[tor-dev] Introducing CollecTor

[Karsten Loesing]

On 06/06/14 12:49, Kostas Jakeliunas wrote:
> Am I right to assume that any service/program/client that relied on
> metrics "rsync the recent/ folder" feature should migrate to using
> https://collector.torproject.org/recent/ ?
> 
> One thing that's neat with rsync is that it can take care of any
> lapses in service (on either the metrics data backend side, or on the
> client-which-is-downloading-the-data side) - it will just
> automagically mirror all the consensuses (if this is needed by the
> client/program/etc.)
> 
> Of course, it's very easy to just make the client check if it has any
> lapses/holes in its (historical) view of the needed data, and to make
> it re-download (wget, whatever) the missing parts as needed.
> 
> Just wanted to make sure there'll be no rsync-recent-metrics-data
> service any more (correct me if i got this wrong.)

Yes, I'm planning to shut down the rsync service after August 4, 2014.
I created a new file and put it into the root of both metrics-archive
and metrics-recent:

NOTICE-THIS-SERVICE-WILL-BE-SHUT-DOWN-AFTER-AUGUST-4-2014.txt

"""
Dear rsync user,

the rsync service on this host will be SHUT DOWN after August 4, 2014.

The contents in this directory are now available on the CollecTor homepage
and will remain available after that date:

https://collector.torproject.org/

https://collector.torproject.org/archive/

https://collector.torproject.org/recent/

The reason for shutting down the rsync service is that every service we
run causes maintenance costs and makes it harder to change things in the
future.  That's why we have to shut down services sometimes, even when
people are still using them.  In this case we think we can provide a
good alternative by serving all files securely via https.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused by this!

Karsten Loesing, Tor Project
"""

I'm currently extending metrics-lib to fetch descriptors from CollecTor.
 Maybe Damian extends Stem to do the same (or accepts patches for that
purpose).

I'm also planning to send out a reminder about the August 4 date four
weeks before shutting down the service.

>>>  - Preliminary logo suggested by Jeroen and very quickly put together:
>>> https://people.torproject.org/~karsten/volatile/collector-logo.png -- if
>>> you're a graphic designer and want to contribute one hour of your time
>>> to design that for real, please contact me!
>>
>> Hmm, that seems to be the octopus which is part of USA-247's logo:
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-247>
>>
> 
> Quite sure this was some cheeky intended satire :)
> Really like the logo, btw ;)

I like it, too. :)  But I'd understand if others think it's a bad idea.

All the best,
Karsten