The new Perl 6 community server is now alive and kicking.

As planned, I've set up KVM virtualization, and so far there are two guest systems. hack.p6c.org is meant for general Perl 6 development activity (which also includes irssi/weechat sessions), and is equipped with 20GB RAM to handle multiple concurrent rakudo-jvm compilations :-). It runs a pretty bare-bones Debian Jessie.

Update: there is now a website for the new server.

www.p6c.org is the web server where I plan to host perl6.org and related (sub-)domains. It's not as beefy as hack, but sufficiently large to compile and run Rakudo, in preparation for future Perl 6-based web hosting. Currently I'm running a copy of several perl6.org subdomains on it (with the domain name p6c instead of perl6 for test purposes); the plan is to switch the perl6.org DNS over once all of the websites have been copied/migrated.

If you have a Perl 6 related use for a shell account or for serving websites, please request an account by email (moritz.lenz@gmail.com) or IRC (moritz on freenode and magnet), including:

1. Your desired username
2. What you want to do on the machine(s) (not necessary for #perl6 regulars)
3. Which of the machine(s) you need access to
4. Optionally an openssh public key
5. Whether you'd be willing to help a bit with sysadmin tasks (mostly apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade, restarting hung services, killing huge processes)
6. Software you need installed (it's OK to not know this up-front)

Note that feather.perl6.nl will shut down soon (no fixed date yet, but "end of 2014" is expected), so if you rely on feather now, you should consider migrating to the new server.

The code of conduct is pretty simple:

1. Be reasonable in your resource usage.
2. Use technical means to limit your resource usage so that it doesn't accidentally explode (ulimit comes to mind).
3. Limit yourself to legal and Perl 6-related use cases (no warez).
4. Help your fellow hackers.

The standard disclaimer applies:

• Expect no privacy. There will potentially be many root users, who could all read your files and memory.
• There are no promises of continued service or even support. Your account can be terminated without notice.
• Place of jurisdiction in Nürnberg, Germany. You have to comply with German law while using the server. (Note that this puts pretty high standards on privacy for any user data you collect, including from web applications). It's your duty to inform yourself about the applicable laws. Illegal activities will be reported to the authorities.

With all that said, happy hacking!.

In my previous post I announced my plans for a new Perl 6 community server (successor to feather.perl6.nl), and now I'd like to share some updates.

Thanks to the generosity of the Perl 6 community, the server has been ordered and paid. I am now in the process of contacting those donors who haven't paid yet, leaving them the choice to re-purpose their pledge to ongoing costs (traffic, public IPv4 addresses, domain(s), SSL certs if necessary) and maintenance, or withdraw their pledges.

Some details of the hardware we'll get:

• CPU: Intel® Xeon® Haswell-EP Series Processor E5-2620 v3, 2.40 GHz, 6-Core Socket 2011-3, 15MB Cache
• RAM: 4x8GB DDR4 DDR4 PC2133 Reg. ECC 2R
• HD: 2x 2TB SATA3-HD

The vendor has told me that all parts have arrived, and will be assembled today or tomorrow.

Currently I lean towards using KVM to create three virtual hosts: one for websites (*.perl6.org, perlcabal.syn), one for general hacking and IRC activity, and one for high-risk stuff (evalbots, try.rakudo.org, ...).

I've secured the domain p6c.org (for "perl 6 community"), and the IPv4 range 213.95.82.52 - 213.95.82.62 and the IPv6 net 2001:780:101:ff00::/64.

So the infrastructure is in place, now I'm waiting for the delivery of the hardware.

So far, many Perl 6 developers have used feather as a generic development server. Juerd, who has genereously provided this server for us for free for many years, has announced that it will be shut down at the end of the year.

My daytime job is at a b2b IT outsourcing and hosting company called noris network, and they have agreed to sponsor the hosting/housing of a 1U 19" server in one of their state-of-the-art data centers in Nürnberg, Germany.

What's missing is the actual hardware. Some folks in the community have already agreed to participate in funding the hardware, though I have few concrete pledges.

So here is the call to action: If you want to help the Perl 6 community with a one-time donation towards a new community server, please send me an e-mail to moritz at faui2k3 dot org, specifying the amount you're willing do pledge, and whether you want to stay private as a donor. I accept money transfer by paypal and wire transfer (SWIFT). Direct hardware donations are also welcome. (Though actual money will be deferred until the final decision what hardware to buy, and thus the total amount required).

How much do we need?

Decent, used 1U servers seem to start at about 250€, though 350€ would get us a lot more bang (mostly RAM and hard disk space). And in general, the more the merrier. (Cheaper offers exist, for example on ebay, but usually they are without hard disks, so the need for extra drives makes them more expensive in total).

With more money, even beefier hardware and/or spare parts and/or a maintainance contract and/new hardware would be an option.

What do we need it for?

The main tasks for the server are:

• Hosting websites like perl6.org and the synopses
• Hosting infrastructure like the panda metadata server
• Be available for smoke runs of the compilers, star distributions and module ecosystem.
• Be available as a general development machine for people who don't have linux available and/or not enough resources to build some Perl 6 compilers on their own machines comfortably.
• A place for IRC sessions for community memebers
• A backup location for community services like the IRC logs, the camelia IRC eval bot etc. Those resources are currently hosted elswewhere, though having another option for hosting would be very valuable.
• A webspace for people who want to host Perl 6-related material.

It is explicitly not meant as a general hosting platform, nor as a mail server.

Configuration

If the hardware we get is beefy enough, I'd like to virtualize the server into two to three components. One for hosting the perl6.org and related websites that should be rather stable, and one for the rest of the system. If resources allow it, and depending on feedback I get, maybe a third virtual system for high-risk stuff like evalbot.

As operating system I'll install Debian Jessie (the current testing), simply because I'll end up maintaing the system, and it's the system I'm most familiar with.