Hetzner to stop support for High-Availability Setups

[falko]

I've heard it several times from different people now, and I've just talked to Mr. Pirner from Hetzner myself: due to security reasons Hetzner ( www.hetzner.de ) will stop support for high-availability solutions (heartbeat/keepalived etc.) in the next weeks or months. If you have a subnet with multiple IP addresses, they will bind the IP addresses to a server so that it will not be possible to have a virtual or shared IP address (as shown in my HA tutorials, e.g. http://www.howtoforge.com/high-avail...at-debian-etch and http://www.howtoforge.com/haproxy_lo...er_debian_etch ).

They will send out an email to all their customers in the next days, and then it will take a few weeks or months until they make the switch. Until now, they don't offer an alternative solution for people that need HA (such as HowtoForge - HowtoForge runs on an HA cluster at Hetzner), but they told me that if enough people ask for such a solution they might come up with something.

So I'm asking everyone who currently has a HA setup at Hetzner or is interested in doing it to post here. If we are enough, hopefully we can urge Hetzner to change their minds.

[orcar]

I have a few customer who need the HA function and they all will ask for it.

[toodles]

I'm currently relying on a HA setup on 2 servers with Hetzner. I need a HA solution as the non-profit organization I represent has previously had to deal with downtime and has caused them considerable problems. HA solves and prevents these issues for them.

[edge]

Sorry to hear about this.
I'm not using Hetzner, but wish you all who do good luck!

[toodles]

Just to make people aware, this topic is also being discussed in the Hetzner forum in German at http://forum.hetzner.de/wbb2/thread.php?postid=99547

To view the forum, one must sign up. It is subject to manual verification though.

[falko]

I've just signed up to the Hetzner forum. Let's see...

[falko]

I've just created a sample letter (in German) to Hetzner. I urge everyone who has a HA setup or is interested in this to fax it or send it to Hetzner:

Hetzner Online AG
Industriestr. 6
91710 Gunzenhausen

Fax +49 [0] 9831 61006-2

Edit: I've just added a version in Word format as well. I'm trying to get an English version prepared as well.

Edit [2]: Thanks to toodles we now also have English sample letters.

[Smirnov]

I have two servers from Hetzner as well. I was pretty upset when I found out they stopped HA service. I hope they give it back to us soon or it might be time to look for other companies.

[falko]

I've just updated my HA tutorials and added a link to this thread to make sure people know about this problem before they order a Hetzner server.

[Dmagnets]

Does anyone know roughly what proportion of hosts allow this type of virtual IP set up? Is it common or rare for it to be allowed?

Also, what is the best way of asking a prospective host if it is possible, to minimise the chances of misunderstanding. It'd be a nightmare to pay for hosting and then find it can't be done when you thought it could.

Thanks for the haproxy tutorial.