[Updated] The Importance of Data Backup: European Cloud Company Hetzner Deletes All Servers and Data of a Client Without Warning

Hetzner, a well-known cloud computing provider in Europe, has often been criticized for its stringent customer identity verification process, leading to numerous instances where users have had their server orders canceled. However, a recent incident has raised questions about Hetzner's service quality: the nonprofit organization Kiwix had all its servers and data deleted without any prior warning.

Kiwix is dedicated to providing offline access to Wikipedia content and had been using multiple cloud servers from Hetzner. Fortunately, Kiwix had regularly backed up its data, so the deletion of its servers did not have a severe impact, thanks to the availability of additional backups.

The founder of Kiwix shared the incident on social media:

On December 1, 2024, at 00:00, without any warning or notification, all of Kiwix's servers on Hetzner were deleted, along with all the data.

Subsequently, Kiwix discovered that backend data storage was inaccessible and users reported service disruptions. However, Kiwix's engineers could not connect to the servers and were thus unclear about the cause until they attempted to log into the Hetzner control panel.

Hetzner stated that they decided to close Kiwix's account but could not provide a specific reason. When asked why there was no notification, Hetzner claimed that a notice had been sent in advance, but Kiwix had not received any such notification.

The email communication further questioned the reliability of Hetzner's service. When Kiwix emailed Hetzner to inquire about the reason for the deletion, Hetzner replied that an email notification had been sent. Kiwix responded that they had not received any email and asked if it could be resent, only to be told by Hetzner: no.

This communication suggests significant issues with Hetzner's customer support or service. Fortunately, Kiwix had data backups and was mainly interested in understanding the reason for the account closure and data deletion. The response from Hetzner, however, was puzzling.

Ultimately, Kiwix did not dwell on the issue and proceeded to import 8TB of backup data into servers from another provider, spending roughly 48 hours to restore the service.

To this day, Kiwix remains in the dark about why Hetzner closed its account and deleted all servers and data, especially without any notification. This incident underscores two critical points: the importance of data backup and concerns regarding the reliability of Hetzner's services.