
**Author:** ![dewie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@dewie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dewie)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-a-good-virtual-machine-rails-hosting-service/133122/2 "2008-03-28T02:51:47Z")
I highly recommend BlueBoxGroup [1]. I’m running my sites with them and we are very happy with their level of support and they have higuer end options (F5 load balancers, etc) that you won’t get with SliceHost. If you have security concerns call Jesse P. [2] directly and get it all started your way. I’m sure they will be more than accommodating. AEM [1] [http://blueboxgrid.com/contact](http://blueboxgrid.com/contact) [2] p. 800-613-4305 x 801 On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 7:09 PM, Daniel Wilkerson \< removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid\> wrote: > ## The problem I have with slicehost is that on their signup screen they say we will send you your root password, change it immediately. This is just security incompetence: (1) very dangerous and (2) there is an easy solution: just have me tell them my password on the https webpage where I give them my credit card number. > > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > > – Adrian Esteban Madrid Lead Developer, Prefab Markets [http://www.prefabmarkets.com](http://www.prefabmarkets.com) ---
**Author:** ![dewie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@dewie](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dewie)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/what-is-a-good-virtual-machine-rails-hosting-service/133122/3 "2008-03-28T15:28:15Z")
Hi Daniel, I’m really happy with EC2. You have complete control over the environment, and it will definitely scale up (and down). You can build your own server image or use a pre-built image, there are lots of options. You might want to check out my open-source Rails server image: [http://ec2onrails.rubyforge.org/](http://ec2onrails.rubyforge.org/) There is no default password (it’s randomized for each instance and root password login is disabled in sshd\_config), authentication is by public key, and the server keys are re-generated for each instance (i.e. not shared by all instances of the image). Paul On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 9:09 PM, Daniel Wilkerson \< removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid\> wrote: > ## The problem I have with slicehost is that on their signup screen they say we will send you your root password, change it immediately. This is just security incompetence: (1) very dangerous and (2) there is an easy solution: just have me tell them my password on the https webpage where I give them my credit card number. > > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > > – [http://pauldowman.com](http://pauldowman.com)