Re: [gentoo-user] Is anyone using Scaleway VM hosting?

[Stroller]

> On 12 Sep 2017, at 12:47, Alexey Eschenko  wrote:
> 
>> is it merely that "images" are copied when they're deployed, whereas 
>> "snapshots" are resumed and any changes overwrite the old filesystem? Are 
>> there any other differences?
> Yes, like that. Snapshot is backup for one volume. It can be converted to the 
> image for creation of new VM's or to the volume and then mounted to one of 
> your machines. As far as I understand, "snapshot" is raw data which can be 
> used in several ways.
> (and much more)

Many thanks for your help.

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Is anyone using Scaleway VM hosting?

[Alexey Eschenko]

Hi.


is it merely that "images" are copied when they're deployed, whereas 
"snapshots" are resumed and any changes overwrite the old filesystem? Are there any other 
differences?
Yes, like that. Snapshot is backup for one volume. It can be converted 
to the image for creation of new VM's or to the volume and then mounted 
to one of your machines. As far as I understand, "snapshot" is raw data 
which can be used in several ways.



but I lack confidence because this doesn't seem to be explained anywhere
I think it would  be better if you ask Scaleway support too. At least 
you will be sure that they know exactly what they are saying.



That sounds reasonable, but when I go to shutdown the VM and see this scary 
message - https://i.imgur.com/1E02DrP.png
That's one of their user-unfriendly interfaces. "Archive" will not 
destroy your data and make you able to create snapshots. On the other 
hand "Terminate" will actually destroy almost all resources of your VM 
(excluding IP, snapshots and images).



I assume that "Archive" is the same as shutting down my PC - the contents of 
the VM are saved, and I can start it up again later.
AFAIK only for LSSD. I didn't used DSSD and can't tell you anything 
about it.

I don't understand the warning about the DSSD being "totally erased without any 
possible recovery"
Me too. I'd recommend you to create support ticket and then post their 
response about it here.

I don't feel confident in what I'm asking at the moment - I feel like these 
kind of questions ought to be covered in the first pages of a beginners' FAQ, 
but I don't immediately find them on Scaleway's site. I.E. I'm asking dumb 
questions, or I don't know the right questions to ask.
Your questions is pretty relevant and logical. Their FAQ is far from 
ideal. When I was moving my VM's from dedicated server to Scaleway I had 
questions too. Don't hesitate and write them a message. After all you're 
going to pay them money and answering your questions is their work.



I can't help but wondering if I should have spent the extra €2 a month and gone 
for Linode.
I chosen Scaleway only to cut the costs of my not very important 
resources. If you don't mind to pay a little more then it probably may 
be not such a bad idea to use more friendly hosting company if you're 
confident in them.



are customers always billed on an hourly basis?

Yes. You will be billed in the begining of each month.


if I have a have VM that I only spin up when I need it, an hour or two at a 
time, for a few hours a month, am I right in thinking I pay only pennies for 
that?
Not quite. You're billed for many things separately. It's not only CPU 
usage that you pay for. Read this page: 
https://www.scaleway.com/faq/billing/


I thing it can contain answers for most of your questions about billing.

In other words if you stop your VM then you stop paying for CPU but 
don't stop to pay for IP, volumes, snapshots, etc.



Is this charging model common amongst VM hosting providers?
I've seen some other providers with such billing rules. Can't say that 
it's industrial standard but I think it's popular.



On 09/11/2017 02:40 PM, Stroller wrote:

On 11 Sep 2017, at 00:08, Alexey Eschenko  wrote:

I'm using Scaleway with Gentoo VM for two months. You can try to ask here but I 
don't know if I can answer to you properly.

Thanks.

I signed up for an account there a day or two ago, and set up a VM running 
Gentoo.

Scaleway provide a Gentoo VM image x86_64-gentoo-latest-2016-04-06_16:15, so I 
added a user account and a handful of essential tools and started updating it 
to latest.

Having updated the VM to the current tree, I want to make an image of the 
system so that I have my Gentoo minimal 9-2017 VM that I can copy and deploy 
any time.

The VM admin interface has sections for "volumes", "snapshots" and "images" - I 
assume they're all kinds of disc images, but I don't think I fully understand the difference.

I think:

• Volumes are active disc images, currently deployed in a VM.
• Snapshots are VM disc images, which are saved once the VM has been shutdown.
• Images are VM disk images which can be used as the basis for new VMs?

If my understanding is correct, I don't really see the difference between a "snapshot" and an 
"image" - is it merely that "images" are copied when they're deployed, whereas 
"snapshots" are resumed and any changes overwrite the old filesystem? Are there any other differences?

I'm used to running Linux on physical hardware, so I tend to think of disc images as being created if I boot 
from SystemRescueCD and `dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/usb-drive/old-pc.dd.img`. I can understand that, running a VM 
farm, one would probably want to have a bunch of disk images available to use - some of these I might label 
"my-gentoo-basic-master-2017" and "my-gentoo-webserver-master-2017", which I would mark 
as read-only, whilst others would be "my-webserver-www.something.com", and which would be current, 
active 

Re: [gentoo-user] Is anyone using Scaleway VM hosting?

[Stroller]

> On 11 Sep 2017, at 00:08, Alexey Eschenko  wrote:
> 
> I'm using Scaleway with Gentoo VM for two months. You can try to ask here but 
> I don't know if I can answer to you properly.

Thanks. 

I signed up for an account there a day or two ago, and set up a VM running 
Gentoo.

Scaleway provide a Gentoo VM image x86_64-gentoo-latest-2016-04-06_16:15, so I 
added a user account and a handful of essential tools and started updating it 
to latest.

Having updated the VM to the current tree, I want to make an image of the 
system so that I have my Gentoo minimal 9-2017 VM that I can copy and deploy 
any time. 

The VM admin interface has sections for "volumes", "snapshots" and "images" - I 
assume they're all kinds of disc images, but I don't think I fully understand 
the difference.

I think:

• Volumes are active disc images, currently deployed in a VM.
• Snapshots are VM disc images, which are saved once the VM has been shutdown.
• Images are VM disk images which can be used as the basis for new VMs?

If my understanding is correct, I don't really see the difference between a 
"snapshot" and an "image" - is it merely that "images" are copied when they're 
deployed, whereas "snapshots" are resumed and any changes overwrite the old 
filesystem? Are there any other differences?

I'm used to running Linux on physical hardware, so I tend to think of disc 
images as being created if I boot from SystemRescueCD and `dd if=/dev/sda 
of=/mnt/usb-drive/old-pc.dd.img`. I can understand that, running a VM farm, one 
would probably want to have a bunch of disk images available to use - some of 
these I might label "my-gentoo-basic-master-2017" and 
"my-gentoo-webserver-master-2017", which I would mark as read-only, whilst 
others would be "my-webserver-www.something.com", and which would be current, 
active and read-write. I *think* this is the diasctintion being made between 
volumes, snapshots and images, but I lack confidence because this doesn't seem 
to be explained anywhere.

When I try to make a snapshot of a volume I get a message "Volume not snapshot 
- server must be stopped to snapshot". That sounds reasonable, but when I go to 
shutdown the VM and see this scary message - https://i.imgur.com/1E02DrP.png

I assume that "Archive" is the same as shutting down my PC - the contents of 
the VM are saved, and I can start it up again later. I don't understand the 
warning about the DSSD being "totally erased without any possible recovery" - 
surely the whole point is to make the VM inactive, but save it's current state, 
ready to start up again next time it's needed (like switching a regular PC on 
again). 

> Also I'd rather recommend to write to Scaleway support. They usually answers 
> in one business day.

I don't feel confident in what I'm asking at the moment - I feel like these 
kind of questions ought to be covered in the first pages of a beginners' FAQ, 
but I don't immediately find them on Scaleway's site. I.E. I'm asking dumb 
questions, or I don't know the right questions to ask.

The Scaleway community support pages show some customer discontent (e.g. the 
"Your SMTP ports are blocked. Contact our support to unblock them" and "Abuse 
reports ignored?") and I can't help but wondering if I should have spent the 
extra €2 a month and gone for Linode. 

Final question: Scaleway advertise their servers as €2.99 a month / €0.006 per 
hour - are customers always billed on an hourly basis? I.E. if I have a have VM 
that I only spin up when I need it, an hour or two at a time, for a few hours a 
month, am I right in thinking I pay only pennies for that? It seems very 
convenient. Is this charging model common amongst VM hosting providers?

Thanks in advance for any pointers,

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] Is anyone using Scaleway VM hosting?

[Alexey Eschenko]

I'm using Scaleway with Gentoo VM for two months. You can try to ask 
here but I don't know if I can answer to you properly.


Also I'd rather recommend to write to Scaleway support. They usually 
answers in one business day.



On 09/10/2017 08:10 PM, Stroller wrote:

Further to my previous thread asking for VM hosting recommendations, I thought 
I'd try www.Scaleway.com, who are amongst the cheapest.

I have a question about snapshots and images, but I'm finding it a bit hard to 
articulate my confusion, and there's no point in writing more unless there's 
someone who's familiar with this.

Thanks,

Stroller.




--
Kind regards,
Alexey Eschenko
https://skobk.in/