Server withdrawal announcement: Virginis (CH)

[Staff 9972]

Hello!

As part of progressive upgrading of our servers and decommissioning of older hardware, we inform you that the Virginis (Switzerland) server will cease operations today, 2023-10-04. The infrastructure in Europe gets on upgrading thanks to the addition of new servers and 10 Gbit/s lines, as well as the improvement of current lines and hardware.

Kind regards & datalove
AirVPN Staff
 

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

I once petitioned for Kitalpha to be saved from its fate when it was on the chopping block, but I guess its time is coming, too? Seeing as it's a v4-only server, I'd guess its days are numbered by now.
Should this be the case, is there any chance to get a replacement in the same data center or at least in the same AS?

[Staff 9972]

@OpenSourcerer

Hello!

We have had a discussion about Kitalpha and the datacenter it is inside. Kitalpha now supports IPv6 (a few months ago addition by the datacenter), but it has an old hardware which should be improved. With the same commitment we have with Kitalpha, even if we did not consider the price for an upgrade to a more modern hardware, we could replace it with one 10 Gbit/s server with powerful CPU, more traffic etc., in the same datacenter hosting Xuange. So we're seriously considering to do so.

But before anything else, can you please tell us why you would prefer or need a server in the same datacenter and/or AS?

Kind regards
 

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

53 minutes ago, Staff said:

But before anything else, can you please tell us why you would prefer or need a server in the same datacenter and/or AS?

There's no need per se, but it's still a preference: The server continues to be one with which I can max out throughput if the need arises, making it a disregardable, selfish reason.

[fishbasketballaries 17]

21 hours ago, Staff said:

we could replace it with one 10 Gbit/s server with powerful CPU, more traffic etc., in the same datacenter hosting Xuange.

For me, Xuange is by far the slowest server offered by AirVPN. I'm not sure if it's due to my ISP throttling, poor routing, or what. I have no problems with the other servers hosted on M247 and Softronics.
If it's not cost prohibitive, I think upgrading Kitalpha in the same datacenter would be preferable. Another 10 Gbit/s server seems unnecessary in Switzerland when Xuange is rarely under any high load.

[Staff 9972]

5 hours ago, fishbasketballaries said:

For me, Xuange is by far the slowest server offered by AirVPN. I'm not sure if it's due to my ISP throttling, poor routing, or what. I have no problems with the other servers hosted on M247 and Softronics.
If it's not cost prohibitive, I think upgrading Kitalpha in the same datacenter would be preferable. Another 10 Gbit/s server seems unnecessary in Switzerland when Xuange is rarely under any high load.

Hello!

Thank you for your feedback. Maybe we are loading Xuange too much (*), we will look into the issue you report. Actually Xuange is not with M247 or Softronics, but with AltusHost, a very reliable company with excellent peering agreements. Now, it is possible that you have bad peering (if you have time, check with tools like mtr) with the AltusHost transit providers, but anyway a fresh look into Xuange will not hurt.

There is no realistic availability of 10/100 Gbit/s NICs and lines for Kitalpha, unfortunately, so that's not an option. If upgraded, Kitalpha would anyway remain a "1 Gbit/s" server.

(*) Not in terms of bandwidth but in terms of amount of users. With OpenVPN the load grows more than linearly with the amount of connected clients and the majority of the users prefer OpenVPN over WireGuard at the moment. If we manage to determine that Xuange is over loaded we will act appropriately.

Kind regards
 

[fishbasketballaries 17]

3 hours ago, Staff said:

if you have time, check with tools like mtr

Interestingly, when I use mtr to compare routes between Xuange, Kitalpha, and Achernar, Xuange wins with the lowest number of hops and the lowest latency.

I'd be interested in knowing whether my slowness is indeed due to Xuange's high amount of users. I'm able to saturate my connection with Ain and Wazn, and I see they don't have quite as many users connected, so high load would make sense to me. But if that were the case, I'd expect more users complaining about it.

3 hours ago, Staff said:

If upgraded, Kitalpha would anyway remain a "1 Gbit/s" server.

I don't necessarily see this a bad thing. The load balancer is effective at distributing load. Is your goal here to eventually consolidate the many 1 Gbit/s servers into a few 10 Gbit/s?

[arteryshelby 25]

On 4/13/2023 at 10:02 AM, Staff said:

@OpenSourcerer

Hello!

We have had a discussion about Kitalpha and the datacenter it is inside. Kitalpha now supports IPv6 (a few months ago addition by the datacenter), but it has an old hardware which should be improved. With the same commitment we have with Kitalpha, even if we did not consider the price for an upgrade to a more modern hardware, we could replace it with one 10 Gbit/s server with powerful CPU, more traffic etc., in the same datacenter hosting Xuange. So we're seriously considering to do so.

But before anything else, can you please tell us why you would prefer or need a server in the same datacenter and/or AS?

Kind regards
 

I vouched for keeping kitalpha when it was on edge a few years ago and will do again now. Since its hosted within AS6830 which is a big enduser ISP (Virginmedia.. Sunrise..) its mainly flying under the radar of big VPN detections and working for things like streaming in CH like a charm.

It would be a huge loss. Keep it!

[Staff 9972]

2 hours ago, fishbasketballaries said:

Interestingly, when I use mtr to compare routes between Xuange, Kitalpha, and Achernar, Xuange wins with the lowest number of hops and the lowest latency.

I'd be interested in knowing whether my slowness is indeed due to Xuange's high amount of users. I'm able to saturate my connection with Ain and Wazn, and I see they don't have quite as many users connected, so high load would make sense to me. But if that were the case, I'd expect more users complaining about it.

Hello!

OK, we'll soon verify when we perform some tuning to check. In general, connected users on Xuange are more than on Ain and Wazn.
 

Quote

I don't necessarily see this a bad thing. The load balancer is effective at distributing load. Is your goal here to eventually consolidate the many 1 Gbit/s servers into a few 10 Gbit/s?

True. The goal is not to consolidate the constellation with a lesser amount of 10 Gbit/s servers, because that would imply loss of redundancy and other centralization problems. Currently the goal is decommissioning old hardware servers, improve current lines which struggle to meet our demands (example: Brazil) and increase 10 Gbit/s presence. On the long run, we'll see.

Kind regards
 

[Duuude 3]

On 4/14/2023 at 3:48 PM, arteryshelby said:

I vouched for keeping kitalpha when it was on edge a few years ago and will do again now. Since its hosted within AS6830 which is a big enduser ISP (Virginmedia.. Sunrise..) its mainly flying under the radar of big VPN detections and working for things like streaming in CH like a charm.

It would be a huge loss. Keep it!

Absolutely agree to all points, so important to me as a heavy CH (streaming) User. The diversity in Switzerland thanks to Servers at AltusHost, M274 & Kitalpha is the big plus of AirVPN, please keep it. For me it's the decisive point pro or against Air. Edited ... by Duuude