docs(plans): non-AWS bare metal cost+feasibility for worker pps scaling (research)

[skullcrushercmd]

Summary

Research-only planning doc — no engine code, no script changes. Scopes the cost and feasibility of moving AnyScan port-scanner workers off AWS to non-AWS bare metal with Mellanox/mlx5 ConnectX NICs, motivated by the ENA-on-kernel-≤6.19.11 driver-mode AF_XDP zerocopy gap that caps c6in.metal at ~22M pps.

The doc covers Equinix Metal, Hetzner, OVH, Latitude.sh, Vultr BM, and Servers.com:

• Hardware (NIC count/speed/vendor), pricing snapshot 2026-04-28
• mlx5 driver-mode AF_XDP zerocopy verified directly in the kernel source (drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/en/xsk/setup.c)
• Egress allowances, provisioning model, IPv4/IPv6 story
• AUP review for scanner workloads — the dominant constraint

Headline findings

• Equinix Metal is sunsetting 2026-06-30. Not a long-term destination.
• Hetzner and OVH explicitly prohibit port scanning. Best $/Mpps on hardware grounds, but eliminated by ToS.
• Latitude.sh is the primary candidate. Fair-Usage Policy is DDoS-focused with no explicit port-scan ban; needs written AUP confirmation before commit. Gen-4 rs4.metal.large (2× 100G, $1,471/mo) is the recommended experiment box.
• Servers.com EBM is the credible backup (custom build, Mellanox available, sales-quoted).
• mlx5 driver-mode zerocopy is well-supported in mainline (since ~5.5); kernels we'd actually run (Ubuntu 24.04 HWE 6.8, Rocky/RHEL 9 + ELRepo, Debian 12 backports) all have it.

Recommended path

A single-instance, two-week, $2k-ceiling experiment on Latitude.sh rs4.metal.large, gated on (1) written AUP confirmation, (2) NIC-vendor confirmation (Mellanox vs Broadcom), (3) egress overage rate. Hypothesis: ≥45M pps (≥2× ENA-AF_XDP), $/Mpps in the $15–18/mo range vs ~$249 on c6in.metal.

Test plan

• Reviewers: validate the cost-per-Mpps comparison table against your own pricing checks
• Confirm the AUP read on Latitude.sh — has anyone here run scanner traffic on Latitude.sh?
• Validate the assumption that rs4.metal.large is Mellanox at 100G (the doc flags this as "confirm before commit")
• Sanity-check the §3.5 cost ceiling and §3.6 timeline against current sales-cycle expectations

🤖 Generated with Claude Code