On Oct 5, 2011, at 7:20 PM, Steve Snyder wrote:

I have a relay with a fixed monthly bandwidth limit, so I expect the relay to hibernate toward the end of the month. (I'm trying to spread the bandwidth out over the month, but actual relay utilization cannot be estimated accurately.)

I'm wondering how to time this hibernation period. What I'd like to avoid is hibernating during a period when relay hibernation is common.

If I know that most Accounting-limited relays hibernate at, say, the end of the calendar month, then I can schedule my hibernation to be at the start of the calendar month. If most hibernation is done on Saturday (day 6, the end of the week) then I can arrange to sleep on Wednesday (day 3).

Is there a known trend to relay hibernation that I can schedule against?

Thanks.

After running for a whole accounting period, Tor automatically randomizes the start time so that you will use up all your bandwidth for the configured time, assuming the traffic from last month is a good indication for the traffic of this month (it usually is) and that you have kept your state file around, so that Tor can save this data.

In short: You don't have to do anything, Tor is already smart enough to handle it. If you notice problems, please let us know by filing a bug!

Thanks Sebastian