96MB Low End VPS Review Part XIX – BitCable
Circus was the first one to comment on the post regarding getting a 96MB review for one of the providers, so although this was not exactly as per my schedule, I decide to offer circus what he wants first, a review on BitCable.
General Information and Set Up
It is pretty tough for me to find some information on BitCable, although their domain has been registered last year according to here and here to Global IT Tech LLC, there has not been too many reviews floating around. Circus was quick to point out that the company is run by a high school student.
The website carries a very minimalistic design, everything was kept clean and straight-forward, which is something that I personally like:
There are only two product lines offered by BitCable: Shared and VPS hosting, and for VPS hosting, only KVM platform are offered. The sign up page in VPS hosting is using the unintegrated WHMCS installation with HTTPS connection.
Unlike most of the VPS providers these days, the provision of BitCable VPS is not instant. However, Preetam actually contacted me barely 7 minutes after my invoice was paid (paid at 3:38AM, received email at 3:45AM) and explained to me that “SolusVM does not optimize for KVM servers” and hence he will have to know what OS I am looking for before set it up for me. However, I did not receive the automated new server information email until 5:45AM as well although Preetam has sent me the IP and root password by 5:10AM.
In the automated welcome email, the IP address and root password did not show, only the SolusVM login details was available and password was sent in plain text. However, I was able to get the IP address by logging into SolusVM using the username and password I was assigned to, via a HTTP connection on the port 5353.
Once logged in, you are presented with a standard interface for SolusVM for KVM machines:
There are several OS available for mount/install:
And BitCable has already mentioned in the welcome email that if there is a template they do not have, you can send in a ticket and they will add the OS template soon, which I guess is the biggest advantages to full virtualization technologies like KVM.
Instant rDNS is not possible, however the IP addresses does contain more network information if you decide to set up the system yourself:
As with most of other providers, both instant backup and central backups are not available.
If you prefer to control your VPS through WHMCS, there are also a few controls available in the client area, which is using HTTPS connection:
As you can see, only bandwidth usage percent bar is available and none of the graphs are available.
Test on the VPS
The test VPS that I have received is their cheapest Tera package, which is not exactly too cheap (although by using the coupon happybirthday! you get 50% off the price), and unlike most of the providers, BitCable offers no discount for longer term payments:
and here is what you get for 8 dollars:
Although BitCable is based in Ashburn, VA, it took me quite a bit of time to find where their data centre would be (although it is “local” according to this post), attempt to traceroute to their IP address was futile and the only information I have obtained by running IP whois is here:
However, search for neither NNIC nor DOD (I even tried Department of Defence) NIC does not return any meaningful information and to be honest, I highly doubt that being a government agency, Navy or DOD would want to rent out their server rooms for cash.
I have loaded Debian 6 OS on the VPS:
uname -a Linux bitcable 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Mon Jun 13 04:13:06 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
The barebone OS, without anything loaded in there, takes 25MB of RAM:
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 247 130 117 0 9 96
-/+ buffers/cache: 25 222
Swap: 487 0 487
And the corresponding top output:
top - 23:43:44 up 10:34, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 79 total, 1 running, 78 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: 253944k total, 134248k used, 119696k free, 9228k buffers
Swap: 499704k total, 0k used, 499704k free, 98712k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1440 **** 20 0 7868 5168 1460 S 0 2.0 0:00.34 bash
1656 **** 20 0 7856 5160 1464 S 0 2.0 0:00.26 bash
1653 root 20 0 8260 2788 2268 S 0 1.1 0:00.07 sshd
1472 root 20 0 4504 1736 1388 S 0 0.7 0:00.02 bash
977 root 20 0 27316 1500 1024 S 0 0.6 0:00.02 rsyslogd
1655 **** 20 0 8260 1488 960 S 0 0.6 0:00.00 sshd
1321 root 20 0 2560 1304 1020 S 0 0.5 0:00.05 login
1471 root 20 0 3948 1176 944 S 0 0.5 0:00.04 su
1683 **** 20 0 2332 1136 900 R 1 0.4 0:00.01 top
1640 root 20 0 5496 984 592 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 sshd
1297 Debian-e 20 0 6516 936 624 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 exim4
364 root 16 -4 2392 852 420 S 0 0.3 0:00.02 udevd
847 statd 20 0 1936 776 640 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 rpc.statd
1064 root 20 0 3784 768 604 S 0 0.3 0:00.02 cron
554 root 18 -2 2388 736 304 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 udevd
555 root 18 -2 2388 732 300 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 udevd
1 root 20 0 2032 704 612 S 0 0.3 0:00.90 init
After the LNMP stack is installed, memory footprint continued to be pretty light:
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 247 239 8 0 7 183
-/+ buffers/cache: 48 199
Swap: 487 1 486
And the output of top:
top - 12:07:48 up 10:58, 2 users, load average: 0.08, 0.50, 0.46 Tasks: 91 total, 1 running, 90 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 0.0%us, 0.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 99.8%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 253944k total, 245656k used, 8288k free, 8152k buffers Swap: 499704k total, 1256k used, 498448k free, 187720k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 8645 www 20 0 14504 10m 408 S 0 4.2 0:00.00 nginx 19427 mysql 20 0 34808 5676 2996 S 0 2.2 0:00.00 mysqld 1656 **** 20 0 7856 4860 1164 S 0 1.9 0:00.27 bash 1440 **** 20 0 7868 4852 1160 S 0 1.9 0:00.34 bash 8636 root 20 0 24200 4564 1400 S 0 1.8 0:00.02 php-cgi 8637 www 20 0 24200 4172 1008 S 0 1.6 0:00.00 php-cgi 8638 www 20 0 24200 4172 1008 S 0 1.6 0:00.00 php-cgi 8639 www 20 0 24200 4172 1008 S 0 1.6 0:00.00 php-cgi 8640 www 20 0 24200 4172 1008 S 0 1.6 0:00.00 php-cgi 8641 www 20 0 24200 4172 1008 S 0 1.6 0:00.00 php-cgi 1695 root 20 0 4488 1512 1180 S 0 0.6 0:00.00 bash 1472 root 20 0 4504 1452 1104 S 0 0.6 0:00.02 bash 1653 root 20 0 8260 1300 780 S 0 0.5 0:00.07 sshd 8666 root 20 0 2436 1144 900 R 0 0.5 0:00.01 top 977 root 20 0 27316 1132 788 S 0 0.4 0:00.02 rsyslogd 1655 **** 20 0 8396 1024 484 S 0 0.4 0:01.03 sshd 1321 root 20 0 2560 896 612 S 0 0.4 0:00.05 login
Disk space does not show signs of overselling:
df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/main-root
12G 2.0G 8.8G 18% /
tmpfs 124M 0 124M 0% /lib/init/rw
udev 120M 112K 120M 1% /dev
tmpfs 124M 0 124M 0% /dev/shm
/dev/vda1 92M 20M 67M 23% /boot
df -i
Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/main-root
749248 74186 675062 10% /
tmpfs 31743 5 31738 1% /lib/init/rw
udev 30530 515 30015 2% /dev
tmpfs 31743 1 31742 1% /dev/shm
/dev/vda1 24096 222 23874 1% /boot
VMStat shows the VPS is lightly used:
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 1256 7096 8440 188864 0 0 8 32 22 20 1 0 99 0
The uptime snapshot was taken right after the LNMP stack was installed, so it showed some pretty high numbers:
uptime 12:09:59 up 11:00, 2 users, load average: 0.01, 0.32, 0.40
Running the command again while I am writing this gives all 0.00 for the output:
uptime 08:07:27 up 4 days, 6:58, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
There are two CPU cores provided, although QEMU virtual CPU is all the information I can see, however, at 3.2GHz, the clock speed is definitely great:
cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 6 model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1 stepping : 3 cpu MHz : 3192.898 cache size : 32 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 4 wp : yes flags : fpu de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pse3 6 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx lm pni hypervisor bogomips : 6385.79 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 6 model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1 stepping : 3 cpu MHz : 3192.898 cache size : 32 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 4 wp : yes flags : fpu de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pse3 6 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx lm pni hypervisor bogomips : 6385.79 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management:
Meminfo, as with many others, does not offer any additional information:
cat /proc/meminfo MemTotal: 253944 kB MemFree: 5492 kB Buffers: 3656 kB Cached: 198484 kB SwapCached: 72 kB Active: 43824 kB Inactive: 188124 kB Active(anon): 14628 kB Inactive(anon): 15300 kB Active(file): 29196 kB Inactive(file): 172824 kB Unevictable: 0 kB Mlocked: 0 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree: 0 kB LowTotal: 253944 kB LowFree: 5492 kB SwapTotal: 499704 kB SwapFree: 498448 kB Dirty: 12 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 29740 kB Mapped: 5400 kB Shmem: 120 kB Slab: 11076 kB SReclaimable: 6752 kB SUnreclaim: 4324 kB KernelStack: 752 kB PageTables: 824 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 626676 kB Committed_AS: 114736 kB VmallocTotal: 766008 kB VmallocUsed: 5796 kB VmallocChunk: 750924 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 4096 kB DirectMap4k: 12224 kB DirectMap4M: 249856 kB
One thing that makes BitCable truly worth the price though is the disk I/O speed, which was in triple digit range and is truly 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, 9.96039 s, 108 MB/s
In order to avoid disk caching, I actually waited a few hours before running the dd test again, and the results are equally 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, 10.1407 s, 106 MB/s
Pardon me for getting excited but it has been a while since I was able to see a triple digit disk I/O!
Network speed is almost equally impressive, I was able to achieve a download speed of more than 50MB/s, which is rare among the North American providers since most of the North American providers are only able to provide 100Mbit ports for their budget VPS:
wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test --2011-08-08 12:11:40-- 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: a€?100mb.testa€ 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 55.2M/s in 1.8s 2011-08-08 12:11:42 (55.2 MB/s) - a€?100mb.testa€
To test it even further, I actually used aget with 10 concurrent thread to test the download, and the job was completed within 1 second:
aget -n 10 cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test Error: URL should be of the form http://... root@bitcable:~/aget-0.4.1# aget -n 10 http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test Attempting to read log file aget-100mb.test.log for resuming download job... Couldn't find log file for this download, starting a clean job... Head-Request Connection established Downloading /100mb.test (104857600 bytes) from site cachefly.cachefly.net(205.234.175.175:80). Number of Threads: 10 .. [4% completed] ..... [9% completed] ..... [9% completed] ..... [9% completed] ....... [14% completed] .......... [19% completed] .......... [19% completed] ............ [24% completed] ............ [24% completed] ............... [29% completed] ................. [34% completed] .................... [39% completed] .................... [39% completed] ...................... [44% completed] ......................... [49% completed] ........................... [54% completed] ........................................................... [59% completed] . [59% completed] ................................ [64% completed] ................................... [69% completed] ..................................... [74% completed] ........................................ [79% completed] .......................................... [84% completed] ............................................. [89% completed] ............................................... [94% completed] .................................................. [99% completed] .................................................. [100% completed] Download completed, job completed in 1 seconds. (102400 Kb/sec) Shutting down...
Downloading was completed so fast for 100MB file that I had to look for a few 1GB files to test:
From HostDime DC in Orlando, Florida:
aget -n 10 http://72.29.87.105/%7Ephpinfot/1gbfile.tgz Attempting to read log file aget-1gbfile.tgz.log for resuming download job... Couldn't find log file for this download, starting a clean job... Head-Request Connection established Downloading /%7Ephpinfot/1gbfile.tgz (1073741824 bytes) from site 72.29.87.105(72.29.87.105:80). Number of Threads: 10 .. [4% completed] ..... [9% completed] ....... [14% completed] ....... [14% completed] ....... [14% completed] .......... [19% completed] ............ [24% completed] ............... [29% completed] ................. [34% completed] .................... [39% completed] ...................... [44% completed] ......................... [49% completed] ........................... [54% completed] ........................... [54% completed] ............................ [54% completed] ........................... [54% completed] ........................... [54% completed] ........................... [54% completed] ........................... [54% completed] ........................... [54% completed] ........................... [54% completed] .......................... [54% completed] .............................. [59% completed] ................................ [64% completed] ................................... [69% completed] ..................................... [74% completed] ........................................ [79% completed] .......................................... [84% completed] ............................................. [89% completed] ............................................... [94% completed] .................................................. [99% completed] .................................................. [100% completed] Download completed, job completed in 100 seconds. (10485 Kb/sec) Shutting down...
And from thinkbroadband.com in UK:
aget -n 10 http://download.thinkbroadband.com/1GB.zip Attempting to read log file aget-1GB.zip.log for resuming download job... Couldn't find log file for this download, starting a clean job... Head-Request Connection established Downloading /1GB.zip (1073741824 bytes) from site download.thinkbroadband.com(80.249.99.148:80). Number of Threads: 10 .. [4% completed] ..... [9% completed] ....... [14% completed] .......... [19% completed] ............ [24% completed] ............... [29% completed] ................. [34% completed] .................... [39% completed] ...................... [44% completed] ......................... [49% completed] ........................... [54% completed] .............................. [59% completed] ................................ [64% completed] ................................... [69% completed] ..................................... [74% completed] ........................................ [79% completed] .......................................... [84% completed] ............................................. [89% completed] ............................................... [94% completed] .................................................. [99% completed] .................................................. [100% completed] Download completed, job completed in 44 seconds. (23831 Kb/sec) Shutting down...
Although not as fast as the Cachefly download, both download speed are quite impressive.
The upload speed is pretty good as well, from my BuyVM test VPS in Fremont, CA:
wget 208.85.240.54/100mb.test --2011-08-09 07:19:09-- http://208.85.240.54/100mb.test Connecting to 208.85.240.54:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `100mb.test' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 4.96M/s in 28s 2011-08-09 07:19:37 (3.59 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
Nix Communication’s VPS in Montreal, Canada:
wget 208.85.240.54/100mb.test --2011-08-09 03:20:24-- http://208.85.240.54/100mb.test Connecting to 208.85.240.54:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `100mb.test' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 10.5M/s in 13s 2011-08-09 03:20:37 (7.90 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
And finally Quickweb VPS in London, UK:
wget 208.85.240.54/100mb.test --2011-08-08 19:21:48-- http://208.85.240.54/100mb.test Connecting to 208.85.240.54:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `100mb.test' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 11.7M/s in 9.8s 2011-08-08 19:21:58 (10.2 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]
As you can see, the speed are more than sufficient for a budget VPS.
Given the hardware resources, it is not difficult to guess that the benchmark score are really good, first the UnixBench 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
2 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Double-Precision Whetstone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Execl Throughput 1 2 3
2 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1 2 3
2 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1 2 3
2 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1 2 3
2 x Pipe Throughput 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Pipe-based Context Switching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Process Creation 1 2 3
2 x System Call Overhead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1 2 3
2 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1 2 3
========================================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3)
System: bitcable: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-5-686 -- #1 SMP Mon Jun 13 04:13:06 UTC 2011
Machine: i686 (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
CPU 0: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1 (6385.8 bogomips)
x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET
CPU 1: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1 (6385.8 bogomips)
x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET
12:23:10 up 11:13, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.15; runlevel 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Mon Aug 08 2011 12:23:10 - 12:51:25
2 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 19572830.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 3228.9 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 2301.6 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1043687.9 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 268911.9 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 2487526.8 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 2174482.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 352019.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 6470.3 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 4851.9 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2041.9 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 3545657.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 19572830.7 1677.2
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 3228.9 587.1
Execl Throughput 43.0 2301.6 535.3
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 1043687.9 2635.6
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 268911.9 1624.8
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 2487526.8 4288.8
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 2174482.1 1748.0
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 352019.9 880.0
Process Creation 126.0 6470.3 513.5
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 4851.9 1144.3
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2041.9 3403.1
System Call Overhead 15000.0 3545657.2 2363.8
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1425.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Mon Aug 08 2011 12:51:25 - 13:19:43
2 CPUs in system; running 2 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 39209556.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 6434.9 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 11975.4 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1174029.6 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 326407.1 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 3532418.2 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 4403934.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 781107.4 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 42835.3 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 15826.1 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2081.8 lpm (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 5699966.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 39209556.1 3359.9
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 6434.9 1170.0
Execl Throughput 43.0 11975.4 2785.0
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 1174029.6 2964.7
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 326407.1 1972.2
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 3532418.2 6090.4
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 4403934.1 3540.1
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 781107.4 1952.8
Process Creation 126.0 42835.3 3399.6
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 15826.1 3732.6
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2081.8 3469.7
System Call Overhead 15000.0 5699966.6 3800.0
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 2959.2
Wow, that is close to 3000 points! Definitely one of the highest I have seen among the low end VPS. Test again showed similar results:
# # # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
# # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # # #
# # # # # # ## ##### ##### # # # # ######
# # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # #
# # # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # #
#### # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
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
2 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Double-Precision Whetstone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Execl Throughput 1 2 3
2 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1 2 3
2 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1 2 3
2 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1 2 3
2 x Pipe Throughput 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Pipe-based Context Switching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Process Creation 1 2 3
2 x System Call Overhead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1 2 3
2 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1 2 3
========================================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3)
System: bitcable: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-5-686 -- #1 SMP Mon Jun 13 04:13:06 UTC 2011
Machine: i686 (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
CPU 0: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1 (6385.8 bogomips)
x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET
CPU 1: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1 (6385.8 bogomips)
x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET
13:32:45 up 12:23, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.47, 1.42; runlevel 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Mon Aug 08 2011 13:32:45 - 14:01:00
2 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 19780133.0 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 3249.6 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 2262.1 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1014353.0 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 285760.5 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 2552921.9 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 2209678.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 358699.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 6491.3 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 4722.6 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2043.7 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 3626698.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 19780133.0 1695.0
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 3249.6 590.8
Execl Throughput 43.0 2262.1 526.1
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 1014353.0 2561.5
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 285760.5 1726.6
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 2552921.9 4401.6
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 2209678.5 1776.3
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 358699.7 896.7
Process Creation 126.0 6491.3 515.2
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 4722.6 1113.8
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2043.7 3406.1
System Call Overhead 15000.0 3626698.6 2417.8
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1436.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Mon Aug 08 2011 14:01:00 - 14:29:16
2 CPUs in system; running 2 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 38989920.3 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 6453.7 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 11972.8 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1246007.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 315826.3 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 3647316.9 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 4434474.4 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 796818.0 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 42961.8 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 16001.0 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2095.8 lpm (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 5826217.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 38989920.3 3341.0
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 6453.7 1173.4
Execl Throughput 43.0 11972.8 2784.4
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 1246007.7 3146.5
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 315826.3 1908.3
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 3647316.9 6288.5
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 4434474.4 3564.7
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 796818.0 1992.0
Process Creation 126.0 42961.8 3409.7
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 16001.0 3773.8
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2095.8 3493.0
System Call Overhead 15000.0 5826217.9 3884.1
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 2990.2
Geekbench shows pretty good results too:
System Information
Platform: Linux x86 (32-bit)
Compiler: GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)
Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 i686
Model: Linux PC (QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1)
Motherboard: Unknown Motherboard
Processor: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 6 Stepping 3
Logical Processors: 2
Physical Processors: 1
Processor Frequency: 3.19 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 64.0 KB
L1 Data Cache: 64.0 KB
L2 Cache: 512 KB
L3 Cache: 0.00 B
Bus Frequency: 0.00 Hz
Memory: 248 MB
Memory Type: N/A
SIMD: 1
BIOS: N/A
Processor Model: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1
Processor Cores: 2
Integer
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 2139 ||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3984 |||||||||||||||
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 2875 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5280 |||||||||||||||||||||
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 3065 ||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5868 |||||||||||||||||||||||
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 2423 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3820 |||||||||||||||
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 2391 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3065 ||||||||||||
Lua
single-threaded scalar 3950 |||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7597 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Floating Point
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 2742 ||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5049 ||||||||||||||||||||
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 4554 ||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8323 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 5357 |||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded vector 9069 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 3445 |||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3568 ||||||||||||||
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 4841 |||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7508 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 11016 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 15936 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 8678 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 15674 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 7100 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 10958 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 5236 ||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 7108 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 14159 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 5769 |||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 7021 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 6045 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 6468 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 5625 ||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 6505 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 6349 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 4775 |||||||||||||||||||
Integer Score: 3871 |||||||||||||||
Floating Point Score: 7554 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Score: 8912 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Score: 6069 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall Geekbench Score: 6388 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
And again above 6300:
System Information
Platform: Linux x86 (32-bit)
Compiler: GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)
Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 i686
Model: Linux PC (QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1)
Motherboard: Unknown Motherboard
Processor: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 6 Stepping 3
Logical Processors: 2
Physical Processors: 1
Processor Frequency: 3.19 GHz
L1 Instruction Cache: 64.0 KB
L1 Data Cache: 64.0 KB
L2 Cache: 512 KB
L3 Cache: 0.00 B
Bus Frequency: 0.00 Hz
Memory: 248 MB
Memory Type: N/A
SIMD: 1
BIOS: N/A
Processor Model: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1
Processor Cores: 2
Integer
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 2156 ||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4095 ||||||||||||||||
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 2932 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5362 |||||||||||||||||||||
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 3115 ||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5848 |||||||||||||||||||||||
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 2412 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3791 |||||||||||||||
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 2409 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3070 ||||||||||||
Lua
single-threaded scalar 3923 |||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7684 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Floating Point
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 2773 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4921 |||||||||||||||||||
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 4550 ||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8406 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 5373 |||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded vector 8415 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 3539 ||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 2549 ||||||||||
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 4847 |||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7451 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 10973 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 15984 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 8637 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 16024 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 7046 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 10998 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 5223 ||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 7139 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 12938 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 5847 |||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 6769 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 6051 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 6520 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 5663 ||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 6368 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 6128 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 4779 |||||||||||||||||||
Integer Score: 3899 |||||||||||||||
Floating Point Score: 7460 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Score: 8668 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Score: 6015 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall Geekbench Score: 6310 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
In conclusion, although the price seems to be in the in the high end of the budget VPS (but with 50% off coupon, the prices are really reasonable), the VPS itself definitely offers great performance.
Customer Service and Support
Although Preetam is the only person that I know I have spoken with, the ticket response was definitely very fast. My pre-sales ticket was answered in 5 minutes (put in at 14:57, answered at 15:02), the ticket that he has opened to ask me what OS distribution I would want to have was responded within 3 minutes after my initial reply. Finally, the only support ticket that I had them took a bit longer and was responded in….7 minutes! The reason why it took “longer” was actually because although I only asked about port speed out of curiosity, Preetam actually checked my VPS and noticed there was a problem with my NIC settings that makes it only functions as a 100Mbit port and he has fixed it for me, all in 7 minutes.
Conclusion
To be honest, I was a little hesitant at the beginning: high school senior running a VPS hosting business with no review available is definitely not everyone’s favourite. However, by now I would say all my worries are unnecessary. What BitCable has presented to me is a VPS that may not be the cheapest, but with impressive hardware resources and high benchmark score. Together with quick customer service and support, BitCable is definitely a very good candidate for those who want good VPS.
Thanks for the review!
I just wanted to share that we’re working on a completely new VPS dashboard to manage our KVM VPSs. It should make management a whole lot easier 🙂
That’s a good news, I hope the birthday promo will last a bit longer, I have way too many vps right now ^_^
@admin, from my traceroute results it’s in fastserv
@circus: I do not really see the tracert results…does it tell you which DC BitCable is in?
yup
they test ip is -> fastserv.core1.ash1.he.net
@circus: I guess you must have a special tracert tool then, mine just timed out after the 14th hop or something…
Oh, never mind, you used dig -x to find that?
@admin, my mistake ^_^ actually fastserv.core1.ash1.he.net is fastserv router or something (a node just before the test ip) 😛
traceroute to 209.9.238.4 (209.9.238.4), 30 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 10.66.82.1 (10.66.82.1) 271.021 ms 252.830 ms 267.945 ms
2 escapefromla.hostigation.com (96.44.154.33) 268.993 ms 272.756 ms 272.038 ms
3 hostg-quadra-gw.hostigation.com (72.11.150.105) 274.951 ms 271.809 ms 279.960 ms
4 96.44.180.97 (96.44.180.97) 259.961 ms 271.901 ms 262.995 ms
5 96.44.180.245 (96.44.180.245) 272.976 ms 271.906 ms 269.961 ms
6 10gigabitethernet1-3.core1.lax1.he.net (206.223.123.37) 327.990 ms 352.787 ms 323.972 ms
7 10gigabitethernet1-1.core1.phx1.he.net (72.52.92.250) 357.982 ms 10gigabitethernet4-3.core1.nyc4.he.net (72.52.92.225) 364.794 ms 364.781 ms
8 10gigabitethernet1-3.core1.dal1.he.net (72.52.92.254) 343.977 ms 335.828 ms 356.955 ms
9 fastserv.core1.ash1.he.net (216.66.0.226) 349.984 ms 339.843 ms 350.913 ms
10 209.9.238.4 (209.9.238.4) 347.006 ms 346.851 ms 318.011 ms
@circus: Interesting enough, this post went to the spam for some reason, guess there are too many HE.Net in there? LOL 🙂
Yes, we’re colocating our servers at the Latisys data center in Ashburn (through FastServ).
@Preetam: Nice, you beat me in speed of replying again! Thanks for solving the mystery for us 🙂
Oh well, I can’t resist ^_^
geekbench
$ 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, 10.4811 s, 102 MB/s
$ 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, 9.31846 s, 115 MB/s
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