7 ms·

Digital Ocean killed my droplets and gives a vague reply

55 points by navalsaini 3y ago

Any idea what could be going on here? I had two droplets on DO, a server for game halfchess.com and a VPN that I use at work. I get this message from DigitalOcean Abuse. Could I have been targeted by an individual or is this something to do with a software loophole they discovered? ---- Hello there, Thank you for your response. We understand your concern and have reviewed this ticket extensively but we are unable to accommodate this unlock request. In order to maintain the integrity of our security systems, we cannot disclose which factors were identified that led to the decision on this account. We hope you would understand the limitations on our end.

dengolius 3y ago
So go to any provider website, order bare metal server where proxmox installation will cover your requirements. Own VPS hosting is always better then cloud vps.
cwdegidio 3y ago
I actually moved over to Linode because of similar anomalies. I had a container I was running my personal site from. Paid my bill on time every month. Got distracted with work and hadn't updated it in a while. One day I go to check on it and the site is down. Head to DO to restart it... and it is just gone. Like it never existed. Didn't even bother trying to communicate with them I was so angry. Been really happy with Linode.
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
  I mean, yeah, if you don't pay your bill you should fully expect them to stop providing the service which was being paid for (which includes the storage of the associated data).
  - oarsinsync 3y ago
    Generally it’s not unreasonable to expect a business to care about customer retention… and have them email you before this happens
  - ZuLuuuuuu 3y ago
    I would say it depends on how long the bill is not payed. I wouldn't expect them to remove everything when a payment is late for a month, for example. But if not payed for more than 6 months, then it is understandable.
  - dahston 3y ago
    He said he paid his bill on time every month, he just didn't update the site in a while!
  - antiloper 3y ago
    Please read posts before replying to them.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- 0xEF 3y ago
  I'm pretty happy with Linode after migrating from DO as well. Their billing seems a bit more on top of things, noticing situations where they owed me a small credit that I would have likely missed. I've been a customer since before the Akamai days and feel that their service has only improved when I expected disruption (as one does when companies merge).
schalkneethling 3y ago
This is not unique, unfortunately. I have been battling with them for the last two months now and I am in the process of moving everything away from DigitalOcean. Something has changed over there and they have zero tolerance concerning everything. My account was overdue by $10 (after being paid on time for close to 5 years), I asked for a deadline extension of 1 week and it was declined. They have already turned off all of my droplets and are now threatening to delete everything with no recourse within the next three days. Again, not unwilling to pay, I was merely asking for an extension by 7 days for $10 and they declined my request.
- veeti 3y ago
  >Something has changed over there cough IPO cough
- bun_terminator 3y ago
  What are popular alternatives these days?
  - oarsinsync 3y ago
    Vultr, you can get your first month free through various referral / promotion links, where your first month’s spend (up to $50-200 depending on the link) is gratis (after you’ve added a legit payment method)
  - andersa 3y ago
    Hetzner Cloud
    - popey 3y ago
      When I signed up and put in my credit card details, they immediately cancelled my order and completely deleted my account. I had to resort to moaning at them on twitter to get them to unblock me, which they did. Bit of a rubbish start to the journey though.
      - 3y ago
flrngel 3y ago
Probably your server leaked, just move on. AWS lightsail is good enough.
- BOOSTERHIDROGEN 3y ago
  What leaked in this context ?
jbverschoor 3y ago
Not your machines, not your servers
- _lvbh 3y ago
  Most might disagree but I actually think you have a point. I run most of my services off a raspberry pi and old MacBook and only use a VPS for WireGuard + port forwarding these days
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
codingdave 3y ago
That bites. At the same time, this is why the concept of "business continuity" exists. If you are running a hobby-level service, it may not be worth the trouble, but for anything where the continued existence of the service truly matters, you should have a plan in place of what to do when (not if) your host blows up and leaves you with nothing. That should include the ability to re-launch the code/database/server/whatever on a new host, and restore the latest data backup to that new host. I get that planning ahead for such things increases the work to launch a service - but anything short of it means you are not in control of your own destiny.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
Tell HN:
codegeek 3y ago
I have been frustrated a bit with them as well because in the last few months, more often than not, a droplet hangs without any issues and they cannot tell us why. The only way is to reboot it. We were paying them over 5K/Month for some of our services and now I am moving everything to AWS EC2. Yes, I know that AWS can have its own issues but i have found their support to be better and so far more reliable infra than DO. I love DO for its simplicity and cost but lost trust recently due to those "droplets hanging suddenly" issues.
kennethrc 3y ago
You actually made me go look (I have a droplet as a Wireguard VPN, that I too use only rarely): $ uptime 10:40:45 up 654 days, 11:32, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.01 I can't use it for getting to Streaming sites when abroad (they all blacklist DO's IP blocks), but it works for just about anything else and it's got really fat pipes.
KomoD 3y ago
Are you saying that is the only message you got? Maybe you got compromised? Have you tried reaching out to them?
ReflectedImage 3y ago
Had trouble signing up for Digital Ocean, called up their support team, got a really bad response and decided I'll just blacklist them. If they were giving me trouble during sign up then what hope was there for support afterwards?

55 points by navalsaini 3y ago

dengolius 3y ago

So go to any provider website, order bare metal server where proxmox installation will cover your requirements. Own VPS hosting is always better then cloud vps.

cwdegidio 3y ago

I actually moved over to Linode because of similar anomalies. I had a container I was running my personal site from. Paid my bill on time every month. Got distracted with work and hadn't updated it in a while. One day I go to check on it and the site is down. Head to DO to restart it... and it is just gone. Like it never existed. Didn't even bother trying to communicate with them I was so angry. Been really happy with Linode.

ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
I mean, yeah, if you don't pay your bill you should fully expect them to stop providing the service which was being paid for (which includes the storage of the associated data).
- oarsinsync 3y ago
  Generally it’s not unreasonable to expect a business to care about customer retention… and have them email you before this happens
- ZuLuuuuuu 3y ago
  I would say it depends on how long the bill is not payed. I wouldn't expect them to remove everything when a payment is late for a month, for example. But if not payed for more than 6 months, then it is understandable.
- dahston 3y ago
  He said he paid his bill on time every month, he just didn't update the site in a while!
- antiloper 3y ago
  Please read posts before replying to them.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
0xEF 3y ago
I'm pretty happy with Linode after migrating from DO as well. Their billing seems a bit more on top of things, noticing situations where they owed me a small credit that I would have likely missed. I've been a customer since before the Akamai days and feel that their service has only improved when I expected disruption (as one does when companies merge).

schalkneethling 3y ago

This is not unique, unfortunately. I have been battling with them for the last two months now and I am in the process of moving everything away from DigitalOcean. Something has changed over there and they have zero tolerance concerning everything. My account was overdue by $10 (after being paid on time for close to 5 years), I asked for a deadline extension of 1 week and it was declined. They have already turned off all of my droplets and are now threatening to delete everything with no recourse within the next three days. Again, not unwilling to pay, I was merely asking for an extension by 7 days for $10 and they declined my request.

veeti 3y ago
>Something has changed over there cough IPO cough
bun_terminator 3y ago
What are popular alternatives these days?
- oarsinsync 3y ago
  Vultr, you can get your first month free through various referral / promotion links, where your first month’s spend (up to $50-200 depending on the link) is gratis (after you’ve added a legit payment method)
- andersa 3y ago
  Hetzner Cloud
  - popey 3y ago
    When I signed up and put in my credit card details, they immediately cancelled my order and completely deleted my account. I had to resort to moaning at them on twitter to get them to unblock me, which they did. Bit of a rubbish start to the journey though.
    - 3y ago

flrngel 3y ago

Probably your server leaked, just move on. AWS lightsail is good enough.

BOOSTERHIDROGEN 3y ago
What leaked in this context ?

jbverschoor 3y ago

Not your machines, not your servers

_lvbh 3y ago
Most might disagree but I actually think you have a point. I run most of my services off a raspberry pi and old MacBook and only use a VPS for WireGuard + port forwarding these days

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

codingdave 3y ago

That bites. At the same time, this is why the concept of "business continuity" exists. If you are running a hobby-level service, it may not be worth the trouble, but for anything where the continued existence of the service truly matters, you should have a plan in place of what to do when (not if) your host blows up and leaves you with nothing. That should include the ability to re-launch the code/database/server/whatever on a new host, and restore the latest data backup to that new host. I get that planning ahead for such things increases the work to launch a service - but anything short of it means you are not in control of your own destiny.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

Tell HN:

codegeek 3y ago

I have been frustrated a bit with them as well because in the last few months, more often than not, a droplet hangs without any issues and they cannot tell us why. The only way is to reboot it. We were paying them over 5K/Month for some of our services and now I am moving everything to AWS EC2. Yes, I know that AWS can have its own issues but i have found their support to be better and so far more reliable infra than DO. I love DO for its simplicity and cost but lost trust recently due to those "droplets hanging suddenly" issues.

kennethrc 3y ago

You actually made me go look (I have a droplet as a Wireguard VPN, that I too use only rarely): $ uptime 10:40:45 up 654 days, 11:32, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.01 I can't use it for getting to Streaming sites when abroad (they all blacklist DO's IP blocks), but it works for just about anything else and it's got really fat pipes.

KomoD 3y ago

Are you saying that is the only message you got? Maybe you got compromised? Have you tried reaching out to them?

ReflectedImage 3y ago

Had trouble signing up for Digital Ocean, called up their support team, got a really bad response and decided I'll just blacklist them. If they were giving me trouble during sign up then what hope was there for support afterwards?