96MB Low End VPS Review Part X – QualityServers
It is always interesting to see a company selling VPS services half-way across the globe, which is exactly what QualityServers did. Through their Eliminator plan, which was advertised on WHT, they have promised to have a “one-size fits all” plan. Is it really good as it has advertised? I decided to try it out myself just to see.
Plans and Set Up
As per their advertisement on WHT, here is the specification of the box:
As per this post on LowEndBox.com, their US servers are based in Tempa, Florida with Hivelocity DC. UK is also available for the same price for those who prefer a European location.
6USD for a 600MB OpenVZ box is not exactly cheap for an unmanaged service, however for a “fully managed” service, it definitely sounds like a good deal, add 1 more pound per month and you get a Xen box, which definitely is a more worthy deal if you prefer Xen to OpenVZ.
Set up was literally instant, I signed up at 4:11pm and received email within the same minute. It is interesting to note how much link they still have with their previous brand, QuickVPS: on the sign up page, the SSL certificate is showing QuickVPS Ltd. (GB), on their welcome email, although it was sent from qualityservers.co.uk email address, it actually said, on the subject line, “New QuickVPS Information” and even Paypal payment was sent to “QuickVPS”. However, other than perhaps confusing some customers, this is not exactly a big matter.
Control Panel
For customer area, QualityServers used a unbranded WHMCS integrated to their website, as well as Kayako helpdesk that was integrated into WHMCS to handle all the tickets. As I have mentioned before, I personally have a preference of Kayako over the built-in WHMCS ticket system, since everything is a lot clearer. After login to their WHMCS area via secured HTTP login and click on submit a ticket:
The departments basically outlined the services they offer: cloud hosting, VPS, and Shoutcast services.
There is also instant chat available although I have yet to see it showing online status:
Besides this, there is also a build-in VPS control panel to pretty much perform all basic functions needed to the VPS: reboot, shutdown, boot, emergency console, reset root password, console password and change host name, without the need to login to SolusVM Control Panel. It also display the status, IP Address and the usage information.
If you are a SolusVM fan, then SolusVM on secured HTTP login on a alternative port is also available. However, instant rDNS is not available and since there is dedicated backup space, the in-panel backups do not work as well.
There are several OS templates available, basically covers most of common OS for Linux these days. Alternative Linux is something I have not seen before, so it might be worth a shot for those who would like to give it a try:
Note that the Ubuntu 10.10 32 bit OS template seems to be broken and once I reloaded the OS, here is the error message that I have received:
Starting PowerConsole v1.1 <> (c)2010 soluslabs ltd. please wait... successfully logged in. enter into CT 245 failed Unable to open pty: No such file or directory
Test on the VPS
The test VPS that I have signed up for is the OpenVZ Eliminator as the Xen Eliminator was out of stock at the time I made the purchase. However, both Xen and OpenVZ have exactly the same specifications except in OpenVZ, it is burst memory and swap memory in Xen. Ubuntu 10.04 was installed as the OS.
VPS has four cores enabled, using Intel Xeon X3220 CPU with no restrictions on the clock speed:
cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 15 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz stepping : 11 cpu MHz : 2394.064 cache size : 4096 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 4 core id : 0 cpu cores : 4 apicid : 0 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 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 lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm bogomips : 4788.12 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 15 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz stepping : 11 cpu MHz : 2394.064 cache size : 4096 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 4 core id : 1 cpu cores : 4 apicid : 1 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 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 lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm bogomips : 4787.29 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: processor : 2 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 15 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz stepping : 11 cpu MHz : 2394.064 cache size : 4096 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 4 core id : 2 cpu cores : 4 apicid : 2 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 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 lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm bogomips : 4787.39 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: processor : 3 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 15 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz stepping : 11 cpu MHz : 2394.064 cache size : 4096 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 4 core id : 3 cpu cores : 4 apicid : 3 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 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 lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm bogomips : 4787.32 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management:
Disk and memory usage with a full LNMP installed:
df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/simfs 40G 2.0G 39G 5% /
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1200 149 1050 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 149 1050
Swap: 0 0 0
And the top output:
top - 07:17:00 up 38 days, 2:54, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 21 total, 2 running, 19 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.0%us, 0.0%sy, 0.0%ni,100.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1228800k total, 153584k used, 1075216k free, 0k buffers
Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 0k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
23690 www 15 0 47584 20m 868 S 0 1.7 0:00.91 nginx
30202 bind 21 0 143m 15m 2100 S 0 1.3 0:00.19 named
23683 www 15 0 107m 10m 3008 S 0 0.8 0:00.03 php-cgi
23684 www 18 0 107m 10m 3008 S 0 0.8 0:00.03 php-cgi
11293 mysql 18 0 61156 7456 3464 S 0 0.6 0:00.00 mysqld
23682 www 15 0 105m 5952 1508 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 php-cgi
23685 www 18 0 105m 5952 1508 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 php-cgi
23686 www 18 0 105m 5952 1508 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 php-cgi
23681 root 18 0 105m 5712 1308 S 0 0.5 0:10.18 php-cgi
30674 root 16 0 71376 3364 2544 R 0 0.3 0:00.03 sshd
1373 root 15 0 69520 2092 544 S 0 0.2 0:25.04 sendmail-mta
30686 root 16 0 17880 1940 1448 S 0 0.2 0:00.00 bash
1 root 18 0 23316 1572 1268 S 0 0.1 0:01.18 init
30698 root 15 0 19092 1300 1056 R 0 0.1 0:00.00 top
5233 root 15 0 49264 1084 536 S 0 0.1 0:06.71 sshd
1141 root 15 0 21080 1024 784 S 0 0.1 0:03.62 cron
30359 root 25 0 19528 956 748 S 0 0.1 0:00.00 xinetd
VZfree indicates moderate overselling: Correction:dmmcintyre3 has mentioned in this comment here that this does not indicate overselling and was an error that I made on my end.
vzfree
Total Used Free
Kernel: 2048.00M 5.04M 2042.96M
Allocate: 1200.00M 149.64M 1050.36M (600M Guaranteed)
Commit: 600.00M 73.20M 526.80M (45.5% of Allocated)
Swap: 0.00M (0.0% of Committed)
vmstat showing an almost entirely empty VPS:
vmstat procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 0 0 0 1075688 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 100 0
Beancounters showing very high limits:
cat /proc/user_beancounters
Version: 2.5
uid resource held maxheld barrier limit failcnt
245: kmemsize 5279387 31200458 2147483646 2147483646 0
lockedpages 0 0 999999 999999 0
privvmpages 38312 170376 307200 307200 0
shmpages 642 1010 153600 153600 0
dummy 0 0 0 0 0
numproc 28 125 999999 999999 0
physpages 17454 72337 0 2147483647 0
vmguarpages 0 0 153600 2147483647 0
oomguarpages 17454 72337 153600 2147483647 0
numtcpsock 12 23 7999992 7999992 0
numflock 3 9 999999 999999 0
numpty 1 2 500000 500000 0
numsiginfo 0 4 999999 999999 0
tcpsndbuf 212376 3783192 214748160 396774400 0
tcprcvbuf 196608 11316832 214748160 396774400 0
othersockbuf 23280 53632 214748160 396774400 0
dgramrcvbuf 0 16944 214748160 396774400 0
numothersock 21 32 7999992 7999992 0
dcachesize 0 0 2147483646 2147483646 0
numfile 675 2871 23999976 23999976 0
dummy 0 0 0 0 0
dummy 0 0 0 0 0
dummy 0 0 0 0 0
numiptent 18 18 999999 999999 0
So is the Inodes limits:
df -i Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on /dev/simfs 20971520 68295 20903225 1% /
The disk I/O results are pretty impressive:
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, 13.7726 s, 78.0 MB/s
And the second try indicating a little smaller but still impressive I/O:
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, 16.056 s, 66.9 MB/s
Meminfo and time sync, which does not really reveal any other important fact
cat /proc/meminfo MemTotal: 1228800 kB MemFree: 1075756 kB Buffers: 0 kB Cached: 0 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 0 kB Inactive: 0 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree: 0 kB LowTotal: 1228800 kB LowFree: 1075756 kB SwapTotal: 0 kB SwapFree: 0 kB Dirty: 189540 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
time sync real 0m0.076s user 0m0.000s sys 0m0.055s
The port speed is another impressive feature of this VPS, considering that it is a 100Mbps port, as per James here:
wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test --2011-06-28 07:21:16-- 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: `100mb.test' 100%[=============================================>] 104,857,600 10.6M/s in 9.5s 2011-06-28 07:21:26 (10.6 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
As you can see, this is pretty much like a dedicated 100Mbps port!
Second try is almost equally impressive:
wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test --2011-06-28 07:21:39-- 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: `100mb.test.1' 100%[=============================================>] 104,857,600 10.1M/s in 9.7s 2011-06-28 07:21:49 (10.3 MB/s) - `100mb.test.1' saved [104857600/104857600]
Something interesting happened when I tried to run a speed test to check on the upload speed of my VPS: it actually does not seem to vary a lot with the network location! I tried to download via Nix Communication VPS in Montreal, Canada, the speed is 2.48MB/s:
wget 96.31.90.166/100mb.test --2011-06-16 00:22:20-- http://96.31.90.166/100mb.test Connecting to 96.31.90.166:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `100mb.test' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 3.61M/s in 40s 2011-06-16 00:23:01 (2.48 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
BuyVM VPS in Fremont, CA clocked in almost the same speed at 3.03 MB/s:
wget 96.31.90.166/100mb.test --2011-06-16 00:25:23-- http://96.31.90.166/100mb.test Connecting to 96.31.90.166:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `100mb.test' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 3.62M/s in 33s 2011-06-16 00:25:56 (3.03 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
And finally, QuickWeb VPS, which was half way across the globe, has almost the same download speed at 2.01 MB/s.
wget 96.31.90.166/100mb.test --2011-06-16 00:28:30-- http://96.31.90.166/100mb.test Connecting to 96.31.90.166:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `100mb.test' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 3.10M/s in 50s 2011-06-16 00:29:20 (2.01 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
Finally, the UnixBench results, which showed pretty decent score:
# # # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
# # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # # #
# # # # # # ## ##### ##### # # # # ######
# # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # #
# # # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # #
#### # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
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: ayserv: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5.028stab089.1 -- #1 SMP Thu Apr 14 14:06:01 MSD 2011
Machine: x86_64 (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="ANSI_X3.4-1968", collate="ANSI_X3.4-1968")
CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz (4788.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz (4787.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 2: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz (4787.4 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 3: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz (4787.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
10:30:23 up 19 days, 6:12, 1 user, load average: 0.09, 0.03, 0.01; runlevel 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Thu Jun 09 2011 10:30:23 - 10:58:37
4 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 22914950.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 2809.2 MWIPS (9.9 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 2289.0 lps (29.6 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 392181.8 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 115234.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 750520.2 KBps (30.1 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 832194.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 228284.4 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 9059.5 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 5857.0 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1108.3 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 702984.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 22914950.5 1963.6
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 2809.2 510.8
Execl Throughput 43.0 2289.0 532.3
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 392181.8 990.4
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 115234.4 696.3
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 750520.2 1294.0
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 832194.1 669.0
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 228284.4 570.7
Process Creation 126.0 9059.5 719.0
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 5857.0 1381.4
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1108.3 1847.2
System Call Overhead 15000.0 702984.1 468.7
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 856.7
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Thu Jun 09 2011 10:58:37 - 11:29:25
4 CPUs in system; running 4 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 44103203.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 11173.5 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 4783.5 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 262655.0 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 80087.2 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 645261.2 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 1538412.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 486635.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 15101.0 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 8751.5 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1154.3 lpm (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 1158960.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 44103203.6 3779.2
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 11173.5 2031.5
Execl Throughput 43.0 4783.5 1112.5
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 262655.0 663.3
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 80087.2 483.9
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 645261.2 1112.5
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 1538412.7 1236.7
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 486635.5 1216.6
Process Creation 126.0 15101.0 1198.5
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 8751.5 2064.0
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1154.3 1923.8
System Call Overhead 15000.0 1158960.7 772.6
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1265.5
Results are pretty consistent as well, which is a good sign:
# # # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
# # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # # #
# # # # # # ## ##### ##### # # # # ######
# # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # #
# # # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # #
#### # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
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: ayserv: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.18-238.9.1.el5.028stab089.1 -- #1 SMP Thu Apr 14 14:06:01 MSD 2011
Machine: x86_64 (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="ANSI_X3.4-1968", collate="ANSI_X3.4-1968")
CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz (4788.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz (4787.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 2: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz (4787.4 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
CPU 3: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz (4787.3 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
20:35:30 up 19 days, 16:17, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00; runlevel 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Thu Jun 09 2011 20:35:30 - 21:03:45
4 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 22776538.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 2815.7 MWIPS (9.9 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 2280.4 lps (29.6 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 395720.0 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 117167.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 759196.2 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 830985.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 219732.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 9106.4 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 5541.4 lpm (60.4 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1062.9 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 698710.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 22776538.5 1951.7
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 2815.7 511.9
Execl Throughput 43.0 2280.4 530.3
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 395720.0 999.3
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 117167.4 708.0
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 759196.2 1309.0
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 830985.7 668.0
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 219732.1 549.3
Process Creation 126.0 9106.4 722.7
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 5541.4 1306.9
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1062.9 1771.5
System Call Overhead 15000.0 698710.6 465.8
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 849.1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Thu Jun 09 2011 21:03:45 - 21:34:34
4 CPUs in system; running 4 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 35899508.0 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 11131.1 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 4733.2 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 296428.9 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 94165.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 684650.9 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 1556245.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 467877.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 14722.3 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 8499.7 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1127.8 lpm (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 1146553.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 35899508.0 3076.2
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 11131.1 2023.8
Execl Throughput 43.0 4733.2 1100.8
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 296428.9 748.6
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 94165.7 569.0
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 684650.9 1180.4
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 1556245.1 1251.0
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 467877.5 1169.7
Process Creation 126.0 14722.3 1168.4
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 8499.7 2004.7
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1127.8 1879.7
System Call Overhead 15000.0 1146553.1 764.4
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1266.1
I actually ended up reloading the OS just to run 32 bit GeekBench tests to satisfy the Geekbench fans:
dist/Geekbench21-Linux/geekbench_x86_32
Geekbench 2.1.13 : http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/
Geekbench is in tryout mode.
Your copy of Geekbench is in tryout mode. If you like Geekbench, please
purchase it so we can continue to make Geekbench awesome. You can
purchase Geekbench online at:
http://store.primatelabs.ca/
If you've already purchased Geekbench, enter your license information
with the following command line:
dist/Geekbench21-Linux/geekbench_x86_32 -r
System Information
Platform: Linux x86 (32-bit)
Compiler: GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)
Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-238.9.1.el5.028stab089.1 i686
Model: Linux PC (Intel Xeon X3220)
Motherboard: Unknown Motherboard
Processor: Intel Xeon X3220
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11
Logical Processors: 4
Physical Processors: 1
Processor Frequency: 2.39 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 0.00 B
L1 Data Cache: 0.00 B
L2 Cache: 4.00 MB
L3 Cache: 0.00 B
Bus Frequency: 0.00 Hz
Memory: 7.79 GB
Memory Type: N/A
SIMD: 1
BIOS: N/A
Processor Model: Intel Xeon X3220
Processor Cores: 4
Integer
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 1728 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3824 |||||||||||||||
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 1965 |||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5191 ||||||||||||||||||||
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 1736 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4725 ||||||||||||||||||
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 1651 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3947 |||||||||||||||
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 1436 |||||
multi-threaded scalar 3381 |||||||||||||
Lua
single-threaded scalar 3124 ||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7562 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Floating Point
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 1791 |||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4438 |||||||||||||||||
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 3278 |||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8530 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 2422 |||||||||
multi-threaded vector 6967 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 2035 ||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3504 ||||||||||||||
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 2820 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 6421 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 5703 ||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 14189 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 4249 ||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 11481 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 3886 |||||||||||||||
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 2634 ||||||||||
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 2139 ||||||||
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 1554 ||||||
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 2998 |||||||||||
Stream
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 1863 |||||||
single-threaded vector 2055 ||||||||
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 2105 ||||||||
single-threaded vector 1996 |||||||
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 1916 |||||||
single-threaded vector 2140 ||||||||
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 2084 ||||||||
single-threaded vector 1453 |||||
Integer Score: 3355 |||||||||||||
Floating Point Score: 5559 ||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Score: 2642 ||||||||||
Stream Score: 1951 |||||||
Overall Geekbench Score: 3843 |||||||||||||||
Results is almost the same as the first run when I decided to give it another shot:
dist/Geekbench21-Linux/geekbench_x86_32
Geekbench 2.1.13 : http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/
Geekbench is in tryout mode.
Your copy of Geekbench is in tryout mode. If you like Geekbench, please
purchase it so we can continue to make Geekbench awesome. You can
purchase Geekbench online at:
http://store.primatelabs.ca/
If you've already purchased Geekbench, enter your license information
with the following command line:
dist/Geekbench21-Linux/geekbench_x86_32 -r
System Information
Platform: Linux x86 (32-bit)
Compiler: GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)
Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-238.9.1.el5.028stab089.1 i686
Model: Linux PC (Intel Xeon X3220)
Motherboard: Unknown Motherboard
Processor: Intel Xeon X3220
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 11
Logical Processors: 4
Physical Processors: 1
Processor Frequency: 2.39 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 0.00 B
L1 Data Cache: 0.00 B
L2 Cache: 4.00 MB
L3 Cache: 0.00 B
Bus Frequency: 0.00 Hz
Memory: 7.79 GB
Memory Type: N/A
SIMD: 1
BIOS: N/A
Processor Model: Intel Xeon X3220
Processor Cores: 4
Integer
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 1715 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4745 ||||||||||||||||||
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 1964 |||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5254 |||||||||||||||||||||
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 1737 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4274 |||||||||||||||||
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 1657 ||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4412 |||||||||||||||||
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 1445 |||||
multi-threaded scalar 3330 |||||||||||||
Lua
single-threaded scalar 3121 ||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7644 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Floating Point
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 1791 |||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4957 |||||||||||||||||||
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 3278 |||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 9447 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 2423 |||||||||
multi-threaded vector 6742 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 2037 ||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 2090 ||||||||
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 2821 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5943 |||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 5710 ||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 13591 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 4256 |||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 10100 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 3771 |||||||||||||||
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 2508 ||||||||||
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 2160 ||||||||
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 1452 |||||
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 2849 |||||||||||
Stream
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 1775 |||||||
single-threaded vector 1926 |||||||
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 1871 |||||||
single-threaded vector 1866 |||||||
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 1838 |||||||
single-threaded vector 2075 ||||||||
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 2007 ||||||||
single-threaded vector 1532 ||||||
Integer Score: 3441 |||||||||||||
Floating Point Score: 5370 |||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Score: 2548 ||||||||||
Stream Score: 1861 |||||||
Overall Geekbench Score: 3779 |||||||||||||||
In conclusion, the box by itself, is a pretty solid one, the disk I/O is impressive, overselling is pretty moderate and the limits are set to high enough that would perhaps be more than enough for majority of users, download speed is also pretty good, although the upload speed could have some room for improvements,it is nontheless more than sufficient for a general purpose VPS.
Customer Service and Support
I guess this is perhaps the most interesting section of this review and perhaps the biggest doubt I have had when I decide to give a shot with QualityServers.
Based on my experience, when you put in the ticket is basically the biggest determinant of how fast the response would be. If the ticket is put in during the day or evening time in UK (before 6:00PM EST), tickets normally gets responded fast. For example, a ticket I put in at 10:27AM was responded at 12:37PM EST, which was within 2 hours. However, if you put in the ticket really late, it could potentially take a while to respond. A ticket that I had put in on 6:50PM EST was not answered the next day until 10:31PM (could just be a really busy day since it is 4:00AM in UK!).
Furthermore, all my support requests were dealt by James Todd, and his names appears on the all the questions regarding their LEB ads/WHT threads as well. Although I have not asked specifically about the number of employees that QualityServers has, but I would doubt if this is a lot more than a one man show. Do remember though, there are lots of great VPS hosting providers running by not a lot more than a single individual. Nix Communications, for example, that I have been using for quite a few months and have a really stable server, is practically running by Martin himself.
Then comes the “management” part, which is what makes this deal really good. However, with only 6 USD a month, you can not really expect a to just leave your servers with them and worry about nothing even though “full management” was promised in the advertisement. Specifically, as per this knowledge base article, the management covers most of the common application. However, I have tried to send in a ticket to set up MySQL replication and was told it was beyond the scope of management. As for my ticket for Tribox installation, I was told there is a 10 pound administration charge.
Furthermore, active monitoring is not covered here as well, which means if your VPS goes offline, you will probably still have to boot it up/troubleshoot yourself.
Basically, if you are just running a web browser without any fancy application/set up, the management should be able to cover all your day-to-day needs. Realistically speaking, this should be the level of expectations you should have for a 6 USD per month set up.
In conclusion, the ticket response is a YMMV, if you put in the ticket at the right time, the ticket could be answered very fast. Full management covers the basic applications/set up but not quite a lot more than that.
Conclusion
Is the Eliminator good bang for bucks? Definitely, in fact, I would say this price point is good enough even for a completely unmanaged VPS with similar specifications. However, is it good enough to “eliminate” other VPS providers? I highly doubt so. Granted the VPS is pretty solid and the resources provided are really generous, furthermore if you put in the tickets at the right time, it could be resolved in a matter of minutes. Having said that, however, it is what 6 USD would give you (which is not necessarily a bad thing, would you rather having a provider who charge you a buck a month and promise the entire world or would you rather have a VPS provider offering reasonably-priced services and will last a long time?), i.e., if you are expecting this service would make you never worry about your servers and instead just focusing on development website contents, it might be a little stretch for the dollar, unless all you want is just running standard LAMP stack with nothing fancy. Instead, I think this is a VPS that would be very suitable for the beginners who does not really want to spend a lot of time setting a general-purpose web server.
Cheers for this review 🙂 Will be following your site!
I don’t see signs of overselling in the vzfree output you posted.
@dmmcintyre3: I have just started using VZFree at that time and thought by no overselling, the memory has to be 100% committed, which was incorrect. I have fixed that error on my post, thanks for letting me know! 96MB is a learning journey for me as well, so feel free to point out all the mistakes I have made along the way. Thanks!
I’ve been very happy with my OpenVZ Eliminator! Support from James has been brilliant and I’ve been impressed by Quality Servers so much I’ve just bought another VPS 🙂
@Michael: good thing you are happy with them! Is it the UK VPS or the US one?
It’s a UK one.
Thank you for the review. I will probably give a shot.
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