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Updated on 2024-03-12 GMT+08:00

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Impacts and Usage Suggestions on Pay-per-Use Disks Before and After Account Arrears

Introduction to Retention Period of Pay-per-Use Resources

Pay-per-use is a postpaid billing mode, of which resource charges are deducted from the account balance based on the resource usage duration. You can choose pay-per-use billing when purchasing disks.

If you do not top up your account after the account balance falls below zero, your disk will enter the retention period instead of being released directly.

During the retention period, if you top up your account, the disk will be unfrozen.
During the retention period, if you do not top up your account, the disk will be released after the retention period ends.

The duration of the retention period varies depending on user levels. For more information, see Resource Suspension and Release.

Figure 1 Impacts on pay-per-use resources before and after account arrears

Impact on Services When Resources Are Frozen, Unfrozen, or Released

Frozen resources: Resource access and usage are restricted, which will interrupt your services. For example, if a server is frozen, it will be automatically powered off or shut down. If a disk is frozen, disk I/Os will be restricted.
Unfrozen resources: Resource restrictions are removed, but you need to check and restore your services. For example, after a server is unfrozen, you need to power it on.
Released resources: Resources are released. Data stored on the resources will be deleted and cannot be retrieved.

Usage Suggestions on Pay-per-Use Resources

If you no longer need to use a pay-per-use disk, you can log in to the management console, detach the disk, and then delete it. For how to delete a disk, see Deleting EVS Disks.

Table 1 lists the common usage scenarios and suggestions on pay-per-use disks. You can enable account balance alert, change disk billing mode from pay-per-use to yearly/monthly, and pay attention to account balance and resource freezing notifications to keep up with the latest resource information, ensuring that your services and data are not affected.

**Table 1** Common usage scenarios and suggestions
Common Usage Scenario	Suggestions
Resources are billed in pay-per-use mode.	Top up your account in time to keep sufficient account balance. Pay attention to notifications about account arrears and top up your account in time.
The server is billed in yearly/monthly mode, but the attached disks are billed in pay-per-use mode.	Change the disk billing mode from pay-per-use to yearly/monthly. For details, see From Pay-per-Use to Yearly/Monthly. Refer to suggestions for the scenario where resources are billed in yearly/monthly mode. If the disk billing mode is not changed, refer to suggestions for the scenario where resources are billed in pay-per-use mode.
The server is billed in pay-per-use mode, but the attached disks are billed in yearly/monthly mode.	Change the server billing mode from pay-per-use to yearly/monthly. For details, see From Pay-per-Use to Yearly/Monthly. Refer to suggestions for the scenario where resources are billed in yearly/monthly mode. If the server billing mode is not changed, refer to suggestions for the scenario where resources are billed in pay-per-use mode.
Resources are billed in yearly/monthly mode.	Manually renew the resources. For details, see Manually Renewing a Resource. Enable auto renewal and keep sufficient balance in your account. For details, see Enabling Auto-Renewal. Pay attention to notifications about auto renewal failures and top up your account in time. Pay attention to notifications about to-be-expired resources and renew the resources in time. Pay attention to notifications about to-be-frozen resources and renew the resources in time. Pay attention to notifications about to-be-released resources and renew the resources in time.
The server is billed in yearly/monthly mode, and the attached disks are also billed in yearly/monthly mode. The server expiration date is inconsistent with the disk expiration date.	Set a renewal date. Renew the server and disks in a batch before the expiration date, and set the renewal date for these resources to a same date. For details, see Setting a Renewal Date. For details, see Manually Renewing a Resource. NOTE: You can only set the renewal date to a day (from the 1st day to the 28th day of a month, or the last day of a month) but not to a month. If you want to set the renewal date to a whole month, you need to set a unified expiration month when setting the renewal duration. Refer to suggestions for the scenario where resources are billed in yearly/monthly mode.