Resizing my Ubuntu Server AWS Boot Disk

AKA: Building a Bigger GeoSandbox (Note: This article has been updated to make it clear that expanded EBS volumes will = additional charges from AWS. Something that is not clearly stated in the AWS documentation.) If you’ve been reading my last few blog posts, you know I’ve been experimenting with various Ubuntu server configurations using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to serve web-maps and spatial data. As my procedures have evolved, the micro-instances I started working with have outgrown their usefulness. Lately, I’ve been testing GeoWebCache, and seeing how that works with GeoServer and the rest of the OpenGeo Suite. As…

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GeoSandbox 2.0

This Week’s Project I decided it was time to take the GeoSandbox to the next level. As usual, I had multiple goals in mind for this project. Primarily, I wanted to learn how to use and write JavaScript. It’s been a long time since I’ve tried to write any kind of meaningful code, but I figured if I wanted to keep up with the big kids, it was time to take the plunge. I also wanted to get my map viewer into a state where I could make it useful enough to display my GIS projects, and help promote my…

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GeoSandbox grows up to be a “Real boy”

A quick update on the status of my little experiment. This morning I got it in my head that I wanted to access my GeoSandbox in ArcMap through WMS, and allow others access to it through the same mechanism. Through much trial and error, and some timely help from @mcbride_bryan, I was able to accomplish my goal. If you want to try loading any of the data on my GeoSandbox into your GIS client of choice, you should be able to do so through this URL: http://donmeltz.dyndns.org:8080/geoserver/wms?service=wms&version=1.1.1&request=GetCapabilities Here’s a screen-shot with all the current layers loaded: Thanks also to @tpstigers…

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Setting up my GeoSandbox

It’s been 3 weeks since I set up my little GeoServer experiment and started populating it with various datasets. I thought I’d outline the things I’ve been working on, and what I plan on looking at next. I couldn’t have come as far as I have without the generous help of some of my Twitter friends. I’ve noted below each section those who’ve helped me out. I apologize if I’ve overlooked anyone. Workspace > Store > Layer My initial step in getting a useful map up and running was to load some vector data. The first thing I’m sure every…

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Serving Maps for Free

The Goal This weekend I started down the road to fulfilling one of my New Year Resolutions: Get some maps online. And by maps online, I don’t mean posting links to KML files, screen shots, or PDF exports from ArcGIS. I mean full-fledged interactive maps viewable by anyone with a browser. On top of that, I had one more goal. I wanted to do this with as little extra cost to me as possible. This is going to be a learning experience for me, not a paying job. The Map Server I’ve put a lot of thought into this. It’s…

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