The avail.linodeplans API method is listed as deprecated at https://www.linode.com/api/utility/avail.linodeplans ; but you need numeric PlanID values as inputs to other methods (e.g. linode.create). What is the new, preferred way to obtain this PlanID for a given plan?

*bump*

If I'm writing code that's already deprecated, I need to know.

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Dan Slimmon
Senior Platform Engineer
Exosite
Minneapolis, MN

There was a time in IRC that we were told to continue using it for now. Linode no longer wants to give away stats on how many Linodes are in each data center because "there will *always* be availability" (I think that was the direct quote). Incidentally, just recently there WASN'T availability in London for 1G and 2G plans, but you wouldn't have known that because they don't give that information away anymore.

TLDR: Use it for now, a replacement is probably on its way.

Fair enough, but I would argue that it shouldn't be called "deprecated" until the replacement is ready.

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Dan Slimmon
Senior Platform Engineer
Exosite
Minneapolis, MN

You don't even have to argue, because I agree

Really the "AVAIL" subnode is what is deprecated. I can't recall us ever having decided to deprecate the entire method. I think the deprecated label snuck into a deployment... We'll discuss -- but for now please carry on.

-Chris

Chris,

Is there any reason to really remove that? Is sharing that data really that terrible or is there some sort of issue calculating those numbers?

It's not about hiding the numbers or transparency. The numbers have no meaning any more. We have an entire team dedicated to keeping availability up -- availability is the normal and natural state of things - not the exception.

There are also some corner cases where the availability shows much lower than reality on the larger plans, just due to the way the calculation works for those, since they go by a different ruleset (best fit vs least used). Then there is the cost involved with actually generating the results - number of plans x number of datacenters makes that call somewhat expensive. And caching them would just invalidate the result's usefulness all together.

So: there will always be availability. Or else we're not doing our job.

-Chris

Thanks caker.

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Dan Slimmon
Senior Platform Engineer
Exosite
Minneapolis, MN

Thank you for the update!