I started migrating my servers from Linode to Hetzner Cloud this month, but noticed that my quota only gave me ten instances.
I need many more, probably on the order of 25 right now and probably more later. I’d also like the ability to create test servers, etc.
I asked for an increase with all of that in mind, and Hetzner replied:
“As we try to protect our resources we are raising limits step by step and on the actuall [sic] requirement. Please tell us your currently needed limit.”
I don’t understand. Does Hetzner not have enough servers to accommodate me? Wouldn’t knowing the size of the server be relevant if it’s an actual resource question?
I manage a very large OpenStack cluster for my day job and we just give people what they pay for. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this unless Hetzner might not be able to give me what I ultimately want to pay for, and if that’s the case, I wonder if they’re the right solution for me after all.
It also makes me worry about cloud elasticity.
Does anyone have any insights that can help me understand why keeping a low limit matters?
Just answer them with a little explanation like you did here, you will be fine. Done that, been there.
They just want to protect against people buying lots of servers for a short time, then not paying or doing ddos shit.
Thank you. I hadn’t considered the payment part. The cloud system that I manage is in education, so everyone pays in advance.
This makes sense, and I’ll start with a lower number and ask it to go up later. It will take a couple of months to migrate everything from Linode anyhow, so I don’t need them all at once.
Hetzner has been used for ddos attacks and spam runs, so they’re cautious. You pay afterwards, I get the bill the 3rd of the month.
Also, be advised, sending email out is blocked by default and can be unblocked 30d after creating the 1st vps when the 1st invoice is paid. BTW blocking is pretty simply a block on port 25 and 465, so rerouting to anothe rport to a relay works when you need it the 1st 30 days. (for say monitoring)
Maybe they got burned by too many assholes that run hundreds of VM on a stolen credit card to send spam or other bad behavior. At the end of the month they’ll get a chargeback and they’ll have to pay everything back
I’m sure the quota increases over time or can be manually increased.
For example, new accounts on dellmont voip can only make $10 in calls each month
High cloud elasticity just increases the costs and environmental impact as the cloud is just someone else’s computer and having a lot of them just sit there and do nothing is a waste.
Hetzner’s relatively low prices are in part because of their very efficient hardware management.
A posible attack from an untrusted client, is to create a lots of VMs in a short period of time.
1440 VMs running for a minute cost the same as a single one running for a day. 43200 VMs running for a minute cost the same as a single one running for a month.
Therefore, attacks are kinda cheap, specially if you are paid by the competence.
So, for an untrusted client, the best is to limit the maximum number of VMs she can create.
AWS does something similar. I recall something like 20 VMs as the limit for a new client.
Edit: Here are AWS docs about that: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-resource-limits.html
So, did you tell them your currently needed limit?
I told them everything that I wrote here in my original request – I need 25 now, but would like a quota of 50 to maintain elasticity, testing, etc.
They followed up with the request for actual resources needed.
I haven’t answered since then.
I think they just aren’t sure how many instances you need right now (25? 30? all 50?) and that’s why they requested clarification for the actual resources needed. They don’t want to give you more than you actually need at the moment, so they don’t sit around unused for half a year until you actually use them.
