Hetzner to stop support for High-Availability Setups

[falko]

Originally Posted by 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?

Out of the three hosters I've worked with (Hetzner, 1&1, Strato), only Hetzner allowed it. I guess it's a rare feature.

Originally Posted by Dmagnets

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.

I'd ask if they support HA setups (e.g. with heartbeat or keepalived) where one IP address (the virtual IP address) can be shared by more than one host.

BTW, anyone got any feedback from Hetzner?

[toodles]

The organisation I work for has been in contact Hetzner about the issue and as a result of that, I have been contacted by Hetzner. They said that they do not yet have a solution in place and do not yet know what, if anything, will be made available. They did want to reassure my organisation that what they would be able to do no matter what the case, is to give me not only a virtual IP but also a virtual MAC that can be moved between the servers with the IP address. This would allow me to continue my HA setup. The only disadvantage is that which ever server is the master will no longer be accessable via it's normal IP while it has the virtual IP. This is only possible for me because I have a crossover cable connecting the two servers which may not be the case with other customers. I would of course prefer a different solution, but I can live with this one.

--toodles

[falko]

Originally Posted by toodles

The only disadvantage is that which ever server is the master will no longer be accessable via it's normal IP while it has the virtual IP.

This is a huge disadvantage for us because we run multiple Xen VMs per physical host. If I understand this right, only the active loadbalancer VM would be accessible while all other VMs on that machine would be cut off...

[toodles]

Originally Posted by falko

This is a huge disadvantage for us because we run multiple Xen VMs per physical host. If I understand this right, only the active loadbalancer VM would be accessible while all other VMs on that machine would be cut off...

Ah yes. I see what you mean. Perhaps it would be possible to have an extra nic placed in each of your servers. I know it's extra work, and would involve a short amount of downtime, but then you could use one nic for the loadbalancing IP's and the other as the server's main IP. I think you're charged 15Euro/nic once off. Just an idea. If I understood your situation correctly, it should work, no? I realise that this isn't the ideal solution either, but at least you wouldn't be left stranded.

[falko]

This would cause a lot of local testing (and therefore lost time) before we could use it on a production system.

[toodles]

:-( True. Let's hope Hetzner will come up with a solution and not put it's customers through trouble!!

[Dmagnets]

I didn't consider using Hetzner when I first posted to this topic, but now having seen their prices, I'm really tempted to!

I tried to register on their forums to see progress on the IP takeover issue but couldn't understand the German registration form. Can anyone fill me in on what is happening?

[falko]

Originally Posted by Dmagnets

Can anyone fill me in on what is happening?

No news so far. They're thinking about a solution, but haven't come up with anything yet.

[cgick]

hi folks,

we are located in rz 6 which still allows some subnets to be used by two machines on virtual interfaces. our latest subnet which we registered though doesn't route to both machines any more.

did you get any feedback from hetzner? the support simply told me via e-mail that ha-solutions aren't supported any more and theres no alternative.

i read that virtual mac-addresses could do the job? maybe we could even fake the mac by the active machine to bypass that check. did anyone of you guys get information obout alternatives?

best regards,
chris

[falko]

Haven't heard anything back from Hetzner. I'm really hoping they don't touch existing HA setups. If they do, we will leave...