Troubleshooting

If you need help with your login or with creating / updating your application, please see the following guides:

Login to the Cloudnode web site

With Cloudnode you don’t need to remember passwords, nor you need to worry about leaked or hacked passwords, because we simply don’t use passwords and rely on OpenID / OAuth instead. Use your existing account at one of the supported providers to login into our web site.

Using the API / CLI

The API uses basic authentication over a secure SSL connection. We plan to change this as soon as the Nodester platform supports OAuth. The user name is the same as in your Cloudnode name. Instead of a password an API key is used. The API key is maintained by the platform and is shown on your account page. You need to create at least one application to get access to your API key.

To test the platform and the physical connection, use the status command:

$ cloudnode status
cloudnode info checking api status for: api.cloudno.de
cloudnode info using secure connection
cloudnode info status up
cloudnode info appshosted 23
cloudnode info appsrunning 13

This ensures, that the platform is up and running and that you can open a secure connection to it.

The next step is to check your credentials by running a command, that requires authentication.

$ cloudnode apps
cloudnode info hello on port 8062 running: empty

This command will list all your applications. If you get an ERROR instead, setup the cloudnode client with your user name and API key as a password.

$ cloudnode user setup <user name> <api key>
cloudnode info verifying credentials
cloudnode info user verified..
cloudnode info writing user data to config

You are now ready to use the command line tool.

SSH issues

If you have SSH issues, you may consider to use Git over HTTPS, which is easier to use.

If you want to use SSH, make sure that you have uploaded your public SSH key to your account. Compare the fingerprint that is displayed on your account page with the one displayed when running the following command on your local computer:

$ ssh-keygen -l -f .ssh/id_rsa.pub

2048 ab:f2:46:70:30:48:31:05:79:e2:eb:f5:95:38:08:50 .ssh/id_rsa.pub

If you have problems with your SSH key being accepted, make sure that there are no line breaks in the file. The block should start with the ssh- identifier followed by the basse64 encoded key block and an email address or other identifier like in the following sample:

With your SSH key on file, you can create your first application. The ssh connection will not work, until you have created an application.

After your first app is created, the next step is testing your connection by running ssh cloudnode@git.cloudno.de. If your key works, you should get a success message:

$ ssh cloudnode@git.cloudno.de

Hi <user>! You've successfully authenticated, but Cloudnode does not provide shell access.
Connection to git.cloudno.de closed.

Permission denied (publickey)

This is usually caused when ssh cannot find your keys. Make sure your key is in the default location, ~/.ssh. If you run ssh-keygen again and just press enter at all 3 prompts it will be placed here automatically. Then you can add the contents of id_rsa.pub to your account.

Finding out what keys ssh is using

Finding what keys ssh is offering to the server is fairly simple. Run ssh -vT cloudnode@git.cloudno.de and look at the output:

debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: /home/user/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

SSH private key passphrases

Using a private key without a passphrase is basically the same as writing down that random password in a file on your computer. Anyone who gains access to your drive has gained access to every system you use that key with. The solution is obvious, add a passphrase.

$ ssh-keygen -p
Enter file in which the key is (/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa):
Key has comment '/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa'
Enter new passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved with the new passphrase.

When you use a passphrase protected key, you need to add it to your ssh-agent. It stores it securely and you don’t have to reenter your passphrase. The use of the agent is mandatory, as on most systems git eats stdin and you won’t be able to type in your passphrase during git operations.

Analysing the application log files

Whenever your application throws an exception, it will be logged to you applications’s main log file. You can also use the console.log() instruction to write to that file.

You can view the log file from the “My Apps” management page. You can also use the command line to tail your application log file. Run the “cloudnode app logs” command from your application directory.

$ cloudnode app logs

cloudnode info Checking config..
cloudnode info Munging require paths..
cloudnode info Globallizing Buffer
cloudnode info Reading file...
cloudnode info Cloudnode wrapped script starting (32623) at  Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:17:40 GMT
cloudnode info [INFO] You asked to listen on port 8080 but cloudnode will use port 8007 instead..
cloudnode info Server running
cloudnode info

Cloudnode Community Channnel

For additional help visit the Cloudnode Community Slack Channel.

Open a ticket

If you are not finding what you are looking for, open a ticket from your dashboard and we will help you.