Rejoice! MetalVPS Is Here!

TimboJones

@Not_Oles said:

@Erisa said:

@Not_Oles said: Darkstar's drives are really fast! I compared compiling Qemu on a RAM based filesystem, and it didn't seem any faster than not using a RAM based file system. I am guessing, but I haven't checked, that Darkstar's hardware RAID might have a RAM cache? Dunno. . . . Haha, clueless™!

The Linux kernel has its own I/O cache based on RAM.

But more importantly, when you compile Qemu you are not going to be bottlenecked by disk speed. This is why you saw no difference, not any other reason.

The YABS in this thread shows the disk is.. distinctly average at best. Which is fine.

Hello @Erisa!

Thanks for your helpful comment! A quick Google search showed me a few places I could look for more information about the Linux kernel's I/O cache.

My compiling experience is mostly with spinning rust disks except for the few months I had AX servers at Hetzner. I didn't do much compiling on those servers because I was mostly trying to learn how to install LXC containers and KVM VPSes with Proxmox. Which didn't require compiling.

It does seem to me that Darkstar's disks are faster than the spinning rust disks I had previously. On spinning rust, switching to a RAM disk resulted in faster compiling. Not so with Darkstar. Using a RAM disk seemed to make no difference at all.

To me, it's okay if, as you said, Darkstar's disks are distinctly average.

Best wishes from the Sonoran Desert! 🏜️

You did something wrong, or your compile is more CPU bound than storage bound.

Not_Oles

@jbiloh said:

@Not_Oles said: Interestingly I tried to insert some code into this post to demonstrate how a Darkstar neighbor could see who has root access. Cloudflare blocked my attempt to post containing the code. It was just a simple grep for "wheel" in the "group" file in the "etc" directory. FWIW, I have a screenshot. @jbiloh

If you try again it should work now.

tom@darkstar:~$ grep wheel /etc/groux
wheel:x:10:root,redacted,redacted,redacted
tom@darkstar:~$ 

Haha, if I change the "x" to the expected "p" I get blocked by Cloudflare when I save the draft manually. Also if the draft is autosaved, the Cloudflare block appears and the autosave fails.

I have triple tilde Github code fences above and below the three lines of code.

No problem with Cloudflare blocking if I backslash-escape the "p", as is sometimes required with ikiwiki, but the backslash shows up in the preview, and presumably in the post:

tom@darkstar:~$ grep wheel /etc/grou\p
wheel:x:10:root,redacted,redacted,redacted
tom@darkstar:~$ 

If I try backticks instead of code fences, I get a weird one space indent in the first line and the line break between lines two and three is removed. But the Cloudflare block is bypassed.

Backticks above and below the three lines of code:

tom@darkstar:~$ grep wheel /etc/group wheel:x:10:root,redacted,redacted,redacted tom@darkstar:~$

Backtick at the beginning of line one and at the end of line three:

tom@darkstar:~$ grep wheel /etc/group wheel:x:10:root,redacted,redacted,redacted tom@darkstar:~$

Backticks at the beginning and end of each line:

tom@darkstar:~$ grep wheel /etc/group
wheel:x:10:root,redacted,redacted,redacted
tom@darkstar:~$

Eeks! The last one looks as expected. No Cloudflare block either.

So, finally, this is how any Darkstar Neighbor can see who has root. Darkstar Neighbors see it without redaction, of course.

tom@darkstar:~$ ls -l /etc/group
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 830 Feb 7 19:45 /etc/group
tom@darkstar:~$

Hxxx

Wipe that server clean, install Proxmox and provide the paying users with a VM. Seems like the most fair path. The network where your server is colo'd is good.

TimboJones

I'm more surprised someone hasn't signed up purely to fuck with the server and the other users.

szymonp

Wait so if someone else also has root can they just take control of your VPS?

dahartigan

@szymonp said:
Wait so if someone else also has root can they just take control of your VPS?

Yes. The idea is that people who sign up must pinky swear to never do anything naughty.

szymonp

@dahartigan said:

@szymonp said:
Wait so if someone else also has root can they just take control of your VPS?

Yes. The idea is that people who sign up must pinky swear to never do anything naughty.

that never ends well

yoursunny

@dahartigan said:

@szymonp said:
Wait so if someone else also has root can they just take control of your VPS?

Yes. The idea is that people who sign up must pinky swear to never do anything naughty.

MetalVPS is a sorority.
MetalVPS sisters can trust each other.

Nekki

@szymonp said:

@dahartigan said:

@szymonp said:
Wait so if someone else also has root can they just take control of your VPS?

Yes. The idea is that people who sign up must pinky swear to never do anything naughty.

that never ends well

I’m sure it’s fine if care is taken to select new node-mates.

Not_Oles

@jbiloh @raindog308 @FAT32

More about the Cloudflare block:

A few posts above I tried Github triple tilde codefences and also backticks. In my dreams last night I remembered that I did not try the html "code" and "pre" tags.

This morning, both the "code" and the "pre" tags (with appropriate "less than" and "greater than") resulted in a Cloudflare block when I tried to save a draft of the subject code snippet.

It seems like the only expression of the subject code that gets past the Cloudflare block without causing formatting issues might be backticks before and after each line.

What simple thing am I missing? I really wanna be able to put code into my posts! I don't want to have to convert it to a graphical image.

Maybe I could encode my post's code snippets in base64? Then everybody easily could decode them! Yaaay!

dG9tQGRhcmtzdGFyOn4kIGdyZXAgd2hlZWwgL2V0Yy9ncm91cAp3aGVlbDp4OjEwOnJvb3QscmVk
YWN0ZWQscmVkYWN0ZWQscmVkYWN0ZWQKdG9tQGRhcmtzdGFyOn4kCg==

Hmm. Maybe I could encode the entire contents of all my posts in base64. Hehe!

Friendly greetings from Sonora!

jackb

@Not_Oles said:
Hmm. Maybe I could encode the entire contents of all my posts in base64. Hehe!

What about rot13?