From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Maxim Cournoyer Subject: Re: CDN Test Results - Should We Continue Using a CDN? Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:13:07 -0400 Message-ID: <87imwnserw.fsf@gmail.com> References: <87d0my1380.fsf@gmail.com> <87sgvssycz.fsf@gmail.com> <877ed4dxgg.fsf@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:47736) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1h3tYU-0004ao-Dm for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:23:43 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1h3tOK-00027X-9c for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 12 Mar 2019 22:13:13 -0400 In-Reply-To: <877ed4dxgg.fsf@gnu.org> ("Ludovic \=\?utf-8\?Q\?Court\=C3\=A8s\=22'\?\= \=\?utf-8\?Q\?s\?\= message of "Tue, 12 Mar 2019 14:38:39 +0100") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Guix-devel" To: Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?= Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Hello Ludovic! Ludovic Court=C3=A8s writes: > Hi Maxim, > > Maxim Cournoyer skribis: > >> Pardon me for asking, but how does using a CDN frees up resources? >> Aren't the usual infrastructure preserved (e.g., ci.guix.info)? It >> seems it'd be an extra layer to maintain? > > One of the motivations for this is that berlin.guixsd.org > aka. ci.guix.info is a single machine, the head of our main build farm. > If that machine goes down, we have no substitutes. Having a cache like > a CDN provides some redundancy: if the build farm goes down, we=E2=80=99l= l at > least still have cached substitutes, which leaves us time to fix the > build farm. I see. I understand that having the service continue running smoothly while fixing ci.guix.info must be a good stress reliever. [...] >> I'd rather see this (even modest) amount put into the hands of a >> motivated hacker to work on a distributed solution instead of >> encouraging a company which do not share our free software ideals. > > As discussed before, I definitely sympathize with this. Heck, if > someone had told me I=E2=80=99d argue in favor of a CDN after all this ti= me > spent filling in CloudFare CAPTCHAs just because CloudFare decided that > user privacy doesn=E2=80=99t matter and that Tor users should be penalize= d, I=E2=80=99d > have laughed. ;-) > > So it=E2=80=99s definitely not an easy decision. Nevertheless, we have to > acknowledge the fact that our current substitute delivery infrastructure > is fragile. If people volunteer to maintain a set of mirrors with some > load balancing, that=E2=80=99s great, I=E2=80=99m all for it. But for no= w, we don=E2=80=99t > have that at all, hence the CDN. Right. I understand better the motivation behind the CDN now, thank you for taking the time to explain. Resiliency is indeed welcome and maybe even necessary until better things come. Maxim