Joyent Accelerator

[Tim Harper]

I’ve got a client who’s been looking into some other options for hosting.  Currently, they’re hosting on MediaTemple, and it’s been nothing but hassle.  It’s running in a shared “container”, capped at 128 megs of ram. 

 

Here’s the issues we’ve had with MediaTemple:

·         If you go over your RAM limit, they kill your rails process and don't bother to start it up again.  (Bad news if somebody uploads a big image)

·         Images load really slow.  We checked to make sure that Mongrel wasn't serving them up, and sure enough, it isn't.  It's like they're only giving us one thread in Apache.

·         The grid service and the front and service are running different libraries!  This is especially bad if you are using rmagick.  The server runs great when you're running it under the grid container, but when you want to debug the server, run a rake task, or use script/console, you're out of luck.

·         There are some really strange bugs happening on the production server that we can't produce on any other machine.  And, because of the libraries issue, we can't easily debug things on production without messing up the live site.

 

We're looking into Joyent Accelerator.  Everything I've been able to read about it seems good.  Does anybody have any experience with this hosting company (or any other)?  We're looking for something to start small with, but then be able to expand and grow.  Big traffic is predicted in the future.

 

Thanks!

Tim

[Nathan Peel]

Wow. Thanks for sharing this experience Tim. I had considered media temple an option but I'll avoid them now. Unfortunately i don't have any suggestions for an alternative. I've heard good things about Textdrive/Joyent but don't have any first hand experience with them.

[Ammon Christiansen]

I liked railsplayground.com which I was with them. I was about to
sign up with them again here soon, but I was going to look into
bluehost.com for comparison first.

Good luck to you and let us know what you find out.

[Ben Mabey]

Tim,
I have used rimuhosting.com in the past and loved the service there.  They specialize in VPSs and so we are running ubuntu on a couple of there VPSs.  I really don't have anything bad to say about them, but I have heard that some host machines have more problems than others.  I would still reccomend them because you can't beat the price.  I also have a site at engineyard.com and can't say enough about there service.  If you can afford engineyard then that is a great solution for any rails app because they can scale to large amounts of traffic in a very short amount of time.
-Ben

[Caleb Jaffa]

I've been very happy with slicehost.com, there is a backlog to get on, but the prices are low and the performance has been top notch. Once you are a customer you get priority for new slice assignment, so if you need to upgrade/add slices down the road it won't be as long a wait. I upgraded my slice at one point and had to wait a day or two for them to do it, but they communicated well prior and after doing it and the process took less than 5 minutes to take my slice down and up the specs.

The downside is that you will need to do all the system admin of the slice, and on the 256 slice you are sharing memory between your MySQL (or database server of choice) and your rails app. I'm using google apps for mail, so I don't have to worry about postfix or some other mail program also sharing in the RAM.

Might work well depending on what kind of solution you are looking for.

On 7/24/07, Tim Harper <timch...@gmail.com > wrote:

[Tieg Zaharia]

The Joyent Accelerators worked pretty well for us (wayyyy more than the Joyent shared hosting). Whenever there's a problem or you have a problem you can usually get help fast with the Textdrive forums. I personally liked using OpenSolaris and their SMF-setup for starting processes, but I didn't use it with Capistrano so I don't know if there are any problems setting Cap up on it.


-tieg

[Adrian Madrid]

+1 for Slicehost. I tried Joyent for a while but it did not gave me all I needed. I've been very happy with Slichost, though. Once you are a customer you can actually add any amount of slices (I added like 6) immediately and upgrading/downgrading is almost immediate too. So far it has been the best value for me. All the features that I need and at a price not ven Rimuhosting gets close to beat.

AEM

--
Adrian Esteban Madrid

[Alan Whitaker]

We've been happy with Rackspace on the expensive, dedicated end of the scale.  Very high reliability and their "fanatical" customer service are the highlights.  Weak point: lack of Rails expertise and tools.

Having said that, we've been very impressed with EngineYard and considering a move.  Ben, I'd love to get any more comments about your experience (could email me off list if you have my address from last meeting).  Anyone else used them?

Alan

[Lee Jensen]

Another +1 for slicehost. They totally rock. Our servers are quick,
bandwidth is good, you can upgrade any time you want and they have
pretty good expandability (up 2 2G of ram)

Lee

[Doug Tolton]

Another +1 for slicehost. I've been very impressed with them.

Doug

[Dave Stevenson]

I run a VPS hosting company, so I of course think my services are the best... :)  We're comparable to Slicehost - no frills, affordable VPS hosting for those that know what they're doing.  As a plus - we're local - so if you have a problem, you can come knock on my door at 2am :)

If you're not familiar with VPS hosting, its basically like having your own dedicated server.  You get full control over the software installed and there are guaranteed minimum specs (RAM, Disk, CPU).  Your app can't bring down another person's app, and likewise, someone else's poorly written script won't slow your site down.  It's definetly a step up from shared hosting, and in my opinion, absolutely worth the slight increase in price - and the perfect setup for Rails apps.

For anyone else interested, drop me a line - I'll gladly give you a nice URUG discount.

Dave
http://www.stevensonsoftware.com - affordable VPS Hosting
http://www.gotossh.com - web based SSH

On 7/24/07, Doug Tolton < dto...@gmail.com> wrote:

Another +1 for slicehost.  I've been very impressed with them.

[Tim Harper]

I just wanted to chime in here again and thank everyone for their great input on hosts.  I’m convinced that the wait for slicehost will be worth it.

 

Thanks!

 

Tim

<br

[Lee Jensen]

Good choice, I agree. Here's some more features I love that I hadn't
mentioned. The administrative interface, the ability to get in with a
virtual "console" from the web if you bung up your firewall config.
The ability to run a variety of different linux distros and have
complete control over them. Not to mention a decent DNS interface.
They rock We've been totally happy with them. Oh and once you are a
customer they keep some slices in reserve for existing folks to
upgrade and buy new ones so you shouldn't have to wait again!

Lee

[brandon]

I'm looking into Slicehost as a result of this thread but I've also
been watching Westhost for a long time and they are having a great
deal going on right now.

I'm concerned about running a Rails stack on the 256slice plan
though. Has anyone had problems with such little memory? Also why is
EngineYard so expensive?

On Jul 26, 4:49 pm, "Lee Jensen" <l...@outerim.com> wrote:
> Good choice, I agree. Here's some more features I love that I hadn't
> mentioned. The administrative interface, the ability to get in with a
> virtual "console" from the web if you bung up your firewall config.
> The ability to run a variety of different linux distros and have
> complete control over them. Not to mention a decent DNS interface.
> They rock We've been totally happy with them. Oh and once you are a
> customer they keep some slices in reserve for existing folks to
> upgrade and buy new ones so you shouldn't have to wait again!
>
> Lee
>

> On 7/26/07, Tim Harper <timchar...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I just wanted to chime in here again and thank everyone for their great

> > input on hosts. I'm convinced that the wait forslicehostwill be worth it.

>
> > Thanks!
>
> > Tim
>
> > From: ur...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ur...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dave
> > Stevenson
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 7:54 PM
> > To: ur...@googlegroups.com
> > Subject: [urug] Re: Joyent Accelerator
>
> > I run a VPS hosting company, so I of course think my services are the

> > best... :) We're comparable toSlicehost- no frills, affordable VPS

> > hosting for those that know what they're doing. As a plus - we're local -
> > so if you have a problem, you can come knock on my door at 2am :)
>
> > If you're not familiar with VPS hosting, its basically like having your own
> > dedicated server. You get full control over the software installed and
> > there are guaranteed minimum specs (RAM, Disk, CPU). Your app can't bring
> > down another person's app, and likewise, someone else's poorly written
> > script won't slow your site down. It's definetly a step up from shared
> > hosting, and in my opinion, absolutely worth the slight increase in price -
> > and the perfect setup for Rails apps.
>
> > For anyone else interested, drop me a line - I'll gladly give you a nice
> > URUG discount.
>
> > Dave
> > http://www.stevensonsoftware.com-
> > affordable VPS Hosting

> > http://www.gotossh.com- web based SSH
>
> > On 7/24/07, Doug Tolton < dtol...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Another +1 forslicehost. I've been very impressed with them.

>
> > Doug
>
> > On 7/24/07, Lee Jensen <l...@outerim.com> wrote:
>

> > > Another +1 forslicehost. They totally rock. Our servers are quick,

> > > bandwidth is good, you can upgrade any time you want and they have
> > > pretty good expandability (up 2 2G of ram)
>
> > > Lee
>

> > > On 7/24/07, Adrian Madrid <aemad...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > +1 forSlicehost. I tried Joyent for a while but it did not gave me all

> > I
> > > > needed. I've been very happy with Slichost, though. Once you are a
> > customer
> > > > you can actually add any amount of slices (I added like 6) immediately
> > and
> > > > upgrading/downgrading is almost immediate too. So far it has been the
> > best
> > > > value for me. All the features that I need and at a price not ven
> > > > Rimuhosting gets close to beat.
>
> > > > AEM
>
> > > > On 7/24/07, Caleb Jaffa < ca...@porteighty.com> wrote:

> > > > > I've been very happy withslicehost.com, there is a backlog to get

> > on, but
> > > > the prices are low and the performance has been top notch. Once you are
> > a
> > > > customer you get priority for new slice assignment, so if you need to
> > > > upgrade/add slices down the road it won't be as long a wait. I upgraded
> > my
> > > > slice at one point and had to wait a day or two for them to do it, but
> > they
> > > > communicated well prior and after doing it and the process took less
> > than 5
> > > > minutes to take my slice down and up the specs.
>
> > > > > The downside is that you will need to do all the system admin of the
> > > > slice, and on the 256 slice you are sharing memory between your MySQL
> > (or
> > > > database server of choice) and your rails app. I'm using google apps
> > for
> > > > mail, so I don't have to worry about postfix or some other mail program
> > also
> > > > sharing in the RAM.
>
> > > > > Might work well depending on what kind of solution you are looking
> > for.
>

[Tim Harper]

We ended up going with slicehost. 256 megs of ram has been sufficient
enough for 2 mongrels, apache, and mysql, without having to dip much into
cache.

I think EngineYard is so expensive because of their support... though I've
never used them so take that for what it's worth

Tim

> > > > > > . If you go over your RAM limit, they kill your rails

> > process
> > > > and don't bother to start it up again. (Bad news if somebody
uploads a
> > big
> > > > image)
>

> > > > > > . Images load really slow. We checked to make sure

that
> > Mongrel
> > > > wasn't serving them up, and sure enough, it isn't. It's like
they're
> > only
> > > > giving us one thread in Apache.
>

> > > > > > . The grid service and the front and service are

running
> > > > different libraries! This is especially bad if you are using
rmagick.
> > The
> > > > server runs great when you're running it under the grid container,
but
> > when
> > > > you want to debug the server, run a rake task, or use
script/console,
> > you're
> > > > out of luck.
>

> > > > > > . There are some really strange bugs happening on the

[Ammon Christiansen]

I've been trying to find information on OpenVZ and xensource VPS methods and I haven't been able to find the answer to a question I have, which is:  which one will thrash the CPU's cache the least.  If I'm running video transcoding (decode and then reencode in another format) algorithms and then the OS switches tasks to someone else's for their timeslice (and has to flush the cache), how much will that affect my performance on one form of virtualization platform versus another?  Anyone have an answer?

[Dave Stevenson]

I don't have a concrete answer for you, but I have some thoughts.

I know that Xen does more context-switching when going between virtual machines than OpenVZ does.  This is because there is some sort of microkernel (hypervisor) that manages I/O between the physical machine and the virtual machines.  OpenVZ does not have that additional layer, so it doesn't need to context-switch as much.  Intuitively, I suspect that the additional context-switches would ultimately result in more CPU cache misses.
 
The best whitepaper I've seen that does the most in depth "technical" analysis between the two is http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2007/HPL-2007-59.pdf .  It talks a lot about the CPU cache and the hits/misses.

I don't have any XEN machines, but if you ever need an OpenVZ VPS instance that you would like to run some tests on, drop me a line and I can set up a test VPS for you.

Regards,

Dave
http://www.stevensonsoftware.com