The five states
| State | What is happening | Billed? |
|---|---|---|
| Queued | Every machine of your size is busy and you are waiting your turn. | No |
| Provisioning | A machine has been assigned. Its encrypted volume and container are being created. | No |
| Running | SSH is reachable and the machine is yours. | Yes, per minute |
| Deleting | You deleted the instance. Your data is being destroyed and the machine wiped. | No |
| Ended | The instance is finished. You can see the reason and the final bill. | No |
If provisioning fails, the instance goes back to the front of the queue instead of being lost.
Restart
Restart reboots your container on the same machine. It does not stop billing, because the machine stays reserved for you.
Delete
Delete ends the instance and stops billing. The data volume's key is destroyed and the volume is rebuilt before the machine is offered to anyone else. A machine only goes back into the available pool after the wipe succeeds.
How an instance can end
- You deleted it.
- You cancelled while it was still queued.
- Your wallet ran out of balance and the grace period passed.
- It reached the automatic deletion time you set when launching.
- You did not confirm in time, if you chose to confirm before starting.
- An administrator removed it.
Multi-node instancesPlanned
A two-node or four-node instance is one container on each machine. You log in to the first node, and the nodes can reach each other over SSH without a password.
Frequently asked questions
Am I charged while my instance is provisioning?
No. Billing starts when the instance is running and SSH is reachable.
Does disconnecting my SSH session stop billing?
No. Only deleting the instance stops billing.