linode

Linode (Akamai Connected Cloud)

Akamai Connected Cloud (formerly Linode) provides developer-friendly cloud compute, object storage, and edge networking for deploying distributed, low-latency workloads.

When to Use

• Cost-Effective Cloud Compute (Akamai Cloud): Reliable, straightforward Linux virtual machines (Nanodes to High-Memory instances).
• Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE): Fully managed Kubernetes clusters with zero control-plane fee.
• NodeBalancers & Object Storage: Highly available layer 4/7 load balancers and S3-compatible bucket storage.
• Akamai Global Edge Integration: Combining compute with Akamai CDN and edge security services.

Quick Start

# Configure Linode CLI
linode-cli configure

Create Linode 2GB instance with Ubuntu 24.04

linode-cli linodes create
--type g6-standard-1
--region us-east
--image linode/ubuntu24.04
--label web-server-01
--root_pass "$ROOT_PASSWORD"

## Core Concepts

### Infrastructure as Code with Terraform (Linode Provider)

Deploying a Linode instance with private networking:

```hcl
terraform {
  required_providers {
    linode = {
      source  = "linode/linode"
      version = "~> 2.15"
    }
  }
}

provider "linode" {
  token = var.linode_token
}

resource "linode_instance" "web_node" {
  label           = "production-web-01"
  image           = "linode/ubuntu24.04"
  region          = "us-east"
  type            = "g6-standard-2"
  authorized_keys = [var.ssh_public_key]
  tags            = ["production", "web"]

  private_ip = true
}

resource "linode_firewall" "web_firewall" {
  label = "web-node-firewall"

  inbound {
    label    = "allow-https"
    action   = "ACCEPT"
    protocol = "TCP"
    ports    = "443"
    ipv4     = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }

  inbound {
    label    = "allow-ssh"
    action   = "ACCEPT"
    protocol = "TCP"
    ports    = "22"
    ipv4     = ["198.51.100.0/24"] # Trusted office VPN only
  }

  inbound_policy  = "DROP"
  outbound_policy = "ACCEPT"
  linodes         = [linode_instance.web_node.id]
}

Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) Provisioning via CLI

Creating an autoscaling Kubernetes cluster:

# Authenticate Linode CLI
linode-cli configure

# Create a managed LKE cluster
linode-cli lke cluster-create \
  --label prod-cluster \
  --region us-east \
  --k8s_version 1.30 \
  --node_pools.type g6-standard-2 \
  --node_pools.count 3 \
  --node_pools.autoscaler.enabled true \
  --node_pools.autoscaler.min 3 \
  --node_pools.autoscaler.max 8

NodeBalancer Configuration for High Availability

Distributing traffic across backend nodes:

# Create NodeBalancer and HTTPS port 443 configuration
linode-cli nodebalancers create --region us-east --label prod-lb
linode-cli nodebalancers config-create <NB_ID> \
  --port 443 --protocol https --ssl_cert "$CERT" --ssl_key "$KEY" \
  --check http --check_path /healthz --check_interval 10

Common Patterns

NodeBalancer with SSL Termination

Problem: Distributing traffic across multiple compute instances with high availability and SSL offloading.

Solution: Configure Linode NodeBalancer via CLI:

# Create NodeBalancer
NB_ID=$(linode-cli nodebalancers create --region us-east --label app-balancer --json | jq '.[0].id')

# Add HTTPS port 443 configuration
linode-cli nodebalancers configs-create $NB_ID \
  --port 443 \
  --protocol https \
  --ssl_cert "$CERT_PEM" \
  --ssl_key "$KEY_PEM" \
  --check_path "/health"

Best Practices

Do:

• Attach a Cloud Firewall to all Linode instances; drop all unsolicited inbound traffic by default.
• Enable private_ip = true and use Linode VPC for private inter-node communication.
• Leverage LKE (Linode Kubernetes Engine) for production containers; control planes are completely free.
• Store automated database and system backups using Linode Backup Service or Object Storage.

Don't:

• Expose SSH (port 22) publicly to 0.0.0.0/0; restrict to known IP ranges or a bastion host.
• Use root passwords for instances; always inject authorized SSH keys during provisioning.
• Hardcode Linode API tokens in source code; supply via LINODE_TOKEN environment variable.

Troubleshooting

Error	Cause	Solution
Authentication failed / Token invalid	Expired or incorrect Linode personal access token.	Re-generate token in Cloud Manager and run linode-cli configure.
Cannot connect to instance via SSH	Root password not set or instance still in booting/provisioning state.	Monitor job state with linode-cli linodes list until status is running.
Disk space full on root volume	Logs or temp files filling small standard disk allocation.	Resize disk volume in Cloud Manager or attach Linode Block Storage.

References

• Linode Documentation