I raised a ticket asking for two additional IPs for a client. Ticket was answered in minutes, raising the maximum allocation on that node to three. Once I activated the addresses, Linode support wanted to see real (i.e. not self signed) certificates within a reasonable time frame.

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/ Peter

It's called a metaphor and a joke.

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Larry Ludwig
Empowering Media
Managed Cloud Services and Managed VPS

That's definitely not my case. For the approximately 5-6 times we've done it's been the same routine. After the last email from them in which they said they wouldn't give it to us because we already have one dedicated IP (the server's) I have to threaten to look at other cloud providers. I've had to do this at least three times. Unacceptable.

Let me add we currently have 13 instances with Linode (ones we own ourselves and not customers)

I can easily expand with them, but not so sure based upon this and their cost per GB for disk. At least for high disk space requirements. I've determined no cloud provider is the best and you must pick your provider based upon your specific requirements.

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Larry Ludwig

Empowering Media

Managed Cloud Services and Managed VPS

We offer management of VPSes within our network AND external cloud providers. The managment of Linode is a new service. Managed cloud service. Customers who want to use a Linode or EC2 but not our VPSes (for whatever reason). We still manage our own hardware. Thanks again for the troll statement. As you were saying?

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Larry Ludwig

Empowering Media

Managed Cloud Services and Managed VPS

I'm obviously getting nowhere and the trolls are obviously in full force in their basements.

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Larry Ludwig

Empowering Media

Managed Cloud Services and Managed VPS

Have you ever heard of that saying you get more flies with honey than with being a pompus ass....at least that is what I think it was. At any rate I can understand your frustration but this is linode's policy so you need to follow it as a customer.

If you want more ips just justify them per the rules, I fail to see the issue?

I agree, you're getting nowhere and you are obviously in full force.

It's Linodes policy and they have it well defined. Do you also complain about their pricing decisions and their policy to not allow customers to host phishing sites?

This has been exactly my experience as well. I have one linode with 6 or 7 IP addresses at the moment, and have never received any pushback from Linode staff. As pclissold said, as long as you get the certs up, there's no issue.

On a personal note, empoweringmedia, I have made a mental note to never use nor recommend your services. If you conduct yourself in the same manner with the Linode staff as you do here, it's no wonder your requests get put in the bottom of the bucket.

So the node had an available IP that didn't have anything running on the port you needed, and they didn't want to give you an unnecessary IP. I don't see the issue. Unless they were mistaken that the IP:port was available?

Edit: On another note, this thread sure went downhill. If any of you work in customer service, I hope your fuses aren't so short when dealing with customers, whether they're rude and unreasonable or not.

Edit: Rewrote edit.

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Matt Nordhoff (aka Peng on IRC)

I have no patience for trolls who add no relevancy to a topic and instead calling me a troll. Instead I get chastised and attacked for non related issues to the topic. Why? I have no idea, ask them. My sig is not in violation of any of Linode forums rules that I am aware of.

Call me silly, if you aren't adding to a discussion, don't bother replying to a topic.

Getting back to the original purpose of this thread:

With relation to Linode, the request for additional IP addresses has been the same convoluted process for us every time. I in fact usually don't submit the tickets and get involved only after the 4 response from them.

It should be as simple as:

Customer: "We needed a dedicated IP address"

Linode: "ok here you go. Make sure it's per these requirements.... if not it will be removed in two weeks."

Done and end of story.

Related to good customer service that's how it's done. Not after the 5-6 communications with Linode asking for the same request and then we get the same run around. "We see you already have a dedicated IP address..." or "the main ssl does not seem to be valid.." (which is because of the control panel used).

If that's unreasonable, then it must be just me.

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Larry Ludwig

Empowering Media

Managed Cloud Services and Managed VPS

Fair enough, back on topic it is..

You mentioned that "in some cases they tell us they can't give us an IP address because we already have one dedicated IP". Have you already every existing IP address on the server for an SSL site?

If your Linode server is supposed to run, say, two SSL websites, you only need two IP addresses total; your Linode's primary IP address, plus one additional. In your scenario, are you trying to ask for one additional per SSL website you need to run, without using the primary IP already assigned to the Linode?

No. The control panel uses the main IP and by default it's a fake SSL cert. This is the method in the way the control panel was developed, not us. In this case it's DirectAdmin.

The primary IP can be used for SSL, but then cannot use shared ip hosting, non SSL web sites. I believe this is the limitation if memory serves me correctly. I personally don't deal with this on a daily basis so I might off in the specifics.

Bottom line is the primary ip cannot be used when other shared accounts within the control panel are using it. You CAN however have another IP that is used exclusively for SSL web sites. So then that means at minimum two IPs per instance.

For the others who are responding perhaps they don't use any control panels. Which is fine. We have cases where customers don't want a control panel either. Most managed customers do want a control panel since they don't want direct root access.

We are limited to the configuration options within the control panel since we didn't develop it. I'm not going to hack apache config files so they can break in the future from a control panel refresh. Just so we can comply to Linode's draconian IP allocation.

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Larry Ludwig

Empowering Media

Managed Cloud Services and Managed VPS

If you only get involved after 4 rounds of back-and-forth, and if most IP allocation requests take 5-6 rounds, it would seem that most requests actually only take 1-2 rounds of communication after someone who apparently knows what he's doing (namely, you) gets involved. That doesn't sound all that unreasonable, especially when a client who doesn't know what he's doing has already made Linode staff suspicious with the previous 4 rounds of futile communication.


Control panels can be easily moved to an alternate port without any loss of functionality. In fact, many control panels automatically use a default port that is not 443, and if yours doesn't, it's your job to fix it. There's no reason to waste port 443 with a certificate that the general public won't accept anyway. So it's definitely unusual and unreasonable to ask for a second IP just because you want to run a control panel on port 443. If you're doing this on a regular basis, no wonder Linode staff gets extra cautious about giving out IPs to you and your clients.

Install control panels on an alternate port, and tell your clients exactly what they should tell Linode if they really need additional IPs. Or even better, just log in on their behalf and make a proper request yourself in the first place. Shouldn't that be part of your management service?

Edit: Doesn't DirectAdmin use port 2222 by default?

+1 I have to assume this guy is as pompous to support as he is here and is refusing to answer questions directly the first time, so that's why support had to keep asking

Yes, it does.