Alertfox

To use AlertFox, you first have to install the iMacros plugin for your browser (available for Firefox and IE).  This makes recording a macro (sequence of clicks and data entries) a piece of cake.  You can choose to have clicks recorded by the id of the element you are selecting, or by the X/Y coordinates.  Once you have recorded a transaction (you may need to edit the script to replace session ids with wildcards (*)), you can create a “sensor” with it on the AlertFox site.  A Sensor is a rule set including the macro which should be carried out, how often it should be executed, in which browser, and what the acceptable time is that this transaction should take.  You can even define from which location the test should be carried out (“Europe Zone” and “World Zone” connections both currently come from servers hosted by serverloft in Germany, “US Zone” connections come from theplanet servers in Houston Texas).

When things go wrong: If the transaction cannot be completed (server is too slow, a page in the sequence is not as expected, …), you immediately get an email warning with a link to a screenshot.  This is great!  Setting up a host of these sensors I feel like I’ve got a horde of tireless monkeys working day and night clicking, typing, and making screenshots.  On your AlertFox dashboard you have a good overview of all your sensors, when they were tested, and what the results were each time.

One small annoyance: you often won’t be able to use a macro recorded in Firefox for IE – there are small differences in how they recognise tags which sometimes break cross compatibility.  Solution: record the same transaction twice – once in Firefox, and again in IE.

Why outsource monitoring?

You might wonder what the point is of outsourcing your web application monitoring: surely you can monitor server load in-house.  This will cover many causes of downtime, but what if your server is running fine, but network interruption has made it unavailable from outside?

So you do need to have monitoring from a remote server… Maybe you have another server and can make both of your servers monitor each other, or maybe you want to use a basic monitoring service which makes simple http requests to test if your server is online.  This is better – you will know if your server goes offline, but that doesn’t cover some of the most common problems which could occur…

One of the typical errors on a web application which won’t be caught by any of the above methods is your payment system breaking.  A software error, or a glich in the payment fulfillment provider… it will allow users to visit your site, put items in the shopping cart, but not complete the checkout.  Your burning marketing money bringing them to your site, and no cash is coming in.  The only way to be sure your site is working is to test real transactions in a real browser, but … monkeys aren’t that clever, and employing slave labour will probably get you in trouble.

If you are an online marketer it is quite likely that you are responsible for driving traffic to a site, monitoring and optimising your campaigns without having any control over the site you are working for.  If the site goes down or a section is broken you want to know asap so that you can inform your customer and stop burning marketing budget on a broken site.

What does it cost?

They have 4 packages ranging between free (only one Macro, and that only on Firefox) and $199.  I used the PRO2 version for $99/month which is the cheapest version which allows testing in IE and Firefox.

Links

I spent all my time talking about AlertFox because it’s the only one which fulfils my requirements, but there are many other monitoring services which may be up to your needs if you don’t need application level monitoring (DNS, HTTP, FTP, …), and here’s a list of some of the others I looked at:

• Serverguard24
• Alertra
• Uptrends
• Wormly
• Alertsite
• Site24x7
• Dotcom-monitor
• Pingdom
• Webmetrics

Version  1.96       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
h1652797.strato 12G   289  66 40647  14 21138   7   683  45 50521   7 136.6   3
Latency               700ms   36604ms    8855ms     449ms    2776ms    1791ms
Version  1.96       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
h1652797.stratoserv -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16   753   2 +++++ +++   900   2  1978   5 +++++ +++  2059   5
Latency               445ms    2346us   15866us    3986us    1653us   55366us

Ich habe das natürlich auch mit dem Rescue boot gemacht um sicher zu stellen das keine meine Dienste irgendwie dazwischen pfuschen oder irgendwelche Einstellungen von mir da negativ mitwirken.

Zum Vergleich, sieht das auf mein Desktop so aus:

Version 1.03c        ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input-  --Random-
                     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block--- --Seeks---
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec  %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec  %CP  /sec  %CP
rcl-desktop   16G   68441  98 137016  29 40956   6 50718  76 226049  17  265.8   0
Version 1.03c       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
rcl-desktop         -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 50 66904  98 +++++ +++ 95599  98 70748  99 +++++ +++ 92337 100

Wer das nicht lesen kann oder mag: der Strato V-PowerServer-L kann nur EIN HUNDERSTEL (oder schlechter) so viel/schnell Daten erstellen/lesen wie mein Desktop.  Ich weiss das Virtuelle Server nicht der Leistung haben von “echte” hardware, aber ich bin auch selber erfahren genug mit VMWare und co. zu wissen das das nicht im Rahmen das Zumutbare ist, und vor allem im Kombination mit 2CPU’s (Opteron(tm) Processor 2347 HE) und 6GB RAM ein Witz ist.  Ich habe sogar mein altes mini-PC mit bonnie++ gemessen.  Der hat ein AMD Geode 500MHz CPU, und ein älteres 2,5 Zoll ATA Festplatte… sogar der schneidet ab mit 10x schneller als mein Strato V-PowerServer:

Version 1.03c       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
coconut          1G  3804  95 30923  43 12903  18  4405  97 34627  28 114.8   2
                    ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
                    -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  7265  98 +++++ +++ 13685  99  7003  93 +++++ +++ 13330  99

Da habe ich Strato ausfürlich und mit den Testdaten ein Nachricht geschickt, ob die die unterliegende Systemprobleme bitte beheben könnten.  Die antworteten:

Den Sachverhalt haben wir ebenfalls erneut für Sie geprüft, konnten jedoch keine Beeinträchtigungen feststellen. Zur Prüfung haben wir die hostende Hardware Ihres V-Servers überprüft, die eine normale Lastverteilung aufzeigte.

Bitte beachten Sie, dass die Ressourcen der Hardware auf mehrere V-Server geteilt werden und sich somit je nach Lastverteilung unterschiedliche Performance-Werte ergeben können. In Ihrem Fall empfehlen wir Ihnen einen Wechsel auf einen der angebotenen dedizierten Root-Server, dessen Ressourcen ausschließlich Ihrem System zur Verfügung gestellt werden.

Ach so… der Performance (für dem ich übrigens 29,90EUR/Monat bezahle) ist 1/10 wie der Popeligste Rechner den ich finden könnte, und wenn ich was besseres will, soll ich was anderes Bestellen.

Ich dachte mir das kann doch nicht seien… wenn ich mit einen Menschen Rede wird er merken das was übersehen wurde und das Regeln können… und habe deshalb noch für weitere 3EUR auf deren Kostenpflichtige Technische Hotline angerufen um erst mit Herr Matt, und dann der Teamleader Herr Schumann zu sprechen.  Die sagten das die Tests bestätigen das es keine Probleme vorliegen, und das (wörtlich!)

das Performance das Sie gemessen haben ist was man bie dieser Produkt zu erwarten hat.

Wow… Ich staune!  Was haben die denn für Standards?  Wenn es ein Test gibt, stelle ich mir als erfahrener Ingineur vor, dann muss es auch ein Standard geben, was für Auslastung bzw. Zugriffszeiten zulässig sind.  Nein sagten die Herren: bei Strato gibt es Tests, aber keine Werte für Bestung diese Tests.

Fazit: Mit CPU und RAM protzen die V-PowerServe gross, aber sind trotzdem nutzlos weil die keine Anwendungen die ein Bischen Festplattenperformance brauchen (sprich alles ausser der Webseite deiner Oma!) unterstützen.

Ich werde bald möglichst meinen Anbieter wechseln (ärgerlich ist das ich erst 4 von ein 12-Monate Vertrag hinter mich habe…), und veröffentliche hiermit ein Beispiel der Standard der laut der Strato Technischer Support  bei den Strato V-PowerServer reihe zu erwarten ist, damit hoffentlich andere auch erfahren was bei Strato der Standard ist bevor die ein Vertrag abschliesen.

Ich rate die Finger von diesen Produkten zu lassen!

The cool stuff:

• It is well documented, and pretty easy to set up an instance.
• You can dynamically change the class (CPU power and Memory) of a database instance – this means you can give it more power without shutting it down, and easily scale it without having to do complex MySQL proxy configuration and synchronisation.

What’s still missing:

• Not available in EU yet (it should be soon) – I set up a few instances in the US, but can’t really test what the performance is in the EU between EC2 instances and RDS instances, and that’s what I’m really interested in…
• I takes a long time for the instance to become available!  I was waiting between 5 and 30 minutes.  I guess that’s not such an issue if you are just creating it once and leaving it running as the data hub for an application, but it’s annoyingly slow for testing/playing.  At least they don’t seem to start billing for time until it is online.

Other interesting notes

• If you start the instance without any parameters, it will have a typical configuration for the machine used (memory allocation spread between InnoDB and MyISAM).  It is however possible to specify parameters when the instance is started, or even during run time – this gives a lot of room for optimisation: it’s not just a dumb service, you can tune it to your requirements.
• Just for kicks and giggles, I tried scaling a small instance to a large instance, without any custom parameters: the only change was allocating all the additional memory to innodb_buffer_pool_size.  I guess that’s what most people want…

With my current intention in becoming self employed, I’m soaking up all kinds of good advice about how to make a successful business.  This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I’m happy to recommend it on to anybody in business.  It’s not so much a guide how to “grow” a business, as a collection of topics, thoughts and stories which the author found relevant.  It has many good ideas, and guidelines, which I think I can best summarise as “be nice” – to your customers and employees.  It won’t tell you how to run your business, but it might help you realise what is really important, and what the most productive steps to becoming successful will be for you.

It’s an easy read with lots (sometimes just one too many) anecdotes supporting his ideas, and as a result it’s not all dry theory: it’s funny too.  It is aimed at the American reader, focusing on American models and businesses, but I think the business model which he hails would be successful in any part of the world.  Another interesting element is that the book was written in the mid eighties, but many of the points which Paul says are central to a good business are (if not in their entirety) what we know from, and for which we respect companies like Toyota, Amazon and Google – long after the book was written.

It’s true – I haven’t told you much about what’s in the book… for that you’ll just have to read it!

Who wants to borrow my copy?

Many of my friends have already experienced me singing the merits of OSS (Open Source Software), with Linux at its core.  With the latest Ubuntu release “Jaunty Jackalope” (which I upgraded to a few days ago), I thought it’s time to sing some more praise again for my favourite operating system!  If you have heard of Linux, and think one of the following common misconceptions:

• It’s too “geeky” – I want to use my computer, not use the command line to use it…
• It’s really difficult to get it to work…
• I won’t be able to do my stuff on it…

… think again!

I’ve never even tried to pursuade my family to convert… there’s no one else that they know who knows Linux, and I’m thousands of kilometers away – it just doesn’t make sense for them to make the effort to change.  But… when my sister got a netbook for Christmas the price tag won the fight for Linux without me even opening my mouth.  The best bang-for-buck netbook which my father found was an Acer netbook with “Linpus” installed.  Since then my sister (18 years old, great at arts, but not previously known for technical prowess) has installed Ubuntu on it, and is really happy!  If she can do it, so can you!

Why you may ask…?  If your current computer already has Windows, it’s probably not worth the effort, but when you buy your next one, consider that even if you get some version of Windows included in the deal, it’s probably adding upwards of 150EUR to the price tag, and with laptops costing as little as 300EUR nowadays, that’s pretty significant!  That’s not where it ends though – getting legal copies of all the rest of the software you want for your system (Office etc.) will cost a pretty penny too.  If you’re using a Mac now, then money obviously isn’t an object anyway… so go get yourself another Mac! ;-P

The latest Ubuntu comes with Open Office (replaces MS Office), Firefox (replaces MS Internet Explorer), Gimp (replaces Photoshop) preinstalled, and there’s all kinds of other programs which have by now become very stable, and very very competitive alternatives to their fee based counterparts.

What other stuff work on Linux these days?

• Skype
• Google Earth
• a whole host of video and sound editing suites
• Fancy 3D desktop effects – stuff that only Mac users can dream of.
• … and if you really want to use that one Windows program, you can probably install it under Linux with Wine!

The one thing I really love about my Ubuntu installation – I always have the latest version of all the software I use.  Once I decide to install any given program (there’s one easy interface to install/remove pretty much everything), I never have to go checking on a website to see if I have the latest version: the system upgrades (which you can set to happen automatically every day) upgrade EVERYTHING!

Best of all – you can try out Ubuntu without committing and installing – just download the image, burn it to a CD, and reboot your computer with the CD in the drive – it will run the whole system from the CD! And did I mention that most of the free software which runs on Linux also has a version for Windows and Mac too?

If you already are a Ubuntu user, and are wondering about the upgrade to Jaunty Jackalope: I recomend it!  The upgrade worked without a hickup, and though I’ve not seen any wild changes, the few small changes that there are are nice!

As a little aside, here’s how I was converted:

• 1998 – Richard, a Linux guru was living in my dorm and installed Debian on my computer.  It took him about 8 hours.  Sound didn’t work, and the graphics were bad… I didn’t do much with it, and felt sorry for his effort…
• 2001 – I did the final part of my Masters in Munich at the TUM.  My desktop had SuSE Linux installed… I got on ok with it, and set up a web server on it.  It was more intuitive than my previous Linux experience, and much easier than the Sun systems my colleagues were using.
• 2002 – Finished with my Masters in Computer Science, I was working in England for a few months, didn’t have many friends there, but a load of old PC’s from work… this time I managed to install Debian myself, and started doing some Perl programming and playing around with web and file servers.
• Since 2003 – I’ve always had a Linux server at home as a file server and for testing programs out on
• Since 2006 – Because of a job change, I had to buy my first own laptop (up until then they had always been work-owned, and Windows-enforced) – I installed Ubuntu and haven’t looked back since!