# Experiences with Joyent Accelerator? **URL:** \ **Category:** Deployment\ **Created:** [May 23, 2007, 10:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861 "2007-05-23T10:55:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 10:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/1 "2007-05-23T10:55:27Z")
Hi. Anyone have experience to share about deploying production environment with Joyent? TextDrive had a lot of instability problems I recollect (possibly only with shared plans?). Thanks for any input. Morten ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/2 "2007-05-23T17:41:34Z")
I’ve been with TextDrive two years, and I don’t recommend the shared hosting. Stability has been much better over the last year, but overall it’s been very difficult to get responses from support. My feeling is Joyent/TextDrive’s heart is in the right place, but it’s really all about the cool stuff, and not the fundamentals of quality hosting. All that said, the Accelerator is a one-of-a-kind setup in the industry, and I am dying to try it because I really do believe it is better than anything else out there. As far as VPS technology goes, kernel-level support really makes the difference, and Solaris is by far the most advanced in this area. Accelerator is leveraging technology from the latest Solaris builds for a VPS that is both burstable, scalable and more stable overall. No one else has anything like it. I’d say it’s a pretty good bet for hosting your Rails app. However, I would stick to just the web hosting and keep my email somewhere else. Although my email account there has been pretty stable, it’s high latency (email coming in is delayed by the spam filtering from 2-20 mins), and when there IS a problem (such as being flagged as spammy) they just don’t answer tickets in a timely manner at all. ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2007, 6:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/3 "2007-05-25T18:05:16Z")
I’m glad to hear it because TextDrive really needs a kick in their ass. It’s not enough for a hosting company just to have really cool tech. They’ve got to get the fundamentals down, which has proven very difficult for them in the first 3 years. ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 6:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/4 "2007-05-23T18:38:41Z")
We talked a bit about it at RailsConf, but we’ve got a Solaris zones based product being released in 2-3 months. Just as there are many companies offering Xen based solutions, it will be nice to have a choice when looking at solaris. Thanks – Jesse P. Blue Box Group, LLC p. +1.800.613.4305 x801 e. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2007, 9:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/5 "2007-05-28T09:06:38Z")
On May 23, 8:40 am, dasil003 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > All that said, the Accelerator is a one-of-a-kind setup in the > industry, and I am dying to try it because I really do believe it is > better than anything else out there. As far as VPS technology goes, > kernel-level support really makes the difference, and Solaris is by > far the most advanced in this area. Accelerator is leveraging > technology from the latest Solaris builds for a VPS that is both > burstable, scalable and more stable overall. No one else has anything > like it. I’m interested to hear what you perceive as the benefits of Joyent’s offering -vs- a Xen based solution? I’m obviously biased, but I’m serious about my interest. 🙂 – – Tom M., CTO – Engine Y., Ruby on Rails Hosting – Support, Scalability, Reliability – (866) 518-YARD (9273) ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/6 "2007-05-27T23:01:58Z")
I had to get a clients app up on a new Joyent Accelerator in one day. I was hoping to have the latest and greatest software installed already and was somewhat disappointed. I was expecting to have the same setup Paul I. got in his blog post ([http://www.oobaloo.co.uk/](http://www.oobaloo.co.uk/) articles/2007/4/23/a-little-capistrano-recipe-for-joyent- accelerator). I did not have time to mess with upgrading to the latest Apache or Ruby versions. I just upgraded to the latest gems I needed for Rails and used Capistrano for deployment. The site is not on a shared plan ([http://www.heroesorganization.org](http://www.heroesorganization.org)). Jeff ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2007, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/7 "2007-05-28T18:59:49Z")
We’ve also had some reservations about the performance of Xen under high server load. HP recently conducted a performance evaluation of Xen compared to OpenVZ (aka Virtuozzo) and while Solaris obviously isn’t in this report, the performance degradation that Xen faces upon heavy server load really concerns me [1]. Then there are the Xen bugs (as well as Virtuozzo bugs) that lead to random reboots of servers. That kind of problem, even in a load balanced server environment, really bother me. The burstability, easy duplication, and other features in Solaris really make it shine for web applications. [1] [http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2007/HPL-2007-59.pdf](http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2007/HPL-2007-59.pdf) – Jesse P. Blue Box Group, LLC p. +1.800.613.4305 x801 e. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/8 "2007-05-28T18:47:47Z")
On May 28, 12:06 am, “removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > On May 23, 8:40 am, dasil003 [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I’m interested to hear what you perceive as the benefits of Joyent’s > offering -vs- a Xen based solution? Although I’m not the OP, I’ll take a stab at why Solaris’ VPS solution interests me over Xen at the moment. The company I work for builds semi-custom web app tools which we then host for the customer, so we use at least one server for each customer/ product. So far, we’ve been using Xen-based virtual servers, and this setup has been working great so far. Until last week… One of our production servers stopped responding. And by server, I mean the physical box – every single VM on it was down. It turns out we were hit by a bug in Xen[1] that’s been open since 2005 and seems to affect the very core of the architecture. The layman’s description of the problem is that the kernel in one or more of the virtual servers develops an issue with (IIRC) its interrupt timing and starts spending all of its available CPU cycles logging a message that “time went backwards”. This somehow “infects” all of the other virtual servers on the same box. The servers don’t actually go /down/, they just run out of processing power to handle any other task within a reasonable amount of time. We have, thus far, been unable to determine what specific conditions cause this behavior to start happening; so even though it hasn’t occurred on our other (physical) production servers yet, we have no reason to believe that it won’t. Now, I don’t want to blow the issue out of proportion, so I won’t go so far as to say that Xen is unsuitable and no one should use it. However, this has definitely shaken our confidence in the platform; and that is why I’m currently taking a serious look at Solaris. Since we co-locate our own servers, this isn’t a Joyent vs. Engine Yard (or other Xen-based host) issue, but it’s pretty much the same question. [1] [Citrix Hypervisor - Server Virtualization and Management Software - Citrix](http://bugzilla.xensource.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=195) – Regards, John W. ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/9 "2007-05-28T20:37:03Z")
I’m looing at these a bit more from the sidelines, but there are a couple appealing things about Solaris in general to me, which then the virtualization choice is more of a follow-on… One is DTrace. This is quite a cool tool for diagnosing things. The other is how system crashes, crash logs, and reboots work - it’s simply more robust here. ZFS is also extremely appealing. I do hope ZFS can be brought to Linux. I think it’s somewhat unfortunate that there is a Linux vs. Solaris battle. I happen to use Linux a lot, but Solaris has become much more appealing lately because of the tools and, at least in my perception, more robust handling in very heavy load and heavy hardware situations. If I were building up my own setup I’d be looking very seriously at it, in fact, I’d probably be using it automatically, if it weren’t for the fact that I simply don’t know the OS as well/I’m not as comfy with it as I am Linux. Obviously you’ve got folks like Google and others using commodity stuff, and Linux (and older Linux from what I understand), and working just fine, but it depends on what your situation is. Most folks aren’t building their own hardware, and can’t be slapping in new boxes all the time. As for available solutions and cases where you are hosting on someone else’s system, I think you have to factor in a lot more. I happen to be a Joyent customer, but based on my experience, I’m not sure I would choose them to host an important system. I would have to look at the accelerators more closely, and understand the support a lot better. My experience is solely based on shared hosting, and that has worked ok for me as I mostly experiment in that space, and want something cost effective, but for a production system I’d be looking at a lot more. EngineYard is very impressive to me, and I’d be looking at it very seriously for Rails apps. Part of that is not just technology and the available solution, but the people and approach. Having met several Engine Y. folks, and knowing who they have on staff, and their dedication to the particular market segment, they are absolutley a top choice IMHO. It likely just depends on your particular needs. On 5/28/07, Jesse P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > and other features in Solaris really make it shine for web applications. > > On May 28, 2007, at 9:46 AM, John W. wrote: > > > Although I’m not the OP, I’ll take a stab at why Solaris’ VPS solution > > interests me over Xen at the moment. > > > – Chris B. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/10 "2007-05-28T20:35:02Z")
On May 28, 9:52 am, Jesse P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > We’ve also had some reservations about the performance of Xen under > high server load. HP recently conducted a performance evaluation of > Xen compared to OpenVZ (aka Virtuozzo) and while Solaris obviously > isn’t in this report, the performance degradation that Xen faces upon > heavy server load really concerns me [1]. “We use the Xen 3.0.3 unstable branch” I wonder why they did that a time when 3.04, 3.04-1, and 3.04 tip was available? – – Tom M. ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/11 "2007-05-28T20:40:03Z")
On May 28, 9:46 am, John W. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > The company I work for builds semi-custom web app tools which we then > spending all of its available CPU cycles logging a message that “time > went backwards”. This somehow “infects” all of the other virtual > servers on the same box. The servers don’t actually go /down/, they > just run out of processing power to handle any other task within a > reasonable amount of time. We have, thus far, been unable to determine > what specific conditions cause this behavior to start happening; so > even though it hasn’t occurred on our other (physical) production > servers yet, we have no reason to believe that it won’t. What version of Xen were you using? I notice that nobody has reported on that ticket since 3.02. We’ve certainly never experienced that issue… Current Xen is 3.1. 3.03, 3.04, 3.04-1, and an untagged 3.04 tip have been available since then… The thing we like about Xen is that you get your own machines. They behave just like a real machine with respect to tuning, tweaking, etc. And, they’re Linux machines, which is, we believe, a good thing in and of itself, while agreeing that Solaris is a very nice OS indeed. – – Tom M., CTO – Engine Y., Ruby on Rails Hosting – Support, Scalability, Reliability – (866) 518-YARD (9273) ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/12 "2007-07-23T20:05:39Z")
Is there someone willing to provide some feedback about hosting rails apps on a joyent accelerator ? Any feedback welcome. regards, – Thibaut ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 8:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/13 "2007-07-24T08:41:11Z")
On 7/23/07, Thibaut Barrère [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Is there someone willing to provide some feedback about hosting rails > apps on a joyent accelerator ? > > Any feedback welcome. We’ve been hosting our main site on a Large accelerator for the last four months ([www.bigfilebox.com](http://www.bigfilebox.com)) and it has been rock solid. It was easy to set up, and the performance has been great. The nicest feature is that most of our storage is on an NFS share that can be resized on demand, so as we need more disk space we just file a ticket and shortly after the disk space is increased. I run my own personal websites and mail off a Medium accelerator. Again, that has been rock solid since I booted it for the first time, and performance on it has been great. So my own experience has been a hassle free, well performing Rails infrastructure. Marcus ---
**Author:** ![morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@morten](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/morten)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 8:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/experiences-with-joyent-accelerator/104861/14 "2007-07-26T08:00:57Z")
I had a client who had a social networking site on joyent accelerator. And in my opinion it was not best of hosting env i have experienced. I have excellent experience with Xen based VPS providers rails machine and engine yard. First of all i had problems configuring mongrel\_cluster script from init.d which i normally do on rails machine. I had to set env path to some thing like /opt/… other wise script just wont run. If i add my dissimilarity between linux and solaris commands it was quite a pain to configure On Jul 24, 11:37 am, “Marcus R.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)