Linux boxes via SSH: suspended when disconected

(shellbox.dev)

44 points | by messh 1 hour ago

6 comments

  • Egor3f 1 hour ago
    $36/mo for 2/4/50 VPS without public IP... Ok, I get the idea that the service is for non-regular use, but I think even $0.005 per hour ($3.6/mo) of suspended state is too expensive. The same config in Hetzner is just $4.09/mo for 24/7 working VPS with public IPv4 address
    • messh 1 hour ago
      Hi, That is a good point actually. The suspended price has to be significantly lower than the alternative. I'll revise it.

      Still, there is the advantage of simplicity not having to deal with the web console etc. Some people may enjoy this

      • eptcyka 25 minutes ago
        Have fun racing to the bottom. If I can get an unsuspended VM at 5$ a month, the suspendable one has to be significantly faster or significantly cheaper. Then again, take my gnawing with a boulder of salt for I will not be a customer. I have my own server that is running 24/7 already.
      • einsteinx2 33 minutes ago
        Yeah this is a cool idea but the pricing is way too high. For anything I would use this for I could just set up any VPS from any provider for cheaper and it’s stateful in the sense that it’s my own VPS and my files/applications/tmux sessions/whatever will be there the next time I SSH in.

        The UX here seems really nice, but after spending a couple minutes setting up the VPS, I essentially get the same UX (aka just ssh in and so stuff).

        I’d potentially be willing to pay some premium over a standard VPS, but certainly not a 10x premium…honestly probably not even 2x.

      • nine_k 47 minutes ago
        The interesting part here is that the box is stateful, unlike a Lambda. You return literally to the point where you left off.
    • nine_k 51 minutes ago
      Interesting to compare with Fly's sprites: https://sprites.dev/#billing
      • messh 48 minutes ago
        One difference other than price is that sprites doesn't seem to use ssh
        • nine_k 44 minutes ago
          Also, they cost less than a shellbox when unused (idle), and more when used.
        • blackqueeriroh 32 minutes ago
          You can use ssh with a sprite.
  • Imustaskforhelp 46 minutes ago
    This is fascinating idea. I created an idea like this on top of firecracker and custom golang ssh client to build something like this for my own personal use case (the abstraction part of pricing and how to connect it seemed the more difficult part for me atleast)

    What stack does this use underneath?

    Good luck with launch, this idea is similar to railway in terms of pricing model. I discussed about it a few comments back and I think its an interesting idea and we are seeing alternatives within such pricing model

    Also are you using some cloud provider itself or building it yourself, I'd be interested in so many details to discover

    Have a nice day and looking forward to ya response! Good luck with your project!

    • messh 39 minutes ago
      Hi thanks for the interest!

      This is all written in python and the AsyncSSH package. Firecracker for VMs with memory mapped files for ram. Paddle for billing. Caddy as a reverse proxy for certificates.

      It works on top of very large bare metal instances.

      I'm thinking maybe open sourcing but it will take some more work on the code to make it publishable w/o embarrassing myself :)

      • chwzr 3 minutes ago
        Do you do something similar to the modifications codesandbox has done to firecracker, regarding mmap ram? (They have multiple blogposts about it on their blog)

        Would love to chat about details there

  • gvldev 23 minutes ago
    I've been trying to come up with a hypothetical use case for this. I can't use this as a server without keeping an active session right? I wonder if you could get around this by sshing into itself from inside the primary session. Is that an edge case you've considered?
    • messh 19 minutes ago
      This is a feature I want to implement: an option to keep boxes running while disconnected. Maybe with something like

      ssh shellbox.dev keepalive box1

      • gvldev 9 minutes ago
        Maybe this and other future extended features could be configured via some host-accessible mounted conf.d? Otherwise if I forget to use that command on every login, I might just forget, logout, and go on thinking my server is still running.
  • yjftsjthsd-h 40 minutes ago
    > Note: The -O flag is required for OpenSSH 9.0+ to use legacy SCP protocol.

    Why isn't SFTP supported?

    • messh 37 minutes ago
      WIP, this is still in MVP phase...
  • Liftyee 1 hour ago
    This looks quite similar to exe.dev which was on here a while ago - anyone know how it compares?
    • indigodaddy 1 hour ago
      Pretty sure shellbox.dev has been around for at least 2-3 years though - EDIT nm they have a show HN from two days ago. I must be thinking of a similarly named/sounding service
      • messh 1 hour ago
        Maybe you mean keypub.sh? That is another project of mine with similar graphic design.
    • messh 1 hour ago
      I think exe.dev is subscription. In Shellbox.dev you have funds and pay very little when not connected
  • mnsc 38 minutes ago
    Is it non-American all the way down?
    • messh 36 minutes ago
      I was born in Argentina, so technically American, yes ;)
      • messh 35 minutes ago
        If it is successful then the next region would be in the US