Purchasing a Spot Block ECS

Scenarios

A spot block ECS is billed in spot pricing mode. You can purchase and use such ECSs at a discount price. A spot block ECS performs as well as the ECSs with the same specifications in other billing modes. If inventory resources are insufficient, the spot block ECS will be reclaimed.

Compared with pay-per-use and yearly/monthly ECSs, spot block ECSs offer the same performance at a lower price.

For more information about spot block ECSs, see Spot Pricing (for Spot Block Instances).

Notes and Constraints

• Only general computing-plus ECSs support spot block pricing payments.
• Huawei Cloud provides the utmost efforts to ensure the proper running of your spot block ECSs. However, when system resources are insufficient or in other extreme cases, the spot block ECSs will be released. Back up data in advance.
• Spot block ECSs are only supported in some regions and for some specifications. For details, see the information displayed on the management console.
• The price of spot block ECSs varies by the predefined duration.
• Spot block ECSs cannot be switched to pay-per-use or yearly/monthly ECSs.
• Spot block ECSs do not support specifications modification.
• Spot block ECSs do not support OS change.
• Spot block ECSs do not support automatic recovery.
• Spot block ECSs do not support system disk detachment.
• When a spot block ECS is being reclaimed:
  • It cannot be used to create system disk images and full-ECS images. However, data disks of the ECS can be used to create data disk images.
  • It cannot be deleted.
• By default, the data disks and EIP of a spot block ECS will not be released after it is reclaimed. If you want to be notified when a spot block ECS is reclaimed so that you can determine whether to manually release data disks and EIP, set a reclaim notification.

Purchasing a Spot Block ECS

Follow the instructions provided in Purchasing an ECS, Login Overview (Windows), or Login Overview (Linux) to buy and log in to spot block ECSs. Pay attention to the following settings:

When purchasing a spot block ECS:

• Set Billing Mode to Spot pricing.

  In Spot pricing billing mode, your purchased ECS is billed based on the service duration at a lower price than that of a pay-per-use ECS with the same specifications. However, when inventory resources are insufficient, the spot block ECSs will be released. Back up data in advance.

• Set Spot Type to Spot block.
• Specify Predefined Duration and Number of Durations.

  Predefined duration is a duration that you specify for your spot block ECS. During the predefined duration, if your spot block ECS is automatically terminated by the system, you will not be billed for the resource usage within the predefined duration. If you delete your spot block ECS within the predefined duration, you will be billed based on the usage duration.

• Click Next, confirm that the specifications and price are correct, agree to the service agreement, and click Submit.
  

  A spot block ECS may be reclaimed by the system. Therefore, back up your data.

Enabling Reclaim Notifications

After purchasing a spot block ECS, you can use it like using the ECSs in other billing modes. However, the system will reclaim the instance when the predefined duration is reached or system resources are insufficient. Use the following method to enable notifications:

Use Cloud Trace Service (CTS) and Simple Message Notification (SMN) to enable notifications. For details, see Cloud Trace Service User Guide.

1. Enable CTS. For details, see Enabling CTS.

   Once CTS is enabled, the system automatically identifies the cloud services enabled on the cloud platform, obtains key operations on the services, and reports traces of these operations to CTS.

2. Configure reclaim notifications.

   You can configure key event notifications on CTS so that SMN can send messages to notify you of key operations. This function is triggered by CTS, but notifications are sent by SMN.

   1. Log in to the management console.
   2. Click in the upper left corner and select your region and project.
   3. Under Management & Governance, click Cloud Trace Service.
   4. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Key Event Notifications.
   5. Click Create Key Event Notification in the upper right corner of the page and set parameters listed in Table 1.

      Table 1 Parameters for configuring key event notifications

      Type	Parameter	Configuration
      Basic Information	Notification Name	The value is user-defined, for example, spottest.
      Operation	Operation Type	Select Custom.
      	Operation List	Choose ECS > server > interruptServer and click Add.
      User	Specified users	If you do not specify users, CTS notifies all users when key operations are initiated.
      Topic	Send Notification	Select Yes.
      	SMN Topic	Select a topic from the drop-down list. If there are no proper SMN topics, create one. Click Create Topic to switch to the SMN console. On the SMN console, choose Topic Management > Topics. Then, click Create Topic and set parameters as required. For details, see Creating a Topic. Locate the newly added topic and click Add Subscription in the Operation column. Then, you can receive notifications sent for the topic. For details, see Adding a Subscription to a Topic.

      After the configuration is complete, you will receive a notification 5 minutes before the system deletes your spot ECS.

3. (Optional) View reclaimed spot ECSs.
   1. Under Management & Governance, click Cloud Trace Service.
   2. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Trace List.
   3. Specify filter criteria listed in Table 2 and search for traces as needed.

      Table 2 Setting filter criteria to search for reclaimed ECSs

      Parameter	Configuration
      Trace Source	ECS
      Resource Type	server
      Search By	Trace name > interruptServer
      Operator	All operators
      Trace Status	All trace statuses

   4. Locate the target trace and expand the trace details.
   5. Click View Trace in the Operation column for details.