Cloud infrastructure / OVHcloud Public Cloud alternative

OVHcloud Public Cloud alternative for persistent agents

OVHcloud Public Cloud already offers full VM disks and several ways to retain state between tasks. Its control-panel names differ from OpenStack terminology, and the October 2026 pricing change separates some resources that older quotes bundled. Compare the exact operation and current bill before moving an agent.

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Reviewed 2026-10-19 · Published by the Sandbox0 team

When OVHcloud Public Cloud fits

Choose OVHcloud for OpenStack-compatible infrastructure, full VM control and its cloud network/storage portfolio. Its disk-preserving shelve and execution-preserving suspend/pause options can be useful when their costs and instance exclusions fit.

When to consider Sandbox0

Consider Sandbox0 for an integrated agent lifecycle with online automatic RootFS growth and supported file operations while compute is paused. Evaluate gVisor compatibility and retain required OpenStack or OVHcloud integrations.

Capabilities

OVHcloud Public Cloud and Sandbox0: what persists?

Feature comparison with documentation and verification status
Environment and runtime lifetimeOVHcloud Public CloudNot established in this reviewSandbox0ttl and hard_ttl default to 0 (disabled). Configure idle pause and deletion policies for the same persistent sandbox identity; an idle running sandbox still accrues compute charges.Read documentation →
Persistent filesOVHcloud Public CloudShelve retains supported disk data in a snapshot; NVMe passthrough exclusions apply.View evidence ↗Sandbox0The writable RootFS survives successful checkpoints, including software, system configuration, dependencies, and user data.Read documentation →
Whole RootFSOVHcloud Public CloudSupported VM disk snapshots retain the installed system as well as user files.View evidence ↗Sandbox0Persistence extends beyond /workspace to paths such as /usr/local, /etc, and /home. Runtime tmpfs and virtual filesystems are excluded.Read documentation →
Release compute, keep stateOVHcloud Public CloudOpenStack pause/suspend retain execution but remain billed; shelve has a different disk-only lifecycle.View evidence ↗Sandbox0Pause compute between tasks; resume on available capacity. Default resume starts fresh processes from the saved filesystem.Read documentation →
Memory and process stateOVHcloud Public CloudSuspend saves VM state on disk and pause freezes RAM, with resources remaining reserved.View evidence ↗Sandbox0Experimental memory checkpoints can preserve compatible process state. Use memory: true on both pause and resume on a compatible deployment. A filesystem checkpoint alone does not preserve running processes.Read documentation →

Online RootFS growth

On growth-enabled images, Sandbox0 automatically expands the writable RootFS as free space runs low, within a configured sparse logical ceiling up to 64 TiB. Agent processes keep running. Growth is enabled in the qualified Cloud region; confirm activation for other regions. Existing images and snapshots retain their captured storage geometry. The ceiling is logical capacity, not preallocated host disk.

OVHcloud already preserves full supported system disks through VM and snapshot lifecycles. Flavor/local-storage choices and guest filesystem management differ from automatic low-free-space expansion of one managed durable agent RootFS.

Files while compute is paused

Sandbox0's Files API reads persistent files without resuming compute. Filesystem-only pauses also permit edits; retained-memory pauses are read-only and reject mutations with 409. SSH, SFTP, file watching, and runtime-only mounts require running compute.

A retained shelve snapshot can be restored through cloud workflows, while normal guest file tools require compute. That is different from directly reading or mutating files throughout a stopped RootFS without booting a guest; memory-retained workflows also need consistency protection.

See paused file operations →

Shelve, suspend and pause retain different state

In Horizon terms, shelve snapshots disk data and releases other resources; the documented charge is the snapshot. Suspend stores VM state on disk but reserves resources at the normal rate; pause freezes RAM at the normal rate. IOPS and T1/T2-180 NVMe passthrough data can be lost on shelve, so not every attached disk is protected.

Source 1 ↗

Monthly shelve treatment has an important condition

The guide says a monthly-billed instance shelved for the whole month has no instance charge apart from its snapshot. Unshelving even briefly triggers the full month’s billing. Identify the interface terminology and account billing mode before equating a button labelled suspend with compute-free pause.

Source 1 ↗

October pricing separates storage and public IPv4

From October 1, 2026, Generation 3 B3/C3/R3 local storage and public IPv4 are separate billing lines. Compute’s hourly line may stay unchanged while the complete configuration costs more. A Savings Plan’s compute discount does not automatically discount those added resources.

Source 1 ↗

Pricing

Compare billing models, then price your workload

CPU allocation, memory, billing minimums, disk, plan fees, and supported workload differ. These meters are not equal-performance machine quotes. Confirm region, resource units, and included allowances before estimating a total.

OVHcloud Public Cloud

Pricing reviewed 2026-10-19

US Discovery d2-2 reference
$0.0129 per instance-hour
Published 2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB local disk reference, before taxes.
Rate source ↗
US General Purpose b3-8 compute reference
$0.0605 per instance-hour
2 vCPU/8 GB; local low-latency storage and public IPv4 need their separate current lines.
Rate source ↗
Shelved disk state
Snapshot charges remain
Monthly-mode full-month condition and passthrough-disk exclusions apply.
Rate source ↗

US USD references are not conversions of the blog’s EUR examples. Monthly/12-month Savings Plan columns are not PAYG quotes. Verify region, storage class/capacity, public IP, commitment scope, traffic and taxes against current account terms.

Check current OVHcloud Public Cloud pricing ↗

Sandbox0

$0.015/GiB-hour compute (billed by the second at approximately $0.000004167/GiB-second), plus $0.02/GiB-month of retained incremental RootFS and memory checkpoint data. Shared base images and platform recovery retention are excluded; paused sandboxes accrue storage charges only.

Compute / GiB-hour
$0.015
Retained data / GiB-month
$0.02
Paused compute
$0.00

A 4 GiB agent, 100 running hours

$6.00 compute

4 GiB × 100 hours, billed by the second. Keeping 20 GiB of billable incremental data for a full billing month adds $0.40. CPU is derived from memory by the platform; choose a tier that fits your workload.

Understand storage billing →

Before migrating from OVHcloud Public Cloud

  1. Map actual Horizon/control-panel operations, hourly/monthly mode, boot and passthrough disks, IPs and post-October charges.
  2. Export consistent supported system state and port compatible agent tools to Sandbox0 while retaining required cloud services.
  3. Test system-tool retention, growth, retained memory requirements, paused files and full compute/disk/IP/snapshot/network costs.

Common questions

Is Sandbox0 a drop-in OVHcloud Public Cloud replacement?

Evaluate API compatibility and product scope. These products serve different core workflows, so a change may require a different architecture.

Does keeping files also keep a running agent?

Filesystem state and volatile process state are separate. Sandbox0 requires explicit compatible memory checkpoints to preserve running processes; its default filesystem resume starts fresh processes.

Sources and review scope

The Boat team's Battleships directory is the discovery source. References below describe the product and plan discussed on this page. Check current availability, regional terms and billing units before migrating. Where the cited material does not establish a capability or price, the comparison identifies that uncertainty.

Battleships research record ↗docs.ovhcloud.com/en/guides/public-cloud/compute/suspend-or-pause-an-instance ↗blog.ovhcloud.com/en/posts/public-cloud-pricing-update-october-2026/ ↗us.ovhcloud.com/public-cloud/prices/ ↗Sandbox0 RootFS capacity →

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