Spot Pricing

Spot Price ECSs

Spot instances are spare compute resources Huawei Cloud sells at solid discounts compared to their normal prices. The price changes in real time depending on market demand. ECSs that use spot pricing are called spot price ECSs. For details, see Spot Pricing ECSs.

CCE allows you to use spot price ECSs as cluster nodes. In this mode, you can purchase and use ECSs at a discount price. Spot price ECSs have the same performance as those with the same flavors in other billing modes. However, when inventory runs low, or the market price rises and exceeds the highest price you are willing to pay, the system automatically reclaims your ECSs at short notice. Compared with pay-per-use and yearly/monthly ECSs, spot price ECSs offer the same level of performance while at lower costs.

Notes and Constraints

• Spot price ECSs can be created only for pay-per-use VM nodes and node pools.
• If you purchase both a data disk and an EIP when creating a spot price ECS, the data disk and EIP will be released when the ECS is released. If you attach data disks or bind EIPs to an existing spot price ECS, these resources must be manually released after the ECS is deleted.
• Spot price ECSs cannot be reset, accepted for management, removed, migrated, changed to yearly/monthly, or upgraded by resetting the cluster. Before resetting a cluster for an upgrade, delete spot price nodes and set the number of pods in the spot price node pool to 0.
• If the quoted price is lower than the market price or if there are not enough resources available, spot price ECSs may be released. You are advised to install the latest CCE Node Problem Detector add-on in your cluster. This add-on will alert you 5 minutes before the spot price ECS is terminated, trigger the ReceivedReclaimNodeNotification event, mark the node with the taint node-problem-controller.cce.io/SpotPriceNodeReclaimNotification: NoExecute, and remove the pods from the node, allowing them to be moved to other nodes before the node is deleted.
• CCE uses ECSs as nodes to build clusters. In addition to the preceding constraints, comply with Notes.

Application Scenarios

Spot price ECSs are a good option if you want to enjoy the same performance at a lower price.

• Applicable scenarios

  Image rendering, stateless web services, DNA sequencing, offline analysis, function computing, batch computing, sample analysis, CI/CD, test, and more

  

  When the market price is higher than the maximum price you are willing to pay or the inventory resources are insufficient, the spot price ECSs will be reclaimed. Therefore, back up data when using such ECSs.

• Inapplicable scenarios

  The applications need to run for a long time or deliver a high level of stability.

Billed Items

In a CCE cluster, only nodes (ECSs) support spot pricing.

Billed Usage Period

The spot price ECS usage is calculated by the second and billed every hour (UTC+08:00). Once settlement is complete, it enters a new billed usage period. The billing starts when the node is launched and ends when the node is deleted (including when the market price is higher than what you are willing to pay or the inventory resources are insufficient).

It takes a certain time to launch an ECS. The billing starts from the Launched time on the ECS Summary page.

For example, if you purchased a spot price ECS at 08:45:30 and deleted it at 08:55:30, you are billed for the 600 seconds from 08:45:30 to 08:55:30.

Impact of Arrears

Figure 1 shows the statuses a spot price ECS can have throughout its lifecycle. After a spot price ECS is purchased, it enters the valid period and runs normally during this period. If your account goes into arrears, the ECS enters a grace period and then a retention period.

Figure 1 Lifecycle of a spot price ECS

Arrears Reminder

You will be billed for the spot price ECS after each billed usage period ends. If your account goes into arrears, we will notify you by email, SMS, or in-app message.

Impact of Arrears

If your account is insufficient to pay your amount due, your account will go into arrears and your spot price ECSs will enter the grace period. Spot price ECSs are not stopped immediately. You are still responsible for expenditures generated during the grace period. You can view the expenditures on the Overview page in Billing Center and pay any past due balance as needed.

If you do not bring your account current before the grace period expires, the ECS status turns to Frozen and enters a retention period. You cannot perform any operations on the ECS.

If you do not bring your account current before the retention period ends, CCE clusters and resources like nodes, EVS disks, and EIPs will be released and the data cannot be restored.

• Once a yearly/monthly subscription has expired or a pay-per-use resource goes into arrears, Huawei Cloud provides a period of time during which you can renew or top up your accounts. For details, see What Is a Grace Period of Huawei Cloud? How Long Is It? and What Is a Retention Period of Huawei Cloud? How Long Is It?
• For details about top-up, see Topping Up an Account.

Billing for a Stopped Node

Generally, after a spot price ECS is stopped:

• Basic resources (vCPUs and memory) will not be charged.
• Other resources (EVS disks and bandwidth) used by the ECS are still charged.
• Basic resources (vCPUs and memory) will be released, so ECS startup may fail. Wait a moment and try again.
• Basic resources (vCPUs and memory) of ECSs created on a DeH or in an edge AZ will be retained.

If your ECS contains local disks (such as disk-intensive or ultra-high I/O disks), basic resources (vCPUs, memory, and images) and other resources (EVS disks and bandwidth) are still billed after the ECS is stopped. To avoid any additional expenditures, delete the ECS and all its resources.

For details, see Billing for a Stopped Spot Instance.

Conditions for Reclaiming

Huawei Cloud may reclaim your spot price ECS at any time. When it is being reclaimed, you cannot use it to create an image.

A spot price ECS may be reclaimed when:

• The market price is higher than the maximum price you are willing to pay.
• The inventory resources are insufficient.
  

  • If a spot price ECS is reclaimed for either of the preceding reasons, the first hour of usage is not billed.
  • In the first settlement period, the ECS is billed, regardless of whether it is running.
  • It takes 5 minutes to reclaim a spot price ECS. If during that 5 minutes, the spot price hour is exceeded, any time in excess of that hour will be billed at the new market price.
  • The spot price is updated every hour. After a spot price ECS is restarted, or it is stopped and then started, it is billed at the market price when the ECS starts.

Back up data on spot price ECSs. The system will send a notification ahead of time to inform you that the ECS will be released.