cloud host who doesn't charge when a VPS is off?

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Posted by ASKTH, 06-14-2011, 06:51 PM
Hi, For a future potential need, I would like to get a list of cloud VPS providers who doesn't charge when a VPS is off. I would like to be able to turn my VPS off to not get charged(is this the default??) and when I need it I just turn it on. Thanks..
Posted by MikeTrike, 06-14-2011, 08:01 PM
It will still be using storage space when it's offline, and I have not heard of any company doing that.
Posted by quantumphysics, 06-14-2011, 08:03 PM
You will still need to pay for storage, and maybe a tiny tiny bit for reserving instance space for you but apart from that most cloud host sdon't charge when it's off (at hour minimums usually)
Posted by layer0, 06-14-2011, 08:23 PM
Voxel does this, at least in the sense that you just pay for the storage. But that cost is relatively nominal.
Posted by tchen, 06-15-2011, 06:28 PM
Rackspace Cloud Servers is one of the outlier's that'll still charge you if the server is 'off'. The hourly rate is based on whether the server image is active on a hardware node, not its actual live status. The general rule of thumb is that any infrastructure that leaves the image on the server will charge you even in the 'off' state. If they employ a SAN or another type of off-node image storage, then you shouldn't be charged while simply in the 'off' position. For instance, Amazon EC2 when you turn off an instance will remove it from the hardware node. Even if you use EBS to persistently store your data, its no longer attached to the compute node in the stopped state, and you only pay for the EBS storage like the other posts have pointed out.
Posted by KarlZimmer, 06-15-2011, 07:13 PM
As an example, on our cloud setup you're billed for the space always and for the RAM you're reserved, but CPU is only billed for when the VM is active. You can simply drop the RAM and storage space to almost nothing when you turn it off though and be billed basically nothing for it. Overall, it is hard to not bill at all, as you still need to set aside resources if that VM were to be brought back up.
Posted by ASKTH, 06-16-2011, 06:29 PM
Thank you all, I found this http://www.kimsufi.co.uk/cloud/, They don't charge when a VPS is off. Any how as you all suggested I think i will be fine with if I just been charged for the storage if the VPS is off, so may be I can change the question to: cloud host who charge for storage ONLY when a VPS is off? Now i have on my list Kimsufi, Voxel and Steadfast. who else?
Posted by boskone, 06-17-2011, 03:41 AM
If you power off the VM and just store the template / image, then most clouds will just charge you for the storage space. If the machine is powered down but the ram, etc, is still reserved for you on the hypervisors, then you'd expect to pay for the ram too.
Posted by tchen, 06-17-2011, 10:46 AM
I probably made my last post too confusing but EC2 goes into that list too.
Posted by ASKTH, 06-17-2011, 04:48 PM
@tchen, thanks your text is clear, I misread it. Alright, so now I have on list EC2, Kimsufi, Voxel, and Steadfast.. who else? @boskone, Does most of the providers allows taking images or snapshots?
Posted by aodat2, 06-17-2011, 11:37 PM
Actually most of the Bigger Providers will do it that way. Their billing is based on hourly usage or something like that instead of a monthly thing. Just look for any True Cloud providers. The only drawback to this is that you need to pay for storage as well.
Posted by FusionNET, 06-18-2011, 04:12 PM
You shouldn't have a problem finding a cloud provider that will meet your needs to your new 'updated subject', as stated here most providers will only charge you for the space and reserved resources of your instances when it's powered off, I did a quick search on google for cloud and most providers even state that, Check the buy & sell section for cloud offers and then just simply contact there sales about the billing rates. -Shane

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