Ability for cPanel users to create ramdisks…

[monarobase]

I don't know if this is a mad feature request but it seems feasable and I would love to have this…

At the moment there is no way to offer a secure memcached on a shared server, CloudLinux might bring a solution to this in the next year or so with virtual networking but this is not sure at the time being.

Lots of scripts give you the option between using memcached and filesystem. Memcached is a no go from security point of view, so my idea is to look into allowing users to create and mount ram disks and use the file cache system on a ramdisk instead of on the hard disk.

Most scripts allow you to safely delete any files from the cache folder any time you want and to set a size limit for this folder.

It seems possible to create and mount ramdisks at boot time or at any onther time.

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-c...sk-filesystem/

With 32 and 64 Gb memory modules showing up and more and more servers having 24, 48, 96 or 128 Gb of ram allowing customers to create their own ram disks (obviously limiting their size and chosing on a per customer / plan basis which ones can do this…) sounds relativly simple and absolutly great for high end hosting plans.

Do you think is would be possible ? Are there any reasons why this would not work ? Do you like the idea ?

We want to propose high end services and with advantageos prices for customers who would normaly need to go dedicated.

[InterServed]

Interesting idea i can say. I for one am already using ramdisk to store php session files and some other stuff.

So if we define/create a ramdisk for specific customers/high end plans how are we going to limit each for it's own ramdisk ? chown user.nobody /dev/ramdiskX ? Even a 32/64/128 mb ramdisk per such client sounds pretty interesting as ram is pretty cheap this days.

[nibb]

Your idea is nice but I just see this to complicated for the average user.

The average shared hosting or cPanel user doesnt even know where his files are stored, not to mention setting up the memcache. And if you setup this for them they would not know how to use it either or they would not even know if they are using it and realize the advantages over.

If you mean auto setup for Admins from WHM yes, this would be nice. At least techy users would appreciate this. And they would understand what you are offering them. But the regular user would not pay an premium for this, meaning you offer it on high end shared plans.

What do you actually refer to hi end shared hosting plans?

I thought CloudLinux was the solution for it but sadly its only for limiting Apache. It doesnt work with other process like email, databases, etc. So no CloudLinux for me.

I would love to be able to have hi end shared hosting plans, but this is only possible if you can limit the customers in their account regarding servers resources like CPU/RAM etc.

CloudLinux is a mod that only does this for Apache, not per account wide. If they happen to do this for all process a users runs, then that would be brilliant, but for this to be true, CloudLinux would not even have to know what the process is, regardless of what it is, it should be limited. CL today needs to actually identify the process and talk to it.

[monarobase]

CloudLinux limits everything run by the user name, includling cron, and scripts run under shell in the users name.
CloudLinux supplies MySQL govorner (even though not officialy stable yet) to limit mysql abuse.
As for e-mails you can set limits directly in cPanel (simultanous connections to imap, number of e-mails allowed to be sent per hour).
CloudLinux allows to limit simultaneos entry processes which allow you to limit the number of pages being able to be shown at exactly the same time.
CloudLinux allow you to set priorities of I/O writes and will soon allow limits too.
From our point of view CloudLinux does allow high end hosting plans so long as you are able to set high limits and have a machine that will never hit maximum capacity with these limits.

how are we going to limit each for it's own ramdisk ?

You would simply only mount this disk in each users account.

As for the complexity issue, I see this as an option in the advanced features section of cPanel. The user would have a limit of ram he would be allowed to use, and he could chose what folder to mount this disk in just like when they create a subdomain. It would be a simple form with a quota choice and a mount point choice.

With our current customer base, we would have a resqeust for this feature for only a few customers per server simply because they would not know how it works. It would be the hosts job (high end support going with high end hosting…) to inform the customer and help him set it up (tutorial or phone support).

Most scripts (Wordpress with cache plugin, Expression Engine, Prestashop, Magento…) allow you to choose a file system cache folder and set a limit for the cached files. For advanced users that already understand the advanced options in the cPanel user interface this should be very easy to set up !