How can I stay under the radar?

[AndrewKT]

I am testing a few processes that I'd like to use my VM for and would like to know about how bad I'd have to be gnawing on the server before an admin started poking around.

I have two processes that run in tandem and seem to use about 2-4 % of the CPU each. Now, granted they don't run all the time, but they might be triggered several times per day, and there could be more than one user running them.

Is the CPU utilization number I see in top representative of the entire system, just my allocated portion, or some other number? Basically, if my top says about 9% user process, what would a top from vm2 read? (Assuming I was the only one using significant processor time at that moment.)

Thanks.

[matta]

CPU/load is totally virtualized... you could have a load on 25 in your VPS using 100% CPU and another VM could have loads of 0.00 and 0% CPU used. The Xen QoS works very well and in our tests a single VM can't effect the latency of other domains to be noticable.

[greenrd]

In the terms of service (http://www.unixshell.com/index.php?page=tos) you have some slightly confusing wording:

"unixshell# accounts operate on shared resources. Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer may have a negative impact on all other customers. Misuse of network resources in a manner which impairs network performance is prohibited by this policy and may result in termination of your account.You are prohibited from excessive consumption of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space and session time. You may not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or the performances of unixshell# systems or networks. unixshell# reserves the right to terminate or limit such activities."

Disk space? The other items are understandable, but I don't see how it is even possible to use "excess" disk space under Xen. I have 12Gb, and there's no way I can use any more physical disk space than that, without paying for it. I would guess that this was left in by mistake, but correct me if I'm wrong.

I understand why we should try and avoid using excessive memory - because that causes swapping, which affects performance for everyone on the physical machine.

What about CPU? Obviously, we should not be consuming huge amounts of CPU, certainly not without good cause (e.g. running Seti@home on a virtual machine would be totally anti-social!)

Let's take the question to an extreme. I would guess the people most likely to use a lot of CPU "legitimately" are Gentoo users who want to (a) compile as much as possible themselves and (b) keep up to date with the cutting edge. If a gentoo user (or indeed anyone else) averaged several hours per day compiling software (maybe they were a KDE packager for gentoo ;), would that be cause for account review?

I don't intend to do much compiling on my server. I'm just asking so's I know how much I will need to keep an eye on my users' CPU usage.

[matta]

Hi,

The TOS was taken from the TekTonic TOS and modified for unixshell#. I removed the disk space clause for the reason you stated. The CPU clause is there for Virtuozzo... even though Virtuozzo does excellent QoS, if a user if sending out mass e-mail or spamd is doing a lot it actually CAN adversely affect system performance. The Xen CPU and disk I/O QoS is excellent so it's not really needed, but it will stay in there to protect ourselves in the event that a VM does adversely affect performance we have grounds to ask the customer to limit their usage.