96MB Low End VPS Review Part 46 – Inception Hosting Take Three!
Anthony emailed me a long time ago before InceptionHosting even started to offer hosting in the continental US for a review on their Phoenix node, however I was too busy with all other stuff in life (if you have noticed recently, my posting rate on 96MB is decreasing drastically) until Anthony basically gave up waiting for me on that review (sorry Anthony!) and asked me to review the new node he set up in Netherlands. Unfortunately, although I have done the data collection work like months ago, I did not get a chance to write this review until now. Therefore, without further delay, let’s take a look at how the new service is doing.
Note that this won’t be a full review since Inception Hosting has been featured quite a few times on 96MB (more specifically here and here) and therefore I will only focus on the recent changes as well as the performance on this new node.
Basic Information and Set Up
Since the last review, Inception Hosting has made quite a few changes. For one thing, instant rDNS is now available on their VPS! Finally no more ticketing to customer support whenever you need to make some changes to the rDNS. For someone like me, who enjoys trying and putting up different stuff on different servers just for fun, this is something that I appreciate.
As for the OS templates, there are still quite a few templates available, however I really hope Debian 4 could somehow have a 62 bit OS template for us to play around with (take a look at the bottom of the first screenshot below):
Jokes aside, I think it is a great idea that they have several OpenVPN access templates, since many people primarily use the low end boxes for VPS purposes, and it would be a great idea if people do not need to set up their own OpenVPN software, which could be pretty daunting to some Linux newbies. Also, the OpenVPN templates actually provided a pretty neat web GUI, which is definitely a plus.
Furthermore, they have now started to offer 5GB (which was mentioned here and in the Welcome email as well, although LowEndBox seems to mention that the backup space is 15GB according to the post here) of free backup space with every single VPS and all you need is to send in a ticket to ask.
From the whois check on the test IP, it appears that they are still using the IP addresses from SnelServers in Netherlands and they have IPv6 addresses available as well.
There are a few things that remains the same though, provision is still instant, although the email has got a bit longer with quite a bit of information compare to a standard Welcome email sent from WHMCS:
As you can see, first all the passwords were masked in the email and the only hint offered is “the password you used to sign up”, although you can retrieve those information from the control panel in WHMCS. Besides this, there is a session of the information email dedicated to OpenVPN server set up, which is pretty convenient for those who plan to use the box as an OpenVPN server. There is a line specifically for the ArchLinux users and one line on how to request for 5GB of backup space. Finally, there is a detailed fine print outlining several dos and don’ts of using their services. Finally, the way that they are starting to name the SolusVM users are pretty different than before as well, rather than vmuserxxxx, they now start to name them like nlvpsxxx, which has not been updated yet on the welcome email. The product names have been updated though, with those NL-based services named as EUVPS.
Both SolusVM control panel and the WHMCS system are using the secured HTTP access, which Anthony has fixed shortly after the first 96MB review on them. Right now both the IPv6 addresses and IPv4 addresses are shown on the control panel in WHMCS and the buttons on the control panel in WHMCS work fine as well (although you will always need to reboot the VPS after changing the root password):
Test on the VPS
The VPS that I have received for testing, as per their advertisement on LowEndBox here, has 128MB of RAM, 7GB of hard drive space and 300GB of bandwidth, and it is based in SnelServers DC in Netherlands. Debian 6 32 bit minimal was used for testing purposes. Obviously, the VPS is using Xen virtulization technology, which is pretty much what every single VPS sold by Inception Hosting is using.
When the VPS was first set up, about 11MB of RAM was used:
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 121 94 26 0 4 78
-/+ buffers/cache: 11 109
Swap: 127 0 127
The corresponding top output:
top - 21:58:53 up 9 min, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 52 total, 1 running, 51 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: 124256k total, 97348k used, 26908k free, 4504k buffers
Swap: 131064k total, 0k used, 131064k free, 80784k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
642 root 20 0 8264 2856 2328 S 0 2.3 0:00.01 sshd
645 root 20 0 2972 1616 1288 S 0 1.3 0:00.01 bash
556 root 20 0 27320 1480 1024 S 0 1.2 0:00.00 rsyslogd
655 root 20 0 2340 1116 896 R 0 0.9 0:00.00 top
584 root 20 0 5500 980 584 S 0 0.8 0:00.00 sshd
577 root 20 0 2300 768 600 S 0 0.6 0:00.00 cron
210 root 16 -4 2264 756 416 S 0 0.6 0:00.02 udevd
1 root 20 0 2040 728 628 S 0 0.6 0:00.17 init
265 root 18 -2 2260 652 316 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 udevd
266 root 18 -2 2260 652 316 S 0 0.5 0:00.00 udevd
634 root 20 0 1712 556 476 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 getty
638 root 20 0 1712 556 476 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 getty
635 root 20 0 1712 552 476 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 getty
636 root 20 0 1712 552 476 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 getty
637 root 20 0 1712 552 476 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 getty
639 root 20 0 1712 552 476 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 getty
640 root 20 0 1712 552 476 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 getty
As you can see, the usual Apache2 processes that are seen in a regular Debian 6 template is not there, which seems to indicate this template is really “clean”.
And htop output for htop fans:
About 850MB of hard drive space were taken:
df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/xvda1 6.9G 854M 5.8G 13% / tmpfs 61M 0 61M 0% /lib/init/rw udev 51M 24K 51M 1% /dev tmpfs 61M 4.0K 61M 1% /dev/shm
The iNodes are set to pretty decent values:
df -i Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on /dev/xvda1 917504 21955 895549 3% / tmpfs 15532 4 15528 1% /lib/init/rw udev 12926 393 12533 4% /dev tmpfs 15532 3 15529 1% /dev/shm
Interestingly, when the full LNMP stack was set up, the VPS actually did not see a huge increase in the RAM usage and is, pretty amazingly, only used 28MB of RAM:
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 121 118 2 0 4 85
-/+ buffers/cache: 28 92
Swap: 127 4 123
As you can see, there is very little Swap space being used as well.
The corresponding top output showing all the processes running:
top - 07:53:53 up 2:04, 2 users, load average: 0.04, 0.01, 0.00 Tasks: 64 total, 1 running, 63 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: 124256k total, 121772k used, 2484k free, 4552k buffers Swap: 131064k total, 4376k used, 126688k free, 87568k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 2069 www 20 0 15016 10m 440 S 0 8.9 0:00.00 nginx 2060 root 20 0 22632 4556 1412 S 0 3.7 0:00.47 php-cgi 2061 www 20 0 22632 4160 1016 S 0 3.3 0:00.00 php-cgi 2062 www 20 0 22632 4160 1016 S 0 3.3 0:00.00 php-cgi 2063 www 20 0 22632 4160 1016 S 0 3.3 0:00.00 php-cgi 2064 www 20 0 22632 4160 1016 S 0 3.3 0:00.00 php-cgi 2065 www 20 0 22632 4160 1016 S 0 3.3 0:00.00 php-cgi 2113 root 20 0 8268 2888 2372 S 0 2.3 0:00.05 sshd 2116 root 20 0 2976 1636 1308 S 0 1.3 0:00.00 bash 2123 root 20 0 2344 1136 908 R 0 0.9 0:00.00 top 14593 mysql 20 0 33948 1048 36 S 0 0.8 0:00.00 mysqld 642 root 20 0 8404 992 712 S 0 0.8 0:00.87 sshd 2068 root 20 0 4804 732 272 S 0 0.6 0:00.00 nginx 556 root 20 0 27320 696 464 S 0 0.6 0:00.02 rsyslogd 645 root 20 0 2972 524 380 S 0 0.4 0:00.01 bash 14491 root 20 0 1760 484 480 S 0 0.4 0:00.00 mysqld_safe 584 root 20 0 5500 324 224 S 0 0.3 0:00.00 sshd
Unfortunately I forgot to take a screenshot of the htop output and did not remember that until the VPS was cancelled, however I guess most of the information you need, if not all of them, are already shown in the top output. Apologies to the htop fans.
2.1GB of hard drive space was used:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/xvda1 6.9G 2.1G 4.6G 31% / tmpfs 61M 0 61M 0% /lib/init/rw udev 51M 24K 51M 1% /dev tmpfs 61M 4.0K 61M 1% /dev/shm
And about 8% of iNodes were taken:
df -i Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on /dev/xvda1 917504 69171 848333 8% / tmpfs 15532 4 15528 1% /lib/init/rw udev 12926 393 12533 4% /dev tmpfs 15532 3 15529 1% /dev/shm
Uptime shows the VPS is mostly idle:
uptime 12:50:36 up 7:01, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Which is confirmed by the output of vmstat:
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 21412 2848 992 100916 0 0 12 98 126 462 4 6 89 1
CPUinfo shows there are two CPU cores available, none of them are throttled:
cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 42 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz stepping : 7 cpu MHz : 3392.332 cache size : 8192 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 13 wp : yes flags : fpu de tsc msr pae cx8 sep cmov pat clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht nx constant_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq ssse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt hypervisor ida arat bogomips : 6784.66 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 : 42 model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz stepping : 7 cpu MHz : 3392.332 cache size : 8192 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 13 wp : yes flags : fpu de tsc msr pae cx8 sep cmov pat clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht nx constant_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq ssse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt hypervisor ida arat bogomips : 6784.66 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management:
The CPU is E3-1270 at 3.4GHz, which is pretty fast and the fact that you could use it to the fullest extent is definitely something great.
The output of meminfo:
cat /proc/meminfo MemTotal: 124256 kB MemFree: 3936 kB Buffers: 1584 kB Cached: 86332 kB SwapCached: 1372 kB Active: 13768 kB Inactive: 96996 kB Active(anon): 164 kB Inactive(anon): 22712 kB Active(file): 13604 kB Inactive(file): 74284 kB Unevictable: 0 kB Mlocked: 0 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree: 0 kB LowTotal: 124256 kB LowFree: 3936 kB SwapTotal: 131064 kB SwapFree: 125776 kB Dirty: 456 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 21828 kB Mapped: 7044 kB Shmem: 12 kB Slab: 6344 kB SReclaimable: 3924 kB SUnreclaim: 2420 kB KernelStack: 528 kB PageTables: 860 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 193192 kB Committed_AS: 105824 kB VmallocTotal: 729080 kB VmallocUsed: 932 kB VmallocChunk: 727960 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 2048 kB DirectMap4k: 131072 kB DirectMap2M: 0 kB
As well as the output of time sync:
time sync real 0m0.073s user 0m0.004s sys 0m0.000s
Network continues to be one of the most impressive area of Inception Hosting and I think their Gigabit ports are really one of their greatest selling points. For a Cachefly download test, I was able to get close to 50MB/s pretty easily:
wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2012-02-22 08:59:26-- 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 44.7M/s in 2.2s 2012-02-22 08:59:28 (44.7 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
Testing again later on showed somewhat better results:
wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2012-02-22 11:22:10-- 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 46.8M/s in 2.1s 2012-02-22 11:22:13 (46.8 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
Anthony has mentioned before for a Gbit port speed, the threaded wget is no longer a good test and hence I have used the aget (always need to apply a patch in Debian in order to get aget compiled, which is always a pain. Anybody knows a Debian repo where I can download aget pre-compiled?) and a 1GB test package to see how fast this VPS would run.
The first test is using a 1GB test file from ThinkBroadBand, which is located in London, UK:
aget -n10 http://ipv4.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 ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com(80.249.99.148:80). Number of Threads: 10 .. [4% completed] ..... [9% completed] ....... [14% completed] .......... [19% 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] [74% completed] ........................................ [79% completed] .......................................... [84% completed] .................................................................... [89% completed] ...................... [89% completed] ............................................... [94% completed] .................................................. [99% completed] .................................................. [100% completed] Download completed, job completed in 42 seconds. (24966 Kb/sec) Shutting down...
As you can see, the job was completed with close to 25Mbit of speed, which is pretty good considering those ThinkBroadband files are normally downloaded pretty slowly.
I have also tried to use the test file from HostDime in Orlando, Florida, which is a bit slower but still reasonable considering it is on the other end of Atlantic Ocean:
aget -n10 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] .......... [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 196 seconds. (5349 Kb/sec) Shutting down...
Quite frankly speaking, I do not think I have even get close to hit the full port speed, however this is definitely a lot faster than many of the 100mbit lines that I have used before.
Upload speed are pretty stable to North America and much faster to the VPS in Europe, which is pretty consistent with what we are expecting.
First the VPS from BuffaloVPS in Chicago, IL:
wget 128.204.195.120/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2012-02-22 00:15:45-- http://128.204.195.120/100mb.test Connecting to 128.204.195.120:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `/dev/null' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 1.31M/s in 95s 2012-02-22 00:17:21 (1.05 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
From my BuyVM VPS in San Jose, CA, the network speed is slightly better:
wget 128.204.195.120/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2012-02-22 00:28:09-- http://128.204.195.120/100mb.test Connecting to 128.204.195.120:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `/dev/null' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 1.56M/s in 90s 2012-02-22 00:29:39 (1.12 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
And the connection to my XenVZ VPS in Maidenhead in UK:
wget 128.204.195.120/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2012-02-22 00:28:09-- http://128.204.195.120/100mb.test Connecting to 128.204.195.120:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream] Saving to: `/dev/null' 100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 1.56M/s in 90s 2012-02-22 00:29:39 (1.12 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
Disk I/O is quite impressive as well on RAID 10 config:
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, 6.4797 s, 166 MB/s
As you can see, the I/O speed is again in the 3 digits range, which is quite good.
Test again showed similar results:
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, 5.67198 s, 189 MB/s
Yes, this is even better than before if the firt one is not too impressive.
Ioping tests, unfortunately, did not show the output to be that stable though:
ioping -c 10 . 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=1 time=0.1 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=2 time=0.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=3 time=22.4 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=4 time=17.7 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=5 time=0.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=6 time=0.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=7 time=10.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=8 time=33.3 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=9 time=0.1 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=10 time=0.2 ms --- . (ext3 /dev/xvda1) ioping statistics --- 10 requests completed in 9086.3 ms, 118 iops, 0.5 mb/s min/avg/max/mdev = 0.1/8.5/33.3/11.5 ms
Trying again basically showed similar results:
ioping -c 10 . 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=1 time=0.1 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=2 time=0.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=3 time=0.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=4 time=0.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=5 time=0.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=6 time=3.8 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=7 time=0.2 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=8 time=14.0 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=9 time=17.8 ms 4096 bytes from . (ext3 /dev/xvda1): request=10 time=0.1 ms --- . (ext3 /dev/xvda1) ioping statistics --- 10 requests completed in 9038.4 ms, 271 iops, 1.1 mb/s min/avg/max/mdev = 0.1/3.7/17.8/6.2 ms
As you can see, for each of the 10 readings, approximately 8 of them are really good with the remaining two showing rather high ioping values.
Update: As per Anthony’s request, I have re-ran the test on the VPS with 5000 iopings on another test VPS that Anthony gave me and here is the ioping stats:
--- . (ext3 /dev/xvda1) ioping statistics --- 5000 requests completed in 5005308.6 ms, 931 iops, 3.6 mb/s min/avg/max/mdev = 0.0/1.1/205.0/4.7 ms
And try again:
--- . (ext3 /dev/xvda1) ioping statistics --- 5000 requests completed in 5005030.7 ms, 981 iops, 3.8 mb/s min/avg/max/mdev = 0.0/1.0/79.3/3.9 ms
As you can see, overall the average ioping speed is pretty statisfactory at about 1ms.
Finally, the benchmarks. With just 2 CPU cores, quite frankly I told myself not to expect too much, however the VPS has achieved a pretty impressive score of more than 1300 points with UnixBench:
# # # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
# # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # # #
# # # # # # ## ##### ##### # # # # ######
# # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # #
# # # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # #
#### # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # #
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: *******GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem -- #1 SMP Wed Jan 12 04:40:25 UTC 2011
Machine: i686 (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz (6784.7 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT
CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz (6784.7 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT
08:00:17 up 2:10, 2 users, load average: 0.05, 0.03, 0.00; runlevel 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Wed Feb 22 2012 08:00:17 - 08:28:29
2 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 20212336.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 3269.8 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 2291.8 lps (29.6 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 470881.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 123071.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1383682.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 733694.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 94064.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 4489.6 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 5650.1 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1097.9 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 812166.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 20212336.2 1732.0
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 3269.8 594.5
Execl Throughput 43.0 2291.8 533.0
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 470881.7 1189.1
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 123071.7 743.6
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1383682.4 2385.7
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 733694.7 589.8
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 94064.1 235.2
Process Creation 126.0 4489.6 356.3
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 5650.1 1332.6
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1097.9 1829.8
System Call Overhead 15000.0 812166.6 541.4
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 806.3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Wed Feb 22 2012 08:28:29 - 08:56:42
2 CPUs in system; running 2 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 39659790.4 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 6514.1 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 4587.0 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 658848.9 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 170370.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 2083814.6 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 1441956.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 182238.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 8136.3 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 8447.7 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1118.2 lpm (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 1529474.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 39659790.4 3398.4
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 6514.1 1184.4
Execl Throughput 43.0 4587.0 1066.7
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 658848.9 1663.8
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 170370.4 1029.4
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 2083814.6 3592.8
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 1441956.5 1159.1
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 182238.9 455.6
Process Creation 126.0 8136.3 645.7
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 8447.7 1992.4
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1118.2 1863.7
System Call Overhead 15000.0 1529474.5 1019.6
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1342.0
Testing again showed almost the same score:
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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
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: ******: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem -- #1 SMP Wed Jan 12 04:40:25 UTC 2011
Machine: i686 (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz (6784.7 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT
CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz (6784.7 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT
09:10:22 up 3:20, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.43, 1.42; runlevel 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Wed Feb 22 2012 09:10:22 - 09:38:35
2 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 20349758.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 3282.0 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 2324.2 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 471254.0 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 123902.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1374633.1 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 737768.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 93700.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 4681.5 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 5621.9 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1100.9 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 810463.8 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 20349758.2 1743.8
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 3282.0 596.7
Execl Throughput 43.0 2324.2 540.5
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 471254.0 1190.0
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 123902.7 748.7
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1374633.1 2370.1
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 737768.7 593.1
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 93700.2 234.3
Process Creation 126.0 4681.5 371.5
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 5621.9 1325.9
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1100.9 1834.9
System Call Overhead 15000.0 810463.8 540.3
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 810.7
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Wed Feb 22 2012 09:38:35 - 10:06:46
2 CPUs in system; running 2 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 40063735.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 6542.4 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 4642.2 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 673433.2 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 172740.2 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 2092494.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 1460650.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 184551.3 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 8563.8 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 8608.1 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1124.4 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 1540154.0 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 40063735.7 3433.1
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 6542.4 1189.5
Execl Throughput 43.0 4642.2 1079.6
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 673433.2 1700.6
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 172740.2 1043.7
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 2092494.4 3607.7
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 1460650.1 1174.2
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 184551.3 461.4
Process Creation 126.0 8563.8 679.7
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 8608.1 2030.2
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1124.4 1874.0
System Call Overhead 15000.0 1540154.0 1026.8
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1361.6
GeekBench results are also very encouraging, with scores above 6500 points:
System Information
Platform: Linux x86 (32-bit)
Compiler: GCC 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)
Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem i686
Model: Linux PC (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz)
Motherboard: Unknown Motherboard
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Logical Processors: 2
Physical Processors: 1
Processor Frequency: 3.39 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: 121 MB
Memory Type: N/A
SIMD: 1
BIOS: N/A
Processor Model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz
Processor Cores: 2
Integer
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 2192 ||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4052 ||||||||||||||||
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 2915 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5353 |||||||||||||||||||||
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 3198 ||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 6228 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 2502 ||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3557 ||||||||||||||
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 2322 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 2900 |||||||||||
Lua
single-threaded scalar 4175 ||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7907 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Floating Point
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 2824 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5587 ||||||||||||||||||||||
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 4631 ||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8169 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 5527 ||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded vector 8969 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 3539 ||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3565 ||||||||||||||
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 4912 |||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7433 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 10903 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 15191 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 8531 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 15141 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 7484 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 11466 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 4949 |||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 7966 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 16052 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 6299 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 7382 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 6842 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 7254 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 6126 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 6980 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 6555 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 4742 ||||||||||||||||||
Integer Score: 3941 |||||||||||||||
Floating Point Score: 7494 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Score: 9583 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Score: 6522 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall Geekbench Score: 6571 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Testing again showed similar results as well:
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-bigmem i686
Model: Linux PC (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz)
Motherboard: Unknown Motherboard
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz
Processor ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7
Logical Processors: 2
Physical Processors: 1
Processor Frequency: 3.39 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: 121 MB
Memory Type: N/A
SIMD: 1
BIOS: N/A
Processor Model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz
Processor Cores: 2
Integer
Blowfish
single-threaded scalar 2195 ||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 4187 ||||||||||||||||
Text Compress
single-threaded scalar 2962 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5440 |||||||||||||||||||||
Text Decompress
single-threaded scalar 3198 ||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5931 |||||||||||||||||||||||
Image Compress
single-threaded scalar 2494 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3912 |||||||||||||||
Image Decompress
single-threaded scalar 2290 |||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 2958 |||||||||||
Lua
single-threaded scalar 4173 ||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7870 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Floating Point
Mandelbrot
single-threaded scalar 2834 |||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 5023 ||||||||||||||||||||
Dot Product
single-threaded scalar 4670 ||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 8500 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 5485 |||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded vector 8680 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LU Decomposition
single-threaded scalar 3550 ||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 3614 ||||||||||||||
Primality Test
single-threaded scalar 4944 |||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 7445 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sharpen Image
single-threaded scalar 10893 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 13451 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Blur Image
single-threaded scalar 8775 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
multi-threaded scalar 15614 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory
Read Sequential
single-threaded scalar 7708 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Write Sequential
single-threaded scalar 11913 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Allocate
single-threaded scalar 4956 |||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Write
single-threaded scalar 8120 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stdlib Copy
single-threaded scalar 16164 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream
Stream Copy
single-threaded scalar 6299 |||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 7570 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Scale
single-threaded scalar 6727 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 6907 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Add
single-threaded scalar 6166 ||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 6923 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Triad
single-threaded scalar 6807 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
single-threaded vector 5186 ||||||||||||||||||||
Integer Score: 3967 |||||||||||||||
Floating Point Score: 7391 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Score: 9772 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stream Score: 6573 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overall Geekbench Score: 6586 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Customer Service and Support
As their About page has mentioned, they do not claim to have 24×7 support, and any non-urgent issues are responded within the regular working hours.
I actually sort of like this as I have seen way too many hosting companies offering 24×7 support, when what they actually meant is that you can log in a ticket 24×7 and we will only respond to the ticket when we are ready to come to work. For a budget VPS provider, it is understandable that we can not expect immediate response for every single ticket sent in. However, giving your customers realistic expectations rather than promising something that you can’t fulfill is always a good business strategy.
Conclusion
One thing that makes me always puzzling is why despite being a company that is not even comparable in size to many of the big players in the budget VPS market, Inception Hosting could quickly become a well-known brand within the community and getting many good comments whenever they are being featured on LowEndBox or elsewhere (yes, each of the word is a different link representing a comment left by a various happy customers of Inception Hosting). I guess besides running in a very unique business model, which they have specified in their About page:
The other important factor is that Anthony and his team are people who always have new ideas and always love to listen and improve. No one is really perfect with the first try, and quite honestly I can even find some flaws on their services while I was working on this particular review, however I am sure it is just a matter of time before Inception Hosting gets them resolved and be an even better brand in future.
Finally…
If you have found this post to be useful and has decided to try a VPS with Inception Hosting, I would appreciate if you could use this link for your purchase. Disclaimer: this is an affiliate link and Inception Hosting will give me a minor portion of your purchase to me as commission. However you will not be paying more than other customers and all discount coupons should work as normal.
If you prefer not to purchase through the affiliate link, here is the direct link to their website: http://inceptionhosting.com/. If you have clicked through the affiliate link by accident and is not comfortable of using it, please close your browser and delete all cookies, then go directly to their website.