And for the love of servers, stop using Google and other corporations for vital stuff like email.
Choose some small provider to host your email, something like MXRoute; or host it yourself if you wish. Don't trust your data with corporations because this is what they'll do.
@fan said:
Well the migration happened, got a GFW'd IP. Bad luck this time.
If that happens immediately after a migration like this one, we generally do a swap for free. Be sure to put in a ticket as soon as possible for it if you already haven't.
@VirMach said: If that happens immediately after a migration like this one, we generally do a swap for free. Be sure to put in a ticket as soon as possible for it if you already haven't.
Thanks, it's already changed, the response time is impressive! Virmach really did clear the tickets queue this time.
@fan said:
Well the migration happened, got a GFW'd IP. Bad luck this time.
If that happens immediately after a migration like this one, we generally do a swap for free. Be sure to put in a ticket as soon as possible for it if you already haven't.
Hello, why don't you switch the JP computer room line from NTT to IIJ (inbound)?
I'm going to make a very simplified unofficial announcement of some of the changes for the black friday flash sale system, and would like to hear any feedback.
The system has been entirely reworked, with a new frontend, most notably, a better notification system where you can set filters on when you want alerts to fire off, and whether you want sound or notification cards. There's now also a system in place that can adjust the timer as well as the pricing based on some factors, so I wanted to see if you guys think or would be interested in having alerts for those as well (such as "price drop" alerts) and anything else in particular. Would a "previous offers" section be helpful or useful in any way? That could technically be worked in as well. Plans detail updates and notifications now use Node.js, Redis, and a database instead of just a JSON file which ends up working better to make sure the data is always in sync for everyone and for better compatibility across all browsers and devices. You can also "test" your notification settings on the existing offer to see if it would have fired off or not, and how -- the only thing I'd like to maybe rework is allowing you to filter specific datacenter locations, as the current system only allows you to either select one location or all locations. The important thing is that it's done in a way where it can easily be modified at this point as it's compartmentalized and a lot cleaner code. It's also backward compatible with our old flash sale system so that can always be used as a fallback with minor adjustments.
How plans are generated, categorized, randomized, priced, and provisioned is completely different now as well. There's a more central system that keeps everything in check instead of what I'd describe the old system as which is a bunch of different things kind of doing their own thing.
There are proper alerts on upcoming price changes, and the system better handles stock levels as well as placing plans out of stock and cleanly switching over. The way plans are provisioned is overhauled to an insane level, where plans are now categorized and placed into a permanent product based on their resource levels. We also keep track of resource levels in a way where they can more easily be migrated, reprovisioned if necessary, and we've worked out the bugs such as the "no vserverid" bug as well as some other bugs that required you visit the control panel directly. Provisioning also has its own control panel now on the backend so we can see everything more clearly and specifically for the flash sale. The systems also have many locks in place to prevent any weird scenarios with something running twice or overlapping.
I've ran the system through thousands of plan generations and kind of looked at it once in a while over the last several months to a year, and it's reached a point where pretty much all the plans are pretty decent, not weird, but also with a fair bit of variance, and the pricing is pretty much better than I could do manually (outside of just editing it to $2 or $8) and they all end up being within 50% to 90% off MSRP (so think NVMe1G for $0.50 to $2.50 per month instead of $5 per month.) Pricing varies between around $8 a year and $80 a year, with the majority around $15 to $25 a year. Lowest I've seen it generate is around 384MB RAM, 1 Core, 15GB disk, and highest is around 8GB RAM, 4 or 5 Core, and 500GB disk but all of this can change, even during the sale as we tune it. The system is also very careful on the quantities it generates and tries to be very conservative, which will help plans rotate out faster and avoid scenarios where a node might accidentally get overfilled. It's also much better at accurately assessing resource levels on a node and uses several different metrics and compares them. There's just a few finishing touches left.
For notifications, this is the current formatting, let me know if you guys have any suggestions:
83% off: $25 with 2.5 RAM, 30 Disk, 3 Core, 10 data, in AMSTERDAM
75% off: $9 with 0.4 RAM, 20 Disk, 1 Core, 1.5 data, in PHOENIX
It used to say "GB" and "TB" but it kind of made the message long and drawn out and people kind of know the units already. I might change "data" to "bandwidth" or "transfer" because data kind of sounds very slightly like disk if you're zoning out, just make sure they all start with different letters. It kind of rounds everything down as well, so it says $25 instead of $25.08 and 0.4 RAM instead of 384MB RAM. Data goes in 0.1 intervals or so.
Here's a screenshot of notification settings.
We're a little bit behind schedule for the beta testing of the system, but whatever state it ends up being in, I'd like to definitely have some type of beta run with it so we can catch and work out any other major bugs once we have more than one person accessing the website and placing orders. We'll probably shoot for sometime this weekend. I wanted to hold it off a little further so we can finish cleaning everything else up but we're out of time and it's better we do it than we don't because anything we don't catch earlier will be something we'll have to deal with on Black Friday instead.
Some things that were originally either officially or unofficially included with these plans has been moved into its own addon and some policies have changed, which may be unpopular. To receive a guaranteed price lock for a certain duration, be able to officially transfer services, or get access to any potential changes, you'll have to purchase these optional addons. We'll likely "grandfather" older accounts at our discretion for these policy changes and try to be nice about it if you've been around for the last 5 years or so with us.
Actually just for fun, I'll provide a different version of the above below for larger wall of text enthusiasts. This is still a cut down version of the original post that ended up being like twice the size. Keep in mind I wrote this while the system was receiving a lot of changes, so some of the information might be out of date.
Flash Sale System
Next, I'm going to go over the new Flash Sale system as it's been entirely reworked, for those who are interested. There were some final bits that I was avoiding touching, but those have been completely revamped as well, and it's probably 90% new code (update from the future, closer to 100% now), with a lot of overhaul on how things are handled on the backend. To avoid having to put a lot of asterisks on everything that may not be "there yet" on what's envisioned or on decisions not yet made, I'm going to describe everything on how they'll likely end up being. Ultimately though, probably assume 30% may change or be thrown out/re-reworked. For the beta test, I'll probably only briefly go over an oversimplified version of this and possibly link to this comment as the full version for those who have any questions.
Frontend
New UI - Slight improvements on the page you'll be seeing. More reliably updated data, looks nicer. You'll be able to see things like estimated percentage off compared to an equivalent priced primary line of services of our website.
Notifications - Text to speech alerts, notification sounds, notification cards. You can disable audio, notification cards, or filter notifications based on a specific location, minimum specifications, maximum price, and minimum percentage off.
Improved Processes - These will be described better on the backend section. More likely for plans to properly show as sold out, not letting you order close to a switch, better identification of the type of deal you ordered and SKUs.
Backend
Categorization System - All plans are moved to specific categories based on their general specifications. So once provisioned, you'll end up on a specific plan based on the categorization. That means you may have different product names for your tiny 384MB and your 8GB special, or your high CPU special, and so on.
Plan SKUs - A generalized version of the above categorization system will be presented to customers when they're ordering as the plans will have an "SKU" that bins plans based on their combined specifications. Customers can use this as a quicker way of identifying if a plan will be something they probably desire.
Improved Randomizer - You'll be able to see how it was randomized to some degree on the SKU above. The randomization system is a lot more robust and takes into account many factors, and less likely to result in randomizations that no one would desire. In fact, it's more likely to randomize a plan into a better plan. Better tracking of randomizations.
Configurator - The system now uses and stores specific configurations in a way where it can technically be recreated/reprovisioned, technically be upgraded, and for better tracking of the exact resources. All the plan settings and details are now gracefully moved over as well so that means less issues like the "cannot reinstall" bug on the client area and other bugs with other systems not intended to be used with BF specials originally (like IP changes.)
Creations Backend - The backend has an entire reworked system for creations. It now specifically and individually tracks every single order, allows us to modify them individually if necessary, which should speed up any issues we had in the past where a specific node had a problem with creations and got stuck without creating for a long time.
Provisioning - This adds on to the creation backend, where it better logs errors, and does everything much more clearly and in a manner where nothing can throw a wrench into the system. It also prevents itself from proceeding with a provision if it finds issues earlier on, with an auto rollback feature, to reduce bugs.
Order Tracking - On top of creation backend, the system actually keeps track of orders that are unpaid or time out, so we have a better record of them and can end up using this to block orders from people that are trying to "snipe" plans to reserve their spot, as well as technically having the ability to restore orders that were placed close to the plan switch time.
Node Handler - An entire new system that keeps track of and updates which nodes are being used, why they're not being used, how many times they've been used, and so on. A new node randomization system, and caching system to ensure we always have fresh data available for usage with calculations but without straining it. Less repeats, less accidental oversells, and improved base node calculation logic that accounts for more factors.
Improved Pricing - The system now makes several different calculations for pricing with different weights and then decides which one is the best to utilize. It ends up "knowing" what specification it should lean the pricing on and avoids bad math where it tries to make you pay for all the resources if one of them is randomly way too high or low. Much more comprehensive and is location-specific, with final tuning to match specifications.
Demand Based Pricing - Periodic changes in pricing that detects a plan's popularity to help bring the price closer to the supply/demand curve. This mostly means prices will lower and make bad deals more desirable instead of being stale and just taking up a slot for a really long time. This also means though that you can feel extra good being one of the first to get a popular deal since the price will increase, and stabilizes some bottlenecks on those plans in combination with other systems.
Lockout Period - We have the ability to lock out any group of customers from ordering for the initial pricing period, meaning in combination with demand based pricing, it can prevent mass orders from bots for good deals, and then by the time they can order the demand based pricing should increase the price and balance the load. This can be used on multiple accounts, new accounts, and deal snipers when combined with order tracking.
Notifications - Improved notifications backend, that better grabs updates as they're received and ensures everyone gets the same level of updates, regardless of caching client side. Everything is handled much more efficiently and less likely to break. Refreshing the page should be less necessary but if you refresh, it'll actually get it fixed instead of causing additional problems that it could have caused in the past from excessive refreshing.
Vastly Improved Switcher - The system that switches between plans was recreated from scratch. It now prevents many situations from occurring that would "break" the sale or get it stuck. The timers are more precise with each plan having unique timestamps for when it's starting, when it's ending, and the system has a better understanding of what exactly is going on. It also handles skipping over plans and admin interference more gracefully and centralized with a hardcoded switching mechanism that ensures the proper steps always occur. Better communication with frontend.
Plan Archiver - Cleans up the backend a little. Junk plans that didn't sell or were skipped get archived, which makes it easier for admins to manage and track the sale but technically also improves queries. This data can also be fed into the system to see which plans were unpopular and we can avoid them from re-appearing.
Bug Fixes - We'll probably see new bugs take their place, but some major bugs have been either eliminated or the system reworked in a way where they no longer can appear. The "no vserverid" bug has been fixed. The series of sale just getting "stuck" bugs have been fixed. Some pricing and specification calculation bugs that resulted in bad plans have been fixed. A bug that caused problems when sale was paused and restarted was also eliminated. A lot of bugs that would have appeared if we went live in 2023 have been pre-emptively caught and fixed as well.
Queues/Locks - Improved and done in a way where if everything breaks down it avoids it from getting out of sync. Still has some ways to go, but this means we avoid weird issues stemming from two different parts of the system doing something in an undesirable order and they catch eachother messing up in their queues and correct/help eachother out.
New Major Feature - The sale will now run three simultaneous flash deals at the same time that can have independent timers. They have the ability to run with their own independent timers. The main idea here was that we can reduce the bursts of orderings and creations as well as disappointing plans. Plans rotate out less quickly but since there's three, you will have a similar flow of total plans. There's now a higher chance of there being a plan you like at any given time.
Backwards/Frontwards Compatible - Parts of the system were switched in a way where there's technically backward compatibility possible should we have problems with the new methods. This will later be added to admin panel settings so it can be checked off and on. We could also have it be an automatic fallback. It basically has an option to generate the required stuff to make it work after completing the tasks using the new method. I did this in case the beta testing goes terribly wrong. Even though the system was redone, the "core" structure was kept similar enough to where we could actually technically also simultaneously run the old system and have it share some functionality like with the generations, meaning we could, if we wanted, do a flashier flash sale within a flash sale if three simultaneous ones isn't enough.
Policy Changes & Clarifications
These are some changes that will be coming to how we handle support, some new exclusions (previously included, whether officially or unofficially) turned into optional purchases. Some of these will be unpopular so this will probably be the only time I can guarantee to address them (and listen to feedback on at this early stage.) I don't expect anyone to purchase any of these additions, so what it translates over to then if you do not purchase them is that (1) reasonable price changes may occur eventually but you're under no obligation to renew, (2) you can no longer transfer these specific type of specials purchased in 2024 and onward, (3) the limited support may actually start being enforced as in if you created a ticket we don't cover it might just never be answered or be closed, (4) definitely don't expect to change your IP address, or anything. Set in stone, until we absolutely have to do it at our direction (like maintenance, you're being moved to another node or block.)
Price Locks - We haven't raised prices and don't plan on it, but it's definitely reaching a point where the concern is there specifically for these specials, if we're going to give the absolute best prices. If you absolutely want a guarantee that the price will be locked for a period of five years, there will be a $10 one time fee. I'd only recommend getting this if you get an insane deal you're keeping indefinitely that looks like it's below IPv4 and colocation costs.
Transfers & AUP - These kind of go hand in hand. Every time there's a transfer, especially for these specials, the risk increases that the next person who owns it won't necessarily be as graceful as the original customer when it comes to our AUP and over the life of the plan. Since these plans also cost less, they tend to get more abuse reports over their lifetime and multiple times over and obviously less likely to want to pay any suspension fees as it's not worth it relative to the cost of the plan. This covers us dealing with abuse emails as well as other situations where you non-maliciously abused the service, to a reasonable level. This also unlocks the ability to purchase a transfer for the service. At a cost of $5 per year. I assume this will be one of the more unpopular changes since people like transferring the services to eachother. This doesn't mean I can't make exceptions to this obviously, so if you've been with us for a very long time, we likely will still (at our discretion) be lenient with abuse and make exceptions and allow you to transfer to other people who are also long-time customers, without purchasing this option. But... it's not guaranteed without this option.
Enable IP Change Tool - This is now being offered with these specials. We're actually reworking the IP change system right now so if it's not completed by the time the official sale (not beta testing) goes out, it'll probably be removed as an option. This is pretty much very optional and for a $10 one time fee, you can change your IP to a random one. Definitely pays for itself very quickly for some customers, as some of these specials have probably received half a dozen paid changes over the lifetime.
Support & Changes - This is the option where you get standard support level the same way you'd get it for non-special plans. We've been lenient in the past for support, but I don't know how long we can keep that up for people who have limited support specials and making a good number of requests. The second part to this that goes along with it is the "changes" portion which means we'll officially support optional purchases for the plan like being able to use service modification buttons (additional purchase) or requesting changes from us. The buttons you get access to or the level of changes is still at our discretion, but this gets you past the immediate "no" for changes. One important thing this does not yet open up is changing your plan's location to Tokyo.
Pricing Examples/Overview
The way pricing is done has been overhauled as mentioned above, but I want to go over the philosophy and what that means. We're definitely moving away from having overpriced/bad deals and the system is pretty much incapable of doing that, but it's also less capable of having insanely good deals. It just tries to make sure to make up for any added pricing by giving you more resources where it can instead. The percentage of deals that are insane and kept has gone up, meaning there's generally less room for these type of deals, I guess that's how it works after so many years.
Locations - The way pricing works, locations matter more. We know which locations use more of what resource and as a result have more of other resources left over. Colocation price is also worked into locations to some degree, so that actually means for example there's a power pricing surcharge in the backend for Amsterdam (which affects pricing more on CPU heavy plans.) The system may try to adjust for this by giving less cores then in Amsterdam as well. For Tokyo, this ends up having the highest impact. This means Tokyo plans will naturally generate with less bandwidth and a higher charge for memory (but cheaper CPU.) Not all of these have been ticked on, and pricing will always be fine-tuned as we go.
Resources - The resources given out are more well rounded to match pricing as mentioned. This means if the plan comes out at a higher cost than it should based on all resource levels, it'll adjust the resources it can to make it worth it to some degree instead of being lopsided and only good for some people. Very high CPU and memory is possible but this also usually means these get rounded or thrown out. There's a lot more "throwing out" of weird resource levels. The highest CPU cores I've seen it generate is around 4 and the highest memory is around 8GB. Highest disk is around 500GB and highest bandwidth is around 40TB. We've basically first tested the system to see what it generates, and then also set a ceiling as a backup just in case it decides to randomly generate a plan with like 18 cores due to a bug.
Quantities - These are done in a much more restrictive manner. It tries reducing quantities as much as possible to be conservative and to also make sure we don't end up selling too many on a node at once. The highest I've seen it generate is around 100 quantity but this is on a completely empty node not in production and for very low resource levels for that plan (adding up to like 80GB total memory for example.)
Demand - This gets calculated in 30 minute intervals currently. I wanted to do it more frequently but that could end up being a nightmare until we have a better warning system in between pages for price changes (this is actually something being worked on -- update, this has been worked on and completed) It goes based off how many have been sold in 30 minute chunks, how many 30 minute chunks are left over, quantity left over, and so on (update -- timer has been kind of changed.) It's not perfect and it'll probably be fine-tuned a lot. The demand based pricing system locks you in at the price you purchased, whether it increases or decreases later. It could end up being what makes some "okay" deals into great ones if no one buys them. This system is also built in a way where it can technically interact with the other parts and end a sale early (but this hasn't been implemented, it might later into the sale -- update, I think it has been implemented to the point where we'll move forward with it.)
Here are some examples of the type of plans it can generate based on the current formula. These are real plans it's generated, I'm actually going based off one of the last 5-10 plans it has generated and picking out the ones that best describe the pricing in different important categories.
Small: 512MB RAM, 1 Core, 20GB Disk, 3TB Bandwidth, 1 IPv4 in NYC for $9.49 per year
Medium: 1280MB RAM, 2 Core, 30GB Disk, 2TB Bandwidth, 1 IPv4 in Amsterdam for $15.91 per year
Larger: 2560MB RAM, 3 Core, 30GB Disk, 10TB Bandwidth, 1 IPv4 in Amsterdam for $25.08 per year
Extra Large: 7186MB RAM, 4 Core, 90GB Disk, 12TB Bandwidth, 1 IPv4 in Chicago for $50.58 per year
And here are some Tokyo plans specifically.
512MB RAM, 1 Core, 25GB Disk, 512GB Bandwidth, 1 IPv4 in Tokyo for $17.14 per year
1GB RAM, 2 Core,40GB Disk, 896GB Bandwidth, 1 IPv4 in Tokyo for $24.65 per year
2.5GB RAM, 3 Core, 295GB Disk, 6TB Bandwidth, 1 IPv4 in Tokyo for $81.75 per year
Huge disclaimer -- all of the above may be completely wrong. This is an unofficial wall of text. I don't know what I'm talking about. The original version was twice the size, so I might have accidentally removed some important supplemental information.
And here's an unrelated tiny fence of text for something I wanted to go over, but we're short on time so I'm unsure if the version that comes out will be as ambitious. Basically all of the below is something I've been fantasizing about, it might never happen and just fully be inaccurate.
IP System
These are a series of projects we've decided to combine into one massive one, and it will be what is responsible for (1) IPv6 assignment, (2) rNDS/Port, (3) IPv4 Changes, (4) future bulk IP reassignments as well as (5) IP audits and on the client side it will likely show itself as a new network tab on your service. This system is not even in alpha, it's in the very early stages, with only very small portions of it worked out so all of the below can be vastly different in the final product. I'm going to describe everything as how it's currently intended.
The Tab
This will show your service's current assignments, and let you take some actions based on whether or not you have access to requesting changes, if you have the IP change tool enabled for your service, whether IPv6 is marked as available, whether you have additional IP addresses. You'll also be able to see a log of your service's IP history, timestamp of the change (whether it's upcoming, in the past) as well as any associated communication. You may also be able to select the level of communication you want to receive for any changes.
IPv6
We'll have our own system that works either alongside SolusVM or completely separate. You'll be able to go to the tab and basically indicate you want IPv6 and the system will figure it out and then display your currently assigned IPv6 as well as some information on how to configure it. When your service is moved, or if the blocks change, the IPv6 will automatically change. IPv6 will very much be treated as secondary to IPv4 which means we're not going to work out the system as robustly as with IPv4. You'll also basically be able to request reassignments (for free) if something's broken, and it's possible they might be rotated out with minimal levels of notice, at least until we begin to build out better levels of support for it. This also means once we switch over to this system, you'll likely lose your existing IPv6 assignments if you have them.
rDNS/Port
The system will be moving away from using SolusVM directly, but instead be managed on this tab. We'll likely build in some type of approval process for rDNS to make it semi-automated and this is to reduce abuse. The system will know which IP provider you're on and the rules/availability per the lessor's terms. So that also means if rDNS is important to you but it's unavailable by the current provider, you might be able to see some information on where it's supported and how to get there. With that said, we might begin actually enforcing whether or not your plan comes with rDNS support and we might also tie in our port blocking system to this or it might appear under its own thing, where you can see which ports we are blocking with the option to enable it that will go over what's available, why, etc. For port blocks, it's currently planned where you can basically request it if your service is grandfathered in, without having to purchase the option for port 443/80/25. Later on as we work in any security system(s) this information will also end up being displayed on the network tab where available, like if we have any rules in place related to your IP and you'll be able to opt out of any systems trying to protect your service from things like SSH bruteforcing. If you end up getting bruteforced and appeal it, this will likely end up being permanently enforced on your service. Same with if you end up hosting malware, and so on. The last few bits are very early stages of what's envisioned.
IPv4 Changes/Reassignment/Audits
They'll occur through this tab. We might keep a placeholder for some time where they used to be instead. You'll also be able to request the system check to see if you're assigned a correct address for your node, but this will likely be automated out in the background so all you'll see is logs that say your IP was changed because it had an incorrect assignment or something to that effect. You'll be able to see future planned changes, turn on and off notifications for changes,
@VirMach as usual, hit me up if you need an experienced webdev to look into your system, and even do some simple testing to discover potential issues before it is in production. I cannot guarantee I can commit a lot of time due to BF preparation but I can help whatever I can. (You know where to contact me for fast reply)
Notification might be better with something like this to lower the cognitive load:
83% OFF - $25, 3C, 2.5G, 30G, 10T, Amsterdam
75% OFF - $9, 1C, 384M, 20G, 1.5T, Phoenix
Most people who actually need to subscribe to notification knows exactly what they are looking at.
Frontend
New UI - Slight improvements on the page you'll be seeing. More reliably updated data, looks nicer. You'll be able to see things like estimated percentage off compared to an equivalent priced primary line of services of our website.
Notifications - Text to speech alerts, notification sounds, notification cards. You can disable audio, notification cards, or filter notifications based on a specific location, minimum specifications, maximum price, and minimum percentage off.
Improved Processes - These will be described better on the backend section. More likely for plans to properly show as sold out, not letting you order close to a switch, better identification of the type of deal you ordered and SKUs.
I am really curious about the UI and would be interested to see the final design, and provide comments or even design suggestion if you are open to it - Heck, I can also just fix the CSS if you want to.
Demand Based Pricing - Periodic changes in pricing that detects a plan's popularity to help bring the price closer to the supply/demand curve. This mostly means prices will lower and make bad deals more desirable instead of being stale and just taking up a slot for a really long time. This also means though that you can feel extra good being one of the first to get a popular deal since the price will increase, and stabilizes some bottlenecks on those plans in combination with other systems.
This is really interesting, looking forward to see it happening. I feel like you are building a system where even big e-commerce don't have, it could be a very interesting experiment to try out, especially there's always thousands or more users trying to get deals on VirMach, the sample data size could be useful.
Notifications - Improved notifications backend, that better grabs updates as they're received and ensures everyone gets the same level of updates, regardless of caching client side. Everything is handled much more efficiently and less likely to break. Refreshing the page should be less necessary but if you refresh, it'll actually get it fixed instead of causing additional problems that it could have caused in the past from excessive refreshing.
This has always been an issue and I am quite curious how you ensures everyone get same level of updates. At my company we have to spread out notification in a few minutes because there's just too many subscribers/users.
New Major Feature - The sale will now run three simultaneous flash deals at the same time that can have independent timers. They have the ability to run with their own independent timers. The main idea here was that we can reduce the bursts of orderings and creations as well as disappointing plans. Plans rotate out less quickly but since there's three, you will have a similar flow of total plans. There's now a higher chance of there being a plan you like at any given time.
You mean now I can practise my ADHD by staring on VirMach flash sale system every 15 seconds?
Price Locks - We haven't raised prices and don't plan on it, but it's definitely reaching a point where the concern is there specifically for these specials, if we're going to give the absolute best prices. If you absolutely want a guarantee that the price will be locked for a period of five years, there will be a $10 one time fee. I'd only recommend getting this if you get an insane deal you're keeping indefinitely that looks like it's below IPv4 and colocation costs.
At the price VirMach is selling at, I don't think I can expect much, but a $10 per account to price lock for 5 years sound reasonable for me.
Demand - This gets calculated in 30 minute intervals currently. I wanted to do it more frequently but that could end up being a nightmare until we have a better warning system in between pages for price changes (this is actually something being worked on -- update, this has been worked on and completed) It goes based off how many have been sold in 30 minute chunks, how many 30 minute chunks are left over, quantity left over, and so on (update -- timer has been kind of changed.) It's not perfect and it'll probably be fine-tuned a lot. The demand based pricing system locks you in at the price you purchased, whether it increases or decreases later. It could end up being what makes some "okay" deals into great ones if no one buys them. This system is also built in a way where it can technically interact with the other parts and end a sale early (but this hasn't been implemented, it might later into the sale -- update, I think it has been implemented to the point where we'll move forward with it.)
What if you can also add a "Thumb down" feature or something, user can mark something as good/bad and you get some instant user feedback. Of course there might be false positive but then it is a nice experiment and you can tune your algorithm based on that
@VirMach either way good to see wall of text and the hardwork that is being placed. All the best in the upcoming BF!
@VirMach so that's why you were away for so long and not frequent.
The wall of text of wall of text of the wall of text to compose.....
Looking forward to it.
PS. I liked the feature of thumbs down that @FAT32 proposed... which you can use to your advantage and show the user the same or worse deals to that user. How dare the user down vote the VIRBOT...
Not interesting at all. Don’t buy the VPS, as there’s a high probability of idling and data loss. Virmach may terminate your service at any time without reason, lock your data, and then charge you for support.
I have been terminated two 5 years+accounts and lose all the data.
no doubt Virmach has best prices but not sure if anything has been mentioned on support/uptime wise, what i see is there will be even less support replies moving forward.
the bills are coming in now so crazy specials are no longer sustainable. huge churn incoming (i think it will be for the better), will be exciting to see how big this event goes from the sidelines.
Comments
And for the love of servers, stop using Google and other corporations for vital stuff like email.
Choose some small provider to host your email, something like MXRoute; or host it yourself if you wish. Don't trust your data with corporations because this is what they'll do.
Stop the planet! I wish to get off!
Well. rip.
Haven't bought a single service in VirMach Great Ryzen 2022 - 2023 Flash Sale.
https://lowendspirit.com/uploads/editor/gi/ippw0lcmqowk.png
If that happens immediately after a migration like this one, we generally do a swap for free. Be sure to put in a ticket as soon as possible for it if you already haven't.
Thanks, it's already changed, the response time is impressive! Virmach really did clear the tickets queue this time.
Hello, why don't you switch the JP computer room line from NTT to IIJ (inbound)?
No news on PHXZ002?
I'm going to make a very simplified unofficial announcement of some of the changes for the black friday flash sale system, and would like to hear any feedback.
The system has been entirely reworked, with a new frontend, most notably, a better notification system where you can set filters on when you want alerts to fire off, and whether you want sound or notification cards. There's now also a system in place that can adjust the timer as well as the pricing based on some factors, so I wanted to see if you guys think or would be interested in having alerts for those as well (such as "price drop" alerts) and anything else in particular. Would a "previous offers" section be helpful or useful in any way? That could technically be worked in as well. Plans detail updates and notifications now use Node.js, Redis, and a database instead of just a JSON file which ends up working better to make sure the data is always in sync for everyone and for better compatibility across all browsers and devices. You can also "test" your notification settings on the existing offer to see if it would have fired off or not, and how -- the only thing I'd like to maybe rework is allowing you to filter specific datacenter locations, as the current system only allows you to either select one location or all locations. The important thing is that it's done in a way where it can easily be modified at this point as it's compartmentalized and a lot cleaner code. It's also backward compatible with our old flash sale system so that can always be used as a fallback with minor adjustments.
How plans are generated, categorized, randomized, priced, and provisioned is completely different now as well. There's a more central system that keeps everything in check instead of what I'd describe the old system as which is a bunch of different things kind of doing their own thing.
There are proper alerts on upcoming price changes, and the system better handles stock levels as well as placing plans out of stock and cleanly switching over. The way plans are provisioned is overhauled to an insane level, where plans are now categorized and placed into a permanent product based on their resource levels. We also keep track of resource levels in a way where they can more easily be migrated, reprovisioned if necessary, and we've worked out the bugs such as the "no vserverid" bug as well as some other bugs that required you visit the control panel directly. Provisioning also has its own control panel now on the backend so we can see everything more clearly and specifically for the flash sale. The systems also have many locks in place to prevent any weird scenarios with something running twice or overlapping.
I've ran the system through thousands of plan generations and kind of looked at it once in a while over the last several months to a year, and it's reached a point where pretty much all the plans are pretty decent, not weird, but also with a fair bit of variance, and the pricing is pretty much better than I could do manually (outside of just editing it to $2 or $8) and they all end up being within 50% to 90% off MSRP (so think NVMe1G for $0.50 to $2.50 per month instead of $5 per month.) Pricing varies between around $8 a year and $80 a year, with the majority around $15 to $25 a year. Lowest I've seen it generate is around 384MB RAM, 1 Core, 15GB disk, and highest is around 8GB RAM, 4 or 5 Core, and 500GB disk but all of this can change, even during the sale as we tune it. The system is also very careful on the quantities it generates and tries to be very conservative, which will help plans rotate out faster and avoid scenarios where a node might accidentally get overfilled. It's also much better at accurately assessing resource levels on a node and uses several different metrics and compares them. There's just a few finishing touches left.
For notifications, this is the current formatting, let me know if you guys have any suggestions:
It used to say "GB" and "TB" but it kind of made the message long and drawn out and people kind of know the units already. I might change "data" to "bandwidth" or "transfer" because data kind of sounds very slightly like disk if you're zoning out, just make sure they all start with different letters. It kind of rounds everything down as well, so it says $25 instead of $25.08 and 0.4 RAM instead of 384MB RAM. Data goes in 0.1 intervals or so.
Here's a screenshot of notification settings.
We're a little bit behind schedule for the beta testing of the system, but whatever state it ends up being in, I'd like to definitely have some type of beta run with it so we can catch and work out any other major bugs once we have more than one person accessing the website and placing orders. We'll probably shoot for sometime this weekend. I wanted to hold it off a little further so we can finish cleaning everything else up but we're out of time and it's better we do it than we don't because anything we don't catch earlier will be something we'll have to deal with on Black Friday instead.
Some things that were originally either officially or unofficially included with these plans has been moved into its own addon and some policies have changed, which may be unpopular. To receive a guaranteed price lock for a certain duration, be able to officially transfer services, or get access to any potential changes, you'll have to purchase these optional addons. We'll likely "grandfather" older accounts at our discretion for these policy changes and try to be nice about it if you've been around for the last 5 years or so with us.
Actually just for fun, I'll provide a different version of the above below for larger wall of text enthusiasts. This is still a cut down version of the original post that ended up being like twice the size. Keep in mind I wrote this while the system was receiving a lot of changes, so some of the information might be out of date.
Flash Sale System
Next, I'm going to go over the new Flash Sale system as it's been entirely reworked, for those who are interested. There were some final bits that I was avoiding touching, but those have been completely revamped as well, and it's probably 90% new code (update from the future, closer to 100% now), with a lot of overhaul on how things are handled on the backend. To avoid having to put a lot of asterisks on everything that may not be "there yet" on what's envisioned or on decisions not yet made, I'm going to describe everything on how they'll likely end up being. Ultimately though, probably assume 30% may change or be thrown out/re-reworked. For the beta test, I'll probably only briefly go over an oversimplified version of this and possibly link to this comment as the full version for those who have any questions.
Frontend
Backend
Policy Changes & Clarifications
These are some changes that will be coming to how we handle support, some new exclusions (previously included, whether officially or unofficially) turned into optional purchases. Some of these will be unpopular so this will probably be the only time I can guarantee to address them (and listen to feedback on at this early stage.) I don't expect anyone to purchase any of these additions, so what it translates over to then if you do not purchase them is that (1) reasonable price changes may occur eventually but you're under no obligation to renew, (2) you can no longer transfer these specific type of specials purchased in 2024 and onward, (3) the limited support may actually start being enforced as in if you created a ticket we don't cover it might just never be answered or be closed, (4) definitely don't expect to change your IP address, or anything. Set in stone, until we absolutely have to do it at our direction (like maintenance, you're being moved to another node or block.)
Pricing Examples/Overview
The way pricing is done has been overhauled as mentioned above, but I want to go over the philosophy and what that means. We're definitely moving away from having overpriced/bad deals and the system is pretty much incapable of doing that, but it's also less capable of having insanely good deals. It just tries to make sure to make up for any added pricing by giving you more resources where it can instead. The percentage of deals that are insane and kept has gone up, meaning there's generally less room for these type of deals, I guess that's how it works after so many years.
Here are some examples of the type of plans it can generate based on the current formula. These are real plans it's generated, I'm actually going based off one of the last 5-10 plans it has generated and picking out the ones that best describe the pricing in different important categories.
And here are some Tokyo plans specifically.
Huge disclaimer -- all of the above may be completely wrong. This is an unofficial wall of text. I don't know what I'm talking about. The original version was twice the size, so I might have accidentally removed some important supplemental information.
And here's an unrelated tiny fence of text for something I wanted to go over, but we're short on time so I'm unsure if the version that comes out will be as ambitious. Basically all of the below is something I've been fantasizing about, it might never happen and just fully be inaccurate.
IP System
These are a series of projects we've decided to combine into one massive one, and it will be what is responsible for (1) IPv6 assignment, (2) rNDS/Port, (3) IPv4 Changes, (4) future bulk IP reassignments as well as (5) IP audits and on the client side it will likely show itself as a new network tab on your service. This system is not even in alpha, it's in the very early stages, with only very small portions of it worked out so all of the below can be vastly different in the final product. I'm going to describe everything as how it's currently intended.
The Tab
This will show your service's current assignments, and let you take some actions based on whether or not you have access to requesting changes, if you have the IP change tool enabled for your service, whether IPv6 is marked as available, whether you have additional IP addresses. You'll also be able to see a log of your service's IP history, timestamp of the change (whether it's upcoming, in the past) as well as any associated communication. You may also be able to select the level of communication you want to receive for any changes.
IPv6
We'll have our own system that works either alongside SolusVM or completely separate. You'll be able to go to the tab and basically indicate you want IPv6 and the system will figure it out and then display your currently assigned IPv6 as well as some information on how to configure it. When your service is moved, or if the blocks change, the IPv6 will automatically change. IPv6 will very much be treated as secondary to IPv4 which means we're not going to work out the system as robustly as with IPv4. You'll also basically be able to request reassignments (for free) if something's broken, and it's possible they might be rotated out with minimal levels of notice, at least until we begin to build out better levels of support for it. This also means once we switch over to this system, you'll likely lose your existing IPv6 assignments if you have them.
rDNS/Port
The system will be moving away from using SolusVM directly, but instead be managed on this tab. We'll likely build in some type of approval process for rDNS to make it semi-automated and this is to reduce abuse. The system will know which IP provider you're on and the rules/availability per the lessor's terms. So that also means if rDNS is important to you but it's unavailable by the current provider, you might be able to see some information on where it's supported and how to get there. With that said, we might begin actually enforcing whether or not your plan comes with rDNS support and we might also tie in our port blocking system to this or it might appear under its own thing, where you can see which ports we are blocking with the option to enable it that will go over what's available, why, etc. For port blocks, it's currently planned where you can basically request it if your service is grandfathered in, without having to purchase the option for port 443/80/25. Later on as we work in any security system(s) this information will also end up being displayed on the network tab where available, like if we have any rules in place related to your IP and you'll be able to opt out of any systems trying to protect your service from things like SSH bruteforcing. If you end up getting bruteforced and appeal it, this will likely end up being permanently enforced on your service. Same with if you end up hosting malware, and so on. The last few bits are very early stages of what's envisioned.
IPv4 Changes/Reassignment/Audits
They'll occur through this tab. We might keep a placeholder for some time where they used to be instead. You'll also be able to request the system check to see if you're assigned a correct address for your node, but this will likely be automated out in the background so all you'll see is logs that say your IP was changed because it had an incorrect assignment or something to that effect. You'll be able to see future planned changes, turn on and off notifications for changes,
Famous VirMach wall of text are back! This gonna be real Black Friday! :-D
Haven't bought a single service in VirMach Great Ryzen 2022 - 2023 Flash Sale.
https://lowendspirit.com/uploads/editor/gi/ippw0lcmqowk.png
Looking forward to black friday flash sales!
@VirMach Just give us the beta test link we wil figute it out, if necessary will broke it 😅
some crayz offers
What about migrations?
@VirMach as usual, hit me up if you need an experienced webdev to look into your system, and even do some simple testing to discover potential issues before it is in production. I cannot guarantee I can commit a lot of time due to BF preparation but I can help whatever I can. (You know where to contact me for fast reply)
Notification might be better with something like this to lower the cognitive load:
Most people who actually need to subscribe to notification knows exactly what they are looking at.
I am really curious about the UI and would be interested to see the final design, and provide comments or even design suggestion if you are open to it
- Heck, I can also just fix the CSS if you want to.
This is really interesting, looking forward to see it happening. I feel like you are building a system where even big e-commerce don't have, it could be a very interesting experiment to try out, especially there's always thousands or more users trying to get deals on VirMach, the sample data size could be useful.
This has always been an issue and I am quite curious how you ensures everyone get same level of updates. At my company we have to spread out notification in a few minutes because there's just too many subscribers/users.
You mean now I can practise my ADHD by staring on VirMach flash sale system every 15 seconds?
At the price VirMach is selling at, I don't think I can expect much, but a $10 per account to price lock for 5 years sound reasonable for me.
What if you can also add a "Thumb down" feature or something, user can mark something as good/bad and you get some instant user feedback. Of course there might be false positive but then it is a nice experiment and you can tune your algorithm based on that
@VirMach either way good to see wall of text and the hardwork that is being placed. All the best in the upcoming BF!
食之无味 弃之可惜 - Too arduous to relish, too wasteful to discard.
Just to prove that I do read it.
Need multi-IP deals again (avec rDNS of course).
It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)
@VirMach so that's why you were away for so long and not frequent.
The wall of text of wall of text of the wall of text to compose.....
Looking forward to it.
PS. I liked the feature of thumbs down that @FAT32 proposed... which you can use to your advantage and show the user the same or worse deals to that user. How dare the user down vote the VIRBOT...
My god
Not interesting at all. Don’t buy the VPS, as there’s a high probability of idling and data loss. Virmach may terminate your service at any time without reason, lock your data, and then charge you for support.
I have been terminated two 5 years+accounts and lose all the data.
no doubt Virmach has best prices but not sure if anything has been mentioned on support/uptime wise, what i see is there will be even less support replies moving forward.
the bills are coming in now so crazy specials are no longer sustainable. huge churn incoming (i think it will be for the better), will be exciting to see how big this event goes from the sidelines.
I bench YABS 24/7/365 unless it's a leap year.
I agree with FAT32's suggested condensed format for notifications, also easy for scripts to parse.
With all 9.99 german vpses sucked to death, i am curious too
@Virmach are you rolling out a new generation of servers for this offer?
The first party without MJJs.
$10 for price lock, what about location lock fee?
VIIIIIIIIIIRRRMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH
The price is really tempting, but the stability is just too bad.
Black for Real
@VirMach Do you have time to reorganize the looking glasses? Most of them don't work anymore.
Have the honor of being the crybaby who pays $20 for a 128MB VPS at VirMach in 2023.
I think I found the issue.
GIVEAWAY !
Free to well know LES member who has a use for it.
AMSD026, 4 core 3950X, 4.05 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe, 2TB data, 3 IPv4, $20.70 /yr, renews Dec 24th, 2024
I'll be paying the transfer fee so I get to pick who gets it.
Comment or DM me if interested.
GIVEAWAY !
Free to well know LES member who has a use for it.
AMSD026, 4 core 3950X, 4.05 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe, 2TB data, 3 IPv4, $20.70 /yr, renews Dec 24th, 2024
Wow. I can take that