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Contabo's '99.999% uptime' excludes scheduled maintenance, generator tests, and Tuesdays

Datacenter Talk by Fritz48 8 replies 984 views
Fritz48

Member OP

Datenschutz First

4 #1

I have been conducting an analysis of the SLA provided by Contabo, as far as I know the only provider in this price bracket with such marketing claims. The advertised 99.999% availability, when one applies standard calculation methods, collapses rather quickly under scrutiny. My methodology:
- Total minutes in billing period: 43,200
- Scheduled maintenance windows (allowed): 1,440 minutes
- Generator test failures (not counted as downtime per clause 7.3): 340 minutes
- "Network anomalies" (their term, Tuesdays primarily): 620 minutes Actual availability: 97.3%. I have opened a ticket. They offered to "clarify" the marketing materials. They have not done so.

Neuland. Aber schnell.
annexbi

Member

#2

(I was just (about to say (and this is (the thing that gets me (every time (with these providers))))) that the "clarify" response is (and I mean this (ironically (but also not))) basically an admission of (what we all know (which is that (the SLA is (when you parse it (legally (to be precise))))) a carefully constructed fiction) (but also) have you considered (the GDPR angle (since (as far as I know (and I am (certainly (not a lawyer)))) they are processing your (usage data (for these calculations))) whether you can demand (the raw logs (which (would be (hilarious (to see))))))

push. done. coffee.
ana_mad

Member

#3

@Fritz48 Ouch, sent ticket to them last month for same issue! They told me "maintenance is not downtime" and closed it. Made test order with OVHcloud after that, much better clarity in their SLA.

Contabo counts "partial degradation" as uptime too, is ridiculous. I had 50% packet loss for 6 hours, status page said "operational". Asked them about it, they said "connectivity was maintained". Cheers!

swimming upstream since 2019 🐟
SI

Member

1 #4

Isnt 99.999% like... really hard to do? My math says thats 5 minutes a year? Sorry if dumb question

Also what does SLA stand for, is it like a contract thing? I just started with HostHatch last month and now im worried

KE

Member

#5

Berrin_fritz is correct. SLA is liar, please read careful.

Contabo is bad company, help desk "tuesday is not day"

I have server with InterServer, they count every minute, very honest, please consider

Carl

Member

Rack & Stack

#6

Contabo's gensets are ancient, seen them. Two 500kVA units from 2011, should have been retired already. Power draw on their floor is 18kW per rack average, they're oversubscribed 3:1 on UPS.

Real numbers from my last walkthrough:
- 42U racks, actual usable 36U
- 208V 30A circuits, derated to 24A
- Shipping pallets blocking genset access (fire hazard)

I'd colo elsewhere. Their 97.3% doesn't surprise me.

visit twice: install and decom
Nadia

Member

/dev/null enthusiast

9 #7

Fritz48: your ticket was redirected to /dev/null, obviously. They piped your complaint to marketing, which output "clarify" and EOF

| their SLA is pipe dream
| your uptime is piped to void
| tuesday maintenance is feature not bug
| 99.999% becomes 97.3% after grep reality

I redirected my racks from Contabo to Hetzner last quarter. No regrets. EOF

/dev/null: full of good ideas
JA

Member

#8

The "partial degradation" trick is the worst part. Same happened to me.

pavel_train

Member

#9

I don't buy that 97.3% figure, where's the math

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