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

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#51

Post by drej » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:12 PM UTC

I use AWS for a bunch of things, but the console has always been immensely painful to use, especially to create a no frills simple VPS for a fiver. For that reason alone, I use DigitalOcean and fiddle with AWS authentication if I need to use some of its services there.

Lightsail looks excellent since the setup is just a gazillion times more user friendly than the standard EC2. A single page affair, a launch script, authentication, it's all there. Once launched, I get all the info and metrics I need.

I kinda wish they streamlined their usual console to this level, but this way it's fine as well. I don't tend to use S3 and EC2 as much as I'd like given its non-existent UX, but this gives me hope that Amazon is taking user experience seriously.

Sure, it may be underpowered compared to DO or Linode, but having all services under one roof is worth it to me. I'm happy.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#52

Post by regularfry » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:12 PM UTC

Veen wrote: post #36

I think a million VPS hosting companies just cried out in terror. The major reason to use a VPS host instead of AWS is that AWS is complicated. This seems to be just as simple as DO or a million other VPS hosts, with the added benefit that it's easy to hook up to Amazon's other services if you need to.

Smaller hosts will make a decent margin on managed services. That's just not a game Amazon want to get into.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#53

Post by falcolas » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:12 PM UTC

anilshanbhag wrote: post #18

Here is a comparison of $20 instances across DO, Linode and LightSail All have 3TB transfer Linode(Best): 4GB RAM, 2 Core, 48 GB SSD DO: 2GB RAM, 2 Core, 40 GB SSD LightSail(Worst): 2GB RAM, 1 Core, 40 GB SSD I use this exact instance on Linode for my site https://dictanote.co ; that one extra core makes a lot of difference when you want to take a backup of db or something intensive like that.

FWIW, bandwidth overages at Linode and DO are $0.02 per GB, LightSail is $0.09.

Ow.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#54

Post by anilshanbhag » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:12 PM UTC

blinkingled wrote: post #29

anilshanbhag wrote: post #18

Here is a comparison of $20 instances across DO, Linode and LightSail All have 3TB transfer Linode(Best): 4GB RAM, 2 Core, 48 GB SSD DO: 2GB RAM, 2 Core, 40 GB SSD LightSail(Worst): 2GB RAM, 1 Core, 40 GB SSD I use this exact instance on Linode for my site https://dictanote.co ; that one extra core makes a lot of difference when you want to take a backup of db or something intensive like that.

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.

I was hoping their pricing is competitive at least if not better given they are so late to this I just need one VPS market.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#55

Post by bryanlarsen » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:14 PM UTC

blinkingled wrote: post #29

anilshanbhag wrote: post #18

Here is a comparison of $20 instances across DO, Linode and LightSail All have 3TB transfer Linode(Best): 4GB RAM, 2 Core, 48 GB SSD DO: 2GB RAM, 2 Core, 40 GB SSD LightSail(Worst): 2GB RAM, 1 Core, 40 GB SSD I use this exact instance on Linode for my site https://dictanote.co ; that one extra core makes a lot of difference when you want to take a backup of db or something intensive like that.

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.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#56

Post by scotchio » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:14 PM UTC

Interesting. Pricing is worse than Digital Ocean here. Looks like Linode is still best bang for buck strictly for price to power.

Random thoughts from shameless noob:

- I like Digital Ocean's OS/app images for speed / smaller projects. Looks like Lightsail offers this with Bitnami. Not sure how complicated that is in their console.

- Amazon IAM comes with a bit too much overhead for noobies like myself. Glad this doesn't require you to set that up when you just want a quick and dirty VPS.

- Bah. Resizing/upgrading requires you to do it through API currently. That kind of sucks.

- Nice! 30 day free trial.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#57

Post by 2bluesc » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

Price breakdown vs DigitalOcean, VULTR and Linode.

Of course all things are not equal (i.e. CPUs, SSDs, bandwidth, etc).

  Provider: RAM, CPU Cores, Storage, Transfer

  ----------

  $5/mo

  LightSail: 512MB, 1, 20GB SSD, 1TB
  DO:        512MB, 1, 20GB SSD, 1TB
  VULTR:     768MB, 1, 15GB SSD, 1TB

  ----------

  $10/mo

  LightSail: 1GB, 1, 30GB SSD, 2TB
  DO:        1GB, 1, 30GB SSD, 2TB
  VULTR:     1GB, 1, 20GB SSD, 2TB
  Linode:    2GB, 1, 24GB SSD, 2TB

  ----------

  $20/mo

  LightSail: 2GB, 1,  40GB SSD, 3TB
  DO:        2GB, 2,  40GB SSD, 3TB
  VULTR:     2GB, 2,  45GB SSD, 3TB
  Linode:    4GB, 2,  48GB SSD, 3TB

  ----------

  $40/mo

  LightSail: 4GB, 2,  60GB SSD, 4TB
  DO:        4GB, 2,  60GB SSD, 4TB
  VULTR:     4GB, 4,  45GB SSD, 4TB
  Linode:    8GB, 4,  96GB SSD, 4TB

  ----------

  $80/mo

  LightSail: 8GB, 2,  80GB SSD, 5TB
  DO:        8GB, 4,  80GB SSD, 5TB
  VULTR:     8GB, 6, 150GB SSD, 5TB
  Linode:   12GB, 6, 192GB SSD, 8TB

In an easier to read gist: https://gist.github.com/637693650bc8bb9baadf6293a99e1813

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#58

Post by neves » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

anilshanbhag wrote: post #18

Here is a comparison of $20 instances across DO, Linode and LightSail All have 3TB transfer Linode(Best): 4GB RAM, 2 Core, 48 GB SSD DO: 2GB RAM, 2 Core, 40 GB SSD LightSail(Worst): 2GB RAM, 1 Core, 40 GB SSD I use this exact instance on Linode for my site https://dictanote.co ; that one extra core makes a lot of difference when you want to take a backup of db or something intensive like that.

Your are not considering the servers location. If you aren't in the USA, and your site isn't resource intensive, how near the server is from your users will make the greatest difference in access speed.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#59

Post by ceejayoz » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

johnqpub wrote: post #38

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).…

>I'd welcome an account suspend instead of bill shock. The big question here is what to do with stateful data. Would you accept an immediate deletion of all of your S3 data? RDS instances and snapshots?

Per the AWS TOS, once Amazon suspends your account for non-payment your data's kept for at least 30 days. No reason they couldn't do the same here.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#60

Post by prashnts » Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

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).…

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 to helping to use them efficiently, so we charge a small $0.005/hour fee for static IPs not attached to an instance for more than 1 hour.