The Snowflake broker is currently hosted on Greenhost's subsidized eclips.is platform. Their funding has ended, and they are moving to a partial user-pays model. For the next year Greenhost will self-fund up to 50 EUR per month per user. I am not sure whether we fit under that threshold.
----- Forwarded message from Greenhost support@greenhost.nl -----
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:43:05 +0000 From: Greenhost support@greenhost.nl To: david@bamsoftware.com Subject: [eclips.is] The future of eclips.is
Hello david@bamsoftware.com,
Hope you’re doing well! We’re happy to inform you that all VPSs have been successfully migrated from our Miami data center to Amsterdam. Please take a moment to check that your VPS is functioning as expected, and let us know if you encounter any issues.
As mentioned earlier this year, funding support from the Open Technology Fund (OTF) will conclude on October 31st, 2024 (today). However, Greenhost is committed to ensuring continued service and will fully support eclips.is through December 31st, 2024.
Starting January 1st, 2025, Greenhost will migrate eclips.is to a hybrid model. We will provide every account with a free tier of up to EUR 50 per month. Based on usage data, this will cover about 90% of current accounts. As a result, for the majority of accounts/users, nothing will change. For accounts using more resources, the portion above EUR 50 per month will be charged, with a discount of 25% applied.
This model will be in place until at least October 31st, 2025. During the year, we will assess this model and determine if it is sustainable long-term.
With this approach, Greenhost has found a good balance between continuing to fully support grassroots and small organizations, and providing heavy users with an affordable service.
This sponsorship represents approximately €120,000 per year, and Greenhost is proud to be able to provide this service to the community without funding. However, we are dedicated to exploring extra funding options to further support the community and broaden our user base.
For users who can fully cover their service costs, we encourage you to purchase directly through the Greenhost website. Direct purchases strengthen our ability to support the community in the long term. Thank you for being part of this journey!
The Greenhost Team
In the web configurator interface, the cost of a VPS at the current specs used by the Snowflake broker (20 GiB disk, 32 GiB RAM, 8 CPU cores) is 185.80 EUR.
On Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 09:59:13AM -0600, David Fifield wrote:
The Snowflake broker is currently hosted on Greenhost's subsidized eclips.is platform. Their funding has ended, and they are moving to a partial user-pays model. For the next year Greenhost will self-fund up to 50 EUR per month per user. I am not sure whether we fit under that threshold.
----- Forwarded message from Greenhost support@greenhost.nl -----
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:43:05 +0000 From: Greenhost support@greenhost.nl To: david@bamsoftware.com Subject: [eclips.is] The future of eclips.is
Hello david@bamsoftware.com,
Hope you’re doing well! We’re happy to inform you that all VPSs have been successfully migrated from our Miami data center to Amsterdam. Please take a moment to check that your VPS is functioning as expected, and let us know if you encounter any issues.
As mentioned earlier this year, funding support from the Open Technology Fund (OTF) will conclude on October 31st, 2024 (today). However, Greenhost is committed to ensuring continued service and will fully support eclips.is through December 31st, 2024.
Starting January 1st, 2025, Greenhost will migrate eclips.is to a hybrid model. We will provide every account with a free tier of up to EUR 50 per month. Based on usage data, this will cover about 90% of current accounts. As a result, for the majority of accounts/users, nothing will change. For accounts using more resources, the portion above EUR 50 per month will be charged, with a discount of 25% applied.
This model will be in place until at least October 31st, 2025. During the year, we will assess this model and determine if it is sustainable long-term.
With this approach, Greenhost has found a good balance between continuing to fully support grassroots and small organizations, and providing heavy users with an affordable service.
This sponsorship represents approximately €120,000 per year, and Greenhost is proud to be able to provide this service to the community without funding. However, we are dedicated to exploring extra funding options to further support the community and broaden our user base.
For users who can fully cover their service costs, we encourage you to purchase directly through the Greenhost website. Direct purchases strengthen our ability to support the community in the long term. Thank you for being part of this journey!
The Greenhost Team
-- Voor vragen of opmerkingen kunt u contact opnemen via info@greenhost.nl
Volg ons / Follow us: Website: https://greenhost.net/blog Twitter: https://twitter.com/greenhost
----- End forwarded message -----
Quoting David Fifield (2024-11-12 21:01:31)
In the web configurator interface, the cost of a VPS at the current specs used by the Snowflake broker (20 GiB disk, 32 GiB RAM, 8 CPU cores) is 185.80 EUR.
mmm, it looks like they might start charging us next year.
One option we could consider is running it in TPA infrastructure. I checked with them and they could provide that size of machine but will want to know more of the traffic we produce.
But the question will be more if we want to do that. As a policy TPO doesn't run relays or bridges, but we do run the bridge distribution (rdsys). The snowflake broker is more similar to rdsys than to a bridge as it only distributes proxies, but it sees all user connections while rdsys only sees bridge requests when users need to change them. I'm not sure we want to move more services that people depend on into TPO.
Another difference with TPA is that we'll not get root on the server, but a user to run our services with systemd. TPA takes care of server upgrades and we maintain the service updated and running.
We could find money to pay for the service either in elips.is or somewhere else and maintain it separated from TPO.
Let's talk about this during our next thursday meeting.
I just got an email from Greenhost saying that an invoice for January 2025. Our current usage is well above the 50 EUR credit:
Balance on 2025-01-01 €50.00 Reservations (incl. VAT) €368.90 Current credits €−318.90
It says there is a 25% discount, but still, that will make an invoice of €240.
Part of that is that we are currently running 2 broker VPSes. One of them will soon be shut down (https://bugs.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowfla...). But even 1 VPS is above the monthly credit. I am going to have to reduce the resource allocation of the remaining VPS to fit it under the credit. If that does not work out operationally, the team will have to find other hosting.
Dear eclips.is user,
As indicated at the end of last year, we will begin charging for eclips.is services starting in 2025. This means your first invoice is just around the corner. Next week, the invoice for January 2025 will be sent.
If the total resources used are below EUR 50 per month, a zero-value invoice will be generated. This will become available through our Service Centre. If you used more than EUR 50 worth of resources last month, we will charge the surplus amount, applying a 25% discount. We kindly ask you to fulfill this invoice within two weeks.
You can already find an estimate of costs incurred through our Service Centre, under Administration -> Account balance.
If for any reason you missed our earlier communication and are unable to pay this invoice, please reduce your usage below the EUR 50 per month threshold and contact us. In that case we can void the first invoice.
If we do not receive payment or any communication, we will shut down your servers starting in March 2025.
On Tue, Nov 12, 2024 at 01:01:34PM -0700, David Fifield wrote:
In the web configurator interface, the cost of a VPS at the current specs used by the Snowflake broker (20 GiB disk, 32 GiB RAM, 8 CPU cores) is 185.80 EUR.
On Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 09:59:13AM -0600, David Fifield wrote:
The Snowflake broker is currently hosted on Greenhost's subsidized eclips.is platform. Their funding has ended, and they are moving to a partial user-pays model. For the next year Greenhost will self-fund up to 50 EUR per month per user. I am not sure whether we fit under that threshold.
----- Forwarded message from Greenhost support@greenhost.nl -----
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:43:05 +0000 From: Greenhost support@greenhost.nl To: david@bamsoftware.com Subject: [eclips.is] The future of eclips.is
Hello david@bamsoftware.com,
Hope you’re doing well! We’re happy to inform you that all VPSs have been successfully migrated from our Miami data center to Amsterdam. Please take a moment to check that your VPS is functioning as expected, and let us know if you encounter any issues.
As mentioned earlier this year, funding support from the Open Technology Fund (OTF) will conclude on October 31st, 2024 (today). However, Greenhost is committed to ensuring continued service and will fully support eclips.is through December 31st, 2024.
Starting January 1st, 2025, Greenhost will migrate eclips.is to a hybrid model. We will provide every account with a free tier of up to EUR 50 per month. Based on usage data, this will cover about 90% of current accounts. As a result, for the majority of accounts/users, nothing will change. For accounts using more resources, the portion above EUR 50 per month will be charged, with a discount of 25% applied.
This model will be in place until at least October 31st, 2025. During the year, we will assess this model and determine if it is sustainable long-term.
With this approach, Greenhost has found a good balance between continuing to fully support grassroots and small organizations, and providing heavy users with an affordable service.
This sponsorship represents approximately €120,000 per year, and Greenhost is proud to be able to provide this service to the community without funding. However, we are dedicated to exploring extra funding options to further support the community and broaden our user base.
For users who can fully cover their service costs, we encourage you to purchase directly through the Greenhost website. Direct purchases strengthen our ability to support the community in the long term. Thank you for being part of this journey!
The Greenhost Team
Today I've switched the new broker from 32 GiB / 8 CPU cores (EUR 142.19 / month) to 8 GiB / 4 CPU cores (EUR 36.53 / month) The latter is the highest configuration that is under EUR 50 / month.
To make this change, I had to shut down the VPS and restart it, which happened between 2025-02-04 17:42:52 and 2025-02-04 17:43:58.
The old broker VPS and its disk image still exist. We'll talk at the 2025-02-06 meeting about whether there's anything needed from it, and then I'll delete it.
On Sun, Feb 02, 2025 at 02:53:44AM -0700, David Fifield via anti-censorship-team wrote:
I just got an email from Greenhost saying that an invoice for January 2025. Our current usage is well above the 50 EUR credit:
Balance on 2025-01-01 €50.00 Reservations (incl. VAT) €368.90 Current credits €−318.90
It says there is a 25% discount, but still, that will make an invoice of €240.
Part of that is that we are currently running 2 broker VPSes. One of them will soon be shut down (https://bugs.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowfla...). But even 1 VPS is above the monthly credit. I am going to have to reduce the resource allocation of the remaining VPS to fit it under the credit. If that does not work out operationally, the team will have to find other hosting.
Dear eclips.is user,
As indicated at the end of last year, we will begin charging for eclips.is services starting in 2025. This means your first invoice is just around the corner. Next week, the invoice for January 2025 will be sent.
If the total resources used are below EUR 50 per month, a zero-value invoice will be generated. This will become available through our Service Centre. If you used more than EUR 50 worth of resources last month, we will charge the surplus amount, applying a 25% discount. We kindly ask you to fulfill this invoice within two weeks.
You can already find an estimate of costs incurred through our Service Centre, under Administration -> Account balance.
If for any reason you missed our earlier communication and are unable to pay this invoice, please reduce your usage below the EUR 50 per month threshold and contact us. In that case we can void the first invoice.
If we do not receive payment or any communication, we will shut down your servers starting in March 2025.
On Tue, Nov 12, 2024 at 01:01:34PM -0700, David Fifield wrote:
In the web configurator interface, the cost of a VPS at the current specs used by the Snowflake broker (20 GiB disk, 32 GiB RAM, 8 CPU cores) is 185.80 EUR.
On Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 09:59:13AM -0600, David Fifield wrote:
The Snowflake broker is currently hosted on Greenhost's subsidized eclips.is platform. Their funding has ended, and they are moving to a partial user-pays model. For the next year Greenhost will self-fund up to 50 EUR per month per user. I am not sure whether we fit under that threshold.
----- Forwarded message from Greenhost support@greenhost.nl -----
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:43:05 +0000 From: Greenhost support@greenhost.nl To: david@bamsoftware.com Subject: [eclips.is] The future of eclips.is
Hello david@bamsoftware.com,
Hope you’re doing well! We’re happy to inform you that all VPSs have been successfully migrated from our Miami data center to Amsterdam. Please take a moment to check that your VPS is functioning as expected, and let us know if you encounter any issues.
As mentioned earlier this year, funding support from the Open Technology Fund (OTF) will conclude on October 31st, 2024 (today). However, Greenhost is committed to ensuring continued service and will fully support eclips.is through December 31st, 2024.
Starting January 1st, 2025, Greenhost will migrate eclips.is to a hybrid model. We will provide every account with a free tier of up to EUR 50 per month. Based on usage data, this will cover about 90% of current accounts. As a result, for the majority of accounts/users, nothing will change. For accounts using more resources, the portion above EUR 50 per month will be charged, with a discount of 25% applied.
This model will be in place until at least October 31st, 2025. During the year, we will assess this model and determine if it is sustainable long-term.
With this approach, Greenhost has found a good balance between continuing to fully support grassroots and small organizations, and providing heavy users with an affordable service.
This sponsorship represents approximately €120,000 per year, and Greenhost is proud to be able to provide this service to the community without funding. However, we are dedicated to exploring extra funding options to further support the community and broaden our user base.
For users who can fully cover their service costs, we encourage you to purchase directly through the Greenhost website. Direct purchases strengthen our ability to support the community in the long term. Thank you for being part of this journey!
The Greenhost Team
anti-censorship-team mailing list -- anti-censorship-team@lists.torproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to anti-censorship-team-leave@lists.torproject.org
Quoting David Fifield via anti-censorship-team (2025-02-04 18:50:55)
Today I've switched the new broker from 32 GiB / 8 CPU cores (EUR 142.19 / month) to 8 GiB / 4 CPU cores (EUR 36.53 / month) The latter is the highest configuration that is under EUR 50 / month.
Let's see if this configuration can hold the requirements of the Broker. Or we need to find out another option.
On Sun, Feb 02, 2025 at 02:53:44AM -0700, David Fifield via anti-censorship-team wrote:
I just got an email from Greenhost saying that an invoice for January 2025. Our current usage is well above the 50 EUR credit:
Balance on 2025-01-01 €50.00 Reservations (incl. VAT) €368.90 Current credits €−318.90
It says there is a 25% discount, but still, that will make an invoice of €240.
This is a big invoice. I'm trying to figure out if Tor can cover this, but I'm not sure that will be possible. Maybe we can run some small fundraise for this cost.
Let's talk about this during the Thursday meeting.
anti-censorship-team@lists.torproject.org
-
David Fifield -
meskio