Contractual document
Special Terms — Virtual private servers
This document brings together the Special Terms of your offer and the General Terms applicable to all DINAO services. Together they form a single, indivisible contract.
Special Terms · Virtual private servers
VPS Linux KVM · VPS Windows KVM · VPS Nextcloud · VPS-n8n · VPS Docker
1. Nature of the Service
DINAO provides the Customer with a virtual machine, hosted in France, with allocated resources (processor, memory, storage), which constitute upper limits, according to the subscribed offer. The Customer has administrator access and itself administers the operating system as well as the software it installs on it, except where it has subscribed to a managed services option, whose scope is that of the option.
2. Allocation of responsibilities
DINAO operates the underlying infrastructure: hypervisor, network, power supply, host monitoring and backup of the platform. The Customer remains responsible for the guest operating system, its security updates, the applications it deploys, its data and the access accounts it creates.
3. Third-party software licences
The licences for operating systems and third-party software installed by the Customer are at its expense, except where the subscribed offer expressly includes them.
4. Backups of the Customer's data
4.1 Backup option
Backup of the virtual machine is an option that the Customer chooses at the time of order and may subsequently modify. The option selected determines:
- the backup cycle and the retention period (for example, the last seven days, or the last seven days and twelve monthly backups);
- the backup storage quota;
- the place or places of retention: the main data centre, on equipment separate from the machine, and, if the option so provides, a second data centre.
The characteristics of the subscribed option appear in the customer area and on the Customer's invoices. Other cycles may be agreed upon quotation, by means of a request sent to support.
4.2 Without an option
Where no option has been subscribed, no backup of the machine is performed for the Customer: it is its responsibility to set up and verify its own backups. The backups of the infrastructure (Article 17 of the General Terms) serve solely to restore the platform after an incident; they do not give rise to any return at the Customer's request.
4.3 Restoration
A backup is restored upon the Customer's request sent via support, in accordance with the arrangements agreed with it. A backup does not exempt the Customer from periodically verifying that it can restore its data.
5. IP address and reputation
Any use likely to harm the reputation of the allocated IP address engages the liability of the Customer in respect of the damage caused to other users. Port 25 (outgoing SMTP) is permanently blocked, without exception; the authenticated submission ports (587 and 465) remain open.
6. Resources and overuse
6.1 Resources of the service
The Common Terms “Resource consumption and overuse”, reproduced after these Special Terms, apply to the following resources:
| Resource | Category | Measurement | Overuse threshold | Measure in the absence of regularisation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual processors | capped | hypervisor monitoring | not applicable: the number of virtual processors is that of the offer | information only |
| Memory | capped | hypervisor monitoring | not applicable: the memory is that of the offer | information only |
| Disk space | capped | hypervisor monitoring | not applicable: the disk size is that of the offer | information only |
| Disk access | shared | hypervisor monitoring, per virtual machine | average throughput (read and write) above 150 MB/s, sustained for more than six consecutive hours | limitation of the machine's disk access to 50 MB/s and 1,000 operations per second |
| Network traffic | shared — reasonable use | hypervisor monitoring, per virtual machine | average outgoing throughput above 200 Mbit/s over twenty-four consecutive hours | throttling of the machine's network throughput to 10 Mbit/s |
6.2 Reasonable use of the network
The offer does not include a quantified traffic volume. The network is shared between the private servers of the same infrastructure: its use must remain reasonable in view of the subscribed offer. The threshold in the table above defines, for the application of the Common Terms, what exceeds reasonable use. Throttling applies until the end of the current calendar month, and is then lifted, unless the overuse persists.
6.3 Full use of the resources of the offer
The Customer may continuously use the virtual processors, memory and disk space of its offer: full use of these resources is not overuse. Uses prohibited by the General Terms (Article 7.6) remain subject to their own regime.
7. Availability commitment
By way of derogation from Articles 2 and 18 of the General Terms, DINAO undertakes to a monthly availability rate of 99.5% for each virtual private server.
Unavailability. The server is unavailable when it cannot be reached for more than five (5) consecutive minutes according to the readings of DINAO's monitoring. The rate is calculated over the calendar month: duration of the month less the duration of unavailability, divided by the duration of the month.
The following are excluded from the calculation:
- the daily maintenance window of Article 18 of the General Terms: interruptions occurring each night between 9:00 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. (Paris time), up to a cumulative total of thirty (30) minutes per night;
- scheduled maintenance announced at least forty-eight (48) hours in advance, up to a limit of two (2) hours per month; beyond that, its duration counts as unavailability;
- the cases provided for in Article 3 of the General Terms (force majeure, act of the Customer or of a third party);
- unavailability due to the operating system, software or configuration of the server, for which the Customer is responsible (Article 2 above), as well as shutdowns and restarts that it triggers itself;
- suspension of the Service in the cases provided for in Article 7 of the General Terms.
Compensation. If the rate is not achieved over a calendar month, the Customer receives a credit note calculated on the monthly price of the server concerned (for a non-monthly subscription, one twelfth of the annual price):
| Availability for the month | Credit note |
|---|---|
| below 99.5% | 10% |
| below 99% | 25% |
| below 95% | 50% |
The credit note is capped at fifty per cent (50%) of the monthly price of the server. It is due upon a claim by the Customer sent via support within thirty (30) days following the end of the month concerned, is set off against the next invoice and does not give rise to any cash refund. It constitutes the lump-sum and exclusive compensation for the breach of the availability commitment, and is set off against the liability cap of Article 20 of the General Terms.
8. Commitment and renewal
The Service involves neither a commitment period beyond the current period nor a notice period specific to this family of Services. The renewal and termination rules are those of Articles 6.5, 6.7 and 7 of the General Terms: the Customer objects to renewal by deactivating automatic renewal from its customer area before payment of the renewal invoice, and at the latest on the day before its due date; an invoice that has been paid, including by means of the account credit, constitutes renewal.
9. Right of withdrawal
9.1 Principle
The Customer who is a consumer, as well as the business customer in the cases provided for in Article L221-3 of the French Consumer Code (Code de la consommation), has a period of fourteen days from the conclusion of the contract to withdraw, without having to give reasons for its decision (Article L221-18 of the same code). It exercises this right from its customer area, under the conditions of Article 12 of the General Terms.
9.2 Immediate start of the Service
The virtual machine is installed and made available upon order. Before confirming its order, the Customer expressly requests, by means of a separate checkbox, that the Service begin before the end of the withdrawal period, and acknowledges that, if it withdraws, it will pay for the service provided up to its withdrawal. This request does not cause it to lose its right of withdrawal.
9.3 Amount due and refund
In the event of withdrawal, the Customer pays an amount proportionate to the Service provided up to the communication of its decision, calculated pro rata to the price of the current period (Article L221-25 of the French Consumer Code). DINAO refunds the excess of the sums paid no later than fourteen days after having been informed of its decision, using the means of payment used for the order, unless the Customer agrees to another means (Article L221-24 of the same code). The Service ends on the date of withdrawal; the Customer's data are processed under the conditions of Article 19 of the General Terms.
9.4 Renewal
Renewal of the Service extends the contract concluded at the time of order: it does not give rise to a new right of withdrawal. The Customer who does not wish to renew deactivates automatic renewal under the conditions of Article 6.7 of the General Terms.
Common Terms · Resource consumption and overrun
Virtual private servers · Managed Docker containers · Shared application hosting · Hosted databases · Email
1. Definitions
- Capped resource: resource whose limit is enforced by the infrastructure itself, so that the Service cannot technically exceed it (for example, the number of virtual processors or the memory of a container).
- Uncapped or shared resource: resource whose consumption is not technically limited per service, or which is pooled between several customers (for example, the bandwidth of a physical server, its disk access, or the processor of a shared hosting server).
- Overrun: consumption of an uncapped or shared resource above the threshold set by the Special Terms, sustained for the duration they specify. A one-off peak is not an overrun.
2. Measurement
Consumption is measured by DINAO's monitoring tools. Their readings are authoritative between the parties; DINAO provides the Customer, on simple request, with the readings for the period in question, in accordance with Article 18 of the General Terms. No threshold may be enforced against the Customer for a resource that DINAO does not measure.
3. Capped resource reached
When a capped resource reaches its limit, the Service continues to operate within that limit. This is not an overrun: no restriction or cut-off measure is taken on that account. DINAO may inform the Customer of it and indicate the offer or tier suited to its consumption; the Customer remains free to act on it or not.
4. Information to the Customer
When an overrun is observed, DINAO informs the Customer by email sent to the account contact and by a support request opened in its customer area. The notice specifies:
- the service and resource concerned;
- the consumption recorded, the measurement period and the applicable threshold;
- the options available to the Customer (Article 5) and the time allowed;
- the measure that will be applied in the absence of a response or of regularisation;
- where the Service is provided on shared infrastructure (hosting, databases, containers), the offer of a virtual private server provided for in the paragraph "Suitable offer" of the Special Terms.
If the Customer has neither responded nor reduced its consumption, DINAO sends it a reminder four days after the notice.
5. Response period and Customer's options
The Customer has seven (7) calendar days from the notice to:
- reduce its consumption below the applicable threshold;
- subscribe to a suitable offer or tier, at the current rate. No change of offer or tier is invoiced without the Customer's express consent;
- dispute the finding, by a reasoned reply to the support request. A reasoned dispute suspends the period, once, until DINAO's reply.
Where a new overrun of the same resource occurs within six months following a restriction measure, this period is reduced to forty-eight (48) hours.
6. Measures in the absence of a response or of regularisation
On expiry of the period, if the overrun persists and the Customer has not made one of the choices in Article 5, DINAO may apply the following measures in succession, each of them notified to the Customer:
- Restriction, from the seventh day, where the Special Terms provide for one for the resource concerned: the measure they specify (throttling of bandwidth, disk access or processor, blocking of outgoing sending). The restriction is proportionate to the resource at issue, entails no loss of data and ends no later than the end of the current calendar month, unless the overrun persists.
- Suspension, from the fifteenth day if the overrun persists: the Service is suspended. The Customer is given prior notice sent no later than ninety-six (96) hours beforehand, i.e. no later than the eleventh day. The data are kept during the suspension; in accordance with Article 7.6 of the General Terms, the suspension does not release the Customer from its obligation to pay.
- Termination, from the thirtieth day if the Customer has still not regularised: the contract may be terminated as of right, pursuant to Article 7.5 of the General Terms. The data remain recoverable under the conditions of Article 19 of the General Terms.
7. Emergency
Where consumption endangers the security or stability of the infrastructure, or the service provided to other customers, DINAO may apply a restriction or suspension measure immediately and without notice, in accordance with Article 7.6 of the General Terms. DINAO informs the Customer within twenty-four (24) hours, with the readings that justify it; the procedure of Articles 4 to 6 then resumes for regularisation.
8. Lifting of measures
As soon as the Customer has reduced its consumption below the threshold or subscribed to a suitable offer, DINAO lifts the measure applied within twenty-four (24) hours, free of charge.
9. Safeguards
- DINAO always applies the lightest sufficient measure, only one at a time.
- No measure taken hereunder entails the deletion of the Customer's data, with the exception of data written outside the authorised locations where the Special Terms so provide (containers, Article 11.3).
- No change of offer, tier or rate results from an overrun without the Customer's express consent.
- Each step — notice, reminder, restriction, suspension, lifting — is recorded in the Customer's support request, where the Customer can follow its history.
