Requirements for Managed Services in VMs

Supported Versions

Operating System

VSHN supports Ubuntu LTS, until its end of life. For new setups, VSHN does not accept versions that are end-of-life within 1 year and by default builds new setups on systems in the latest version possible.

VSHN tries to migrate customer setups naturally and constantly to the latest major version in the scope of other platform changes, when this is not possible VSHN starts contacting customers within the last year as early as possible before the end-of-life date. Major upgrades are usually done by provisioning new servers and migrating the services and data. This process is billed as a one-time effort.

Services Software

VSHN uses Open Source Software wherever possible, in rare cases commercial products are used, as defined in the specific service product definition.

In general, VSHN installs such software in the current stable-release version and supports software until the official end-of-life. VSHN starts contacting customers as early as possible before the end-of-life date to plan the major upgrade. Major upgrades are usually done by provisioning new servers and migrating the services and data. This process is billed as a one-time effort.

IaaS Provider

VSHN supports running Managed Servers (and therefore Managed Services) on any IaaS that can meet all other requirements defined in this document. The IaaS provides notably these features:

  • Automated installation of the virtual machines with a VSHN-supported Linux distribution including initial SSH access, network configuration (internet access) and package repositories.

  • Custom images for automated VM provisioning

  • Flexible storage (resizing, adding multiple disks to VM, attaching and detaching of disks, redundant network vs fast local storage, etc.)

  • Direct SSH root (via sudo) access to all VSHN-managed systems for VSHN employees and systems by default. VSHN-managed Bastion- / Jump-Host Setups are optionally possible.

  • Internet access or at least access to VSHN systems and Internet destinations as defined by VSHN

VSHN bills additional effort caused by providers or on-premises installations not meeting the requirements in this document and for additional services needed to meet these requirements (e.g. setting up site-to-site VPNs). Recurring manual overhead e.g during maintenance and operations can result in an increase or addition of monthly management fees.

Infrastructure Sizing

VSHN gives recommendations for the infrastructure sizing (CPU, memory, disk size and I/O capacity, Network, etc.) either in the sales order, during the setup phase or as observed in daily operations. VSHN Managed Service components notably backup, puppet and monitoring agents also require resources on the server. Should the infrastructure (e.g. a server) be sized inappropriately, VSHN will inform the customer. If resource recommendations are not followed, VSHN might be unable to provide the Managed Services and is entitled to remove the service from the Managed Service framework after informing the customer

Access

  • VSHN provides a list of services that must be reachable from all Managed Servers at any time and without manual intervention.

  • Managed Servers are accessible by VSHN employees and automation systems at any time and without manual intervention - this excludes the use of personal VPN clients and similar.

  • VSHN employees and service users are exclusively managed by VSHN Configuration Management.

Installed Software

  • Software installed on Managed Servers but not managed via VSHN Configuration Management system might require special agreements and technical implementation.

  • Software conflicting with VSHN management components running on the same Server is not allowed or requires optional paid engineering effort.