Dedicated server/bandwidth monitor add-on

[bpanas]

These add-ons makes Matts program more desireable to a larger segment of the industry the more diverse it is. These posts actually help Matt sell his product to people who whould never use it. Example...I have been contacted by many people who do not webhost but run server shops, these people would be willing to use WHMCS just to monitor and bill there servers to save money from using programs like MondernBill

 

Regards

Bill

 

As stated, when a complete billing and support system is $18/mo and plug-in cost you $39/mo, it simply makes me appreciate Matt and his pricing even more. You are free to charge what you want. You developed it - you price it. It isn't going to change my opinion.

 

-

 

I think Matt should be charging to advertise these modules on his forums. Matt could make some money here since you are basically given free access to beta testers and free marketing to your client base you sell to. But I do not run the show here either. But using your logic on pricing, being charged to sell here should not bother you? No need to answer, just having fun.

[Lightwave]

Darn... and I was looking forward to this after months of teasing.

[bpanas]

UPdate for everyone, we are currently on the final stages of the 2nd beta build, this build include multiple nics per machine, and 95th percentile will be there. We have added a new telnet app that does a much better (faster) job talking to switches which was my ALWAYS complaint..damn thing is too slow .. lol Well Jay must have gotten tired of hearing it and Bob's your Uncle! This release should be ready next week sometime .. Once it is installed at Beta sites and given the A OK we will release the product. Anyone interested will need to contact me as the one thing we havent done is add the product to our website.. small omission but we will get it done. THANK YOU for your patience and good words.. for those of you that do not use WHMCS let us know and we can help you out with that also.

 

Bill

[zoilodiaz]

This are really good news

[Apoc]

UPdate for everyone, we are currently on the final stages of the 2nd beta build, this build include multiple nics per machine, and 95th percentile will be there. We have added a new telnet app that does a much better (faster) job talking to switches which was my ALWAYS complaint..damn thing is too slow .. lol Well Jay must have gotten tired of hearing it and Bob's your Uncle! This release should be ready next week sometime .. Once it is installed at Beta sites and given the A OK we will release the product. Anyone interested will need to contact me as the one thing we havent done is add the product to our website.. small omission but we will get it done. THANK YOU for your patience and good words.. for those of you that do not use WHMCS let us know and we can help you out with that also.

 

Bill

 

Hi Bill,

 

This is good news - really can't wait to get it started.

 

One request though; I sent you an email with the request whether you could also include power monitoring (which would also simply grab kWh values from Cacti graphs). This is intended to charge colocation clients for their power usage.

 

There is practically no additional work involved for you, as it works exactly the same as monitoring bandwidth (except that some features would be left out). It would just pull the data from Cacti, and the only differences would be that for example it wouldn't need to work with overages (as there's no such thing for power - it would just bill the client for whatever amount of kWH they use multiplied by a number of cents).

 

You have already been in contacting with Thomas about this, and I followed up on that email too (unfortunately I didn't hear back from you though), and there are a number of other people who are desperately waiting for the ability to charge for power usage. As such, it would be greatly appreciated if you could include this, as we believe this is hardly any additonal work for you.

[bpanas]

We had another request for the same function last week and I assumed it was you. We would need to see a sample round robin database containing the power consumption info..it could be added but it is not something that we would actually need here. I understand that the market where you are loacated will base cost on power over BW or in some cases a combination of the 2. If you could tar up and send me a sample table we could have a look and see what it would take to make it happen. It is possible and is it fair to assume you are in the netherlands somewhere..

 

Regards Bill

 

 

Hi Bill,

 

This is good news - really can't wait to get it started.

 

One request though; I sent you an email with the request whether you could also include power monitoring (which would also simply grab kWh values from Cacti graphs). This is intended to charge colocation clients for their power usage.

 

There is practically no additional work involved for you, as it works exactly the same as monitoring bandwidth (except that some features would be left out). It would just pull the data from Cacti, and the only differences would be that for example it wouldn't need to work with overages (as there's no such thing for power - it would just bill the client for whatever amount of kWH they use multiplied by a number of cents).

 

You have already been in contacting with Thomas about this, and I followed up on that email too (unfortunately I didn't hear back from you though), and there are a number of other people who are desperately waiting for the ability to charge for power usage. As such, it would be greatly appreciated if you could include this, as we believe this is hardly any additonal work for you.

[TheHostingHeroes]

Hi

 

When do you expect a final release?

[bpanas]

OK we should be looking at release in about 2 weeks, one thing our dev team has discussed today is the 95th percentile billing. We will probably keep this in house for testing for a bit longer before we release it. The reasoning is that since it needs to bill and be accurate we want to feel confident it works correctly.. since it has just been added.. we are actually allowing the %tile mode to set up separate tiers for pricing off peak bandwidth at a different price if you like in an effort to help possibly spread out bandwidth usage over off peak usage times. Since most networks are over sold we felt this may be a handy option to try and relieve peak time usage by enough to give use ISP's just the little bit of comfort zone (headroom) to reduce latency during the most used times of the days.. it will be an option that you can use or not..

 

please be patient as we are very close to releasing a very powerful and useful tool for server/BW monitoring..

 

Bill

 

Hi

 

When do you expect a final release?

[bpanas]

we looked at the ipoman 1200 today to get a handle on the capabilities.. this is something that we can probably add as a custom coding job for your area. If you had say 5 guys interested in the custom coding and would be willing to split the pricing of the custom work I think it would be a fair way to be sure no one feels like they have paid for code unfairly/ we need to see not only the way the info is stored in cacti but specific instructions on how it needs to work.. I understand it is very similar to the way bandwidth is handled and the cost structures would be a variable that could be different for each customer based on your agreement with them. IT doesnt seem like a major undertaking as you said but that answer would need to come from the dev team as I am the operations director and not an coder anymore. Lets keep talking send me what you would like us to consider specifically and I will sit down with the team and get you a ball park number as far as the time involved in the job..

 

I hope this helps guys

 

Regards

Bill

 

Once we get thru ther next couple of weeks I would put you directly in touch with project dev .. also reemember we are currently developing an IP manager add-on which is essential to complete our automation project that will help us all make money using less resources!!!

 

 

 

 

We had another request for the same function last week and I assumed it was you. We would need to see a sample round robin database containing the power consumption info..it could be added but it is not something that we would actually need here. I understand that the market where you are loacated will base cost on power over BW or in some cases a combination of the 2. If you could tar up and send me a sample table we could have a look and see what it would take to make it happen. It is possible and is it fair to assume you are in the netherlands somewhere..

 

Regards Bill

[vince512]

Can I use this for VMs created through Xenserver 5.5?

[bpanas]

This addon does not work for VM's

 

 

Can I use this for VMs created through Xenserver 5.5?

[Apoc]

This addon does not work for VM's

 

Why not? If he can put the graphs the same way in Cacti, that should work all the same right?

[bpanas]

The dev team msays no but I will try to get you a more specific answer from them

 

 

Why not? If he can put the graphs the same way in Cacti, that should work all the same right?

[Apoc]

The dev team msays no but I will try to get you a more specific answer from them

 

Ok thanks! For me it would also be a major bummer if that wouldn't be possible.

 

My reasoning for saying this should be possible, is based on the idea that the source of the data should be irrelevant, as long as the data is formatted the same way in Cacti

[bpanas]

This mod does mor than just monitor bandwidth. it controls all your switches which you would not have for each VM, so you would have to tell the addon where and how to look for the stats since now it is done by switch and port

 

Ok thanks! For me it would also be a major bummer if that wouldn't be possible.

 

My reasoning for saying this should be possible, is based on the idea that the source of the data should be irrelevant, as long as the data is formatted the same way in Cacti

[Apoc]

This mod does mor than just monitor bandwidth. it controls all your switches which you would not have for each VM, so you would have to tell the addon where and how to look for the stats since now it is done by switch and port

 

It is my understanding that it grabs the stats from Cacti, it only uses telnet for disabling ports and things like that. Right?

 

If so, if you simply wouldn't use the telnet part for the VM's, then it should be able to use the Cacti graphs for VM's. For the script that should make no difference, if the graphs of the VM's are formatted the same as the graphs of dedicated servers. You could basically consider the host server a "switch", and each VM a "dedicated server".

 

If you would for example have a host server with 24 VM's, you could basically make it look like a switch with 24 servers in cacti.

 

I don't really see why that wouldn't work

[bpanas]

how do we tel the mod where to look for the stats?? since there will be many stats per server.. IT couild probably be done but unfortunately it is not on our wish list right now. Our VM customers get turned off when they exceed.. we have yet to find one that wants to pay more than the 20 bucks a month for the VM, if they are using that kind of bandwidth we just move them to dedicated server or they can stay turned off

 

 

 

It is my understanding that it grabs the stats from Cacti, it only uses telnet for disabling ports and things like that. Right?

 

If so, if you simply wouldn't use the telnet part for the VM's, then it should be able to use the Cacti graphs for VM's. For the script that should make no difference, if the graphs of the VM's are formatted the same as the graphs of dedicated servers. You could basically consider the host server a "switch", and each VM a "dedicated server".

 

If you would for example have a host server with 24 VM's, you could basically make it look like a switch with 24 servers in cacti.

 

I don't really see why that wouldn't work

[Apoc]

how do we tel the mod where to look for the stats?? since there will be many stats per server.. IT couild probably be done but unfortunately it is not on our wish list right now. Our VM customers get turned off when they exceed.. we have yet to find one that wants to pay more than the 20 bucks a month for the VM, if they are using that kind of bandwidth we just move them to dedicated server or they can stay turned off

 

I understand that this may not be needed for you, but keep in mind that when releasing a commercial module, the needs of the licencees are also very important. I can assure you that there's a huge demand for this (particularly with cheap VM's with low profit margins. Of course you can just turn off the VPS when it reaches its bandwidth limit, but that seems a bit harsh - we could never do that with our clients - but then again our VM's are much more expensive).

 

As for tell the mod where to look for the stats: exactly the same way as with dedicated servers. Each graph represents 1 VM.

 

If you'd ask me, in your script, no modifications should be necessary at all. However, then again I haven't seen the exact functionality. Perhaps you could add me in as a beta tester so I can check this out?

[bpanas]

I will pass your info to our dev team and see what they say

 

 

 

I understand that this may not be needed for you, but keep in mind that when releasing a commercial module, the needs of the licencees are also very important. I can assure you that there's a huge demand for this (particularly with cheap VM's with low profit margins. Of course you can just turn off the VPS when it reaches its bandwidth limit, but that seems a bit harsh - we could never do that with our clients - but then again our VM's are much more expensive).

 

As for tell the mod where to look for the stats: exactly the same way as with dedicated servers. Each graph represents 1 VM.

 

If you'd ask me, in your script, no modifications should be necessary at all. However, then again I haven't seen the exact functionality. Perhaps you could add me in as a beta tester so I can check this out?

[Bernard]

I'm in for this mod.

 

we looked at the ipoman 1200 today to get a handle on the capabilities.. this is something that we can probably add as a custom coding job for your area. If you had say 5 guys interested in the custom coding and would be willing to split the pricing of the custom work I think it would be a fair way to be sure no one feels like they have paid for code unfairly/ we need to see not only the way the info is stored in cacti but specific instructions on how it needs to work.. I understand it is very similar to the way bandwidth is handled and the cost structures would be a variable that could be different for each customer based on your agreement with them. IT doesnt seem like a major undertaking as you said but that answer would need to come from the dev team as I am the operations director and not an coder anymore. Lets keep talking send me what you would like us to consider specifically and I will sit down with the team and get you a ball park number as far as the time involved in the job..

 

I hope this helps guys

 

Regards

Bill

 

Once we get thru ther next couple of weeks I would put you directly in touch with project dev .. also reemember we are currently developing an IP manager add-on which is essential to complete our automation project that will help us all make money using less resources!!!

[bpanas]

we have been looking at the ipoman switch, maybe you could answer a question, is the input voltage swtable between 120/220/240 or is there a different unit for each required voltage.. we are looking at this switch and may purchase 1 to have in house for coding purposes

 

 

Bill

I'm in for this mod.

[Apoc]

we have been looking at the ipoman switch, maybe you could answer a question, is the input voltage swtable between 120/220/240 or is there a different unit for each required voltage.. we are looking at this switch and may purchase 1 to have in house for coding purposes

 

 

Bill

 

Bill,

 

The voltage is irrelevant. You would only measure the amount of Watts that a port uses, and as such the input Voltage is irrelevant (as the amount of Watts are always the same, regardless of the Voltage).

 

Also: we already have an Ipoman setup for testing purposes (Thomas set this up a couple of days ago), and we can give you access to it, so you wouldn't have to purchase one yourself.

 

Furthermore: we have worked out in detail how the calculation should be done, and I can send this to you, if you'd like. If so, please let me know and I'll send you the specifics by email.

 

Lastly: any news on the VM's? I would still like to be included with your beta tests if possible, so I can test whether what I have in mind works properly. I can then also give you useful feedback on that.

 

Andre

[Bernard]

An example of an graph of power in cacti:

 

http://sysblog.myh2oservers.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/paris_ipoman.png

[bpanas]

Since we want to buy a switch and do sokme testing before we write the mpode the voltage is very relevant, we run 120 here and you run 220 there .. a 220 unit will not function here.. we would be adding auto reboot and some other possible features.. we will not release a moduke without proper testing which means we need to purchanse a switch, thanks for your response

 

Bill,

 

The voltage is irrelevant. You would only measure the amount of Watts that a port uses, and as such the input Voltage is irrelevant (as the amount of Watts are always the same, regardless of the Voltage).

 

Also: we already have an Ipoman setup for testing purposes (Thomas set this up a couple of days ago), and we can give you access to it, so you wouldn't have to purchase one yourself.

 

Furthermore: we have worked out in detail how the calculation should be done, and I can send this to you, if you'd like. If so, please let me know and I'll send you the specifics by email.

 

Lastly: any news on the VM's? I would still like to be included with your beta tests if possible, so I can test whether what I have in mind works properly. I can then also give you useful feedback on that.

 

Andre

[bpanas]

We have not looked at this and do not have this on our list right now as we do not need it

 

 

Bill,

 

The voltage is irrelevant. You would only measure the amount of Watts that a port uses, and as such the input Voltage is irrelevant (as the amount of Watts are always the same, regardless of the Voltage).

 

Also: we already have an Ipoman setup for testing purposes (Thomas set this up a couple of days ago), and we can give you access to it, so you wouldn't have to purchase one yourself.

 

Furthermore: we have worked out in detail how the calculation should be done, and I can send this to you, if you'd like. If so, please let me know and I'll send you the specifics by email.

 

Lastly: any news on the VM's? I would still like to be included with your beta tests if possible, so I can test whether what I have in mind works properly. I can then also give you useful feedback on that.

 

Andre