VPS RAM auction

What?
This is an auction of the excess RAM on islay.bitfolk.com in 128M blocks for use by VPS customers on that machine.

Why?
We do not wish to put any more new customers on islay, yet the machine was overspecced and has plenty of extra RAM unused. Therefore it has been suggested that the excess RAM be auctioned off for use of existing customers, rather than let it sit unused.

How do I know if I am on islay?
It was mentioned in your setup email and in all data transfer and billing emails since then. It's also indicated by which console server you connect to. But in case you don't remember, these are the customers on islay:


 * adelaide
 * bishop
 * bodaegl
 * chaldene
 * flame
 * herbert
 * invovo1
 * leffe
 * outpost-lonthl
 * seinfeld
 * theneb
 * torpor

Is islay overloaded then?
No, but we are avoiding putting more customers on it so that it does not become overloaded. Our conservative nature with regard to loading means there should generally always be excess resources.

How?
If you are interested in participating in the RAM auction please subscribe to ram-auction@lists.bitfolk.com and then check the archives to see what the latest bid is. [mailto:ram-auction@lists.bitfolk.com Email the list] with your higher bid.

The reserve price is £1/month for 128M and the bids should be in units of whole British Pounds per month.

The auction will end when there have been no bids for 48 hours.

The winner can use the new RAM as soon as they are willing to reboot their VPS, with a pro-rata charge to the date of their next invoice.

We recommend that you consult the price list to determine how much it would cost you to upgrade by 128M in the normal way - this will provide a sensible limit on how much to bid.

What if someone bids more after the auction has ended?
No further bids will be accepted after the auction has ended. The winner of the auction can keep sole use of the RAM as long as they keep paying. Further auctions for other blocks of RAM may be announced but this is not guaranteed. This is an experiment after all.

Can I run a new VPS from the 128M if I win?
No. That would entail giving out a full root filesystem, extra bandwidth, IP address etc. etc.. If there were space for extra VPSs then we would be selling them at the normal price. This auction is purely for use of extra RAM, which will not increase the server load by very much.