All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Should providers support their templates on ultra lebs
Torquemada
Member
Well, support is a bit strong.
But should providers at least guarantee templates will work out of the box?
So just bought an openvz to use as a vpn.
I specifically choose this provider as have very good rep and supply turnkeylinux templates on openvz.
I am a big fan of turnkeylinux.org and use them too much probably.
But up until now always on kvm.
No problems.
So my new openvz costs about 12euro per year.
Has a big list of tkl templates.
Fire it up, problem.
New install, same problem.
Try 4 or 5 different reinstalls of different tkl templates, same problem.
Search tkl forums and providers knowledge base, meh.
getting tired and thinking is this my problem or should this work out of box.
Open ticket.
Nice, Acknowledge i'm on a leb but shouldn't template work out of box.
Reply says not in our scope.
I'm not saying it is in their scope, just curious, because again, I know this is a ultra leb.
So here's the problem, what do you guys think??
After install of any tkl template there is some networking problem and all tkl services like webmin etc are listed on 127.0.0.2 instead of my ip.
I can still access webmin using myip:12321 but i am worried because i want ssl working later.
But just myip will bring up a tkl install screen..... meh
lots of hassle.
Anyway, what do you guys think?
i can do this.
But it will mean mooching around for many hours trying to find solutions that may or may not work, but i bought this for a quick out of box experience.
Is this my problem?
Should templates be supported or at least be guarenteed to install and work properly in the opening minutes of usage?
Looking forward to hearing back
Comments
For 12 euros a year, no. Turnkeylinux on KVM has always been very hit ad miss for me...
You could ask them to remove the templates to avoid confusing other customers.
>
Like you say its only 12eur a year.
But you are suggesting this big spender should go to them and ask that they remove all their tkl templates.
This is one of the bigger providers and the only one i've seen with tkl on openvz.
I like the price, i like the location, but you'd expect that they’d have it figured out first, right?
Mate, that's not an error. That's the behaviour of TurnkeyLinux on many machines. If it cannot find an external IP by itself, it defaults to 127.0.0.2, which with a little googling can be changed.
This is not the providers problem and is a configuration problem. Those templates are owned by Turnkey and probably have been grabbed vanilla from their site. Maybe contact Turnkey or their support to check if they have any guidance for you. That is, of course, if google cannot solve it for you.
Most providers don't maintain their own templates. Personally, I only maintain 3 OS templates for OpenVZ and they are the only 3 I will offer any level of support for and also the only 3 guaranteed to work with our 32/64MB plans. After that, it's up to the client to figure out or wait for OpenVZ to release a new version of the template they want to use and hope it works better for them.
debian minimal is all we need. When a user goes for an ultra leb there is often a reason and sometimes a competent person behind that reason.
I want to point out that OpenVZ.org has minimal templates now that they maintain. I replaced all of the "full" templates with their respective minimal templates on our servers so hopefully most of them will work better on our 32/64MB VPSs. I haven't tested them out except the Debian 7 32bit template that only uses 3-5MB of RAM, but I still won't offer support for any templates except the remaining 2 that I maintain.
In some quick (to be honest) googles I can't find others with the same problem.
so either nobody else has this problem or nobody else is using tkl on openvz.
My point is this, and specifically for tkl templates.
Oxford dictionary: Turnkey
Adjective:
Of or involving the provision of a complete product or service that is ready for immediate use: turnkey systems for telecommunications customers
This thing should at least setup out of the box.
I feel if a business is going to offer these templates, even for an ultra leb, then it should work or solutions should be on hand if it doesn't.
I don't have the time for delving deep into this.
I think it's fair to say that most templates for major distributions work out of the box anyway. It's good to hear that you'll even guarantee some of them. You have obviously tested them to be able to do this.
But shouldn't providers test all templates before they advertize them as available.
Come on, you could have someone test the initial install of 20 distros in a couple of hours.
Again, I feel this is especially so for customized distros, ie, Turnkeylinux.
You mean test 20 distros across all the relevant plans in a couple of hours?
Send that to Turnkey, not your provider. For a couple of bucks per year, be happy the VPS is even running . . .
Well if needs be, and even if it takes longer, yes.
Come on, if somebody is going to list that "we supply our openvz plans with this distro and that distro"
And I look around at the other providers and see, well they don't have this one and they don't have that one.
Hmmm, I can maybe be forgiven for presuming that the provider i choose, that offers these distros that no-one else offers, has that little something special, has all this figured out, they have their shit together, right?
Why supply a distro, that I need to go and fix?
It's broken, but my problem.
Look don't get me wrong.
I'm keeping this box anyway.
It's just that apart from the "not in our scope" part of the ticket response there was also the suggestion that I go online and figure it out.
And as I said before, I can do that, and I can fix it. It's just the time and it's not what i planed or wanted.
So, I choose to go online here, and throw it out there.
Where's the ethics..?
Solution: Don't use that distro.
Well, hold your horses there for just a second, sexy.
Your suggestion is that the providers only provide templates they've tested and confirm working across all their plans. That's great for you. But what about me, the person who wants something a bit different or specific, and doesn't mind messing around with a template to get it to work? Should I be denied a template because you're not interested in spending time setting it up?
Now should an untested distro be marked as such? I think it should. Should it still be offered? I believe so, yes.
I just went through and installed most of the new OpenVZ.org minimal templates (I was getting tired so I decided to only test out the 32bit ones for Ubuntu and SUSE):
There are pleanty of reasonable providers, some who even state in their terms that they can load additional templates on request.
If you like to tinker (as I do too, time permitting), this is where you go.
But lebs aren't all fun and games and often we want to just get stuck in and get what needs to be done done.
And this is why I am here stating, that any templates listed as being officially available from any given provider should be ready to work out of the box.
I'm chuckling a little right now as I tapping here, because I am little shocked (but not too surprised) that no-one has thrown in on my side.
For me, it just seems so reasonable and fair, and obvious
A respectful nod to KuJoe though. Just for joining the discussion here. He still hasn't directly stated what he feels other providers should or shouldn't do. But he's certainly let us know how his house is ordered. Maybe even that little something special I mentioned earlier.
Never had one of his vps before but I know he'll be my first stop next time.
And PLEASE don't misunderstand me.
I am not saying that the distros should be supported for the duration of servers life or even beyond the first customizations made by the client.
All I am saying is that if a distro is listed for a server, then that distro should be guaranteed to work straight out the box.
If that guarantee cannot be made, then that distro should be listed as available only if requested (for those willing to tinker) or not listed at all.