[Python-Dev] EC2 buildslaves

[Antoine Pitrou]

Le lundi 02 novembre 2009 à 13:31 +0100, "Martin v. Löwis" a écrit :
> 
> There was discussion that an EC2 instance can be turned on only when
> needed, so we could try to set up something like that (the build master
> could then trigger activation of the machine, IIUC). However, it might
> be that the machine would have to be up most of the day, as there would
> be one build going on always, anyway.

Yes, I think that would be the case. We have frequent commits on each of
the 4 branches under test, with a test suite that takes quite a bit of
time to run in debug mode with -uall.

Moreover, a standard ("small", which also means cheapest) EC2 instance
apparently provides (based on a quick test) between 25% and 50% of the
power of a full CPU core, which makes builds longer. I thought a full
CPU core was provided, but it is not.

An always-on "small" EC2 instance is at least 500$ a year, with a small
storage cost added to that.

Therefore, I think EC2 buildslaves would be interesting under the
condition that they are donated rather than paid for. I don't know
whether anyone has contacts at Amazon.
(but then any donated piece of hardware would be good, not necessary an
EC2 instance)

I assume Jean-Paul made his original suggestion under the premise that
the EC2 instances would only be run when necessary, which is probably
very economical with Twisted's development model (few commits on trunk)
but not with ours.

Regards

Antoine.