Regarding the new beta service. I got a suggestion in the ticket system that I was eligble to try it out. Fine.

I have a question that might be perceived as provocative but I'm very sincere and do not mean to be provocative at all.

I have a setup today with 4 linodes (1 webserver/php-fpm, 1 mysql, 1 redis, and 1 backup using rsync) i.e. a horizontal setup rather than vertical. This have been running for some 170 days now. Last time it was down (170 days ago) was due to Linode since you wanted to do some upgrades to the underlying hardware.

So, my question is what value this will bring to me? I am the first one to agree that I could use architectural support but... Well, I don't know.

So what's the value proposition here? Thanks for an otherwise excellent service.

Since there's been no answer to this, let me be more specific in my question.

To Linode staff:

I have the following setup (All debian)
1 Linode with MySQL
1 Linode with Redis
1 Linode with PHP + Nginx
1 Linode for backup

What I would like help with is the following (off the top of my head):

- Setup a round robin of such for the webserver so I don't have a single point of failiure
- Get a better way for backups to be handled rather than my cronjob RSYNC'ing it between Linodes

Is this within the realm of the "managed" offer or what is the offering precisely??

Please answer. Thanks.

I have no experience with the managed beta, but I'm glad that this initiative is moving forward. Depending on the price, I definitely would consider offloading some of these tasks to the capable staff at Linode.

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I myself like the fact that Managed provides monitoring over my services and they are also able to react at least to some degree if anything happens. Of course I have my own monitoring set up, but it's good that there's someone else to react also.

I've understood that the Managed service would include also some kind of architectural advice, however this I have not tried yet. They did give me a few pointers when one of our services was coughing a bit.

Configuring round robin for your web server and creating custom backup solutions aren't part of Linode Managed. Once you have this architecture in place, however, Linode Managed would be a great solution to monitor those services and bring them back up were they to go down.

- Rick

Hmm... It took you three days to answer, and not an elaborate one at that.

In other words, "managed" is really just in the name then.
Please strike the phrase "we will give you architecture advice" from the description of the service as it's really false advertising.

Or maybe you're ignoring the fact that this is a beta test, and you shouldn't expect instant gratification?

Beta or not, if you state "we offer you architecture advice" and then when asked about it, say that you don't offer architecture advice, then that's just wrong.

I have the greatest respect for you Guspaz and I love Linode, but just because it's beta doesn't mean you should mislabel it.

Tell it like it is.

Linode Managed Beta = Linode Monitoring Services Beta

Please prove me wrong. I'd be happier if it actually was a "managed" service on offering.

I think there is a misunderstanding here. I'm confused.

adergaard, are you asking for architecture advice or asking for someone to build it for you?

To me, and most others I've asked about this, "Managed" means that someone manages stuff for you.
What Linode seem to be offering with this beta - though I'm not sure - is "monitoring services", but are calling it "Managed" for reasons yet to be disclosed.

In my opinion:

Managed Service = Someone manages your setup. Installs/maintains it.
Assistance Service = Someone can take a look at your setup and point out that it could be improved by such and such action
Monitoring Service = Someone (or something) monitors your setup and if one or more parts of it fails, alerts you via preferred media.

What I was looking for with this new service, originally, was managed.
What I would settle for is some assistance.
What I don't need - since there are a gzillion such services available for free on the internet - is a monitoring service.

My point in starting this thread in the first place was just to get clarification as to what exactly the Linode Managed Service entails. It has yet to be answered.

And yes, I'm sorry for being a pain.

They do set up and manage a whole bunch of services... Not supporting some specific setup doesn't mean it's not managed, only that they only manage a specific set of software and configurations. They're not promising to sell unlimited hands and eyes, after all.

From what I've seen, it's not just alerts you, it's tries to fix the problem.