Starting and deleting Linodes on demand
I wanted to ask, whether there is anything preventing me from programmatically starting and deleting new Linodes when I need to?
I need to run web scraper written in Python every day for about 3-4 hours, parse data and save details it to database.
Database is kept on one Linode and this is let's call it permanent instance. But I need a bit more resources for crawling and especially scraping.
This is clear to me that even paused instance is costing me something. So my question is, can I do below steps like this daily? Or is it against some Linode's rules?
- From my permanent instance using linode cli start new Linode
- Start on this new Linode my script (as a Docker container or directly as Python script - not important)
- Once script is done delete instance again from my permanent instance using linode cli.
This way I'll be charged only for actual utilization of this more powerful instance and not idle cycles.
2 Replies
CassandraD
Linode Staff
✓ Best Answer
Based on my understanding of your goals, I don't think what you're describing is breaking any of our rules. That said, I'd strongly recommend you take a look at our complete Acceptable Use Policy to be sure. You know better than I do what your plans are.
As long as the servers you spin up don't violate any policies, this seems like a perfectly good plan. If we do get reports of any abuse, we'll open a ticket on your account. The best thing you can do is respond to those as quickly as you can and our Support team will do our best to help you address any issues.
We don't want you paying for services you're not using, so we encourage you to take steps to Stop Further Billing when a service is unused and I think using our CLI for that sounds like a great plan. I'm not sure what the best way to do this would be, but I'd recommend looking into using a golden Image of your server, creating a StackScript, or using our new metadata service as these will provide some options for deploying your servers with the configurations you need.
Thank you very much @CassandraD fir your answer.
I have familiarized with Acceptable Use Policy and my understanding is that I am not violating any rules listed there.
My main concern was about the fact of starting and deleting new Linodes in rather systematic matter. Thank you for clarifying my concern on that. And also great suggestions how to make it happen. I had some idea on my own, but those seems worth checking as well.