[ntrepid8]

I really should write a blog post about it :) but right now there isn't one.

Debian packages are easy to work with and we keep them as our primary artifact for any given release.

The number of cluster nodes varies between 10 and 35 depending on the workload at the time.

Nodes join the cluster by contacting one of the three "static" nodes that are not spot instances. If they can talk to at least one of those they get knowledge of the entire cluster. When one of the spot instances is going to be killed there is a notice is the instance metadata. The nodes just watch for that and initiate a normal shutdown if they see it.

Yes we do use ELBs but just as TCP proxies and for TLS termination.