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Ubuntu cloud µservers - Beta testers wanted! FREE!

albertdbalbertdb Member
edited March 2016 in General

I'm developing a new platform of cloud µservers (micro-servers) based on Ubuntu 14.04 (new!) or Alpine Linux, both with s6 init and it's the time for real user testing.

After the Alpha test, some of you have told me that don't feel comfortable with Alpine Linux, therefore I decided to provide an Ubuntu base image. I've also performed some improvements on the platform.

Final specs for those cloud µservers are still not decided, but for Beta µservers the current ones are the following:

  • 2 vCPUs
  • ¼ physical core CPU allowance
  • 320MB total system memory allowance
  • 2GB SSD disk
  • Unmetered bandwidth
  • 1 shared IPv4
  • 100 NAT ports
  • vKVM through SSH

Tentative pricing:

  • 0.024€ setup fee FREE during testing.
  • 0.001€/h FREE during testing.
  • Add-ons from 0.0001€/h N/A during testing.
    • such as 0.0001€/h per 20% CPU power increment.
    • such as 0.0001€/h per extra GB of SSD disk.

Just send me a PM and I will send you cloud µserver IP, credentials, vKVM SSH port, and assigned NAT ports. Given user will have sudo capabilities.

This testing phase is expected to run for several months, so don't hesitate to use your cloud µserver for running real things.

Current platform nodes run on top of Scaleway C2l if you are interested in knowing.

Some conditions:

  • Only LET users registered before 01/01/2016 00:00 are eligible.
  • After a few days you will have to answer three questions (takes less than 2 minutes) about the service in order to continue using the cloud µserver until next testing phase. Otherwise your cloud µserver will be destroyed and redeployed for the next one in the waiting list.
  • SMTP is blocked. Don't even try to ask for enabling it for you.
  • Automatic monitoring of what you run in there will be performed. I won't spy you nor inspect file contents, but don't do weird things.
  • TOR not allowed nor any other deepnet thing. See bulletpoint above.

s6 init system examples: https://notehub.org/ame84

Thanked by 3Spance FlamesRunner TheOnlyDK

Comments

  • albertdbalbertdb Member
    edited March 2016

    BTW, Alpha testers can request to have their Alpine Linux µserver migrated to the new version of the platform or request a new Ubuntu one. Please specify.

  • Awmusic12635Awmusic12635 Member, Host Rep

    Wasn't there already a post for this earlier?

  • albertdbalbertdb Member
    edited March 2016

    @Awmusic12635 said:
    Wasn't there already a post for this earlier?

    That was the Alpha test post. I couldn't edit OP any more, so I've had to open a new one for Beta test. A lot has changed in the transition, not just the base image options.

  • albertdbalbertdb Member
    edited March 2016

    Some tips:

    • To remove the ugly random generated hostname of bash prompt, run sed -i 's/\\h/userver/g' ~/.bashrc and reconnect.
    • To instakill your server (will be rebooted automatically), run sudo kill 1 (not recommended)
  • toysareforboystoysareforboys Member

    OMG that's amazing! I'd like Ubuntu 14.04 one please. I couldn't figure out Alpine Linux at all :( Thanks!

    -Jamie M.

  • sandrosandro Member
    edited March 2016

    I still don't understand what s6 is? does it make them different from a vps?

  • albertdbalbertdb Member
    edited March 2016

    Thanks to @neps bug report, I've fixed SFTP server in Ubuntu, which was not working properly.

    @sandro said:
    I still don't understand what s6 is? does it make them different from a vps?

    It's a different init system. System services are managed by s6, not by systemd, upstart nor SysVinit. µservers are different in the sense that you only have what you need running on your µserver, rather than a full bloated OS.

    There are little chances that there's something you are used to do in a VPS that can't be done in a µserver.

    Thanked by 1sandro
  • albertdbalbertdb Member

    All µservers have been upgraded with 100% CPU power increment. This add-on would cost 0.0005€/h (tentative price).

  • dailydaily Member

    Are this still open for request? Would love to test!

  • sandrosandro Member

    @albertdb said:
    Thanks to neps bug report, I've fixed SFTP server in Ubuntu, which was not working properly.

    There are little chances that there's something you are used to do in a VPS that can't be done in a µserver.

    It's not a virtualization?

  • afterSt0rmafterSt0rm Member

    Server Tests:

    IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT USING DOCKER FOR VPN OR ANY SECURITY RELATED SOFTWARE:

    Some users my find the price temptative, but you should be really careful if you want to use Docker to run a VPN. Docker wasn't built to run containers as virtual machines nor to have multiple untrusted guests. Running containers as not ephemeral objects can have unexpected consequences and Docker Engine resources security policies are enforced by software. Never trust your keys or secrets to a service like that

    I would be far more comfortable if @albertdb started to use LXD and it's amazing hardware security API and speed, but as a testing service it works great in general.

    Disk

    IOPS are ok but throughput is BAD. Not just the throughput is bad but disk latency is AWFUL. OK, AUFS isn't the fastest thing in the universe but we sure have a high margin for improvement. ZFS storage with mirroring can give us a better disk performance. But if we keep in mind that those micro servers are Docker containers, the additional software layer on top of the filesystem has impacts on performance.

    For the general use (low traffic website, zeronet node, etc) it should be OK.

    ioping

    ef8fe73b27f6:/home/noroot# ioping -R /
--- / (ext4 /dev/mapper/docker...) ioping statistics ---
1.5 k requests completed in 3.0 s, 502 iops, 2.0 mb/s
min/avg/max/mdev = 139 us / 2.0 ms / 96.1 ms / 11.9 ms

    ef8fe73b27f6:/home/noroot# ioping -RL /
--- / (ext4 /dev/mapper/docker...) ioping statistics ---
301 requests completed in 3.0 s, 100 iops, 25.2 mb/s
min/avg/max/mdev = 799 us / 9.9 ms / 99.9 ms / 26.3 ms

    dd

    root@5a1bb9e09c42:/home/noroot# dd bs=1M count=1024 if=/dev/zero of=test conv=fdatasync
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 13.8639 s, 77.4 MB/s

    root@5a1bb9e09c42:/home/noroot# dd bs=1M count=1024 if=/dev/zero of=test oflag=dsync
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 40.9571 s, 26.2 MB/s

    root@5a1bb9e09c42:/home/noroot# dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/testfile bs=512 count=1000 oflag=dsync
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
512000 bytes (512 kB) copied, 13.344 s, 38.4 kB/s

    CPU

    Fairly OK for the CPU quota informed on the post and the CPU used by the host.

    root@5a1bb9e09c42:/home/noroot# dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=1024 | md5sum
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 9.73439 s, 110 MB/s

    RAM

    Yes, you can push your 320MB and use all your RAM quota. I don't know, of course, if the server will ever be oversold to hell in the future...

    root@5a1bb9e09c42:/home/noroot# stress --vm 3 --vm-bytes 107MB --timeout 60s
stress: info: [407] dispatching hogs: 0 cpu, 0 io, 3 vm, 0 hdd
stress: info: [407] successful run completed in 61s
  • sandrosandro Member
    edited March 2016

    how do i see actual ram usage? free returns 2GB

  • afterSt0rmafterSt0rm Member

    @sandro said:
    how do i see actual ram usage? free returns 2GB

    No way until @albertdb write a script for that. What you can do is write a script yourself that calculates used RAM based on a top or ps exit. Not reliable, but it's a start.

  • agonyztagonyzt Member

    EkaatyLinux said: I would be far more comfortable if @albertdb started to use LXD

    Definitely. Even plain LXC (or systemd-nspawn) with good restrictions set in place would be more suitable for these µservers than Docker IMO...

    Thanked by 2webcraft afterSt0rm
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