Archive for: November, 2008

Protecting domain names by protecting email accounts

There have been a few stories popping up online recently talking about how a possible flaw in a commonly used free email service might allow malicious hackers to steal domain names. The flaw is not new — in fact, I blogged about it way back in January.

What this highlights again, is that the email address used as the administrative contact for domain names is a weak link. Lose control of the email address, and you risk losing control of the domain names listed under it. Whether the registrant uses a free webmail account, or the email provided with their domain name, that email address is the key to ownership of the domain name.

Protecting yourself from the threat of having a domain name stolen through email hacking is relatively easy — use WHOIS privacy. If the domain name can’t be associated with an email address, it’s less likely that a hacker will either a) target an email address in the first place or b) be able to tie a valuable domain name to a specific email account.

Granted, the chances of being hacked this way is minimal for the average registrant, but nevertheless, as a domain reseller, you may want to help educate your customers about the importance of having a secure password on their email account, and about the importance of WHOIS privacy. I’d even suggest that you might not want to have multiple domain names with the same administrative email account as it increases the chance that a hack could steal your entire portfolio of domain names at one time.

As you are probably already aware, OpenSRS offers Contact Privacy for free with every domain name that supports it — we think it’s that important.

Geeks invade LISA'08

Last week I was thrilled to attend the Large Installation Systems Administration (LISA) 08 Conference put on by Usenix in San Diego, California. I was joined by two of our system administrators, Ted and Shaw. This was my first year attending LISA, and based on the wide range of workshop topics, I knew we were going to be treated to a very exciting week.

The atmosphere was electric as we met some of the technical world’s top celebrities and learned about the latest advancements in the industry. In some cases, LISA was the official unveiling of state-of-the-art new tech tools. A perfect example of this was a paper presented by a group from the IBM Almaden Research Center on a new Large-Window Compression tool geared toward the efficient storage of Virtual Machines (VM).

IZO Compression

This tool, called IZO, will work alongside traditional compression tools we already use such as gzip and bzip2. IZO efficiently compresses VMs by chunking the data. Then it compares the chunks with a hash function subsequently indexing and removing duplicate chunks. This is akin to data deduplication. Once this process is complete, the data footprint is significantly smaller and can be passed through gzip, for example, which does the traditional Small-Window Compression. The result is a dramatically smaller final footprint for the original data. As a bonus, this method is often faster than using gzip alone. I won’t go into too much detail in this post, but you can read more about IZO and how it works as well as comparisons to existing Large-Window Compression tools such as rzip or lrzip in the full paper, posted here: IZO: Applications of Large-Window Compression to Virtual Machine Management.

For the simplified summary, you can think about this compression method in terms of packing a suitcase: if you were, for example, to take all your clothes and simply stuff them into your suitcase, you would pack in as much as you could, then maybe sit on your suitcase to try to compress it enough to get the zipper closed. However, if you first folded your clothes neatly, then placed them in your suitcase and only then closed the lid, sat on it to compress and zipped it up, you would be able to get a lot more clothes packed into the same space. Using IZO on your files is essentially like folding them neatly before trying to pack them into a gzip archive (only much faster and cooler than folding shirts).

High Performance Computing

High Performance Computing (HPC) was another topic featured at LISA. The advances and challenges in HPC today are a good indication of what is on the industry’s horizon. I start feeling nostalgic thinking back to 1999/2000 when I was helping build out 100+ node Beowulf clusters as a more economical alternative to the Silicon Graphics Origin 3000 series (which ran on the MIPS processors and distributed shared memory architecture). This was a time before multi-core technology even existed. Today, these systems are dwarfed by several orders of magnitude.

Argonne National Laboratory are currently running one of the largest HPC clusters in the world. Their jaw-dropping 40,960 node cluster, housed in only 40 racks, is based on IBM’s Blue Gene/P system. They presented a paper outlining the experiences and challenges of running such a massive system: Petascale System Management Experiences. The days of CPU bottlenecks are over and the era of true cloud computing is fast approaching. At OpenSRS, we are already seeing and assessing these trends. A number of components in our architecture use the concepts of clustered computing and can be organically expanded and contracted to fit our needs.

The idea of virtualized systems has been around for a while, but has always been tightly tied to the physical platform. Today we have already started to divorce the two by deploying virtual machines essentially at will. The ease of deployment solves many problems and increases our overall flexibility. We have seen some of the same problems with nodes becoming I/O bound in some cases while competing for resources. By keeping a vigilant eye on dimensioning we have thankfully been able to keep these sorts of caveats in check.

Log, Trend and Relation Analysis

There are some other challenges which are often overshadowed by the focus on performance and availability. When dealing with the scale of the systems described above, the volume of logs generated by the system can be astounding. For example, a single incident on this system can generate up to 160,000 messages. The ability to efficiently parse and run diagnoses on this volume of data is essential. Currently, on the OpenSRS Email platform we generate over 100 Gigabytes of logs daily. All of this is with debug mode/verbose logging turned off. This is just the tip of the iceberg if you include logs produced on the OpenSRS Domains platform and pure system-level logging. The future will increasingly see these volumes balloon rapidly as the platform grows and we process more transactions. Tools to address these challenges are becoming readily available with the emergence of cloud computing.

Splunk is an example of a piece of commercial software designed to help analyze these large volumes of log information. If you haven’t seen it before, the free version will allow you to parse 500M of raw log data daily and is available for download from their site. Also interesting is piece of software developed by University of Notre Dame called ENAVis (Enterprise Network Activities Visualization). ENAVis offers a very unique visualized view of a platform. It parses system statistics at regular intervals to create links between hosts, users and processes providing a single picture of the entire platform. The interface allows one to drill down and look at a vast number of metrics. To get more details on this project read their paper here.

My personal focus at LISA was around virtualization, massive storage and compute clusters, a major focus for many organizations this year. There was no shortage of people willing to share their experiences on these subjects. I’ve touched on some of the highlights above, but its nearly impossible to capture the atmosphere this conference provided. The whole point of any professional conference is to help people to be able to make better decisions. Being able to have candid conversations and share experiences is what makes it all worthwhile. It’s clear that the challenges are the same for everyone operating at the massive scale. The innovative solutions being developed are truly exciting. We will continue to analyze these developments and see how they fit with our needs to serve you.

Join us for an exclusive webinar: Prepare and Profit from .TEL

.TEL Sunrise is just around the corner. We’re now taking Sunrise pre-orders via the RWI as mentioned last week. Also as promised, we have details for you about the exclusive webinar for OpenSRS Resellers that we’ve arranged with Lars Jensen, Global Sales Director, Telnic Limited.

Joining Lars will be Adam Eisner, Product Manager, Domains, OpenSRS. Together they will get you up to speed on .TEL and make sure that you have all the information you need if you are planning to participate in Sunrise and Landrush. At the end of the webinar presentation, there will be a question and answer session for you to ask any questions you might have, and get answers straight from the source.

Prepare and Profit from .TEL

Join us online on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 1:00 P.M. EST (Convert to my time zone).

We’re using GoToWebinar for this online webinar. GoToWebinar is easy to use and will allow you to participate in the webinar in any modern web browser on either Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X.

We hope you will find this webinar valuable.

A sneak peek at the new OpenSRS Storefront

Since OpenSRS launched back in 1999, we’ve offered a couple of ways for our resellers to sell domain names and related services. First, there is the Reseller Web Interface (RWI) which provides a browser-based sales and management interface. Second, there is our Application Programming Interface (API) that allows resellers to integrate domain sales and management into their own systems.

Starting today, we’re ready to tell you about a third way to sell through OpenSRS – a hosted storefront.

We’re rolling out our new OpenSRS Storefront solution as a “technology preview” in advance of its official launch in a few weeks. If you want to roll up your sleeves and try it out, later today, there will be a link in the RWI for you that will provision a ‘live’ working Storefront interface. You can also try Storefront in the Horizon Test Environment – it’s there already.

We’ve put together a list of frequently asked questions that will, we hope, answer most of the questions you might have about how Storefront works.

There are a few things that distinguish the OpenSRS Storefront from competing hosted reseller-in-a-box offerings. The Internet has changed dramatically over the past few years with the arrival of what has become known as “Web 2.0.” Our Storefront really reflects those changes.

Back in 1999, people looking to buy domain names were generally fairly tech-savvy individuals who knew how to code HTML or manage their own server. Or they were companies with IT departments that could make sure that the website that new domain name was pointing to worked properly.

Today, anyone and everyone wants to be online. Tools like hosted blogs, photo sharing sites and MySpace deliver on the promise of making it easy to establish and maintain an online identity. Our Storefront further extends this and makes it easy for everyone to find, buy, own and manage their own domain name, regardless of technical experience.

It’s really a domain name sales site for the Web 2.0 age and we think it represents the way domain names will be sold in the coming years.

Here’s a look at the end-user experience:

For current Resellers, there’s no fee to pay, or contract to sign. Just click the link in the RWI, when it appears later today, and your storefront will be created and you’ll be able to start customizing it right away.

We expect that many of you will want to see for yourself what Storefront looks like on the back end. To get you started, we have a screencast showing how to get your Storefront provisioned, and what you’ll find once you log into the Storefront Manager.

We’ll have more information on Storefront in the coming weeks.

OpenSRS Storefront FAQ

OpenSRS Storefront is new, and we expect you’ll have a lot of questions about it. We’ve tried to address as many as we could think of in this OpenSRS Storefront FAQ. If you don’t see the answer to your questions here, drop us a line in the comments and we’ll do our best to get you the information you need.

You can also check the documentation for OpenSRS Storefront.

What is OpenSRS Storefront?
OpenSRS Storefront is a third way to integrate with the OpenSRS backend to sell services. Storefront is a fully-hosted, domain sales and management website, including a payment processing gateway. Storefront is currently available as a technology preview to OpenSRS Resellers.

How much does it cost to become a Storefront Reseller?
Storefront is included in our reseller program just like the API and RWI. New OpenSRS Resellers pay the usual one-time activation fee of $95.

How do payments work for Storefront? Do I have to pre-fund my account?
Pre-funding is not required for Storefront sales because Storefront works on an affiliate model. Resellers are free to charge what they wish for the various services they offer. Payments are handled by OpenSRS (through our payment processor ShopCo.com). Resellers are charged a processing fee on sales and commissions are deposited into a Storefront account viewable in the RWI. Resellers will be paid out monthly via cheque when they account balance exceeds $50.

How much do I make per domain name sold?
The retail price is set by the Storefront Reseller. After a purchase is made, your Reseller account is credited with the retail selling price less costs.

What are the costs? How can I figure out how much I’ll make?
Fixed costs factored into calculating the Reseller’s commission are:

6% Payment Processing Fee – all transactions processed via Storefront’s Shopco.com payment gateway are subject to a 6% payment processing fee. The 6% payment processing fee is calculated on the Reseller’s retail selling price. This fee is subtracted from the retail price charged to the end-user.
Domain Wholesale Costs – standard domain pricing of cost plus the OpenSRS Management Fee plus any applicable ICANN fee.
Applicable Taxes on Retail Transactions – GST will be collected on retail transactions from end-users with a Canadian address in their Storefront account. Note that the Reseller will not earn commission on the amount of the GST collected.

Taking the retail price and subtracting costs will give you the Reseller’s commission. Once the Reseller has earned at least $100 in commissions, a payout will be processed on the last day of the month and paid one month in arrears.

Can you give me an example of how the Reseller commission calculated?
Sure, here is an example of the calculation for a Storefront Reseller commission on the sale of a domain:

$20.00 – Storefront Reseller’s retail selling price for a 1-year .com
subtract: $1.20 (6% Payment Processing Fee)
subtract: $6.86 (.COM Registry cost)
subtract: $0.20 (ICANN Fee)
subtract: $3.00 (OpenSRS Management Fee)

The result would be $8.74 paid into the resellers OpenSRS account.

Is the 6% Payment Processing Fee negotiable?
No. All Storefront Resellers are subject to the 6% payment processing fee. Keep in mind that using the Storefront Payment Gateway means you don’t have to setup and manage your own payment gateway. Additionally, Resellers are protected from fraudulent transactions (we take on all the risk).

How are domain prices set?
Resellers are free to set their own pricing. You can view OpenSRS Wholesale list pricing here.

Can I use my own payment gateway?
No. All Storefront Resellers use the payment gateway hosted at ShopCo.com.

What is GST?
GST, or Goods and Services Tax, is a Canadian sales tax collected on retail transactions from end-users with a Canadian address in their Storefront account. We are required by law to collect GST from Canadian buyers. Resellers do not earn commission on any GST collected.

Which OpenSRS Domains Services are available in Storefront?
At this point, in the preview stage, just the most popular gTLDs are available for sale in Storefront. We will be adding ccTLDs by December 1, 2008.

In addition, Storefront offers:

Premium Domain Names – Resellers earn the standard 10% commission on Premium Names provisioned through Storefront; however, 6% of the full domain purchase price will be held back to cover the payment processing fee levied on all Storefront transactions, thereby crediting the Reseller’s account a gross commission of 4% on the sale of a Premium Name.
Name Suggestion Tool – Name Suggestion Tool is enabled for all Storefront Resellers.
WHOIS Privacy – WHOIS Privacy is free to Storefront Resellers and their end-users.
Managed DNS – Managed DNS is free to Storefront Resellers and their end-users.
Domain and email forwarding – available free to Resellers and to end users at a price determined by the Reseller

Are Storefront domains eligible for Parked Pages and Expired Domains Programs?
Resellers using Storefront to manage their domains are not eligible for revenue sharing in the Parked Pages Program or Expired Domains Programs. Revenue sharing is available to API/RWI customers only.

How can I customize my storefront?
You can upload a logo, choose from one of four themes and add your own text on the home page and about us and contact us pages. We’ll add further themes and customization options in the future.

Can I user Storefront to manage existing domains in my OpenSRS account?
Not during the preview period, but by December 1st, we’ll give you the option to transition your domains to Storefront.