Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#141

Post by IgorPartola » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:52 PM UTC

This is a non-starter without IPv6. I know some of you will be tempted to jump ship from DO and Vultr, but please remember that by doing so you will continue enabling Amazon to hold back progress. While ignoring AWS is not really an option, as it offers some very unique features that are quite useful, this thing does not.

DO is not great in this regard as their butcher their allocations, but Vultr gives each VPS a proper /64. Scaleway has partial IPv6 support (not for their bare metal could, but their VPS's do support it).

I urge you to vote with your wallets, unless you really like paying $1/month or more per IP for the foreseeable future.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#142

Post by setq » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:52 PM UTC

geerlingguy wrote: post #79

prashnts wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, if you have a Static IP attached to the VPS and you first Stop, and then Destroy your instance, you will need to make sure you "free" the IP as well to avoid _small_ 0.005/hr price. From FAQ: > What do Lightsail static IPs cost? > They're free in Lightsail, as long as you are using them! You don't pay for a static IP if it is attached to an instance. Public IPs are a scarce resource and Lightsail is committed t…

> $0.005/hour That's $3.60/month... seems similar to mail-in rebates—many people forget, and accidentally give Amazon some (mostly) free money. Also, from later in this thread: > FWIW, bandwidth overages at Linode and DO are $0.02 per GB, LightSail is $0.09. It's these seemingly-tiny (but not-so-tiny when I'm running 60-70 VPSes) costs that kill when you get your first bill after a large traffic event.

You're capped at 20 instances as well by the looks. Plus you'll get AWS 'dog shit' support included which is hopeless.

Will stick with Linode.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#143

Post by jjcm » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:53 PM UTC

Keep in mind if you are a current EC2 customer and are excited about a cheaper VPS in your region, the VPSs are only available in Virginia. I was pretty excited about a cheaper VPS I could provision in the Sydney area, but these are restricted to a single datacenter.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#144

Post by Someone1234 » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:53 PM UTC

stupidcar wrote: post #105

Someone1234 wrote: post #3

Just to be clear: This service is offered by Amazon/AWS themselves, it isn't a third party. That's a question I had when I first clicked, which is why I am answering it here. One big "gotcha" for AWS newbies which I cannot tell if this addresses: Does this set or allow the user to set a cost ceiling? AWS have offered billing alerts since forever. They'll also occasionally refund unexpected expenses (one time thing).…

What are these "various" ways you're talking about? The only overage charge I see is for data transfer. This isn't ideal, I'll grant you, but it's not the same as "various".

DNS, IP Address Reservation, Plan Upgrades, Bandwidth, and so on.

We've seen AWS accounts get broken into with stolen tokens, additional VPS's started, VPS upgraded, bandwidth consumed, etc. And while Amazon has been good with refunding the FIRST time, nobody wants to wake up to a 10K bill because your gitignore had a typo.

A ceiling or cap may even stop plan upgrades without an email confirmation. That would be hugely welcome, particularly in a world where bad guys are actively seeking out VPS to break into.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#145

Post by scosman » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:53 PM UTC

reacharavindh wrote: post #40

scosman wrote: post #9

This is the first cheap bandwidth option I've seen on AWS. Transferring 1TB out of S3 or EC2 is costs about $90, but is included in a $5 server with Lightsail.

Looks like you can spin up three of these instances as a proxy and pay $15 for 3 TB of bandwidth from AWS.

Yeah, but max 20 Lightsail servers per month. No big clients will be able to use this to export/leave.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#146

Post by shawabawa3 » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

beachy wrote: post #130

Someone1234 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just referring to the VPS itself. If you keep reading the FAQ you'll see that there are ways to exceed that amount. Plus there's nothing stopping someone breaking into your account and upgrading it in all kinds of evil ways (which has been a huge hassle with AWS tokens being stolen from e.g. Github).

Really? What are these evil ways?

There were lots of stories of hackers spinning up the largest ec2 instances available to mine bitcoins on anyone's account they could get access to

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#147

Post by dotancohen » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #55

blinkingled wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the LightSail pricing doesn't look attractive at all. $40 if you need to get 2 cores - and dual core really should help with anything non-trivial.

All low-end VPS offerings use shared cores, so # of cores is a fairly useless comparison unless they also tell you the oversubscription rate or all of your neighbors are idle.

I don't know about the others, but on AWS with the T2.* instances it always seems like I've got the server to myself. They are either well provisioned, or well managed. The burstable CPUs are great.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#148

Post by steffan » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

drawnwren wrote: post #131

vinay427 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the man is wearing on-ear headphones and is using a smartphone in front of his laptop, which seems more common today than ever.

Has he also duct taped over the brand name? 2016 San Francisco, I see you!

The duct tape is made to look decorative, but it's standard practice in Film / TV / Advertising to obscure brand names.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#149

Post by mirekrusin » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:56 PM UTC

ajkjk wrote: post #25

I'm amused by the model they have in their banner: a bearded, tattooed man wearing what appears to be a .. cape? We've come a long way since the stock photos of 'smiling super-normal people wearing ties, huddled around a computer'.

Is this Amazon's dress-code? I bet black cape + helmet means you're at the top.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#150

Post by paulrosenzweig » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:58 PM UTC

blhack wrote: post #112

Someone1234 wrote: post #3

Just to be clear: This service is offered by Amazon/AWS themselves, it isn't a third party. That's a question I had when I first clicked, which is why I am answering it here. One big "gotcha" for AWS newbies which I cannot tell if this addresses: Does this set or allow the user to set a cost ceiling? AWS have offered billing alerts since forever. They'll also occasionally refund unexpected expenses (one time thing).…

This is exactly it. 5-6 years ago (I think), I signed up for an aws account under the "free" or educational or something tier. AWS was newish at the time, and I wanted to learn about it. Via some accidental clicking in the control panel (trying to get an IP address for the instance, I think?) I ended up getting a bill from them for over $100. Which, to me at the time, was a huge amount of money. It put me off of AWS…

I think it comes down to them seeing themselves as a utility. You wouldn't want to be prompted for payment confirmation every time you plug something into an outlet, but this does mean that you'll have a huge unexpected charge if you accidentally leave on the air conditioner when you go on vacation.