Self-hosted runners

[mrego]

Summary

The idea is to add dedicated servers for CI runners so we can speed up CI time.

Also add dedicated servers for benchmarking.

A proposal by a group of contributors was done back in July 2024: #94 (comment)

And in July 2025 a proposal for benchmarking: #160

Current cost: 404 EUR/month

• 104 EUR/month - ci0.servo.org, general self-hosted runners
• 104 EUR/month - ci1.servo.org, general self-hosted runners
• 104 EUR/month - ci2.servo.org, general self-hosted runners
• 46 EUR/month - ci3.servo.org, self-hosted runners for benchmarking
• 46 EUR/month - ci4.servo.org, self-hosted runners for benchmarking

Type

Shared resources

Cost

404 EUR/month

Periodicity

Recurring monthly payment

Benefits

This helps us to reduce CI times in Servo significantly.

Also the benchmarking runners allow to get accurate data when measuring Servo performance.

Risks

Slower CI times will make the project less appealing to contribute to.

Also current benchmarking results are inaccurate as we don't use a dedicated machine.

Alternatives

A few alternatives were considered at #88 (comment)

Finally Hetzner was the provider selected.

Administrator

@delan has been in charge of this.

Experience

@delan has experience administrating servers and has been doing this since we setup things for Servo.

Other comments

No response

[mrego]

This was originally approved by the TSC on July 2024: https://github.com/servo/project/blob/main/governance/tsc/tsc-2024-07-29.md#ci-runners-proposal

And the benchmarking proposal was approved on Zulip: #tsc > Proposal: dedicated servers for benchmarking

Payments are done on a monthly basis on Servo Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/servo/expenses?searchTerm=Hetzner

[delan]

hetzner’s prices are increasing :(

the base price (excluding public IPv4 address) of each AX102 is increasing by 15 EUR/month (102.30 → 117.30), and each AX42 is increasing by 8 EUR/month (44.30 → 52.30). so from april 2026, we will need an extra $3\times 15+2\times 8=61$ EUR/month to continue running the same servers.

original email

From: notification@hetzner.com
Subject: Update on our pricing

Dear Sir or Madam

This mail is to inform you about an unfortunate, but necessary price change that we must make.

There have been drastic price increases in various areas in the IT branch recently. That is why, unfortunately, we must also increase the prices of our products.

The costs to operate our infrastructure and to buy new hardware have both increased dramatically. Therefore, our price adjustment will affect both your existing products and new orders.

The underlying causes of the increased costs are, among others, the exploding demand for AI-related computing power and for cloud services. In addition, raw material prices and production costs have also generally risen for manufacturers. The costs for RAM and SSDs especially have risen by a large amount. For example, the cost for DRAM memory has increased up to 500% since September 2025. And according to market researchers like TrendForce, this price trend will continue throughout the year.

We have genuinely tried hard to optimize our costs and to prevent increasing our prices for as long as possible. But we can no longer compensate for the strain that it has placed on our operations. We want to continue to deliver quality products that meet both our standards and your expectations, so we must take this step.

The price changes will take effect on 1 April 2026 for both new orders and existing products. For orders placed before 1 April 2026, but delivered after 1 April 2026, the adjusted prices will apply.

The following existing products, listed under the customer number specified in the subject line, are affected by the price increase as follows.

Product	previous price	New price as of 1 April 2026
AX102 (HEL1)	€ 102.30	€ 117.30
AX42 (HEL1)	€ 44.30	€ 52.30

all prices excl. vat

We know that price changes are always a challenge for everyone. However, we believe that our products' prices and conditions still have a competitive price-to-performance ratio.

We have prepared a list of all new prices for you on Hetzner Docs at https://docs.hetzner.com/general/infrastructure-and-availability/price-adjustment. Starting on 1 April 2026, the new prices will also be on our website.

If you do not wish to continue your contract, you can cancel the products within the regular cancellation periods via your administration interface.

We hope that you will be able to understand and accept our decision, and that we are sorry that we have to change our prices.

If you have any questions, we will be happy to help. Please log onto your account and go to "Support" in the menu and create a support request.

Kind regards,

Hetzner Online

[mrego]

TSC is fine with continuing with these runners at the updated price: #tsc > Hetzner price increases