# BlueVM KVM 512 MB (NY)



## wlanboy (May 20, 2013)

*Provider*: BlueVM
*Plan*: KVM 512mb VPS
*Price*: 24$ per year (birthday special)
*Location*: Buffalo, NY

*Purchased*: 05/2013

*Hardware information:*


cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 13
model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6)
stepping : 3
microcode : 0x1
cpu MHz : 1999.999
cache size : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
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 mtrr pge mca cmov pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx lm pni cx16 hypervisor lahf_lm
bogomips : 3999.99
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 13
model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6)
stepping : 3
microcode : 0x1
cpu MHz : 1999.999
cache size : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
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 mtrr pge mca cmov pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx lm pni cx16 hypervisor lahf_lm
bogomips : 3999.99
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:


cat /proc/meminfo

```
MemTotal:         508148 kB
MemFree:           93808 kB
Buffers:           68028 kB
Cached:           104184 kB
SwapCached:         2016 kB
Active:            97368 kB
Inactive:         254696 kB
Active(anon):      16456 kB
Inactive(anon):   165308 kB
Active(file):      80912 kB
Inactive(file):    89388 kB
Unevictable:           0 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
HighTotal:             0 kB
HighFree:              0 kB
LowTotal:         508148 kB
LowFree:           93808 kB
SwapTotal:        522236 kB
SwapFree:         500040 kB
Dirty:                32 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:        178104 kB
Mapped:            21312 kB
Shmem:              1912 kB
Slab:              36208 kB
SReclaimable:      23276 kB
SUnreclaim:        12932 kB
KernelStack:        3256 kB
PageTables:         7288 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:      776308 kB
Committed_AS:    1888336 kB
VmallocTotal:     512004 kB
VmallocUsed:        6768 kB
VmallocChunk:     503128 kB
HardwareCorrupted:     0 kB
AnonHugePages:         0 kB
HugePages_Total:       0
HugePages_Free:        0
HugePages_Rsvd:        0
HugePages_Surp:        0
Hugepagesize:       2048 kB
DirectMap4k:       59380 kB
DirectMap2M:      464896 kB
```

dd

```
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync && rm -rf test
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 42.5395 s, 25.2 MB/s
```

updated dd

```
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync && rm -rf test
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 19.2025 s, 55.9 MB/s
```

wget

```
wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null

--2013-05-20 07:14:33--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net (cachefly.cachefly.net)... 205.234.175.175
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net (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 3.36M/s   in 39s

2013-05-20 07:15:12 (2.56 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
```

updated wget

```
wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null

Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net (cachefly.cachefly.net)... 205.234.175.175
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net (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 27.1M/s   in 4.4s

2013-05-21 01:31:08 (23.0 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
```

*What services are running?*


2x Xfce desktops
2x VNC servers
Openvpn
Ruby scripts
Ruby debugger
SVN server
*Support:*

I have opened 2 support tickets in two weeks. All get short answers within some hours. If I look to them:


One ticket for asking about vnc connection information.
One ticket to ask why my vps is offline.
Friendly support that is not fast and cannot tell any time schedule on hardware failures. Ok this was a really hard test because a hard disk failure on the node is something Level 1 support can just note. But there are two things that totally went wrong on support:


I had to inform them. Due to time zones I have read the statuscake emails after 6 hours. So no information from BlueVM to me that the node is down even after 6 hours of downtime.
I had to reask if the node is online again. Yes BlueVM did not send me any information that the node is working again. I had to open a ticket to get a response that I can restart my vps again.

*Overall experience:*

It was their birthday special. I could not resist. The package is working and is good - if the node is online. I use this machine to remote build and debug Ruby gems. Building native extensions is something that is using a lot of I/O and cpu power.

The Xfce desktops are working fine too. Even browsing with firefox is fast enough.

So I got a lot of hardware for the money. Network is ok, ping to europe is ok too.

Their SolusVM server is overloaded. Login lasts about 60 seconds. Confirmation of reboot about 10 seconds.

But if I look to the last downtime of the vps:

2013-05-19 07:13:41 2013-05-20 11:56:01 28h 42m

Yes nearly 29 hours of downtime due to a harddisk failure of the node.

Not a good start at all. But the support just ruined my opinion of BlueVM because they did not send me any notification. Not about the hardware failure and not about the fact that I can use my vps again.

PS:
I have updated the dd/wget lines. Things that changed:


Activating virtio
Let time pass .. benchmarking half an hour after a node is back alive is not fair.

Canceled due to bandwith/routing issues in Buffalo -> EU.

Read review about my move to CH ->


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## elusus83 (May 20, 2013)

This is pretty accurate. I've had the exact same experience.


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## bizzard (May 20, 2013)

I am a BlueVM customer too, having 2 vps and a shared hosting account. Their hardware and network is fine and I am somewhat satisfied by it. There is a good community in IRC, the support staff are friendly, but not as fast as others. One thing they have to improve is the notification system. Even if they are making a change at their side, its not properly notified to the customer through mail. Last time, they migrated their shared hosting server and I came to know about it from the IRC, when my sites were not working. They said they have sent our mails, but I didn't receive any. Also, whenever a node goes down, notifying the customer about it will be great as atleast we would know that someone is working on it. Last day, their Server 5 at California was down and I had to wait for a long time in IRC to hear anything regarding it from a staff.


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## VPN.SH (May 20, 2013)

I've had the same experience with SolusVM. Takes FOREVER to log in. Anybody from BlueVM able to clear up whether or not this is planned to be resolved?


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## BlueVM (May 20, 2013)

@liamwithers - SolusVM is actually (and has been) under DDOS so it'll be slow until the attack is gone.

@wlanboy - We understand your frustration and the downtime is unacceptable. We are working to make these incidents smaller and notify users about them in the future. We will be releasing a status system in the next few weeks which will allow users to subscribe to email updates about servers they want information on.


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## wlanboy (May 20, 2013)

@BlueVM

Thank you for the response. Looking forward to the notification system.

Any time schedule for your wiki?


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## Ishaq (May 20, 2013)

Due to spam issues we had to take our wiki down regularly, we'll bring a new one online soon.


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## Mun (May 20, 2013)

or.... ishaq could just bug me


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## Ishaq (May 20, 2013)

/me bugs Mun


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## Mun (May 20, 2013)

So where would you like it setup ishaq


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## drmike (May 20, 2013)

Is BlueVM buying from ChicagoVPS and the IP info hasn't been changed as to disguise that fact?


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## Mun (May 20, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Is BlueVM buying from ChicagoVPS and the IP info hasn't been changed as to disguise that fact?


First off no, second off no, third off would it even really matter? You are just upset anything CVPS. In this case bluevm purchased the block that was formerly used by cvps.


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## BlueVM (May 20, 2013)

If I was trying to hide something I'd make sure to switch out the information BEFORE I gave away 16 /24s worth of IPs... Anyway there's another block we own which is listed under Hudson Valley Host and we haven't changed that yet either...

I threw in the org information for Arin today, shoulda done it a while back because now the running joke is gonna be that we host with CVPS when we don't... doesn't matter really anyway because frankly everyone seems on the warpath against colo crossing and frankly I'm tired of it.

Why we went with colo crossing: It's allowed us to support a large number of locations without having to contact each datacenter directly and pay for more space than we need. When we started out we were saving over $1,700 a month on colocation by going with colo crossing. Today we probably save $3000+ a month just based on the fact that we don't have to buy whole racks just to get a decent price. That money has allowed us to purchase more hardware and we're even looking into expanding to Germany next month.


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## Tactical (May 20, 2013)

Bluevm is rock solid. I have 2 vps' with them one kvm and one openvz. Just rock solid service. Support was good enough for me the 2 times I had to use them. Just rock solid.


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## drmike (May 20, 2013)

Mun said:


> First off no, second off no, third off would it even really matter? You are just upset anything CVPS. In this case bluevm purchased the block that was formerly used by cvps.


I am not upset by anything CVPS/CC.  I am just curious.  

If folks didn't pay attention and weren't curious, some folks would be even more dishonest.

Formerly used block that CVPS had, yes.

That's probably better than getting a soiled IP space CC let spammers run wild on.


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## jarland (May 20, 2013)

BlueVM said:


> warpath against colo crossing and frankly I'm tired of it.


As one of the most accused of such and a strong advocate of BlueVM I'd have to disagree. A war against dishonesty? Perhaps. That's always been my nature and I'd like to think I'll be that way until I die.


Either way, I love BlueVM


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## drmike (May 20, 2013)

I don't have issues with providers JUST BECAUSE they use CC/CVPS.

Let's look at the finer points of the review, shall we? The not so good points:

1. dd
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync && rm -rf test
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 42.5395 s, 25.2 MB/s

======== SLOW.

2. wget
wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null

--2013-05-20 07:14:33-- http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net (cachefly.cachefly.net)... 205.234.175.175
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net (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 3.36M/s in 39s

============== SLOW

3. support that is not fast 

============= SLOW

4. support that cannot tell any time schedule on hardware failures.

============= SLOW

5. BlueVM did not send me any information that the node is working again.

============= BAD CUSTOMER SUPPORT

6. Their SolusVM server is overloaded. Login lasts about 60 seconds. Confirmation of reboot about 10 seconds.

============= SLOW

7. 2013-05-19 07:13:41 2013-05-20 11:56:01 28h 42m - Yes nearly 29 hours of downtime

@wlanboy is being kind with his review.

I drop providers for far less issues.

Spend less time posting ads and worrying about how much HaterAde I've drank today and more time getting your operations in order.  You folks list a bunch of staff and aren't new to this business, so I expect better.


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## wlanboy (Sep 7, 2013)

Time to update my review.

*What services are running?*


2x Xfce desktops
2x VNC servers
Openvpn
Ruby scripts
Ruby debugger
SVN server
Munin master
MongoDB cluster node
*Support:*

Not a single support ticket needed.

*Overall experience:*

I really enjoy this node. No hassles, no downtimes, no support needed and a fast network that sometimes has not-that-good routings to europe. Routings within the US are ok.

Performance is good - for the price I am paying - and stability is way beyond the price tag.


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## shawn_ky (Sep 7, 2013)

I've had the same experience with BlueVM. Actually got a VPS when your review was posted. Great service... Really like Feathur also..


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## Gallaeaho (Sep 29, 2013)

I too have services with BlueVM (Two KVM 512MB's in Buffalo) and I must say that for the price, their services are worth the money.

Sure, they've had a few hiccups, due to one issue or another, but their support has been helpful for me (I usually go to their IRC for unofficial support, and have only ever had to open one ticket since becoming a customer).

I've never had a network issue that was directly related to their networking.

My only complaint is that their SolusVM panel takes an incredibly long time to log you in. They will get their KVM clientbase migrated to Feathur at some point, which will hopefully be quite a bit faster.


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## wlanboy (Oct 3, 2013)

shawn_ky said:


> I've had the same experience with BlueVM. Actually got a VPS when your review was posted. Great service... Really like Feathur also..


Yup, Feathur is great. I like the lean approach of the interface.



Gallaeaho said:


> I too have services with BlueVM (Two KVM 512MB's in Buffalo) and I must say that for the price, their services are worth the money.
> 
> My only complaint is that their SolusVM panel takes an incredibly long time to log you in. They will get their KVM clientbase migrated to Feathur at some point, which will hopefully be quite a bit faster.


I am waiting for the KVM migration to Feathur too.


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## Riccardo_G (Oct 17, 2013)

support on irc

is very important and fast


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## wlanboy (Nov 2, 2013)

Wanted to add the status report beause I am currently reading the reports of my vps:



The first downtime was my fault - I did not restart the vps (stop and restart are not the same!).

Sum up:

6 minutes and 34 seconds downtime since May the 17th.


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## ryzhov_al (Mar 10, 2014)

Not sure BlueVM is a great deal, at least those based on Atlanta (S7-ATL server). My VPS is going off-line for a few hours 4 times in last 7 days, I'm tired to add a tickets for it's tech support: #394235 (VPS was off-line 03/05/2014),#740898 (VPS was off-line 03/07/2014), #220352 (VPS was off-line 03/08/2014), #774021 (VPS is off-line now, 03/10/2014).


IMHO, it's unacceptable level of service


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## peterw (Mar 10, 2014)

wlanboy said:


> Canceled due to bandwith/routing issues in Buffalo -> EU.
> Read review about my move to CH ->


You should post this because I did not read the first page to see that you canceled it. I have canceled my Bluevm server in LA too due to the same reasons.


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