10 Responses to “MySQL GridContainers Launched!”

1. Mike Says:
   April 5th, 2007 at 8:46 pm

   Hmm, I was under the impression that the smallest container would be included for the gs server folks..
   Pay an extra $20 a month? why? I could instead pay $30 bucks more and get a DV server with root access.

   Maybe this comment will actually get posted and not sit “waiting to be moderated” for days again..

   disappointedly yours…

2. Steve Tsiopanos Says:
   April 6th, 2007 at 9:54 am

   Very impressive offering! Though for most people running database-dependant websites this means their gridserver account will cost at least $40.00/month.

3. demian Says:
   April 6th, 2007 at 2:13 pm

   Mike,

   This is a great question - one which we expected to come up. Indeed the (dv) Dedicated-Vritual is extremely powerful, and an awesome solution for hosted MySQL applications - not to mention all of the other benefits of reselling, multi-domain hosting, and the ton of control that Plesk gives you. The (dv) also has full resource isolation which means it performs to the level of a dedicated server in nearly all cases. There many reasons however why you would want to use the $40.00 (gs) Grid-Service and MySQL GridContainer solution over the (dv) Dedicated-Virtual. The most outstanding reason is the Grid itself, which is a massive clustered front end with hundreds of processors serving your site in a fully load-balanced configuration. This provides a tremendous benefit. As an example, this morning, a customer of ours on the Grid had a page that started getting around 1000 hits per second. That level of traffic on that particular page would have crippled a (dv) server, or even a single dedicated machine. On the grid, his site stayed up. He’ll pay for additional GPUs as needed, but there was no disruption to his service, and he didn’t have to do anything to mitigate the situation. Combine this front end with a dedicated, upgradable MySQL GridContainer, and you have a robust, scalable hosting solution with zero complications. Building something similar normally would require complex hosting, co-location, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the skills of a highly trained system adminsitrator. In other words, this is a fully managed solution. There are no sysadmin headaches, nothing to configure, nothing to backup, no servers to maintain, on and on and on. There are many customers who just want a powerful hosting solution out of the box. They don’t want to build anything nor do they want to be responsible for maintaining it. They want to get their high-traffic sites up and running on a scalable solution in a matter of minutes, not days. The Grid with MySQL Container does this. Also in considering the price, please keep in mind that we are using the best and fastest hardware available with a very low customer density per physical node to insure the highest level of reliability and performance. In conclusion there is no other solution, service provider, hosting company able to even offer a this product - let alone at $40.00 a month. We believe it is a tremendous value and many customers share this sentiment. We hope you see the value as well. Also, with the release of the MySQL SmartPool v.2 even the $20.00 default solution will run MySQL to a level that outperforms any shared hosting provider. If you are still having trouble with the concept, we’ll be happy to talk to you on the phone and hear your concerns in greater detail. Thank you again for the comments.

4. Mark Sanders Says:
   April 6th, 2007 at 2:25 pm

   what confuses me most about the paid solution is that the problem users (so called ‘bad neighbors’) have to voluntarily switch to the containers. add the additional expense to those bad neighbors (another reason for them not to upgrade) and this system seems to be doing nothing to protect responsible grid-server users from slow downs. i do think the containers are a fabulous idea but i think they will have little effect if they are a premium.

   i’m also confused by this paid upgrade since in your earlier excellently written update which described the new container approach states, “Despite the high costs associated with giving every customer their own container for MySQL, (mt) Media Temple sees no other choice as we have exhausted and ruled out all other possibilities.”

   my primary concern is to maintain a highly stable mysql environment for my site and my client’s sites which after upgrading to the grid has not been the case. i do hope the containers bring incredible stability but i am not willing to pay for something that should come standard with your hosting packages.

5. demian Says:
   April 6th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

   Mark,

   Good comments. Keep in mind, the MySQL SmartPool v.2 will do a much better job in dealing with the “bad neighbors”. Along with the container development we also aggressively reworked the original MySQL system using a new virtualization technique. Beta testing is already showing massive improvements in dealing with rouge system conditions caused by customers with bad MySQL code and queries. This should meet your expectations of what you are getting for the original base price point of $20.00. The technology required to deliver MySQL GridContainers is very expensive and customer demand for such a product warranted developing this solution into a professional-class technology. The amount of service and hardware you are getting for $40.00 is simply unmatched by any competing solution. Also, 99% of all customers will never need a container for their site operations so this product ultimately caters to those with extremely high traffic and those who need absolute peace of mind in service levels. The new controls and database insight features with the container aren’t too shabby either. We hope you can find the value in the product and at the very least try one out. We’re very interested in hearing more of your feedback.

6. Mark Sanders Says:
   April 6th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

   i don’t mean to be a comment hog, but when did the mysql smartpool v.2 come into being? until your announcement yesterday i had never even heard of this project. when was martpool v1 deployed and what did that do to remedy the mysql problems?

   in the interest of transparency, could you better explain the virtualization technique? i am not familiar with it but am curious how it will help the situation. also, what other benefits and/or features will be a part of that release? i personally think the customers who need mysql controls and database insight tools are those who are outside of containers. how am i supposed to know if i need to upgrade to the containers or modify my sql to make it run more efficiently without such tools? bear in mind i am a bit of a novice when it comes to these things.

   thanks again for the clarification.

7. demian Says:
   April 7th, 2007 at 1:42 am

   You are not being a comment hog. It sounds like you have real questions and we’d like to address them. Keep in coming!

   In response to your questions;

   1) More significant announcements about the new SmartPool v.2 may be made next week. With the advent of our weblog this year, (mt) Media Temple became able to push news out a little quicker, before mass customer email announcements. We understand this helps satisfy the appetite for our more active and interested customers (such as yourself). This is why from time to time you may see things here are that aren’t 100% complete. When surveying some of our blog readership the feedback indicates this is a positive communication strategy they like and they want to see more of it.

   2) SmartPool v.1 (which never existed as a name) was our first generation MySQL offering that each (gs) Grid-Service customer received by default (the one that is talked about in previous blog posts). SmartPool v.2 is the second generation of our MySQL system which will also be given by default to each customer. v.2 came about along the path of container development as we learned about new techniques on how to make MySQL hosting better by using a hybrid container/pool system (IE: the SmartPool). Essentially, SmartPool v.2 uses hundreds of containers with a small density of customers installed in each one. The most significant advantage of the new SmartPool is that it features guaranteed memory resources (64Mb) - something that hasn’t been done before in any MySQL hosting system. v.2 also feature a “burst container” feature which allows a single customer to temporarily spike into a single-tenant container allowing the database to automatically scale during short-lived bursts of traffic. Results from testing are showing extremely positive results from a performance perspective. This technology is truly inventive and unique. It makes our default platform stand apart from anything that’s been done before.

   After developing the new v.2 platform, it became apparent that only small portion of our customers will actually “need” the full MySQL Containers because of the guaranteed memory resources and the new burst feature in SmartPool v.2. This new model allowed us to satisfy our original objectives after our post “Anatomy of MySQL on the GRID” and make full containers a premium product by pumping more development time into the controls and also adding a Service Level Agreement. Through customer surveying and beta testing, our plans were validated directly by customers.

   Essentially MySQL SmartPool v.2 will solve the previous problems with MySQL on the Grid, and MySQL Containers will deliver even more value with a money back guarantee Service Level Agreement, new database controls, and a future platform for MySQL Clustering (Containers v.2).

   NOTE*: If you enrolled in the (mt) Labs beta program for container development you should contact the Beta Program Manager for information about our “No-cost Container Program”.

   Thank you again for your comments.

8. Martin, Norway Says:
   April 21st, 2007 at 2:21 pm

   A question from a non-nerd: I often feel that my websites are slow to load, and guess that this has to do with “bad neightbourhood”. Would purchasing the SQL Grid Container help with this? Or is that only specific to SQL queries?

   Thanks.

9. Kim Says:
   May 1st, 2007 at 4:27 pm

   Unrelated, did you just downgrade the mySQL installation on dv servers? I could swear we used to have mySQL v4.0 and now I just looked and I have v3.23. This is a seriously old version which is why it struck me just now when I was doing some updates.

10. sho'fr Says:
    May 3rd, 2007 at 7:08 am

    Martin - I echo your question!

    I know it would be an investment of time on (mt)’s part, but It would be nice if I could get a knowledgeable mySQL agent to look at my current db / query code and advise me on what solution would work best. As of now, I doubt I’ll be upgrading to a grid container, but if a (mt) rep gave me solid reasoning, I’d be more likely to do so.