5 ms·

"We have been adding new servers and extra capacity at a record pace every single day this week nonstop, but today exceeded even our most optimistic projections

"We have been adding new servers and extra capacity at a record pace every single day this week nonstop, but today exceeded even our most optimistic projections. Millions upon millions of new users are sending a message that privacy matters. We appreciate your patience." https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1350165610936766464 https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1350165610936766464

Daniel_sk 6y ago
"We are making progress towards getting the service back online. Privacy is our top priority, but adding capacity is a close second right now." https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1350185818527211521 https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1350185818527211521
- baby 6y ago
  can't wait for the post mortem : o really wondering why there's an outage. I assume the SGX stuff quickly became a bottleneck, or the message forwarding server wasn't made to scale out very efficiently. In any case, they should have been able to have a very large queue in front of these components and just have a very slow system, probably something blew up due to the sudden peak of users.
  - Daniel_sk 6y ago
    My guess: https://twitter.com/NovakDaniel/status/1350471722034745348 https://twitter.com/NovakDaniel/status/1350471722034745348
ibejoeb 6y ago
> Millions upon millions of new users are sending a message that privacy matters Awesome
topkeks 6y ago
Does anyone outside Signal Foundation know how's their architecture? There are a lot of references to AWS, GCP, and Azure in the source code hosted in GitHub so they probably use them all in one way or another. It would be super interesting know more details about the infrastructure.
- zionic 6y ago
  If they use any of it at all, Signal needs to get any/all remaining infrastructure off AWS as soon as possible.
  - merlinscholz 6y ago
    Why?
    - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
      I'm guessing this person is thinking about the risk that their cloud-provider(s) could shut them down due to political pressure, etc.
    - kortilla 6y ago
      What if Amazon finds out they aren’t moderating users’ messages and Signal gets used in some future attack. It’s not a far leap for Amazon to “take a strong stance against serious threats to our democracy” by kicking off signal.
      - vonseel 6y ago
        Despite recent events, I don’t see this happening. Signal has a strong reputation as a privacy-supporting app without any weird fringe Internet subculture attached to it. And I’m unaware of any public groups like you find on Facebook or WhatsApp. De-platforming a private messenger like Signal would be a strong signal against an open, unmonitored Internet and raise too many eyebrows. Amazon would be seen as complicit with government for not allowing citizens to communicate freely and privately with each-other. If Signal adds features to let users post extremist views publicly, that’s a whole different ballgame and the cards are off the table.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- bbabaraba 6y ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20210110152154/https://old.reddit.com/r/signal/comments/kb7v0v/pihole_blocking_a_new_domain_from_signal_can_we/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210110152154/https://old.reddi... They appear to be using IBM Cloud services too, for certain things
C19is20 6y ago
Donated. I hope their bank account doesn't crash, too. Still trying to get people to change over.
nuker 6y ago
> We have been adding new servers and extra capacity at a record pace every single day No autoscaling?
- mike_d 6y ago
  Autoscaling is a myth. It works great until you actually need it, and then you discover quota limits and stockouts.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Daniel_sk 6y ago

"We are making progress towards getting the service back online. Privacy is our top priority, but adding capacity is a close second right now." https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1350185818527211521 https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1350185818527211521

baby 6y ago
can't wait for the post mortem : o really wondering why there's an outage. I assume the SGX stuff quickly became a bottleneck, or the message forwarding server wasn't made to scale out very efficiently. In any case, they should have been able to have a very large queue in front of these components and just have a very slow system, probably something blew up due to the sudden peak of users.
- Daniel_sk 6y ago
  My guess: https://twitter.com/NovakDaniel/status/1350471722034745348 https://twitter.com/NovakDaniel/status/1350471722034745348

ibejoeb 6y ago

> Millions upon millions of new users are sending a message that privacy matters Awesome

topkeks 6y ago

Does anyone outside Signal Foundation know how's their architecture? There are a lot of references to AWS, GCP, and Azure in the source code hosted in GitHub so they probably use them all in one way or another. It would be super interesting know more details about the infrastructure.

zionic 6y ago
If they use any of it at all, Signal needs to get any/all remaining infrastructure off AWS as soon as possible.
- merlinscholz 6y ago
  Why?
  - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
    I'm guessing this person is thinking about the risk that their cloud-provider(s) could shut them down due to political pressure, etc.
  - kortilla 6y ago
    What if Amazon finds out they aren’t moderating users’ messages and Signal gets used in some future attack. It’s not a far leap for Amazon to “take a strong stance against serious threats to our democracy” by kicking off signal.
    - vonseel 6y ago
      Despite recent events, I don’t see this happening. Signal has a strong reputation as a privacy-supporting app without any weird fringe Internet subculture attached to it. And I’m unaware of any public groups like you find on Facebook or WhatsApp. De-platforming a private messenger like Signal would be a strong signal against an open, unmonitored Internet and raise too many eyebrows. Amazon would be seen as complicit with government for not allowing citizens to communicate freely and privately with each-other. If Signal adds features to let users post extremist views publicly, that’s a whole different ballgame and the cards are off the table.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
bbabaraba 6y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20210110152154/https://old.reddit.com/r/signal/comments/kb7v0v/pihole_blocking_a_new_domain_from_signal_can_we/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210110152154/https://old.reddi... They appear to be using IBM Cloud services too, for certain things

C19is20 6y ago

Donated. I hope their bank account doesn't crash, too. Still trying to get people to change over.

nuker 6y ago

> We have been adding new servers and extra capacity at a record pace every single day No autoscaling?

mike_d 6y ago
Autoscaling is a myth. It works great until you actually need it, and then you discover quota limits and stockouts.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]