Some questions about Hetzner?

Tinku

I have some questions i hope some Hetzner user at LET can answer them? I want to order a server from their auction.

I saw their server bidding page but i don't know how the reduction works? For example a server there now is listed for 26 Euro and count down for reduction is 40 hours so can you tell me how much the price decrease after that time if i can grab it quickly after that countdown ends? Is there a fixed decrease in price?

These servers come with rescue mode so is there any panel and is it possible to do do as many reinstall/shutdowns/boot as we want or rescue mode is all we get with these servers?

I know they don't offer ddos mitigation and only offer nullrouting but still i want to ask how was your experience if you faced any ddos attack on your Hetzner server recently? any improvement? I heard they have ddos mitigation now in testing phase and not announced yet.

How quickly they deliver server after the payment is made? And is there a long verification process like OVH sending passport, id etc if you are not from Europe?

I heard they have a 2 weeks refund policy if you are not satisfied with the server delivered to you is that right?

K4Y5

@Tinku said:
I have some questions i hope some Hetzner user at LET can answer them? I want to order a server from their auction.

I saw their server bidding page but i don't know how the reduction works? For example a server there now is listed for 26 Euro and count down for reduction is 40 hours so can you tell me how much the price decrease after that time if i can grab it quickly after that countdown ends? Is there a fixed decrease in price?

These servers come with rescue mode so is there any panel and is it possible to do do as many reinstall/shutdowns/boot as we want or rescue mode is all we get with these servers?

I know they don't offer ddos mitigation and only offer nullrouting but still i want to ask how was your experience if you faced any ddos attack on your Hetzner server recently? any improvement? I heard they have ddos mitigation now in testing phase and not announced yet.

How quickly they deliver server after the payment is made? And is there a long verification process like OVH sending passport, id etc if you are not from Europe?

I heard they have a 2 weeks refund policy if you are not satisfied with the server delivered to you is that right?

Just order the damn thing and see for yourself, or better yet, shoot Hetzner an email. For what its worth, they do have a 2 weeks refund policy in place.

hzr

used them a while ago, never got ddos so don't know there:

• Infinite soft/hard reboot in panel, automated
• Rescue only automated
• RDNS/PTR automated
• SWIP automated (IPv6 only maybe? not sure)
• KVM is on demand requested, for several hours only free, then they take it down so someone else can use it
• If you need KVM longer it's a very small fee, but I think 4 hours is free (occasionally if no one else uses it the KVM just keeps working/they never detach it for a while, but don't depend on this for free)
• Windows ISOs etc are available internally on their internal shares (http://download.hetzner.de/bootimages/windows/)
• I don't drive, they accepted my school id and a bank letter, no passport
• Auction is just flat reduction every x minutes/hours/days I think

Falzo

Auction reduces 1€ per step (including german vat) setup is nearly instant at least for registered customers.

Afaik they don't really do refunds but they wont charge you if you cancel wirhin 14 days (can be dine within customer panel)

Go grab one. Really nothing to lose there.

daily

@K4Y5 said:
Just order the damn thing and see for yourself, or better yet, shoot Hetzner an email. For what its worth, they do have a 2 weeks refund policy in place.

God forbid you actually answer the question if you have any idea.

Tinku

@Falzo said:
Auction reduces 1€ per step (including german vat) setup is nearly instant at least for registered customers.

Afaik they don't really do refunds but they wont charge you if you cancel wirhin 14 days (can be dine within customer panel)

Go grab one. Really nothing to lose there.

So that means they are not going to charge my card for 2 weeks while i use the server or there will be a pre-authorization of same amount like OVH do sometimes?

Tinku

@hzr said:
used them a while ago, never got ddos so don't know there:

• Infinite soft/hard reboot in panel, automated
• Rescue only automated
• RDNS/PTR automated
• SWIP automated (IPv6 only maybe? not sure)
• KVM is on demand requested, for several hours only free, then they take it down so someone else can use it
• If you need KVM longer it's a very small fee, but I think 4 hours is free (occasionally if no one else uses it the KVM just keeps working/they never detach it for a while, but don't depend on this for free)
• Windows ISOs etc are available internally on their internal shares (http://download.hetzner.de/bootimages/windows/)
• I don't drive, they accepted my school id and a bank letter, no passport
• Auction is just flat reduction every x minutes/hours/days I think

Thanks that was really helpful any idea about ddos?

Mahfuz_SS_EHL

@Tinku said:

@Falzo said:
Auction reduces 1€ per step (including german vat) setup is nearly instant at least for registered customers.

Afaik they don't really do refunds but they wont charge you if you cancel wirhin 14 days (can be dine within customer panel)

Go grab one. Really nothing to lose there.

So that means they are not going to charge my card for 2 weeks while i use the server or there will be a pre-authorization of same amount like OVH do sometimes?

Yes, No Charge for 2 Weeks ! After that invoice is generated & you will be charged.

Tinku

@Mahfuz_SS_EHL said:

@Tinku said:

@Falzo said:
Auction reduces 1€ per step (including german vat) setup is nearly instant at least for registered customers.

Afaik they don't really do refunds but they wont charge you if you cancel wirhin 14 days (can be dine within customer panel)

Go grab one. Really nothing to lose there.

So that means they are not going to charge my card for 2 weeks while i use the server or there will be a pre-authorization of same amount like OVH do sometimes?

Yes, No Charge for 2 Weeks ! After that invoice is generated & you will be charged.

that sounds cool thanks for confirming

K4Y5

@daily said:

@K4Y5 said:
Just order the damn thing and see for yourself, or better yet, shoot Hetzner an email. For what its worth, they do have a 2 weeks refund policy in place.

God forbid you actually answer the question if you have any idea.

What was wrong with my suggestion of mailing the company directly to get a few specific questions answered? Wouldn't that be preferable to the alternative where the OP actually gets into a contract with the said company, based on things random people heard and regurgitated on the internet?

I wasn't certain about a couple of questions the OP had asked. So, I pointed him towards the right direction (Hetzner), where the sales/support team actually respond to emails within a few minutes with deadly German precision and efficiency. No pun intended.

Or, the OP could have instead bought the server, in case he were feeling adventurous, as there really is nothing to lose with the generous 2 week cancellation policy of Hetzner.

Falzo

Tinku said: So that means they are not going to charge my card for 2 weeks while i use the server or there will be a pre-authorization of same amount like OVH do sometimes?

Yes, No Charge for 2 Weeks ! After that invoice is generated & you will be charged.

that sounds cool thanks for confirming

just to clarify: if you keep the server you have to pay for the whole time from delivery date ;-)

those two weeks are only free of charge if you cancel within that time and they most likely don't need you to pay upfront for that two weeks - it may depend on your payment method or card though (can't tell if they do approvals/pre-auth on CCs and how that might work with prepaid ones etc.)

Tinku

@Falzo said:

Tinku said: So that means they are not going to charge my card for 2 weeks while i use the server or there will be a pre-authorization of same amount like OVH do sometimes?

Yes, No Charge for 2 Weeks ! After that invoice is generated & you will be charged.

that sounds cool thanks for confirming

just to clarify: if you keep the server you have to pay for the whole time from delivery date ;-)

those two weeks are only free of charge if you cancel within that time and they most likely don't need you to pay upfront for that two weeks - it may depend on your payment method or card though (can't tell if they do approvals/pre-auth on CCs and how that might work with prepaid ones etc.)

Thanks for explaining i already ordered before a few hours and sent them the passport and credit card scanned copies as they asked lets see how it goes.

Tinku

Well that was quick my account is verified now and server is given within few hours.

I got an i7-3770 with 16GB Ram and 2x3TB HDD. (for around $29)

But it looks like they have given me a HDD from stone age era.

I/O speed: 61.7 MB/s

Load is also jumping between 2 and 3 although it's a fresh install and i haven't setup anything. CPU and Ram is not even 1% in use but load is touching 3+

Tion

HDD are always the downside of Hetzner since they use old desktop hardware.
They will only replace your HDD if its dead and most likely replace it with another old but working HDD. They charge you 50€ for a fresh HDD.

AshleyUk

@Tinku said:
Well that was quick my account is verified now and server is given within few hours.

I got an i7-3770 with 16GB Ram and 2x3TB HDD. (for around $29)

But it looks like they have given me a HDD from stone age era.

I/O speed: 61.7 MB/s

Load is also jumping between 2 and 3 although it's a fresh install and i haven't setup anything. CPU and Ram is not even 1% in use but load is touching 3+

If your using software Raid (1/0), check the status of the Raid to make sure a scan is not running.

Tinku

@AshleyUk said:

@Tinku said:
Well that was quick my account is verified now and server is given within few hours.

I got an i7-3770 with 16GB Ram and 2x3TB HDD. (for around $29)

But it looks like they have given me a HDD from stone age era.

I/O speed: 61.7 MB/s

Load is also jumping between 2 and 3 although it's a fresh install and i haven't setup anything. CPU and Ram is not even 1% in use but load is touching 3+

If your using software Raid (1/0), check the status of the Raid to make sure a scan is not running.

Load is touching 12+ now from last 15 minutes and when i run cat /proc/mdstat this is the output i get: (i am not that good with technical stuff so i am no sure what it means)

Personalities : [raid1]

md3 : active raid1 sda5[0] sdb5[1]
1847605568 blocks super 1.0 [2/2] [UU]
[>....................] resync = 4.7% (88487296/1847605568) finish=188.2 min speed=155762K/sec
bitmap: 14/14 pages [56KB], 65536KB chunk

md1 : active raid1 sdb2[1] sda2[0]
524224 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md2 : active raid1 sda3[0] sdb3[1]
1073741632 blocks super 1.0 [2/2] [UU]
resync=DELAYED
bitmap: 8/8 pages [32KB], 65536KB chunk

md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
8388544 blocks super 1.0 [2/2] [UU]

Falzo

Means nothing. System is syncing your raid at high speed which is causing io waits and therefore high load. You could limit the sync speed if impatient otherwise just wait for the sync to be finished in some hours. Check io speeds afterwards.

Auction servers are always old/used ones that's no secret. Have a look at the s.m.a.r.t. data of the disks to see their age ;-)

AshleyUk

As above, your server is doing its first sync of Raid 1, will take a while but will be hitting the disks hard during this time, just need to wait it out.

Tinku

Thanks for your replies @AshleyUk @Falzo

It looks like they have given me a very old HDD. Power on Hours: 25208

Even after the sync finished yesterday still this server with fresh os shows some load all the time (i didn't faced this even with atom kimsufi servers after fresh installs). After the sync finished now the io speed shows around 100mb/sec

Falzo

Disks on those auction servers are usually 2-3 years old (as are the servers themselves)
Sorry if you missed that before, after you questioning about I thought you about the nature of being used/old servers in the auctions.

Regarding load I'd say it much depends what os you installed and what that box maybe doing to cause that load. It might ne worth to watch some other numbers from s.m.a.r.t to make sure there are broken or pending sectors which may cause issues.

Tinku

@Falzo said:
Disks on those auction servers are usually 2-3 years old (as are the servers themselves)
Sorry if you missed that before, after you questioning about I thought you about the nature of being used/old servers in the auctions.

Regarding load I'd say it much depends what os you installed and what that box maybe doing to cause that load. It might ne worth to watch some other numbers from s.m.a.r.t to make sure there are broken or pending sectors which may cause issues.

Can you tell me how to check broken or pending sectors using smartctl?

Falzo

just do something like:

smartctl -a /dev/sda |grep Sector && smartctl -a /dev/sdb |grep Sector

should print something like this:

Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

any non-zero numbers on the right are unwanted.

Tinku

@Falzo here is the full output one of them shows a value of 72.

    Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda (SATA 3Gb/s, 4K Sectors)

  Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical

   5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       - 0

  197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       - 0

 Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda (SATA 3Gb/s, 4K Sectors)

    Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical

    5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       - 72

 197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       - 0

    SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]

    SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]

Falzo

@Tinku said:
@Falzo here is the full output one of them shows a value of 72.

that is bad luck indeed!

and that could most likely be the issue causing your disk to hang once in a while or have peaks of bigger io waits, which you will see as high load without cpu-usage involved.

I would contact support about and ask for a replacement because of those bad sectors. within your ticket post them a full output of

smartctl -a /dev/sdb

If they won't replace the disk I'd let go of the server within the 14 days without cost and probably try to grab another one from the auctions ;-)

at least a good opportunity to see and try how their support will handle such things.

Tinku

@Falzo said:

@Tinku said:
@Falzo here is the full output one of them shows a value of 72.

that is bad luck indeed!

and that could most likely be the issue causing your disk to hang once in a while or have peaks of bigger io waits, which you will see as high load without cpu-usage involved.

I would contact support about and ask for a replacement because of those bad sectors. within your ticket post them a full output of

smartctl -a /dev/sdb

If they won't replace the disk I'd let go of the server within the 14 days without cost and probably try to grab another one from the auctions ;-)

at least a good opportunity to see and try how their support will handle such things.

I have sent them the serial number and smart log and asked for a replacement lets see if they do it otherwise i will cancel it and go for a Xeon E3-1245 (although less speed and $3 expensive but SATA Enterprise with ECC Ram).

Is there any limit of testing? If i cancel this one and go for another one are they going to ask me questions? i mean if they allow this way people are going to keep canceling and testing other ones without paying lol

Thanks for all the great help!

Tinku

WOW HDD replaced within 10 minutes of submitting the support ticket.

Dear Client,

As requested, we have replaced the defective drive and booted the server.

Kind regards

Tinku

There we go i guess replaced with another one that got bad sectors?

Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 5

Falzo

@Tinku said:

you're welcome ;-)

I think if you keep ordering and cancel within that tryout period for no reason a lot, they will ask questions at some point... at least I would expect them to do so, just to make sure there is no abuse of their service.

yet they will be reasonable enough to see the issue with the first one you got.

I did make use of their 14 day cancellation terms at least three times by now (on different product lines though, not only auction) and no one ever asked why...

Tinku

@Falzo said:

@Tinku said:

you're welcome ;-)

I think if you keep ordering and cancel within that tryout period for no reason a lot, they will ask questions at some point... at least I would expect them to do so, just to make sure there is no abuse of their service.

yet they will be reasonable enough to see the issue with the first one you got.

I did make use of their 14 day cancellation terms at least three times by now (on different product lines though, not only auction) and no one ever asked why...

I will try a couple than

The one they given me as replacement HDD is also showing this:

      5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       - 5

Falzo

@Tinku said:

>

The one they given me as replacement HDD is also showing this:

      5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       - 5

so they did a fast replacement, which is supportive, but that smart result is not convincing to say at least...

can't tell exactly how I would handle this. one could try and do a fresh raid setup (if not done already), let it resync and watch if that number grows and if there are any recognizable load issues.

maybe in addition I would try and fill the whole bunch of 3 TB with random numbers to see if this causes more reallocations (will take some time, so best done as a night job)

after that go and ask support again for replacement or decide to live with it, if it caused no problems so far.

all in all this may leave some kind of risk running into issue at some time later, so I most probably would simply drop that brox and go for another one. that E3 you mentioned may become cheaper if you are patient, but it may also be snagged away before it drops... depends on how much you are into gambling and how fast you need it ^^

Tinku

@Falzo i give up on hetzner maybe my luck is so bad! I ordered Xeon and the HDD given to me got 35000 hours. I am canceling both my servers with Hetzner i guess Hetzner is a lottery so you need a very good luck to be able to get a solid one! Saw a few guys here mentioning they had a good luck and got new HDDs from Hetzner in bidding but looks like in my case it's totally different.