Resource Usage Policy at Balasai Net in Pune

1. What are Resource Usage Policies ?
We started the web hosting services in the year 2000. Based on the prevailing industry standards, all our hosting related products were packaged around the Disk Space and Bandwidth specifications. The practice continues. The technology has undergone a sea change with better and powerful CPUs, Cheaper and higher RAM and larger storage devices. On the software side too, the contents have steadily moved from web 1.0 platform to web 2.0 and web 3.0 platforms. Dynamically generated web sites, engaging flash graphics & movies, content fetching in background like RSS, quotes, tweets etc etc, demand availability of other resources like CPU power, RAM allocations, Database overheads etc etc. It is very difficult for the customers to specify such requirements in advance. As the sites grow, so is the need of higher resources till the customer reaches a limit on the shared environment. If one customer uses more resources on a shared server, the other customers sites / accounts are affected. We enforce following resource limits on all our shared servers. If your needs are not met, please do not sign-up the regular hosting account. Talk to our sales or business development team to customize services for you. These resource usage limits are applicable to all hosting (Includes “Shared Hosting / Shared Mailing / VPS / Reseller”) accounts. These are not applicable to the dedicated / cloud servers. These policies are in place to protect you, our customers, from poor service quality.

1. CPU Usage :
Whether a web page is static or dynamically constructed, the web server’s CPU is used to obtain and deliver the web page to your visitors. When a page is dynamically created by a script, even more CPU cycles or resources are used, since the script has do a fair amount of processing to reconstruct your web page. It has to load the web template, obtain the data for that specific page from the database, execute the plugins or modules that you have installed, and finally assemble the page for delivery to the visitor.

Since CPU time is a finite resource shared by all websites hosted on a particular web server, if any one website excessively uses the CPU, the other sites on that computer will not have an opportunity to deliver their pages in a timely fashion, and will appear either to be sluggish or non-responsive. As such, we monitor the amount of CPU your site uses on shared web hosting plans, to prevent problems when a single website uses too much of the CPU time, adversely affecting the other websites on that server.

2. RAM Usage :
RAM is the temporary memory that holds your site’s scripts and their data while they execute. The maximum amount of RAM a machine can have, is fixed. That amount of RAM is shared by all accounts on that servers. This memory is needed by all programs that is run on the server, including the server itself. If your scripts are huge, or they require a lot of RAM to execute, they will be competing in that limited pool of memory shared by all sites and all programs. As such, memory usage is another resource which is limited too.

3. Database Connections :
The data for dynamic websites is usually kept in special databases on the web server. A database server, such as the popular MS SQL / MySQL server, manages the database and provides the information requested by the site’s scripts when they need it.

Database servers have a limit on the number of connections they can accept at any one time. When too many requests for data are made simultaneously, they run out of resources and are unable to service those requests. This typically happens when your site receives a large amount of traffic, or when you use a script that is not very efficient (for example, it makes too many requests for every page it delivers), or both.

4. File System Contents :
Depending on the format type used for the storage disks, there could be limitations on number sub-directories and files within a directory. All the files must have proper permissions.

2.Resource Usage Restrictions –
CPU, RAM and Processes :

CPU usage , RAM usage and Processes invoked by your account, cron or any other method should not exceed the following limitations :

1. Utilize 25% or more of CPU usage for more than 90 Seconds.
2. Consumes more than 32 MB of RAM for more than 120 Seconds.
3. Number of open files should not exceed 64.
4. Create core dumps.
5. Number of simultaneous processes should not exceed 5.
6. Execute a script/binary that forks in a way to create a fork bomb.
7. Programs may not run in the background or listen on a network port. Running bot, service or daemon in the background is not allowed.

Database Restrictions :

1. Database is to be used only for the hosting account on the same server.
2. Indexes must be used in databases.
3. Mysql tuning parameters can not be modified by users.
4. All users are restricted to 15 concurrent MySQL connections.
5. Each database is restricted to a maximum of 1 GB of disk space.
6. Database queries should not exceed 1,000 per hour.
7. Database changes (insert/update/delete) should not exceed 300 queries per hour.
8. Database servers should not be used as a hosted solution.
9. Remote database access is for administrative purposes only.

Files and Directories :
The total number of inodes in an account may not exceed 75,000. Every file (a web page, image, email, php file, directory, etc.) on your account uses up one (1) inode. This is not something we actively enforce and it will only become an issue if a client is causing problems for other people on the server. We will of course notify you if this is the case with a full explanation.
A directory can not contain more than 2,500 immediate child files. This includes sub-directories themselves, but does not include files contained within those directories.

Web :

1. Hosting accounts are to be used for the purposes of hosting web sites – they are not to be used to back up content from remote computers or as a general purpose file storage system.
2. All third party web applications that you install must be kept up-to-date.
3. Accounts will be suspended if any unpatched or buggy web applications is actively being exploited.
4. Simultaneous Apache connections may not exceed 50 from one individual source at any given time.
5. Web processes should not fork or spawn sub-processes.
6. No Running a gaming server.
7. No Running a proxy server or anonymizer, either publicly accessible or password protected.
8. No Web spiders and indexers.

Email and Mailing Lists :

1. Technical specifications of Budget, SME/SMB and Enterprise mailing solutions.
2. Attachment Files in excess of specified package are not accepted for delivery.
3. Mailbox sizes should not exceed the max limit set for the packages (500 MB per POP account.)
4. POP / IMAP connections are limited based on the classification of the mail servers . Please know your allocations at the time of signing up the account.
5. Mail delivery times are not guaranteed. Based on the network congestion , recipient mail server configurations and responses, mails may get delayed, bounced or even discarded & lost at times.
6. Mailing lists larger than 1,500 will require a semi dedicated, VPS, or dedicated server. Dividing one list into smaller parts to get around this limit is not allowed.
7. We do not allow you to send to a mailing list you were given or that you bought. This is spamming and we have zero tolerance for this.
8. Any mailing list must comply with the rules set forth by the United States of America and can be found at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/spam/.
9. No Direct SMTP mailing system scripts or mail servers are permitted. Mail should be relayed through the local MTA. Rate Limits on number of emails per hour that can be sent through our servers will apply.
10. Any emails sent to a mailing list must contain an unsubscribe link to an automated email removal system. This system must not be behind password protection.
11. Our SMTP gateway is to be used only for the domain you have signed up the account for. All from addresses must be from your domain name for sending outbound mails. Any other smtp tweaking to use our SMTP service is not permitted.
12. If your email account is exploited by spammers, your account will be suspended without any notice.
13. If your local network is infected and sends spam mails, your account will be suspended without any notice.

Cron Jobs :

1. All cron jobs must be ‘niced’ to 15 or greater.
2. A cron job should not execute more frequently than once every 15 minutes.
3. If a cron usage exceeds the CPU resource limits, the account will be suspended.

3. Unlimited Hosting Packages Policies –
CPU, RAM and Processes :

CPU usage , RAM usage and Processes invoked by your account, cron or any other method should not exceed the following limitations :

1. Utilize 10% or more of CPU usage for more than 30 Seconds.
2. Consumes more than 16 MB of RAM for more than 60 Seconds.
3. Number of open files should not exceed 32.
4. Create core dumps.
5. Number of simultaneous processes should not exceed 5.
6. Execute a script/binary that forks in a way to create a fork bomb.
7. Programs may not run in the background or listen on a network port. Running bot, service or daemon in the background is not allowed.

Database Restrictions :

1. Database is to be used only for the hosting account on the same server.
2. Indexes must be used in databases.
3. Mysql tuning parameters can not be modified by users.
4. All users are restricted to 5 concurrent MySQL connections.
5. Each database is restricted to a maximum of 1 GB of disk space.
6. Database queries should not exceed 500 per hour.
7. Database changes (insert/update/delete) should not exceed 200 queries per hour.
8. Database servers should not be used as a hosted solution.
9. Remote database access is for administrative purposes only.

Files and Directories :

1. The total number of inodes in an account may not exceed 50,000. Every file (a web page, image, email, php file, directory, etc.) on your account uses up one (1) inode. This is not something we actively enforce and it will only become an issue if a client is causing problems for other people on the server. We will of course notify you if this is the case with a full explanation.
2. A directory can not contain more than 2,500 immediate child files. This includes sub-directories themselves, but does not include files contained within those directories.
3. Backups to be maintained by user. We do not take back ups.

Web :

1. Hosting accounts are to be used for the purposes of hosting web sites – they are not to be used to back up content from remote computers or as a general purpose file storage system.
2. All third party web applications that you install must be kept up-to-date.
3. Accounts will be suspended if any unpatched or buggy web applications is actively being exploited.
4. Simultaneous Apache connections may not exceed 50 from one individual source at any given time.
5. Web processes should not fork or spawn sub-processes.
6. No Running a gaming server.
7. No Running a proxy server or anonymizer, either publicly accessible or password protected.
8. No running of bots, Web spiders and indexers.
9. No file-sharing/peer-to-peer activities.
10. No Streaming of Audio/video files.

Email and Mailing Lists :

1. Attachment Files in excess of 10MB are not accepted for delivery.
2. Mailbox sizes should not exceed the max limit set for the packages (50 MB per POP account.)
3. Overquota mail boxes will automatically be cleaned by our system.
4. POP3 / IMAP max 5 connections/IP .
5. Catchall is not allowed.
6. Customers Internal mail server connecting to our servers for SMTP not allowed.
7. All pop3 email IDs should be related to the business of the customer, no distribution of free email IDs.
8. Mail delivery times are not guaranteed. Based on the network congestion , recipient mail server configurations and responses, mails may get delayed, bounced or even discarded & lost at times.
9. Mailing lists larger than 500 will require a semi dedicated, VPS, or dedicated server. Dividing one list into smaller parts to get around this limit is not allowed.
10. We do not allow you to send to a mailing list you were given or that you bought. This is spamming and we have zero tolerance for this.
11. Any mailing list must comply with the rules set forth by the United States of America and can be found at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/spam/.
12. No Direct SMTP mailing system scripts or mail servers are permitted. Mail should be relayed through the local MTA. Rate Limits on number of emails per hour that can be sent through our servers will apply.
13. Any emails sent to a mailing list must contain an unsubscribe link to an automated email removal system. This system must not be behind password protection.
14. Our SMTP gateway is to be used only for the domain you have signed up the account for. All from addresses must be from your domain name for sending outbound mails. Any other smtp tweaking to use our SMTP service is not permitted.
15. If your email account is exploited by spammers, your account will be suspended without any notice.
16. If your local network is infected and sends spam mails, your account will be suspended without any notice.

Cron Jobs :
CPU, RAM and Processes :

1. All cron jobs must be ‘niced’ to 15 or greater.
2. A cron job should not execute more frequently than once every 60 minutes.
3. If a cron usage exceeds the CPU resource limits, the account will be suspended.

Others :
CPU, RAM and Processes :

1. Customers should maintain the data back ups.
2. There is no refund policy.
3. Though we clock 99.5% uptime there is no guarantee of uptime of services.
4. There is no SLA.
5. Support only by ticket system. Extra billing for requests that our engineers have to perform which otherwise the customer could have done with self help , tutorials or otherwise.

4. Notification To Customers :
We may work with the customers to bring to their notice about the resource exceeding incidents. If it is transient, not lasting one day, our engineers will work with you to guide you to resolve the problems. If it is non-transient, it is a good sign for the customer that their online business and requirement is growing. We will do our best to work with customers to give 48 hours, 2 days, or 5 days notice depending on the severity of the violation. We reserve the right as outlined in the AUP to suspend a site if it is causing a severe problem.

5. Failure To Comply With Policy :
Failure to fully comply with these terms is grounds for account suspension and/or termination without a refund. We reserve the right to remove any account without prior notice. If we terminate your account for violating policy, you will forfeit your rights to a refund.