Three things that'd be nice:

1. Image backups: File backups are nice but aren't sufficient for OS upgrades and the like, and also take more time to get things back up and running in the event disaster strikes. For low traffic sites Linode is not substantially cheaper than other services which do provide image backups, so it would be good to have this for feature parity at least.

2. AppArmor in the default kernels: Ubuntu has it by default already, so Linode is *taking it out* for reasons I do not understand.

3. Less jitter: I'm not sure why, but having come from Rackspace where I can consistently get at least 40-70ms, I find that sometimes the ping to my server is upwards of 700 ms, though usually it is a nice low number as well. Don't know why Linode is worse in this respect, perhaps my server just happens to be on the same machine as someone rather IO intensive?

http://www.linode.com/backups/

It's not a required part of the Linux kernel, so they aren't taking it out: they're not including it. A subtle difference. It does, however, have the potential (if it's anything like SELinux...) to break userlands that don't expect it.



I/O shouldn't impact RTT that much at all, since ICMP replies are handled by the kernel. That is indeed weird. Might be worth firing off an mtr in both directions, and posting them in a new thread. (FWIW, I have not experienced unusually high jitter, outside of normal Internet behaviors.)

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GLaDOSDan, I read that page. In the Limitations section,



hoopycat, that may be, but it is a standard part of the Ubuntu kernel it is purporting to be an installation of. It's the only reason I use the Ubuntu instead of Debian. On top of that, it only enables by default for a couple minor programs (DHCP client, for instance), so really, nothing breaks unless you set up a profile. But it's still *present*.

Linode backups operating on files shouldn't make any practical difference for you. When you restore, you get a new disk image containing everything that was in the old disk image at the time of backup.

Linode doesn't purport to install the Ubuntu kernel -- indeed, it isn't a part of the Ubuntu deploy images at all. But, as noted elsewhere, pv-grub lets you run your distribution's kernel (or any other compatible kernel, Linux or not) relatively easily. Remember, Ubuntu is the most popular distribution here, but it is far from the only one.

Also, the DHCP client isn't very minor, since it is used for IPv4 auto-configuration on newly-deployed Linodes.

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But it has to be a Xen kernel, because Linodes are paravirtualized, no?

Well, it has to be a paravirtualized kernel, which is not Xen-specific (but usually is). But yes, "compatible" was the key word.

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It might be nice if the Linode manager had an audit trail where we could view a list of every action taken by each user on the account.

Don't remember if this has been suggested previously.

Without a doubt I must say Linode is doing a pretty bang-up job in many areas. They truly put all the others to shame including those better known providers. Kudos to you for having the courage to ask this question and show responses publicly!

Here's what would tickle my fancy:

SSL termination on NodeBalancers
Additional IPv4 IPs without reboot
Moose-friendly service for us Canucks (perhaps at 151 Front Street)

+1 on SSL termination on NodeBalancers

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New suggestion: Higher rate caps on private network ports. Right now they have the same cap as the public port, but this is a bit restrictive if you're trying to run a database backend over it. The difference is there even if you aren't saturating the link - the lower port speed still makes queries considerably slower when you're talking the sort of times that a local box can serve them.

There's not a way to differentiate this as they are the same interface for your Linode. If you're hitting the cap, open a ticket and we can look at raising it for you.

-Tim

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+1 for RAM!

This basicly sums up what I was going to say, especially once you include the stuff revolving around the xen exploit.