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:

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

References

• Linode Documentation