can the server be paused when not in use

Hey there!

DigitalOcean does offer a way to effectively pause your Droplet when it’s not in use, although it’s not a direct “pause” feature like you might find in some other platforms.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Snapshot Your Droplet: First, take a snapshot of your droplet. This is a point-in-time copy of your droplet that includes all its data and configuration. This will ensure you can easily restore it later.

2. Destroy the Droplet: After you’ve taken a snapshot, you can safely destroy (delete) the Droplet. Don’t worry, your data is safe in the snapshot!

3. Recreate the Droplet from Snapshot: When you need to use your Droplet again, you can recreate it from the snapshot you took earlier. This process is quick and easy, and your data will be exactly as it was when you took the snapshot.

This approach allows you to effectively “pause” your Droplet in terms of billing, as you won’t be paying for the Droplet while it’s deleted. Just keep in mind that if you want to retain any changes made to the data or configuration after taking the snapshot, you should update the snapshot periodically.

This method doesn’t involve traditional pausing, but it accomplishes the same goal without billing for the Droplet itself during downtime.

Snapshots are charged at $0.06 per GB per month for Droplets and $0.06 per GiB per month for volumes.

Hope this helps, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions!

Best,

Bobby

Heya @swimminglightcyaneel,

When you power off your Droplet, you are still billed for it. This is because your disk space, CPU, RAM, and IP address are all reserved, even while powered off. Therefore, charges are made until you destroy the instance.

What you can do is take a snapshot of your Droplet and then delete the Droplet itself. That way later on when you need that Droplet again, you can restore it from the snapshot.

Hope that this helps!