The-REV's Blog

Hi window$ puppets. It's time to avoid Vista for ever replacing it by Linux. Today I've a great news to you all: new Fedora is coming!! Red Hat has released the latest version of their Fedora operating system. The company said that Fedora 7 has been designed in such a way that it would allow open source community tools to build customized Linux distributions.

The company has also now opened all the Fedora operating system packages to the community. Red Hat said that this new development would give Fedora community more influence over the development of the operating system.

Greg Dekoenigsberg, community development manager at Red Hat spoke about Fedora 7: “If you want an OS that is nothing but a database and the things required to support that database, then you don’t have to add support for Firefox or for games.”

He added: “The goal of Fedora 7 was to build a single repository of Fedora packages that are not separated by ‘Red Hat maintained’ and ‘community maintained’. The thing that made that possible is that we now have a set of completely open-source build tools to build Fedora or any derivative of Fedora.”

Dekoenigsberg further spoke about the increasing competition from Ubuntu: “Our goals are to some degree different. The aim of the Ubuntu Project seems to be to provide a high-degree of polish to the typical Windows, non-savvy end user. They do a good job of that but they are willing to make sacrifices to that end that we are not willing to make.”

Download Fedora for free and enjoy the non virused world (also without daily defrag actions needed...). Visit Fedora community powered by The Planet:
http://www.fedoraforum.org/

Tip: Do with your browser "open" in a photo and zoom it...


updated on June 28st, 2007 - Hi nerds...
We concluded today our evaluation on Cameron Jones VPSLink and we are impressed with this product for developers and all people seeking for a cool VPS at cheap price!! VPSLink really rocks! This product is a virtualization based on Open VZ invented by SWSoft and VPSLink is running it's high performance ones in a monster server with SCSI raid in the Name Intelligence Inc Datacenter (Seattle, Washington). We ordered Link 4 and started it running two websites for test, setupped at command line at hostmenow.us and server.hostmenow.us. Then we launched 15 websites in 15 domain names and all of them The VPS we are using costs $39.95 monthly ($ 33.29 for annual contract), offers 20GB of space disk, 512MB RAM 3 IP, 500GB of premium bandwidth and equal share CPU from the referred server, a Dual Xeon. VPSLink provide users with a custom Server Control Panel that's allow customers do reload or change Operating System from a list with a lot of distros like Slack, Ubuntu, Gentoo, various Fedora Core, CentOs, OpenSuse 10 and two Debian. We evaluated CentOS 4.0, Debian Sarge 3.1 and Fedora Core 6 LAM, Fedora Core 7, the latest Ubuntu and more. CentOS, a free distribution based in Red Hat Enterprise, have some problems with yum but VPSLink have it's own mirror with all packages needed to install yum in CentOS (at ourt nest OS reload we installed a CentOS 4x that have not problems with yum - we installed mc, emacs, g++, flex, sendmail, proftpd atc, ISP Config (this one failed with php issues). Debian runs fine, in high level of security and you can update it by apt-get, but have problems with .gif due the patent issue and browser does not display .gif images stored in Debian environment if you does not recompile the appropriate package to get lzw enabled. We also installed Webmin in port 1000 of this Open VZ VPS and also Zervex Server CP (it is available there at only five bucks monthly). I also installed cPanel 11 + WHM (our own license) in this VPS running with template CentOS and the install has been performed fine, without only one problem. cPanel WHM runs fine on Link 4. At the end of evaluation I tested CentOS + Lxadmin. For those interested in know how various different distros runs in a VPS this VPSLink is in fact a school; for those interested in run a VPS that rocks like a physical server these ones are highly recommended IMHO. Note that you can reload or change your Linux Operating System in few minutes, you can reboot and stop your VPS by VPSLink CP that is very fine and intuitive! These guys accepts PayPal and have a technical forum where users help users and uptime is 100% including during VPS upgrades (but note please that your entire data is destroyed when you reinstall or replace your OS, then you must have a backup). It's cool and only one negative point we found: due poor CPU allowed by the equal share system build a tarball for /home hasconsumedd (all times we did it) above 1h30m (in another VPS we evaluated, unde VZPP and under Hyper VM this task have an ETA of 11 minutes, no more. VPSLink administrator has informed us through VPSLink Forum that this problem is due some customers running hard scripts for development tasks. The principal advantage of VPSLink over the rest is that it's VPS are really robust, solid and simply does not exist downtime there. Note that under Open VZ using UBC the correct memory available and used cannot be obtained with # free -m and it is necessary to run this script:
beans=`cat /proc/user_beancounters | grep priv`
max=`echo $beans | awk '{ print $4;}'`
use=`echo $beans | awk '{ print $2;}'`
let "per=$use*100/$max"
let "mb=$use/256"
let "mmb=$max/256"
echo "privvmpages usage: $mb MB ($per% of $mmb)"

From our Link 4 we extracted the output shown below (with cPanel WHM 11 running):

root@64.79.209.184's password:
Last login: Mon Jun 25 20:00:18 2007 from 189.24.88.81
[root@server ~]# beans=`cat /proc/user_beancounters | grep priv`
[root@server ~]# max=`echo $beans | awk '{ print $4;}'`
[root@server ~]# use=`echo $beans | awk '{ print $2;}'`
[root@server ~]# let "per=$use*100/$max"
[root@server ~]# let "mb=$use/256"
[root@server ~]# let "mmb=$max/256"
[root@server ~]# echo "privvmpages usage: $mb MB ($per% of $mmb)"
privvmpages usage: 291 MB (62% of 464)
[root@server ~]#

Screenshot below made by Gnome running on my Mandriva shows cPanel installed in VPSLink:



VPSLink is not a normal VPS provider like dozens advertising on the Web. VPSLink is unique, an invention of Spry CEO Cameron Jones, that allow nerds runs Open VZ based VPS like physical servers. No support to be evaluated because VPSLink has not support for software issues, like unmanaged dedis. I was Spry customer during 12 months and Spry has not outages (during one year I get in total 3 hours of downtime). Spry has a very good support for software issues. During few days testing Link 4 from VPSLink I performed a lot of benchmarks and other tests in order to evaluate it's I/O. Only the technical aspect was considered. An example: on Tuesday May 15 I performed at the same time, absolutely easy, smooth and without only one problem on my Link 4 running at this time Fedora Core 6 complete edition, totally yumized, the 10 tasks shown below (note - all at the same time...):

Various simultaneous SSH connection as follows

Mandrake/Gnome Terminal 1 - Retrieving 5 GB of data from our master server by SCP

Mandrake/Gnome Terminal 2 - Retrieving domains from our backup server by rsync

Mandrake/Gnome Terminal 3 - Moving data from /restore to /var/www/vhosts by Midnight Commander

Mandrake/Gnome Terminal 4 - Uploading tarball data to our backup server by Midnight Commander built-in FTP

Mandrake/Gnome Terminal 5 - Editing httpd.conf using Emacs

SSH Secure Transfer (Windows app running on Mandrake) uploading files from my PC to Link 4

And more:

Opera browser using Webmin to install virtual servers (and more yum -y install)

Netscape 7.2 using Usermin to send email and loading web pages from domain running in Link 4

Netscape 7.2 on VPSLink Control Panel creating DNS zones

Note please once again: all tasks at the same time without only one problem.

Yes, VPSLink really rocks!!

I made a lot of screenshoots on this tasks for a complete and illustrated future review in one of my websites.



VPSLink is running at: http://vpslink.com/
You can found our testing website at: http://hostmenow.us/

Screenshot below shows the VPSLink Change OS feature (this allows replace distros in few minutes!!)





==============================================================

Take a look please on the output we found in Link 4 with Unixbench WHT, the most severe server evaluator currently used by Web Hosting professionals:

BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 4.1-wht.1)
System -- Linux server.hostmenow.us 2.6.9 #1 SMP Wed Jul 19 16:24:18 MSD 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
/dev/simfs 19922944 881116 19041828 5% /

Start Benchmark Run: Mon May 14 17:04:41 PDT 2007
17:04:41 up 5:10, 1 user, load average: 0.07, 0.12, 0.14

End Benchmark Run: Mon May 14 17:17:40 PDT 2007
17:17:40 up 5:23, 1 user, load average: 14.50, 6.18, 2.90


INDEX VALUES
TEST BASELINE RESULT INDEX

Dhrystone 2 using register variables 376783.7 4940620.8 131.1
Double-Precision Whetstone 83.1 765.9 92.2
Execl Throughput 188.3 485.9 25.8
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 2672.0 16473.0 61.7
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1077.0 6585.0 61.1
File Read 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 15382.0 311374.0 202.4
Pipe Throughput 111814.6 217205.8 19.4
Pipe-based Context Switching 15448.6 64931.0 42.0
Process Creation 569.3 5248.5 92.2
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 44.8 531.9 118.7
System Call Overhead 114433.5 307008.1 26.8
=========
FINAL SCORE 62.5
[root@server unixbench-4.1.0-wht-1]#


==============================================================

BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 4.0.1)
System -- Linux server.hostmenow.us 2.6.9 #1 SMP Wed Jul 19 16:24:18 MSD 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Start Benchmark Run: Mon May 14 15:14:26 PDT 2007
1 interactive users.
15:14:26 up 3:20, 1 user, load average: 0.03, 0.03, 0.00
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 May 14 11:54 /bin/sh -> bash
/bin/sh: symbolic link to `bash'
/dev/simfs 19922944 741832 19181112 4% /
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 3703482.1 lps (10 secs, 10 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = double) 522760.7 lps (10 secs, 10 samples)
System Call Overhead 144782.5 lps (10 secs, 10 samples)
Pipe Throughput 147690.8 lps (10 secs, 10 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 32592.0 lps (10 secs, 10 samples)
Process Creation 3858.1 lps (30 secs, 3 samples)
Execl Throughput 1177.6 lps (29 secs, 3 samples)
File Read 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 283888.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
File Write 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 103971.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 94971.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
File Read 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 66115.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
File Write 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 27066.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 18007.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
File Read 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 545099.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
File Write 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 136200.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 97918.0 KBps (30 secs, 3 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 2438.4 lpm (60 secs, 3 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 328.8 lpm (60 secs, 3 samples)
Shell Scripts (16 concurrent) 223.2 lpm (60 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = short) 560049.5 lps (10 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = int) 641913.2 lps (10 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = long) 536629.3 lps (10 secs, 3 samples)
Arithmetic Test (type = float) 526820.1 lps (10 secs, 3 samples)
Arithoh 12593912.9 lps (10 secs, 3 samples)
C Compiler Throughput 585.8 lpm (60 secs, 3 samples)
Dc: sqrt(2) to 99 decimal places 112877.2 lpm (30 secs, 3 samples)
Recursion Test--Tower of Hanoi 61528.7 lps (20 secs, 3 samples)


INDEX VALUES
TEST BASELINE RESULT INDEX

Arithmetic Test (type = double) 29820.0 522760.7 175.3
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 3703482.1 317.4
Execl Throughput 43.0 1177.6 273.9
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 94971.0 239.8
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 18007.0 108.8
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 97918.0 168.8
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 147690.8 118.7
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 32592.0 81.5
Process Creation 126.0 3858.1 306.2
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 328.8 548.0
System Call Overhead 15000.0 144782.5 96.5
=========
FINAL SCORE 188.2
[root@server bin]#

VPSLink allows a DNS interface for it's customers:



I also tried Link 4 with a new template CentOS 4x + Lxadmin, the control panel from LxLabs (HostInaBox) that consumes only 15K. Runs fine and the # top output with this CP is cool as is shown below:

top - 05:17:03 up 8:34, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 25 total, 1 running, 24 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.0% us, 0.0% sy, 0.0% ni, 100.0% id, 0.0% wa, 0.0% hi, 0.0% si
Mem: 8160220k total, 8063116k used, 97104k free, 154292k buffers
Swap: 16779884k total, 23584k used, 16756300k free, 3962016k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1 root 15 0 1632 596 516 S 0 0.0 0:00.54 init
23656 root 15 0 1544 544 448 S 0 0.0 0:00.08 syslogd
23668 root 18 0 4024 1132 836 S 0 0.0 0:00.10 sshd
23681 root 18 0 2088 824 692 S 0 0.0 0:00.04 xinetd
23694 root 23 0 1568 448 376 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 couriertcpd
23696 root 18 0 1340 288 236 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 courierlogger
23701 root 21 0 1568 448 376 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 couriertcpd
23703 root 22 0 1332 284 236 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 courierlogger
23740 root 18 0 2160 1104 956 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 sh
23750 root 15 0 3404 1372 1100 S 0 0.0 0:00.03 lxadmin.exe
23764 lxlabs 18 0 4348 1608 728 S 0 0.0 0:00.34 lxadmin.httpd
23821 root 19 0 2164 1136 964 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 mysqld_safe
23874 mysql 15 0 13308 6336 3884 S 0 0.1 0:02.99 mysqld
23912 qmails 15 0 1504 388 308 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 qmail-send
23914 qmaill 18 0 1472 440 376 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 splogger
23915 root 18 0 1468 328 268 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 qmail-lspawn
23916 qmailr 15 0 1472 348 284 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 qmail-rspawn

Screenshoot below, made by Gnome, shows the CP of LxLabs running fine in Link 4 VPS: