96MB Low End VPS Review Part XXX – BuffaloVPS
Recently, I was in need of a larger VPS to put a few of my dead projects on, which was originally placed on a Nix Communication’s VPS in Montreal (which also acted as a test server to test the upload speed, which resulted in some pretty harsh comments on LEB recently). I have a relatively limited budget and the sale from Buffalo VPS was definitely a great deal for me: cheap, great latency to Canada and the datacentre seems to have some DDOS protection, therefore, I decided to give them a shot and see how it goes.
General Information and Set Up
BuffaloVPS is a reseller of ChicagoVPS, and as such, they share the same hardware nodes and services, even the same SolusVM control panel.
In the particular promotion that I signed up for, here is what you get for 40 USD a year:
Note that there is no burstable memory and 512MB is all you have with this plan.
Sign up is via HTTPS protocol and needless to say, BuffaloVPS also requires you to put in the domain name during the sign up, which is similar to the set up in ChicagoVPS:
Payment to both ChicagoVPS and BuffaloVPS are also sent to the same company, New Wave NetConnect, LLC.
Provision is instant after payment, I was able to receive my VPS details within a minute. The welcome email comes from an email with BuffaloVPS in the name but actually an ChicagoVPS.net email address and with root password in plain text and quite a few things explained that are not really related to me but could be useful to some other clients with CPanel or Xen clients:
You could log into the WHMCS system via the login area on their home page, which is rather convenient:
Once logged in to the secured WHMCS system, you can see your VPS details under My Services:
Note that all controls, as well as all resources usage percentage bars and graphs are available here. The control buttons appear to be working as well, I was able to use Reboot, Shutdown, Boot and Hostname without any issues.
BuffaloVPS and ChicagoVPS have recently upgraded their SolusVM system, and it certainly looks like there has been quite a few changes in the interface, once logged in through HTTPS connection using assigned user name, here is what you see:
I am not sure about you, but if I were to make a choice, I will definitely choose the old interface over the new one, since everything was a click away using the old interface. Although I can see some improvements in the new interface where you can see the dedicated and burstable memory separately and also the number of IP addresses the VPS is assigned to.
Instant rDNS, although is available as an option in the Network tab, does not appear to work:
Click on Edit showed me this message:
The Central Backup button does work though, and I was able to get a backup done pretty quickly:
Reinstall button brings up the list of OS templates available, which I am pretty sure is a lot more than what I saw in ChicagoVPS last time:
As you can see, not only they have quite a few of CentOS and Ubuntu pre-packaged templates, but also quite a few Linux distributions, anyone heard of Funtoo Linux?
Test on the VPS
As mentioned above, the VPS that I have used for testing has 512MB of dedicated RAM, no burstable RAM and it is located in ColoCrossing Data Centre in Chicago. As a side note, ChicagoVPS seems to be a pretty big client of ColoCrossing that they actually have ChicagoVPS as one of their case studies.
After the Debian 6 32 bit OS template was loaded, close to 40MB of RAM was used:
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 39 472 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 39 472
Swap: 0 0 0
And the corresponding top output:
top - 15:30:01 up 1 min, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 7 total, 1 running, 6 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.2%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 99.8%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 524288k total, 40496k used, 483792k free, 0k buffers
Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1310 root 18 0 8452 2932 2320 S 0 0.6 0:00.10 sshd
1312 root 15 0 2972 1640 1300 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 bash
1265 root 25 0 33316 1304 952 S 0 0.2 0:00.00 rsyslogd
1320 root 15 0 2324 1060 872 R 0 0.2 0:00.00 top
1297 root 18 0 5484 988 600 S 0 0.2 0:00.00 sshd
1291 root 18 0 2284 756 592 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 cron
1 root 15 0 2024 676 584 S 0 0.1 0:00.54 init
And of course, htop output for htop fans:
This is a bit higher than the normal empty Debian usage, which is normally single digit numbers after the initial OS reload. However the hard drive usage are not bad:
df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/simfs 20G 196M 20G 1% / tmpfs 256M 0 256M 0% /lib/init/rw tmpfs 256M 0 256M 0% /dev/shm
I tried to load the LNMP stack with MySQL 5.5 to the VPS, and after I did that, it used quite a lot of RAM:
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 396 115 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 396 115
Swap: 0 0 0
And the corresponding top output:
top - 12:02:00 up 2 min, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 14 total, 1 running, 13 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.1%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 99.9%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 524288k total, 406196k used, 118092k free, 0k buffers
Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1511 mysql 19 0 311m 28m 4108 S 0 5.5 0:00.05 mysqld
1580 www 18 0 15384 11m 812 S 0 2.2 0:00.03 nginx
1535 www 15 0 36508 5632 2392 S 0 1.1 0:00.26 php-fpm
1536 www 15 0 36508 5632 2392 S 0 1.1 0:00.25 php-fpm
1534 root 18 0 36244 4152 1156 S 0 0.8 0:00.00 php-fpm
1592 root 15 0 8248 2840 2316 S 0 0.5 0:00.06 sshd
1595 root 18 0 2972 1632 1300 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 bash
1540 root 25 0 33436 1368 1020 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 rsyslogd
1618 root 15 0 2324 1064 872 R 0 0.2 0:00.00 top
1573 root 15 0 5484 988 600 S 0 0.2 0:00.00 sshd
1566 root 18 0 2284 748 592 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 cron
1579 root 18 0 4780 732 272 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 nginx
1 root 15 0 2024 680 584 S 0 0.1 0:00.45 init
1273 root 18 0 1740 532 436 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 mysqld_safe
2.3G of hard drive space in total was used, which is pretty high as well:
df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/simfs 20G 2.3G 18G 12% / tmpfs 256M 0 256M 0% /lib/init/rw tmpfs 256M 0 256M 0% /dev/shm
I then reloaded OS template again and switched back to MySQL 5.1, which is what I used to test most of the VPS and this time, everything appears to be a lot more "normal":
First the free -m output:
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 512 87 424 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 87 424
Swap: 0 0 0
As you can see, this is definitely within a reasonable level. Next the top output:
top - 11:08:09 up 12:34, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.02, 0.01
Tasks: 14 total, 2 running, 12 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 99.7%id, 0.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 524288k total, 89524k used, 434764k free, 0k buffers
Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
21796 www 15 0 15016 11m 816 S 0 2.2 0:00.00 nginx
13872 mysql 19 0 34792 5828 3152 S 0 1.1 0:00.00 mysqld
17560 root 18 0 23808 4168 1256 S 0 0.8 0:01.26 php-fpm
17561 www 25 0 23808 3656 744 S 0 0.7 0:00.00 php-fpm
17562 www 25 0 23808 3656 744 S 0 0.7 0:00.00 php-fpm
22108 root 16 0 8248 2832 2320 R 0 0.5 0:00.07 sshd
21795 root 20 0 4804 2180 1724 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 nginx
22111 root 16 0 2972 1632 1296 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 bash
1249 root 23 0 33436 1364 1020 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 rsyslogd
22119 root 15 0 2324 1068 876 R 0 0.2 0:00.00 top
1281 root 18 0 5484 988 604 S 0 0.2 0:00.00 sshd
1275 root 15 0 2284 752 596 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 cron
1 root 18 0 2024 676 584 S 0 0.1 0:00.79 init
13770 root 25 0 1740 524 436 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 mysqld_safe
And the htop output:
The disk space usage is a lot less as well:
df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/simfs 20G 1.2G 19G 6% / tmpfs 256M 0 256M 0% /lib/init/rw tmpfs 256M 0 256M 0% /dev/shm
uptime shows the VPS is quite little used:
uptime 11:00:04 up 1 day, 12:26, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Which is also shown in vmstat:
vmstat procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 1 0 0 367516 0 0 0 0 38 44 0 90 0 0 99 0
Inodes are set to pretty high value:
df -i Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on /dev/simfs 10485760 105335 10380425 2% / tmpfs 65536 4 65532 1% /lib/init/rw tmpfs 65536 1 65535 1% /dev/shm
And beancounters values are good as well:
cat /proc/user_beancounters
Version: 2.5
uid resource held maxheld barrier limit failcnt
771: kmemsize 5623903 5681316 2147483646 2147483646 0
lockedpages 0 419 999999 999999 0
privvmpages 56917 131055 131072 131072 8
shmpages 4868 8962 131072 131072 0
dummy 0 0 0 0 0
numproc 44 44 999999 999999 0
physpages 31264 43287 0 2147483647 0
vmguarpages 0 0 131072 2147483647 0
oomguarpages 31264 43287 131072 2147483647 0
numtcpsock 4 9 7999992 7999992 0
numflock 1 7 999999 999999 0
numpty 1 2 500000 500000 0
numsiginfo 0 19 999999 999999 0
tcpsndbuf 155488 315352 214748160 396774400 0
tcprcvbuf 65536 4829880 214748160 396774400 0
othersockbuf 30264 4274840 214748160 396774400 0
dgramrcvbuf 0 8472 214748160 396774400 0
numothersock 26 28 7999992 7999992 0
dcachesize 0 0 2147483646 2147483646 0
numfile 633 840 23999976 23999976 0
dummy 0 0 0 0 0
dummy 0 0 0 0 0
dummy 0 0 0 0 0
numiptent 14 14 999999 999999 0
VZfree does not show signs of oversell as well:
vzfree
Total Used Free
Kernel: 2048.00M 2.32M 2045.68M
Allocate: 512.00M 138.00M 374.00M (512M Guaranteed)
Commit: 512.00M 59.37M 452.63M (41.3% of Allocated)
Swap: 0.00M (0.0% of Committed)
CPUInfo shows there are 4 cores assigned to the VPS, and they are not throttled:
cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 30 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz stepping : 5 cpu MHz : 2666.754 cache size : 8192 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 8 core id : 0 cpu cores : 4 apicid : 0 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 11 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc ida nonstop_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm bogomips : 5333.50 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: [8] processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 30 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz stepping : 5 cpu MHz : 2666.754 cache size : 8192 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 8 core id : 1 cpu cores : 4 apicid : 2 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 11 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc ida nonstop_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm bogomips : 5333.30 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: [8] processor : 2 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 30 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz stepping : 5 cpu MHz : 2666.754 cache size : 8192 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 8 core id : 2 cpu cores : 4 apicid : 4 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 11 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc ida nonstop_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm bogomips : 5333.32 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: [8] processor : 3 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 30 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz stepping : 5 cpu MHz : 2666.754 cache size : 8192 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 8 core id : 3 cpu cores : 4 apicid : 6 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 11 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc ida nonstop_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm bogomips : 5333.30 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: [8]
And meminfo, as usual, does not really reveal anything new:
cat /proc/meminfo MemTotal: 524288 kB MemFree: 296644 kB Buffers: 0 kB Cached: 0 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 0 kB Inactive: 0 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree: 0 kB LowTotal: 524288 kB LowFree: 296644 kB SwapTotal: 0 kB SwapFree: 0 kB Dirty: 19500 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 0 kB Mapped: 0 kB Slab: 0 kB PageTables: 0 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB CommitLimit: 0 kB Committed_AS: 0 kB VmallocTotal: 0 kB VmallocUsed: 0 kB VmallocChunk: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 Hugepagesize: 2048 kB
And time sync values:
time sync real 0m0.032s user 0m0.000s sys 0m0.006s
Disk I/O is pretty much just above average for a low end budget VPS, but definitely usable:
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync 16384+0 records in 16384+0 records out 1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 17.0567 s, 63.0 MB/s
Testing again shows slightly worse results, but still OK:
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync 16384+0 records in 16384+0 records out 1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 19.0359 s, 56.4 MB/s
The network speed is pretty good, with the Cachefly downloading test, I was able to get close to the line speed for a 100mbit port:
wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2011-08-20 03:46:08-- http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175 Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `/dev/null' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 12.3M/s in 8.3s 2011-08-20 03:46:17 (12.1 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
For the uploading tests, speed again varies, with my Nix Communication’s VPS in Montreal, Canada unfortunately at the lowest speed:
wget 96.8.1xx.2xx/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2011-09-25 11:39:05-- http://96.8.1xx.2xx/100mb.test Connecting to 96.8.120.243:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `/dev/null' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 1.15M/s in 88s 2011-09-25 11:40:33 (1.14 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
The speed from my BuyVM VPS in San Jose, CA, is a lot better and I think more representing the actual speed I am getting:
wget 96.8.1xx.2xx/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2011-09-24 23:43:41-- http://96.8.1xx.2xx/100mb.test Connecting to 96.8.120.243:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `/dev/null' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 9.04M/s in 22s 2011-09-24 23:44:03 (4.59 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
Surprisingly (or not), the Quickweb VPS in London, UK, actually gave the best uploading speed although perhaps the furthest away:
wget 96.8.1xx.2xx/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2011-09-24 23:44:43-- http://96.8.1xx.2xx/100mb.test Connecting to 96.8.120.243:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `/dev/null' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 11.0M/s in 11s 2011-09-24 23:44:55 (8.73 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
I have manually modified the IP addresses to mask some digits, so don’t think I (or anyone) can just get some IPv4.6-ish addresses from BuffaloVPS.
Finally, it is the benchmarking time. Originally I thought the Benchmarks may not be that great because the disk I/O seen from the dd tests are really just above average. However, to my pleasant surprise, the benchamrks actually worked out to be quite well:
First, the for the UnixBench, I was able to get more than 2200 points:
# # # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
# # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # # #
# # # # # # ## ##### ##### # # # # ######
# # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # #
# # # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # #
#### # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
Version 5.1.3 Based on the Byte Magazine Unix Benchmark
Multi-CPU version Version 5 revisions by Ian Smith,
Sunnyvale, CA, USA
January 13, 2011 johantheghost at yahoo period com
1 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Double-Precision Whetstone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Execl Throughput 1 2 3
1 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1 2 3
1 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1 2 3
1 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1 2 3
1 x Pipe Throughput 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Pipe-based Context Switching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Process Creation 1 2 3
1 x System Call Overhead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1 2 3
1 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1 2 3
4 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Double-Precision Whetstone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Execl Throughput 1 2 3
4 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1 2 3
4 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1 2 3
4 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1 2 3
4 x Pipe Throughput 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Pipe-based Context Switching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Process Creation 1 2 3
4 x System Call Overhead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1 2 3
4 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1 2 3
========================================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3)
System: chicago: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-238.19.1.el5.028stab092.2 -- #1 SMP Thu Jul 21 19:23:22 MSD 2011
Machine: i686 (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz (5333.5 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz (5333.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 2: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz (5333.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 3: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz (5333.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
03:50:36 up 1:06, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.05, 0.21; runlevel 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Sat Aug 20 2011 03:50:36 - 04:19:09
4 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 14474320.8 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 2860.1 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 4493.8 lps (29.8 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 535792.3 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 151520.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1276584.1 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 970616.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 290669.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 13432.4 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 6388.3 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2048.0 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 731504.8 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 14474320.8 1240.3
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 2860.1 520.0
Execl Throughput 43.0 4493.8 1045.1
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 535792.3 1353.0
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 151520.4 915.5
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1276584.1 2201.0
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 970616.2 780.2
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 290669.2 726.7
Process Creation 126.0 13432.4 1066.1
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 6388.3 1506.7
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2048.0 3413.4
System Call Overhead 15000.0 731504.8 487.7
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1089.1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Sat Aug 20 2011 04:19:09 - 04:47:57
4 CPUs in system; running 4 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 48424380.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 10882.9 MWIPS (10.2 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 14532.4 lps (29.5 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 387576.8 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 105174.2 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1040288.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 3218671.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 985234.0 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 40644.9 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 19089.7 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2316.1 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 2535087.3 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 48424380.2 4149.5
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 10882.9 1978.7
Execl Throughput 43.0 14532.4 3379.6
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 387576.8 978.7
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 105174.2 635.5
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1040288.4 1793.6
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 3218671.6 2587.4
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 985234.0 2463.1
Process Creation 126.0 40644.9 3225.8
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 19089.7 4502.3
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2316.1 3860.2
System Call Overhead 15000.0 2535087.3 1690.1
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 2269.7
Second try showed even better results:
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Version 5.1.3 Based on the Byte Magazine Unix Benchmark
Multi-CPU version Version 5 revisions by Ian Smith,
Sunnyvale, CA, USA
January 13, 2011 johantheghost at yahoo period com
1 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Double-Precision Whetstone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Execl Throughput 1 2 3
1 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1 2 3
1 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1 2 3
1 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1 2 3
1 x Pipe Throughput 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Pipe-based Context Switching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Process Creation 1 2 3
1 x System Call Overhead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1 2 3
1 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1 2 3
4 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Double-Precision Whetstone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Execl Throughput 1 2 3
4 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1 2 3
4 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1 2 3
4 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1 2 3
4 x Pipe Throughput 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Pipe-based Context Switching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Process Creation 1 2 3
4 x System Call Overhead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1 2 3
4 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1 2 3
========================================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3)
System: chicago: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-238.19.1.el5.028stab092.2 -- #1 SMP Thu Jul 21 19:23:22 MSD 2011
Machine: i686 (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz (5333.5 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz (5333.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 2: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz (5333.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 3: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz (5333.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
04:52:49 up 2:08, 1 user, load average: 0.54, 4.91, 5.25; runlevel 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Sat Aug 20 2011 04:52:49 - 05:22:00
4 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 14084381.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 2857.3 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 4462.6 lps (29.4 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 501088.1 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 151698.1 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1267156.8 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 971250.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 289624.3 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 13405.5 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 6218.5 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2045.4 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 729186.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 14084381.5 1206.9
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 2857.3 519.5
Execl Throughput 43.0 4462.6 1037.8
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 501088.1 1265.4
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 151698.1 916.6
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1267156.8 2184.8
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 971250.6 780.7
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 289624.3 724.1
Process Creation 126.0 13405.5 1063.9
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 6218.5 1466.6
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2045.4 3409.0
System Call Overhead 15000.0 729186.1 486.1
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1076.1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Sat Aug 20 2011 05:22:00 - 05:50:38
4 CPUs in system; running 4 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 47663720.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 10566.6 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 14598.4 lps (29.4 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 386647.8 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 104897.6 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1022630.3 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 3242214.0 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 1001411.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 41343.0 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 19733.7 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2475.0 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 2521665.0 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 47663720.9 4084.3
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 10566.6 1921.2
Execl Throughput 43.0 14598.4 3395.0
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 386647.8 976.4
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 104897.6 633.8
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1022630.3 1763.2
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 3242214.0 2606.3
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 1001411.9 2503.5
Process Creation 126.0 41343.0 3281.2
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 19733.7 4654.2
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2475.0 4125.0
System Call Overhead 15000.0 2521665.0 1681.1
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 2283.3
GeekBench results are pretty impressive as well with more than 5400 points:
System Information
Platform: Linux x86 (32-bit)
Compiler: GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)
Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-238.19.1.el5.028stab092.2 i686
Model: Linux PC (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz)
Motherboard: Unknown Motherboard
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 30 Stepping 5
Logical Processors: 4
Physical Processors: 1
Processor Frequency: 2.67 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 0.00 B
L1 Data Cache: 0.00 B
L2 Cache: 256 KB
L3 Cache: 0.00 B
Bus Frequency: 0.00 Hz
Memory: 15.6 GB
Memory Type: N/A
SIMD: 1
BIOS: N/A
Processor Model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz
Processor Cores: 4
Integer
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 1733 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7211 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 1591 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5600 ||||||||||||||||||||||
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 1661 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 6107 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 1748 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4802 |||||||||||||||||||
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 1484 |||||
multi-threaded scalar 3829 |||||||||||||||
Lua
single-threaded scalar 3092 ||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8448 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Floating Point
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 2350 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8027 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 3809 |||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8151 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 2425 |||||||||
multi-threaded vector 11259 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 1636 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 6442 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 2961 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 9656 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 3946 |||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 15800 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 5756 |||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 16139 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 4892 |||||||||||||||||||
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 8944 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 4240 ||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 4211 ||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 8205 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 4357 |||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 4862 |||||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 4041 ||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 4657 ||||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 3658 ||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 4839 |||||||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 3939 |||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 3360 |||||||||||||
Integer Score: 3942 |||||||||||||||
Floating Point Score: 7025 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Score: 6098 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Score: 4214 ||||||||||||||||
Overall Geekbench Score: 5479 |||||||||||||||||||||
And again, second time delivered better results:
System Information
Platform: Linux x86 (32-bit)
Compiler: GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)
Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-238.19.1.el5.028stab092.2 i686
Model: Linux PC (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz)
Motherboard: Unknown Motherboard
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 30 Stepping 5
Logical Processors: 4
Physical Processors: 1
Processor Frequency: 2.67 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 0.00 B
L1 Data Cache: 0.00 B
L2 Cache: 256 KB
L3 Cache: 0.00 B
Bus Frequency: 0.00 Hz
Memory: 15.6 GB
Memory Type: N/A
SIMD: 1
BIOS: N/A
Processor Model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz
Processor Cores: 4
Integer
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 1899 |||||||
multi-threaded scalar 6849 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 1953 |||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5478 |||||||||||||||||||||
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 2072 ||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 6125 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 1744 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4932 |||||||||||||||||||
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 1522 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5611 ||||||||||||||||||||||
Lua
single-threaded scalar 3058 ||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8058 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Floating Point
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 2343 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7990 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 3822 |||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 11863 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 4504 ||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded vector 8793 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 2685 ||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5598 ||||||||||||||||||||||
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 3722 ||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8870 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 6174 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 23588 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 5918 |||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 14354 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 5075 ||||||||||||||||||||
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 8054 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 3909 |||||||||||||||
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 4552 ||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 8907 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 4272 |||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 5798 |||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 4166 ||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 5238 ||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 3887 |||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 4918 |||||||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 3718 ||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 3525 ||||||||||||||
Integer Score: 4108 ||||||||||||||||
Floating Point Score: 7873 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Score: 6099 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Score: 4440 |||||||||||||||||
Overall Geekbench Score: 5857 |||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall, I definitely like what I am seeing here, although the dd tests may have some room for improvement, it definitely has a great set up otherwise, including really good network speed.
Customer Service and Support
One very important asset (no disrespect) shared between BuffloVPS and ChicagoVPS is the technician, Jeremiah. Although the owner of BuffaloVPS, Adam, does respond to tickets and serves sort of like a first line of support, Jeremiah is really the person taking care of most of the more “difficult” issues. However, compare to ChicagoVPS, I have to say Adam does not normally respond ticket as fast, although for a budget provider, it is nonetheless pretty good. One of my tickets opened on a Friday afternoon at 2:17PM was not responded at 7:12PM, and because it involved Jeremiah, the ticket was not responded until Monday (I guess Jeremiah does get the weekend off). However, a more “conventional” issue (in my case, enable TUN/TAP) was responded very quickly, the ticket was opened on a Saturday at 20:32PM and was responded and resolved by 23:05PM, which is not bad for a budget provider at all.
Conclusion
Great data centre location (for me at least), good VPS, and great network is how I feel about BuffloVPS. Granted the disk I/O could be improved, and perhaps the ticket response time is not the fastest I have ever seen, however both are acceptable and for 40USD per year, this is really a bargain. I ended up using it as a production VPS (although the projects themselves are half-dead, I was definitely looking around for a decent place to host what was once my blood and tears, I mean, my brains and wits) and so far I am happy with it and would definitely recommend to anyone who is in a similar situation as me.