[Box-Admins] [Board] Rackspace OSS discount ends at the end of the year

Thu Sep 21 13:25:02 UTC 2017

Do we have an estimate on how much disk space + bandwidth we need in total?

I'd favor a more permanent solution - basically a relatively cheap server
that we can keep forever. Raising money is simpler in a pinch than having
to find the man-power to migrate every two years.

Or set it up in a way that makes migration really easy - I'm thinking a
virtual container of sorts, but have no idea on the details.

- Bert -

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 7:42 PM, Tobias Pape <Das.Linux at gmx.de> wrote:

>
> > On 20.09.2017, at 19:09, Levente Uzonyi <leves at caesar.elte.hu> wrote:
> >
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I mostly agree with Dave's list. We basically have two options:
> > A) go where the SFC can get us free hosting
> > B) pay for hosting
> >
> > A) would be a viable option if we could easily migrate the services from
> one server to another. It's Tobias who manages the servers atm, so if he's
> okay with moving them around, then we can keep on doing this.
> >
> > B) is something the Board has to investigate. How much can we afford to
> spend on hosting a year? I doubt 2-3k usd/year would be sustainable.
> Rackspace is rather pricey, probably because of their support, but we
> hardly ever use that. Other providers, like Hetzner[1] or RamNode[2], offer
> (really) cheap virtual servers. We could probably keep the servers running
> for less than 400 euros/year.
> >
> > Levente
> >
> > [1] https://www.hetzner.com/virtual-server?country=us
> > [2] https://ramnode.com/vps.php
> >
>
> I personally use [netcup](https://www.netcup.de/) for netshed.de.
> I can ask them whether they are willing to give us a discount. Maybe as
> donation to squeak e.v. or something…
>
> Best regards
>         -Tobias
>
> > On Tue, 12 Sep 2017, David T. Lewis wrote:
> >
> >> Adding the box-admins list.
> >>
> >> On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 03:50:19PM +0200, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> >>> Oh @#$%.
> >>>
> >>
> >> An excellent concise summary.
> >>
> >> A few initial thoughts from my point of view. We should:
> >>
> >> 1) Make sure we have backups, and ability to recover from the backups,
> >> for all the services.
> >>
> >> 2) Determine our actual Rackspace costs, beginning January 2018, if
> >> we no longer have the "discount", and if we continue to operate in
> >> our current server configuration. I think that the costs are in the
> >> neighborhood of $2000 - $3000 (US dollars) annually for our current
> >> server configuration, but we should confirm the actual numbers.
> >>
> >> 3) Figure out what the minimal Rackspace costs will be if we migrate
> >> services to a smaller number of servers on Rackspace, and shut down
> >> the unneeded servers to minimize billing costs. For example, I could
> >> migrate the squeaksource.com service to another box on Rackspace, and
> >> turn off the billing for dan.box.squeak.org. I think we are using eight
> >> virtual servers now because it is easy and it is "free", but maybe
> >> we only really need one or two or three.
> >>
> >> 4) Make a plan for life after Rackspace. Or maybe with Rackspace, if
> >> they are still in the low cost virtual server business.
> >>
> >> Dave
> >>
> >> p.s. Tim Cook can sell a smart phone for $1000. So what's up with the
> >> pricing strategy on our Squeak swag? I am a happy owner of a genuine
> >> SQLogo coffee mug, but I rarely brag about it to my friends, because it
> >> only cost me about $15.
> >>
> >> This mug is truly an aspirational product. If I had been allowed to
> >> spend^h^h^h^h^hinvest $100 on this mug, I would be proud as a peacock
> >> and the extra revenue could have funded another virtual server or two.
> >>
> >> ;-)
> >>
> >>>
> >>> On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 3:46 PM, Brett Smith <brett at sfconservancy.org>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Hi everyone,
> >>>>
> >>>> I have good news and bad news for you today, so I???ll start with the
> bad
> >>>> news. Many of you are relying on Rackspace???s OSS discount to host
> servers
> >>>> for your project. Unfortunately, Rackspace just informed us yesterday
> that
> >>>> they???ll be ending the program at the end of the year. The entire
> business
> >>>> is shifting focus away from running their own cloud infrastructure, to
> >>>> providing support in the Big Three clouds, so as part of that
> they???re
> >>>> ending incentive programs structured around their cloud.
> >>>>
> >>>> Conservancy hosts our own servers through this program, and so we???re
> >>>> already reaching out to other cloud providers to see if they might be
> >>>> willing to offer something similar. We realize it would be ideal if we
> >>>> could find a similar replacement program that covers each of you
> >>>> separately, and we???ll be trying to do that first. If you have
> contacts at
> >>>> hosting providers that we should be talking to about providing such a
> >>>> service, please let us know; this is a big enough deal that we???re
> eager to
> >>>> talk to anybody who might help. If they???re sufficiently generous,
> we may
> >>>> consider recognizing them as an in-kind sponsor on our web site.
> >>>>
> >>>> If you???re affected by this, it would probably be prudent to start
> planning
> >>>> how you???ll migrate your servers off Rackspace to another provider. I
> >>>> realize that???s difficult to fully plan without knowing where
> you???re going,
> >>>> but at least it would be helpful to review your system configurations
> and
> >>>> make sure you understand what you need to migrate. You might also
> consider
> >>>> if there are ways you could consolidate or streamline your servers.
> >>>> Rackspace???s OSS discount program is *extremely* generous; we might
> find a
> >>>> similar program that is merely *very* generous.
> >>>>
> >>>> Alternatively, if you???re willing to pay Rackspace for hosting, you
> can do
> >>>> that too if you have the funds. Your Rackspace bills (which are
> usually
> >>>> zeroed about by the discount) are in our Subversion server along with
> the
> >>>> rest of your financial records, usually under Expenses/Rackspace/. If
> you
> >>>> need help with accessing that, just let me know.
> >>>>
> >>>> If you don???t currently have an OSS discount account with Rackspace,
> but
> >>>> you were thinking about getting one, I???m afraid that???s no longer
> available.
> >>>>
> >>>> If you want to talk with us about this change for any reason, it???s
> >>>> probably best to do so through your specific project alias. I???m
> following
> >>>> all those conversations and can follow up there. I???ll keep you
> updated
> >>>> about our progress in finding a replacement program.
> >>>>
> >>>> Best regards,
> >>>> ???
> >>>> --
> >>>> Brett Smith
> >>>>
> >>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/box-admins/attachments/20170921/21a72996/attachment.html>