We added some nice touches to the Relio site, one of them is a Christmas theme logo

And the other is a Christmas theme splash for the main-page

Do you see Santa ?

We will do more of both for each major holiday
I also added a new CSS feature (lightbox) to open the images with a faded BG, looks great.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Relio, Toonz, WebHosting, XMAS

Popularity: 35% [?]

This one was a no brainer … it’s December.

The idea behind it was to make a cartoon where Leo is complaining he wont wear a clown’s red nose .. the idea behind the nose is so he looks like Rudolph.

I am amazed at how much people liked this one, maybe it’s the XMAS spirit.

The hasty sketch


The final Art

Technorati Tags: Cartoons, Christmas, Relio, Toonz, XMAS

Popularity: 34% [?]

Just for those who might complain they get allot of SPAM
We did a test on one of the mail-servers at Relio (MAIL1) .. and found out that:

The server averages 2000 successful e-mails per hour (not much at all)
The server bounces back in average close to 4000 SPAM messages per hour (using the Blacklists)

So, 2/3 of all mail that arrives at that server is denied .. and still lots of spam go thru.

Goes to show, indeed when statistics say noways that about 80% of all email is spam, it is true .. so by those numbers, we still need to catch an additional 15% of spam.

Average In: 2182 per/hour

RBL Rejected Mail: (Average close to 4000/h)

Technorati Tags: Relio, SPAM

Popularity: 24% [?]

There have been allot of discussions lately on WebHosting related forums about “Grid Hosting”

So that got me thinking, how different is a “Grid” from a “Cluster” ?

My first reaction to the whole thing was to get more info on what exactly are hosts calling a “Grid” .. on my Gfx background, we recognize a Grid as an array of computers, linked together to form a “super-computer” for processing power, somehow why would I need to link 1000 servers to offer processing power to a website was not really evident to me, what could you possibly be processing that required that much number crunching ?

The way big players like ebay and others do it (putting it in lame terms) is to have many computers serving the flow of traffic, this is called “load balancing” where traffic is routed to the least overloaded server, so this way you have 100 servers distributing ONE site, but they are not combining the power of 100 servers to process that site, instead each server processes a chunk of the traffic on it’s own.

As as it turns out, thats very much like “Grid” is working as well, you basically get more servers (In this case, VPS’s) to help process your traffic, this is not a super-computer (for Processing) as a “Grid” is usually called.

So that got me thinking, how hard would it be to do it with Relio ?

Apparently, not hard at all .. we already have most of the tools fabricated at the H-Sphere end, just need to invest into the rest of the hardware.

The solution is to use a NAS/NFS load balanced solution, all the data resides on the NAS, and the servers are then load balanced in the front, you can have as many web and mail servers as one needs for processing power (of traffic), should one server go down, the others keep the sites up, since the data also does not reside on the servers, it doesn’t really matter.

Here is a schematic of how it works for H-Sphere currently.

Neato
This system allows the Host to add more slave servers as it’s clients needs arise .. so should a site grow exponentially .. one just adds more slave servers, isn’t that the promise of GRID ? unlimited growth with no disturbance to the site ?

BUT, I see how this system could be ever better ..

1 - Add NAS Redundancy, everything is fine and redundant, but should the NAS fail, your whole network is down, one should have a second NAS on a real (or near) time sync, so should one go down, the other keeps the whole setup up.

2 - Make it VPS centric .. if one could define VPS’s as the mailservers and webservers for one user, then as the user grows, one could simply replicate THAT vps into any additional slave server (with a bit of development I am sure) .. the flaw I see is, if in order for ONE user to grow, I need to replicate a whole server, then all the other users on that server are getting a free ride ..

There is another solution, which is to move the growing user to it’s own webserver/mailserver and replicate those as needed, thats a bit more expensive, but it’s a solution neither the less.

My perfect scenario.

I’d love to see us be able to deploy a VPS as a shared account, basically, the user resides on it’s own VPS, but manages his account from within H-Sphere, just like a shared account would, no need for a second CP or additional software, and if we could make all the services for that account to be distributed (1 VPS for mail, 1 for web, 1 for databases) .. then one would replicate those vps’s for load balancing, and then increase copies of those vps’s as growth demanded.

I am sure with time and development, H-Sphere will do just that, or close, for now, I am pricing to try and deploy the existing load balanced system, can I cal it a “GRID” ? .. not sure, but it’s all about marketing.

On a side note: This whole boils down to money .. One needs to be able to charge clients for additional resources, how are people offering 1TB of traffic and hundreds of GB’s of storage for $20 is mind boggling .. it’s not even the matter of “can you do it” .. I’m sure with lots of volume, you can, but why ?, why would I want to make 100K profit on a 10Million Turnover ? call me greedy then, but I want to make 100K profit, on a 500K turnover .. otherwise, I am in jeopardy of running a business with very limited capital, and one slip, and it’s Chapter 11 time.

Update: Ok, I just learned that NAS can do fail-over .. do thats one strike off the wish-list

Technorati Tags: GRID, H-Sphere, Relio, WebHosting, website

Popularity: 38% [?]

When I was a kid living in Portugal, I used to love reading “Disney” comic books, used … nah, I still like them even these days :).

Anyway, one of my favorite comics of all times, was a series of stories published in the late 70’s, early 80’s entitled “Goofy Does History”, on those stories, Goofy played very famous characters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Midas, Marco Polo, etc .. and one of them was “Galileo Galilei” ..

Yep, this exact comic is on my bookcase

I remember that one of the great things about those stories was how for example, at such young age, I learned how Gutenberg published the first book ever, and that that book was the Bible, or that Galilei experimented that two bodies of different mass and weight would fall at the same rate on a vacuum (the “Falling Bodies” theory), these are things I would only hear about many years later in High School, but there I was at the age of 5, and thru comics, I was learning.

A fact that didn’t went unnoticed, so these days, I spend some time looking for those same comics in english, so my children can read them and while having a laught with them, they are also learning.

Anyway, enough nostalgia, our next cartoon episode, was based on my re-colection of the Goofy Galilei episode, where he tests his Falling Bodies theory by asking a heavyset woman and her puny husband to leap from the tower of Pisa into an old mattress to test his theory that they would both fall at the same time (hey, it was a cartoon book after all).

On this episode, we illustrate that sometimes you just feel like trowing the deadbeat customer’s server’s from the 10th floor, but hey, if you have to do it, might as well make a science project out of it and test the great master’s (Galilei) theory.

The sketch was done a big on a hurry, I had the idea on my mind and needed to give it to Paulo @ Yellowicon/Iconbase within 5 minutes so he could do the final Art; To illustrate how on a hurry we were, I had to capture the sketch on my MacBook Pro Webcam since I had no scanner around and there was no time to wait until I got back home.

The Draft

The final Art

In the end, I love the result, it’s a funny Gag, and I am sure Relio visitors and other friends will have a laugh at it , and who knows, a few might do a google on Galilei and learn something from it (especially those who wont have a clue what his theory was).

Technorati Tags: Cartoons, Disney, Funny, Galileo Galilei, Goofy, Pateta, Rea & Leo, Relio, Toonz, WebHosting

Popularity: 33% [?]

A few days back, and we had an outage at Relio.

Check out the dip on Friday
Simple put, Rob took down one of the 2 routers we use, to upgrade it from FreeBSD to OpenBSD for better IP usage, with OpenBSD we can save 2 ip’s per allocation, currently each time we allocate an IP block, we set aside 3 ip’s, one for router 1, one for router 2, and one for gateway.

With OpenBSD on the routers, we only need to use 1 ip .. how it works, I leave to the Sysadmins, but it has the potential to save us loads of IP’s in the long run, since we are getting new ip’s soon from ARIN, it’s worth doing it now.

So, one of the routers was put down, which meant while the upgrade was being performed, all traffic was routed to thru the second router and a single provider (Time Warner - TW) .. and thats when trouble happened, all of the sudden, mid-way thru the upgrade, the TW link went dead, and with the second router down, we had no way to go out thru the other providers as usual.

What’s the odds of it happening ? very slim, but it happen .. So the guys had to get on the phone with TW and get the link back up, we were dead on the water for about an hour and eventually the TW link was restored and we were back in business, since the second router has been upgraded and we are back 100%, and with a bruised ego.

It just goes to show, you work with a system for years, it’s so reliable that you think “I can rely on it for a few hours” while you take other system down for an upgrade, and BINGO .. your uber-reliable system goes down the one time you need it up.

Is it Karma ? Cosmo-misalignment ? Ex-Wife’s curse ?, who knows ..

One thing this episode made me realize .. we have/had a big flaw on our system, even so the US DC was the only one down, the UK went down as well, why ?, because even so we have a great DNS system, with a separate physical server for each DNS as the book recommends, both DNS servers site on the same datacenter, with it down, it was a matter of minutes before some ISP’s started to drop the sites on the UK, that while they were UP, they had no DNS; So, we are now moving the DNS2 server to the UK to prevent it from ever happening again.

The good thing was, the forums http://www.relioforums.com site both off-network and off-dns .. so they were up and people were able to get information during the outage.

After 7-8 years on this business, you think you know and seen it all, then something comes along that smacks you right on the face and tells you never to forget that SH*T Happens and you need to always be prepared.

Technorati Tags: Outage, Relio, WebHosting, Work

Popularity: 17% [?]

For this cartoon, I had envision a “mobile datacenter” based on a trailer.

Since modern trailers have an AC on top, you get your cooling system, they are off the ground, so it’s raised flooring, add a nice combination lock to the door, a $150 generator from Homedepot (B&Q), a Sat-Web dish for redundancy, a few DSL lines .. and “presto” .. you got yourself a datacenter that can outrun the hurricanes (or be taken by them).

My Original Sketch:

The Final Cartoon:

Technorati Tags: Funny, Cartoons, Rea & Leo, Toonz, WebHosting

Popularity: 27% [?]

I Have been testing a new script that Jeff (hspheretemplates.com) is creating for H-Sphere.

Basically it’s a Reseller Walkthrough .. the idea is, the reseller get their account, then then login and immediately are presented with a screen that highlights 15 steps they need to finish.

15 steps to success

Until all steps are completed, thats the screen they get every time they log into their Admin account, the Walkthrough also has some tooltips and will link you to the right page to perform the step in line, it will also force you to d the steps in order .. as some later steps depend on earlier ones to be complete.
There are a few bugs, and I have sent jeff a list, but overall, it’s 95% there, and it’s better than the alternative, which is a html file describing what to do, that most people seem to have a problem with.

Our resellers at Relio are now using it, and they seem to love it .. I’m quite happy, because on the next H-Sphere 2.5.1 we will have the ability to not need to create an “Admin user” anymore (resellers got confused, they had a regular user and an admin user), and the ability for Resellers to “Inherit” plans from the Admin (Called Markup Plans) .. instead of having to create their owns from scratch .. this coupled with this plug-in will make reseller’s life in h-sphere so much easier.

Technorati Tags: H-Sphere, HSPhere, WebHosting, Relio

Popularity: 16% [?]

I was frustrated as hell a few weeks back because I was unable to get my new office, not anymore, yesterday afternoon I got the keys and access fob.

The new place is just great, 1.x miles from home, so I will be using my bike most days to comute, also my windows overlook a canal where houseboats roams (think RV on water), and they have a small pier on the back, my idea is, on nice days, I’ll just take the laptop to the pier and work there enjoying the sun (actually it’s not my idea, when i went to see the place I notice thats what two other people were doing), and since my office is literally 20 feet from the pier, wi-fi reception should be good

Which reminds me, Chris sent me the 4 line Panasonic phone, which has a wireless extension that will come in handy for those (rare in UK) sunny days.

Internet is in, so is office furniture, so when I move in Monday, I just need to plug the Vonage VOIP boxes and I’m ready to go.

Technorati Tags: Office, Happy, Work

Popularity: 13% [?]

My irrational stupid fear of flying is starting to get on the way of some greats trips.

Recently I closed a deal with the largest Telco in Brazil, the new deployment of our solution is to be unveiled on the 17th of this month, so they asked me to send somebody over for 4-5 days to make sure it goes smoothly, and preferably, myself, since I speak the language.

But after seeing the itineraries, it means I have to travel anywhere from 13 to 20 hours, depending on the carrier, with stretches over 12 hours on the plane.

Considering my last trip was just 30 minutes on a plane, and I was literally dying by the time we landed, 12 hours is just more than I can bare.

I know how it would be, within 10 minutes I would start to panic on the plane, and for the next 11 hours and 50 minutes, I would be puking my guts out and sweating of anxiety, not a pretty sight .. and then, 5 days later, do it all over again.

I cant understand or stand this fear I developed after many years of flying, unfortunately, it seems it’s the only way to cross the Atlantic these days, which leaves me with no choice but to send somebody else.

So there goes a great chance to visit Rio and Sao Paulo .. maybe one day I’ll take a cruise there, what a pain.

I wish there was a pill you could take and get nocked out, I haver try Benadril .. but it doesn’t do a thing for me.

Technorati Tags: fear of flying, Brazil, puppy, Work

Popularity: 25% [?]