DigitalOcean Unveil Floating IPs

[kcaj]

Single points of failure can be the downfall of any application. With Floating IPs, customers can associate an IP address with a different Droplet, with minimal downtime. This makes it possible to set up a standby Droplet, ready to receive your production traffic at a moment’s notice.



Floating IPs are free to use. However, due to the shortage of IPv4 addresses available, if you reserve an address but don't assign it to a Droplet, we charge $0.006 per hour for each unassigned, reserved IP. (You can relinquish unused IPs from the control panel.) To keep billing simple, you will not be charged unless you accrue $1 or more.

Currently limited to 3 per account.

Did the skies over the ocean just get a little cloudier?

 

[DomainBop]

nova add-floating-ip <server> <address> ...
translation: it only took venture funded DO 3 years to add something that every OpenStack provider already offers, including this VPSBoard member

 

[drmike]

"we charge $0.006 per hour for each unassigned, reserved IP"

That's $4.32 per IP.  Per IP cost seems high...

The schtick whining about IPv4 address shortage is a hoot.  How many IPs do they have now in their multiple ASNs?  

Shame, guess they'll have to buy more with all that funny money.

I recall hearing one of the founders on about spending a gazillion a month prior lighting up new racks and how IPs were like $20k a month being spent... That was in day of rentals for sure...

Sure, it was clear skies until the BULLSHIT dreary of fake IP scarcity showed up in the marketing for a high availability / feature party.  Limit 3, yo, can't drink and IP.

 

[HN-Matt]

IPv4 artificial scarcity booby traps are for wankers. IPv6 too. Just level up and connect to the internet without an IP, it's free and easy.

 

[DomainBop]

 Just level up and connect to the internet without an IP, it's free and easy.

Scaleway's platform allows you to create a server without a public IPv4 (which reduces the server price to 2 euros...a useful feature for creating database and other backend servers).  FYI, they charge 0.99 euro ($1.12) monthly for a reserved (RIPE) IPv4 not $4.32.

edit for DO users: if you created your droplet before today (the 20th) you need to follow these instructions to create an anchor IP before you can use floating IPs with your existing VPS: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-enable-floating-ips-on-an-older-droplet

 

[Dylan]

"we charge $0.006 per hour for each unassigned, reserved IP"

That's $4.32 per IP.  Per IP cost seems high...

That's only if you reserve an IP but don't use it. As long as the IP is pointing to a droplet it's completely free, and I think that's a pretty darn good deal. You're basically getting two IPs per droplet now at no additional cost.

I assume the high price on unused IPs is to discourage people from reserving and sitting on IPs they don't need. I don't find that objectionable since I don't know of any other provider that doesn't charge for used floating IPs.

 

[VPSFAN]

This is my first post here...

I think this is the most lame solution Digitalocean has introduced.

Basically fake failover, Within same DC, Manual intervention required by client to switch to another droplet and their IP re-director is a single point of failure on its own.

There is no innovation nor new technology used, Its a method of marketing and money collecting scheme.

Thanks,
VPSFan

 

[HBAndrei]

This is my first post here...

I think this is the most lame solution Digitalocean has introduced.

Basically fake failover, Within same DC, Manual intervention required by client to switch to another droplet and their IP re-director is a single point of failure on its own.

There is no innovation nor new technology used, Its a method of marketing and money collecting scheme.

Thanks,
VPSFan

I'm sorry but you're just blindly hating on something for no apparent reason, perhaps you don't understand how it works?

This system is quite cool, and I'm speaking now as a DO user, you can easily automate the failover:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-highly-available-web-servers-with-keepalived-and-floating-ips-on-ubuntu-14-04

But what I'd really love to see from DO is full droplet customization, add/remove your own features such as cores/ram/space... the templates are fine and all but it doesn't simulate the "cloud" experience and templates fit the general needs, not all specific needs.

 

[VPSFAN]

@HBAndrei

As much as you not sponsored to defend. You don't need to be sorry - it's your opinion and my opinion was also based on being a DO customer as well as a customer of most other automation VPS providers for years.

The link you posted  proves my point that there is no automation on DO side, everything has to be done on the client side which is lame.

I do understand how it works and perhaps that's the problem!... however let me ask you - Do you understand how it works on their end? If yes please do tell - That would be great addition to the post.

Regards,
VPSFan
 

 

[HN-Matt]

The link you posted  proves my point that there is no automation . . . everything has to be done on the client side which is lame.

I do understand how it works and perhaps that's the problem!

A rose by any other name would tic as automa... hey wait a minute

 

[HBAndrei]

@HBAndrei

As much as you not sponsored to defend. You don't need to be sorry - it's your opinion and my opinion was also based on being a DO customer as well as a customer of most other automation VPS providers for years.

The link you posted  proves my point that there is no automation on DO side, everything has to be done on the client side which is lame.

I do understand how it works and perhaps that's the problem!... however let me ask you - Do you understand how it works on their end? If yes please do tell - That would be great addition to the post.

Regards,
VPSFan
 

I care more about how useful the end product is rather than how it works on their end.

 

[joepie91]

@HBAndrei

As much as you not sponsored to defend. You don't need to be sorry - it's your opinion and my opinion was also based on being a DO customer as well as a customer of most other automation VPS providers for years.

The link you posted  proves my point that there is no automation on DO side, everything has to be done on the client side which is lame.

I do understand how it works and perhaps that's the problem!... however let me ask you - Do you understand how it works on their end? If yes please do tell - That would be great addition to the post.

Regards,
VPSFan
 

I care more about how useful the end product is rather than how it works on their end.

Right. And the point is that it isn't all that useful, because it's not automated.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

@HBAndrei

As much as you not sponsored to defend. You don't need to be sorry - it's your opinion and my opinion was also based on being a DO customer as well as a customer of most other automation VPS providers for years.

The link you posted  proves my point that there is no automation on DO side, everything has to be done on the client side which is lame.

I do understand how it works and perhaps that's the problem!... however let me ask you - Do you understand how it works on their end? If yes please do tell - That would be great addition to the post.

Regards,VPSFan 

I care more about how useful the end product is rather than how it works on their end.

Right. And the point is that it isn't all that useful, because it's not automated.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you automate it with scripts using the DO API?  Or has the API haven't been expanded yet to include this?

 

[HBAndrei]

@HBAndrei

As much as you not sponsored to defend. You don't need to be sorry - it's your opinion and my opinion was also based on being a DO customer as well as a customer of most other automation VPS providers for years.

The link you posted  proves my point that there is no automation on DO side, everything has to be done on the client side which is lame.

I do understand how it works and perhaps that's the problem!... however let me ask you - Do you understand how it works on their end? If yes please do tell - That would be great addition to the post.

Regards,
VPSFan
 

I care more about how useful the end product is rather than how it works on their end.

Right. And the point is that it isn't all that useful, because it's not automated.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you automate it with scripts using the DO API?  Or has the API haven't been expanded yet to include this?

They did expand the API to include floating IPs:

https://developers.digitalocean.com/documentation/v2/#floating-ip-actions


So you are correct, it can be fully automated, just some folks refuse to see this.

 

[joepie91]

@HBAndrei

As much as you not sponsored to defend. You don't need to be sorry - it's your opinion and my opinion was also based on being a DO customer as well as a customer of most other automation VPS providers for years.

The link you posted  proves my point that there is no automation on DO side, everything has to be done on the client side which is lame.

I do understand how it works and perhaps that's the problem!... however let me ask you - Do you understand how it works on their end? If yes please do tell - That would be great addition to the post.

Regards,
VPSFan
 

I care more about how useful the end product is rather than how it works on their end.

Right. And the point is that it isn't all that useful, because it's not automated.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you automate it with scripts using the DO API?  Or has the API haven't been expanded yet to include this?

You can. That you can automate it, doesn't mean it is automated.

 

[HN-Matt]

@joepie91 isn't it preferable to leave whether to 'automate it' or not in the hands of the client?

'Useful' and 'automatic' are not necessarily synonymous...

 

[joepie91]

@joepie91 isn't it preferable to leave whether to 'automate it' or not in the hands of the client?

'Useful' and 'automatic' are not necessarily synonymous...

No reason they couldn't offer both.

 

[drmike]

"we charge $0.006 per hour for each unassigned, reserved IP"

That's $4.32 per IP.  Per IP cost seems high...

That's only if you reserve an IP but don't use it. As long as the IP is pointing to a droplet it's completely free, and I think that's a pretty darn good deal. You're basically getting two IPs per droplet now at no additional cost.

I assume the high price on unused IPs is to discourage people from reserving and sitting on IPs they don't need. I don't find that objectionable since I don't know of any other provider that doesn't charge for used floating IPs.

Likely true, but good luck with the complex billing and random toss outs with such a model.  This is how a customer on a fixed spend budget ends up with end of payment cycle horror.

I haven't used DO in a long time now due to things left running (my fault) and only notification really is the bill.  Crying over small coin? Hardly.  Quite easy to toss a $20 or $50 out the window in a month on the model.   Doing something for sandbox / testing / config, get distracted and don't get back to it until whenever.  Rinse and repeat other months.

I am still a fan of fixed VPS cost and simple billing without the addons.  Any addon in fairness will create confusion and some buyer remorse. 

HA stuff, oh goodie,  maybe they can start to say with some honesty they are cloud now... Years later...  Just my opinion...

 

[emdad]

"we charge $0.006 per hour for each unassigned, reserved IP"

That's $4.32 per IP.  Per IP cost seems high...

That's only if you reserve an IP but don't use it. As long as the IP is pointing to a droplet it's completely free, and I think that's a pretty darn good deal. You're basically getting two IPs per droplet now at no additional cost.

I assume the high price on unused IPs is to discourage people from reserving and sitting on IPs they don't need. I don't find that objectionable since I don't know of any other provider that doesn't charge for used floating IPs.

Likely true, but good luck with the complex billing and random toss outs with such a model.  This is how a customer on a fixed spend budget ends up with end of payment cycle horror.

I haven't used DO in a long time now due to things left running (my fault) and only notification really is the bill.  Crying over small coin? Hardly.  Quite easy to toss a $20 or $50 out the window in a month on the model.   Doing something for sandbox / testing / config, get distracted and don't get back to it until whenever.  Rinse and repeat other months.

I am still a fan of fixed VPS cost and simple billing without the addons.  Any addon in fairness will create confusion and some buyer remorse. 

HA stuff, oh goodie,  maybe they can start to say with some honesty they are cloud now... Years later...  Just my opinion...

Exactly. these 'cloud(!)' servers are always useful for me while need multiple server in multiple location for like 2/3 hr for testing. Imagine if you take 3 of them and destroy the droplet but somehow forgot the IP and get an additional 13$ bill next cycle.

 

[VPSFAN]

@HBAndreiWe are discussing technology no emotions here - I guess my point was clear however I do respect your opinion but overall its a lame solution - I saw an article also sharing the same opnion with some details on whyhttps://z0z0.me/2015/10/21/why-digitalocean-floating-is-fake/

As a current customer of DO - and many others my point is : They could have done better.

Thanks,
VPSFan