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Hibernate / Revive

Cost-saving workflow for when no one's playing.

What it does

hibernate.py 1. Runs a final restic backup (so even if the snapshot ever fails, world is safe on Drive) 2. Powers off the droplet via DigitalOcean API 3. Creates a full disk snapshot 4. Deletes the droplet 5. Saves snapshot ID locally to hibernation-state.json

revive.py 1. Reads hibernation-state.json for snapshot ID 2. Creates a new droplet from the snapshot (same region, same size) 3. Polls until it's active and gets the new IP 4. Updates Cloudflare DNS records (panel.yourdomain.com + play.yourdomain.com) to the new IP 5. Waits for SSH 6. Updates .env DROPLET_IP to the new IP 7. Deletes the snapshot (no point paying for it once revived) 8. Removes hibernation-state.json

Total revive time: ~5 minutes.

When to use

  • Friends not playing for several days / weeks
  • Going on vacation
  • Just exploring whether to keep the server long-term

You do NOT need to hibernate for one-off quiet evenings — the idle monitor already handles "nobody's online right now" via auto-backups, and the droplet itself idles at near-zero CPU.

Usage

python hibernate.py     # ~3-5 min to snapshot + destroy
# ... time passes, friends ping you ...
python revive.py        # ~5 min to recreate + DNS update

What's preserved across hibernation

Everything on the droplet disk: - Pterodactyl panel + DB + user accounts - Wings + server config - The Minecraft world - All plugins - All scripts in /opt/mc-tools/ - All scheduled crons - SSL certs (Cloudflare origin + Let's Encrypt) - restic state, rclone OAuth tokens, etc.

When you revive, the new droplet boots and everything runs exactly as before — just with a new IP.

What changes

  • IP address is new every revive. .env auto-updates with the new IP. DNS auto-updates (Cloudflare records pointed to new IP).
  • Let's Encrypt cert: still valid (cert is for play.yourdomain.com which now points to the new IP). Will auto-renew normally.
  • SSH known_hosts: the new droplet has a fresh host key. If you SSH by hostname, you'll get a warning until you clear the old cached entry.

Connecting via SSH after revive

The new droplet has a different SSH host key than the old one. Two cases:

If you SSH to the new IP (e.g. ssh root@168.x.x.x): - No warning — new IP isn't in your known_hosts yet - Just connect normally: 

ssh -i ~/.ssh/do_minecraft_claude root@<new-ip>

If you SSH by hostname (e.g. ssh root@play.yourdomain.com): - You'll get WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! - Clear the stale entry once: 

ssh-keygen -R play.yourdomain.com
- Then SSH works normally.

The new IP is printed at the end of revive.py, and is also saved to .env as DROPLET_IP.

Billing math

DigitalOcean bills hourly, capped at the monthly rate. A $24/mo droplet is $0.0357/hr.

Your specific question: created droplet yesterday, hibernate after 3 more days

So 4 total days of droplet runtime: - 4 days × 24h × $0.0357 = ~$3.43 for droplet usage - Plus snapshot storage from day 4 onward: ~10 GB × $0.06/GB/month = ~$0.60/month - If you stay hibernated for the remaining ~26 days of the billing month: ~$0.52 snapshot cost

Total for the month: ~$3.95 instead of $24. You save ~$20.

The longer you stay hibernated, the more you save. Snapshot is ~$0.60/month forever; running droplet is $24/mo.

Break-even

If you'd play 2-3 days per month, hibernate the rest: - Active days × $0.86/day + snapshot $0.60 = a few bucks total - vs $24 always-on

Reserved IP (optional, if you hate updating DNS)

DigitalOcean lets you reserve an IP for $4/mo. Attach it to whatever droplet is currently running. Revives no longer need DNS updates. Skip this unless DNS friction bugs you.

Troubleshooting

Hibernate failed mid-way (snapshot exists but droplet still there) - Check DO control panel - If snapshot is good, manually destroy droplet, then manually write hibernation-state.json with the snapshot ID - Run revive normally

Revive failed (new droplet up but DNS update broke) - Check Cloudflare manually — update DNS records to the IP shown in the script output - Edit .env DROPLET_IP yourself

Friends say game is laggy after revive - DNS TTL is 5 min after revive; first few minutes some clients may still cache old IP - Have them flush DNS or restart their MC client

Security note

Both API tokens have meaningful power: - DO_API_TOKEN can destroy any droplet on your DO account - CF_API_TOKEN can edit DNS for yourdomain.com (scoped to just that zone)

Both are in .env. Don't sync this folder. If a token leaks, revoke it from DO/Cloudflare and generate a new one.