Amazon CloudWatch 推出「重開治百病」服務...

剛剛看到 Amazon CloudWatch 的新功能:「New Amazon CloudWatch Action – Reboot EC2 Instance」。

簡而言之就是讓 CloudWatch 偵測到問題時重開 instance:「有問題?重開治百病!」XDDD

AWS 推出的 Device Farm

AWS Device Farm 正式啟用了,可以測 AndroidAmazonFire OS 手機:「AWS Device Farm – Test Mobile Apps on Real Devices」。

有支援各種測試框架:

也可以設定手機的狀態:

然後各種 screenshot:

以及測試時的資源使用狀態:

價錢就如同之前提到的,USD$0.17/min 或是單隻包月 USD$250 (大約是測一整天的價錢):

Pricing is in units of device minutes, basically the duration of a single test run on a particular device. You get 250 minutes at no charge as part of a Free Trial; after that you pay $0.17 per device minute. You can also opt in to our unmetered testing plan; you can perform unlimited testing on any supported Android or FireOS device for a flat monthly fee of $250.

AWS 推出 Device Farm (行動裝置測試平台)

AWS 最近動作很多,預定在 2015/07/13 推出 AWS Device Farm,可以讓使用者直接租機器測試,價錢則是 USD$0.17/minute,或是租用一整個月 USD$250/month (一個裝置):

Pricing is based on device minutes, which are determined by the number of devices you use and the duration of your tests. AWS Device Farm comes with a free tier of 250 device minutes. After that you are charged $0.17 per device minute. As your testing needs grow, you can opt for our unmetered testing plan, which allows unlimited testing for a flat monthly fee of $250 per device.

等推出了之後再來研究看看,另外問問看公司內的同事來安排測試好了?

Flickr 用 GPU 產生縮圖

Flickr 說明了用 GPU 產生縮圖的技術:「Real-time Resizing of Flickr Images Using GPUs」。

這邊可以看到是透過 apache module 再轉到 resize worker:

成果就是讓縮圖的產生時間縮短很多,以 2048px 轉到 1600px 為例,速度快了 15 倍,即使是與 Yahoo 自己最佳化過的版本相比,也快了 10 倍:

而 GPU-based 的架構每台 server 可以支撐 300 resizes/sec:

Equally noteworthy, at peak load, each resize server can perform over 300 resizes per second.

Linode 提供 KVM-based hosting 服務

Linode 前幾天宣佈開始提供 KVM-based hosting:「Linode turns 12! Here’s some KVM!」。

使用 KVM 最大的進展是可以跑 Windows 了:(這對產品面來說很重要)

However, we also now support fully virtualized guests – which means you can run alternative operating systems like FreeBSD, BSD, Plan 9, or even Windows – using emulated hardware (PIIX IDE and e1000).

同時圖形化界面的 console 也會釋出:

We’re also working on a graphical console (GISH?) which should be out in the next few weeks.

而現有 Xen 換到 KVM 也包裝得很簡單:

On a Xen Linode’s dashboard, you will see an “Upgrade to KVM” link on the right sidebar. It’s a one-click migration to upgrade your Linode to KVM from there. Essentially, our KVM upgrade means you get a much faster Linode just by clicking a button.

而且打算逐步淘汰掉 Xen:

New customers and new Linodes will, by default, still get Xen. Xen will cease being the default in the next few weeks. Eventually we will transition all Xen Linodes over to KVM, however this is likely to take quite a while. Don’t sweat it.

不過 Linode 還是沒支援更好的網路環境 (i.e. Private LAN),對於要架大型服務的人來說還是有技術障礙 :o

奇怪的 t2.large instance

EC2 推出了新的 t2.large instance:「New T2.Large Instances」。

價錢剛好是 t2.medium 的兩倍,記憶體也是兩倍 (4GB 對 8GB),但 CPU 的部份只多了 50%,就如同 Colin Percival 講的,這看起來很奇怪:

不過 t2.* 是真的很好用,反正就當作多一個方案吧...

Amazon EC2 推出新機種:m4.*

Amazon EC2 推出新的一般性機種 m4.* 了:「The New M4 Instance Type (Bonus: Price Reduction on M3 & C4)」。

亮眼在 m4.10xlarge 這組可以控制 C-state 與 P-state,可以利用這兩個對 latency 與整體 performance 調整。

拿 m4.large 與 m3.large 比較,m4 便宜一些,而且 m4 記憶體比 m3 大一點,但是 m3 有內掛 SSD,m4 需要 EBS。如果 I/O 比較重的應用還是用 m3 還是比較好。

另外一個發表的是 m3.* 在某些地區有些微的降價 (約 5%),就當作撿到的...?

Etsy 用 SSD 的故事

EtsyLaurie Denness 對於 Etsy 使用各種品牌 SSD 的情況給出了他的經歷:「SSDs: A gift and a curse」。

重點在於開頭說的:

SSD firmware is buggy

可以看到當 SSD 配上 RAID controller 的時候,常常會需要找問題... (而且很難找)

Intel 的評價很不錯:

Okay, bad start, we’ve actually had no issues with Intel. This seems to be common across other companies we’ve spoken to.

OCZ 倒了,被 Toshiba 收購,而且 S.M.A.R.T. 資訊很差,很難預測什麼時候會掛掉 (有助於提前替換):

However, they had poor SMART info (none) so predicting failures was hard.

HP 是個大黑盒:

Unfortunately, HP have proprietary RAID controllers, and they don’t support SMART. Or rather, they refuse to talk to non-HP drives using off the shelf technology, they have their own methods.

Samsung 的評價不錯,C/P 值很高,而且有 S.M.A.R.T.:

Samsung saved the day and picked up from OCZ with a ludicrously cheap 960GB offering, the 840 EVO. A consumer drive, so very limited warranty, but for the price (~$400-500) you got great IOPS and they were reliable. They had better SMART info, and seemed to play nicely with our hardware.

不過 BB6Q 版的韌體搞爆了效能,雖然最後修好了:「Samsung Releases Firmware Update to Fix the SSD 840 EVO Read Performance Bug」。

LiteOn 則是掛在 GC 上 (RAID 裡同時掛掉兩顆以上):

The SSDs were having extended garbage collection periods, exacerbated by a smaller amount of SSDs with higher IO, in RAID6. This caused the controller to kick the drive out of the array… and unfortunately due to the write levelling across the drives, at least two of them were garbage collecting at the same time, destroying the array integrity.

不過後來 Dell 與 LiteOn 分別就 RAID controller 與 SSD 本身都跳下去修正,最後還是解決了:

Dell and LiteOn together identified and fixed weaknesses in their RAID controller, the backplane and the SSD firmware.

算是經驗分享,在 SSD 硬碟成熟的過程中間必經的道路 XD