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Hetzner's vague "fair usage" warning — what triggers it?

Reviews by ana_mad 16 replies 1.3K views
14 #1

Got weird notice from Hetzner yesterday. "Fair usage threshold approaching" but no numbers! Sent ticket yesterday, they said "monitoring continues" — very helpful, thanks? Made test order on their smallest plan to compare, still same vague wording.

Anyone else seen this? What numbers trigger it? I heard 80% sustained CPU but maybe just rumor. Want to collect data before I hit real limit and they suspend without warning. Cheers!

swimming upstream since 2019 🐟
#2

On server with Hetzner two year, never got warning. Hej, maybe depends on plan? Malý server I have, 1 vCPU 2GB, running plex and wireguard. No problem.

No, I think threshold maybe 90% disk or memory? Into config they hide details. Good luck with ticket, usually slow.

boot anything, anywhere, anytime
3 #3

¡This is very frustrating! Hetzner does same to me last month, warning with zero numbers, then nothing happens? ¿Maybe just scare tactic to make you upgrade? I was very angry, wrote long complaint to support... deleted it, wrote shorter one jajaja

They never answered properly. Is very typical of cheap hosts, very opaque. I moved test workload to RackNerd instead, no warning yet.

#4

Yeah nah that's not on mate? Got same email from Hetzner, asked mate who runs monitoring for his clients. Says their "fair usage" is basically 85% CPU for 6+ hours or 95% disk sustained? Sweet as info but not official eh

Chur for making thread, was wondering myself. Their docs say "reasonable" which means nothing.

#5

85% for 6 hours? Your mate sure that's Hetzner not another host

#6

Same vague mail here. "monitoring continues" is all they ever say

5 #7
chan40 said:
85% for 6 hours? Your mate sure that's Hetzner not another host

Fair question. He's pretty sure, runs maybe 40 Hetzner boxes for clients. But you're right, could be mixed up with Linode or someone else. I'll ask him again tonight.

Thing is, none of these hosts publish it proper. You just find out when you're already in trouble.

#8
PetraSuper said:
No, I think threshold maybe 90% disk or memory?

Disk could be it. My smallest plan test box is only 20GB, easy to hit if you're not careful. But my main server showing warning is 160GB with 40% used, so not disk in my case.

Memory sitting at 60% too. Leaning toward CPU being the metric for me.

swimming upstream since 2019 🐟
#9

I scraped their terms once with a script. "Fair usage" appears 7 times, defined 0 times. Classic.

I run compile jobs on CPX11 in Helsinki, never seen warning. But those are burst workloads, maybe 20 minutes max. The sustained part matters I think.

#10
ana_mad said:
Leaning toward CPU being the metric for me

Same for me, was running rclone sync heavy when warning came. CPU maybe 70% for hours? But again, no numbers in email so is guess.

RackNerd so far quiet, but is slower disk. You get what you pay I suppose.

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