Louwrentius

Edit 2019: I've made a new tool called 'fio-plot'to create various graphs.

I use FIO to perform storage IO performance benchmarks. FIO does provide a script called "fio_generate_plots" which generates PNG or JPG based charts based on the data generated by FIO. The charts are created with GNUplot.

The "fio_generate_plots" didn't make me very happy as it didn't generate the kind of graphs I wanted. Furthermore, the script just contains some copy/pastes of the same blocks of code, slightly altered for the different benchmark types. I understand that the focus lies on FIO itself not some script to generate some fancy graphs, so don't get me wrong, but the script could be improved.

I used this script as the basis for a significantly reworked version, putting the code in a function that can be called with different parameters for the different benchmark types.

The result of this new script is something like this:

You can download this new script here. This script requires GNUplot 4.4 or higher.

Update 2013/05/26

I've submitted the script as a patch to the maintainers of FIO and it has been committed to the source tree. I'm not sure how this will work out but I assume that this script will be part of newer FIO releases.

Linode has released an update about the security incident first reported on April 12, 2013.

The Linode Manager is the environment where you control your virtual private servers and where you pay for services. This is the environment that got compromised.

Linode uses Adobe's ColdFusion as a platform for their Linode Manager application. It seems that the ColdFusion software was affected by two significant, previously unknown vulnerabilities that allowed attackers to compromise the entire Linode VPS management environment.

As the attackers had control over the virtual private servers hosted on the platform, they decided to compromise the VPS used by Nmap. Yes, the famous port scanner.

Fyodor's remark about the incident:

I guess we've seen the dark side of cloud hosting.

That's the thing. Cloud hosting is just an extra layer, an extra attack surface, that may provide an attacker with the opportunity to compromise your server and thus your data.

Even the author of Nmap, a person fairly conscious about security and aware of the risk of cloud-hosting, still took the risk to save a few bucks and some time setting something up himself.

If you are a Linode customer and consider becoming a former customer by fleeing to another cheap cloud VPS provider, are you really sure you are solving your problems?

When using cloud services, you pay less and you outsource the chores that come with hosting on a dedicated private server.

You also lose control over security.

Cloud hosting is just storing your data on 'Other People's Hard Drives. So the security of your stuff depends on those 'other people'. But did you ask those 'other people' for any information about how they tink to address risks like zero-days or other security threats? Or did you just consider their pricing, gave them your credit card and got on with your life?

If you left Linode for another cloud VPS provider, what assures you that they will do better? How do you know that they aren't compromised already right now? At this moment? You feel paranoid already?

We all want cheap hosting, but are you also willing to pay the price when the cloud platform is compromised?