Hosting in cloud is not possible

[t-my]

I tried to setup a server and I figured out that xmage requires that the address it binds to should be available in the physical interface.

I tried the the following:

VM in GCP with external IP.
DNS A record from xmage.strangled.net -> external IP (35.210.180.120).
sudo hostname xmage.strangled.net
config.xml: serverAddress=xmage.strangled.net
java -jar xmage-server.jar

Result:

real hostname and ip changed, xmage tries to bind to physical interface which is not available in this VM:

FATAL 2018-09-08 22:13:12,156 Failed to start server - xmage.strangled.net:8080/?serializationtype=jboss&maxPoolSize
=300   =>[main] Main.main
java.io.IOException: SocketServerInvoker[xmage.strangled.net:80] error creating ServerSocket[35.210.180.120:8080]: C
annot assign requested address (Bind failed)
        at org.jboss.remoting.transport.socket.SocketServerInvoker.createServerSockets(SocketServerInvoker.java:37
5)

This makes the server pretty much impossible to host in cloud environment like AWS, GCP or even Azure. Cloud platform manages external IP addresses outside the actual runtime, so the machine will have no information about the external IP.

Additionally, I realized that xmage uses the actual hostname of the machine and uses it to send it to the client that the client can then connect to the server. This is not acceptable in cloud environment. The address where the client connects must be configurable in the server to make this work.

[JayDi85]

It's possible to use cloud services with ip-like hostnames (ip mapping service like http://nip.io). Look at that repositories for example config:

• docker-xmage by nealmetcalf (with regularly updates to latest version);
• docker-xmage by goesta
• docker-xmage-alpine by goesta

Tutorial for run xmage on DigitalOcean cloud service:

• Running xmage on DigitalOcean

[t-my]

Thanks, I needed 0.0.0.0 host.com in /etc/hosts. Works with any DNS A record

[JRHerlehy]

If you need fixed IPs in something like AWS, you’ll need ENIs with EIPs.

Xmage is a bandwidth hog though, expect some crazy bills if you host on and of these providers and get any sort of player base on it.