acd
New Member
Provider: FAPVPS
Plan: KVM 2GB VPS
Normal Price: 20 USD/month
Location: Dacentec, Lenoir, NC.
Received: 2013-06-23
Full disclosure, I received this VM gratis. I realize at 20 USD/month it's not a typical low-end review but it's what I was given to play around with.
/proc/cpuinfo:
root@ad:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 2
model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version 1.0
stepping : 3
microcode : 0x1
cpu MHz : 2266.746
cache size : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 3
core id : 0
cpu cores : 3
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
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 pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx lm rep_good nopl pni cx16 popcnt hypervisor lahf_lm
bogomips : 4533.49
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:
Since this is a 2GB plan, there are 3 cpu threads attached, but I've only included the first. Notably missing are SSE4.{1,2} features of the L5520 in this HN, but I rarely use those. I more miss the AESNI bells and whistles of newer silicon.
/proc/meminfo:
root@ad:~# cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 2061052 kB
MemFree: 1429964 kB
Buffers: 37924 kB
Cached: 504748 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 283568 kB
Inactive: 270800 kB
Active(anon): 11740 kB
Inactive(anon): 152 kB
Active(file): 271828 kB
Inactive(file): 270648 kB
Unevictable: 0 kB
Mlocked: 0 kB
SwapTotal: 2096124 kB
SwapFree: 2096124 kB
Dirty: 0 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 11708 kB
Mapped: 7944 kB
Shmem: 184 kB
Slab: 51592 kB
SReclaimable: 42936 kB
SUnreclaim: 8656 kB
KernelStack: 664 kB
PageTables: 1860 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
WritebackTmp: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 3126648 kB
Committed_AS: 58584 kB
VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB
VmallocUsed: 17332 kB
VmallocChunk: 34359718980 kB
HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB
AnonHugePages: 0 kB
HugePages_Total: 0
HugePages_Free: 0
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0
Hugepagesize: 2048 kB
DirectMap4k: 51188 kB
DirectMap2M: 2045952 kB
Running in x86_64 mode because it's a 2GB vps, and why not.
dd test:
This is one of their rotational disk backed systems, which does not have SSD caching.
wget test:
tw@ad:~$ wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
--2013-06-24 15:21:33-- 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 4.84M/s in 14s
2013-06-24 15:21:48 (7.14 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
Services running:
znc
sshd
ipsec
tw's ping/trace bot
CPU limited avconv
Unexpected funkiness.
Looks like FAPVPS offers 2 virtualized disks to their VMs, their default image using the smaller of the two for swap, though there is nothing keeping you from partitioning off some space on vda for similar purpose. I'm wondering if both disks are backed by the same array or separate disks. I can see how this might be advantageous to the HN, allowing it to use different caching strategies, but I honestly couldn't say to what end it is set up as it is.
root@ad:/boot/grub# cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
254 0 52428800 vda
254 1 52427776 vda1
254 16 2097152 vdb
254 17 2096128 vdb1
11 0 1048575 sr0
root@ad:/boot/grub# mount
...
/dev/disk/by-uuid/924c36e3-297b-4f6e-9993-0e1b08f6183c on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
...
root@ad:/boot/grub# ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/924c36e3-297b-4f6e-9993-0e1b08f6183c
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 23 23:15 /dev/disk/by-uuid/924c36e3-297b-4f6e-9993-0e1b08f6183c -> ../../vda1
root@ad:/boot/grub# cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/vdb1 partition 2096124 0 -1
Here are some common MTRs I use.
These are the hardware specs I was given by FAPVPS:
Experience so far:
FAPVPS is a new provider. They manually provision all of their VMs so it takes some time to get set up. They need to work on automating this process as much as possible, and they know about that problem. The panel is VirtualMin/CloudMin, which for someone from Solus (and solus-like) land, this panel seemed a bit counterintuitive. FAPVPS's OS selection is based on restoring an image to the disk, as opposed to manual installation via CDROM/VNC, which had been my experience thus far. The Control Panel allows you to shell in to the system as root from the page without asking for my root password. This sets off some alarm bells in my head and I immediately used passwd from the shell to disable that functionality. Also a bit irritating but not show stopping is the inability for the user to select an ISO image and reboot to it. Any ISO mounting or unmounting must be done by FAPVPS on your behalf. The same is true of RDNS. In addition, the virtual console used does not present the IP and port or opportunity to change VNC password to use an external client in the event that java is not available on the client system.
Their billing/manage system is a classic tandem setup with WHMCS for billing and CloudMin for management. As of now, FAPVPS does not offer any addon services or upgrades for VPSes templated in WHMCS, though if you need something, you can probably ticket to get it added; small hosts tend to be more flexible. The only VPS management feature WHMCS offers is "cancel" which is about par for the course.
These guys have a different than average bandwidth/disk/RAM/CPU ratio, giving more CPU time and RAM allocation than their similarly priced peers. My 2GB RAM has 50GB disk, 2TB of transit and 3 cores whereas an equivalent cost VM from BuyVM or RamNode would run half as much ram, 50% more transit, and a fair chunk of disk more. CPU allocation would be about even, though I couldn't make an appropriate loading comparison.
As far as ticketing friendliness and technical aptitude of the owner/operators, it seems pretty good on both parts. Even without ssd caching, the setup seems pretty solid. They might not have 10 years of virtualization experience, but if I use an industry term, they know what it means. A little time and some panel fixups and they could be a nice little host.
So far I've only been playing around with it a bit, and it seems to hold up pretty well to my light loading. I'll update this thread with any changes or updates I might note.
Plan: KVM 2GB VPS
Normal Price: 20 USD/month
Location: Dacentec, Lenoir, NC.
Received: 2013-06-23
Full disclosure, I received this VM gratis. I realize at 20 USD/month it's not a typical low-end review but it's what I was given to play around with.
/proc/cpuinfo:
root@ad:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 2
model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version 1.0
stepping : 3
microcode : 0x1
cpu MHz : 2266.746
cache size : 4096 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 3
core id : 0
cpu cores : 3
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
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 pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx lm rep_good nopl pni cx16 popcnt hypervisor lahf_lm
bogomips : 4533.49
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:
Since this is a 2GB plan, there are 3 cpu threads attached, but I've only included the first. Notably missing are SSE4.{1,2} features of the L5520 in this HN, but I rarely use those. I more miss the AESNI bells and whistles of newer silicon.
/proc/meminfo:
root@ad:~# cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 2061052 kB
MemFree: 1429964 kB
Buffers: 37924 kB
Cached: 504748 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 283568 kB
Inactive: 270800 kB
Active(anon): 11740 kB
Inactive(anon): 152 kB
Active(file): 271828 kB
Inactive(file): 270648 kB
Unevictable: 0 kB
Mlocked: 0 kB
SwapTotal: 2096124 kB
SwapFree: 2096124 kB
Dirty: 0 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 11708 kB
Mapped: 7944 kB
Shmem: 184 kB
Slab: 51592 kB
SReclaimable: 42936 kB
SUnreclaim: 8656 kB
KernelStack: 664 kB
PageTables: 1860 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
WritebackTmp: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 3126648 kB
Committed_AS: 58584 kB
VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB
VmallocUsed: 17332 kB
VmallocChunk: 34359718980 kB
HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB
AnonHugePages: 0 kB
HugePages_Total: 0
HugePages_Free: 0
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0
Hugepagesize: 2048 kB
DirectMap4k: 51188 kB
DirectMap2M: 2045952 kB
Running in x86_64 mode because it's a 2GB vps, and why not.
dd test:
Code:
root@ad:~# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync && unlink test
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 7.99866 s, 134 MB/swget test:
tw@ad:~$ wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
--2013-06-24 15:21:33-- 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 4.84M/s in 14s
2013-06-24 15:21:48 (7.14 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]
Services running:
znc
sshd
ipsec
tw's ping/trace bot
CPU limited avconv
Unexpected funkiness.
Looks like FAPVPS offers 2 virtualized disks to their VMs, their default image using the smaller of the two for swap, though there is nothing keeping you from partitioning off some space on vda for similar purpose. I'm wondering if both disks are backed by the same array or separate disks. I can see how this might be advantageous to the HN, allowing it to use different caching strategies, but I honestly couldn't say to what end it is set up as it is.
root@ad:/boot/grub# cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
254 0 52428800 vda
254 1 52427776 vda1
254 16 2097152 vdb
254 17 2096128 vdb1
11 0 1048575 sr0
root@ad:/boot/grub# mount
...
/dev/disk/by-uuid/924c36e3-297b-4f6e-9993-0e1b08f6183c on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered)
...
root@ad:/boot/grub# ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/924c36e3-297b-4f6e-9993-0e1b08f6183c
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 23 23:15 /dev/disk/by-uuid/924c36e3-297b-4f6e-9993-0e1b08f6183c -> ../../vda1
root@ad:/boot/grub# cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/vdb1 partition 2096124 0 -1
Here are some common MTRs I use.
Code:
tw@ad:~$ sudo mtr --report 8.8.8.8
HOST: ########################### Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 192.111.X.Y 0.0% 10 4.9 1.6 1.0 4.9 1.2
2.|-- 199.191.57.193 0.0% 10 0.6 3.1 0.4 9.8 3.7
3.|-- te3-4.ccr01.clt01.atlas.c 0.0% 10 21.5 51.4 20.6 182.1 58.0
4.|-- te0-5-0-6.mpd21.dca01.atl 0.0% 10 16.4 16.5 16.3 16.8 0.1
5.|-- te0-0-0-1.mpd21.iad02.atl 0.0% 10 19.4 20.0 18.2 23.0 1.9
6.|-- 38.122.62.74 0.0% 10 16.6 16.9 16.6 19.1 0.8
7.|-- 209.85.252.46 0.0% 10 22.9 19.6 19.0 22.9 1.2
8.|-- 72.14.236.98 0.0% 10 18.0 18.2 18.0 19.4 0.4
9.|-- 66.249.95.231 0.0% 10 26.7 26.7 26.4 28.5 0.6
10.|-- 72.14.234.65 0.0% 10 26.0 26.2 25.8 28.2 0.7
11.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
12.|-- google-public-dns-a.googl 0.0% 10 26.6 26.6 26.5 26.8 0.1
tw@ad:~$ sudo mtr --report 4.4.2.2
HOST: ########################### Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 192.111.X.Y 0.0% 10 1.2 1.2 1.1 1.3 0.1
2.|-- 199.191.57.193 0.0% 10 5.0 3.2 0.5 8.7 3.4
3.|-- te3-4.ccr01.clt01.atlas.c 0.0% 10 128.3 74.6 19.5 226.9 76.1
4.|-- te0-3-0-0.ccr21.atl01.atl 0.0% 10 26.8 24.2 21.1 28.9 2.9
5.|-- be2034.ccr21.atl04.atlas. 0.0% 10 21.3 21.2 21.1 21.3 0.1
6.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
tw@ad:~$ sudo mtr --report 205.185.112.1
[sudo] password for tw:
HOST: ########################### Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 192.111.X.Y 0.0% 10 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.2 0.0
2.|-- 199.191.57.193 0.0% 10 2.6 3.1 0.5 10.7 3.7
3.|-- dct-cr03--v51.dacentec.co 0.0% 10 9.2 9.2 9.0 10.6 0.5
4.|-- 10gigabitethernet1-3.core 0.0% 10 12.5 11.0 9.2 17.8 3.1
5.|-- 10gigabitethernet10-4.cor 0.0% 10 31.8 32.2 29.1 39.8 3.9
6.|-- 10gigabitethernet3-2.core 0.0% 10 52.9 56.2 52.9 62.1 3.6
7.|-- 10gigabitethernet1-2.core 0.0% 10 68.1 67.9 64.9 76.2 4.2
8.|-- 10gigabitethernet1-1.core 0.0% 10 74.3 74.7 74.1 78.0 1.2
9.|-- vegasnap-llc.10gigabiteth 0.0% 10 97.8 97.7 97.6 97.8 0.1
10.|-- 205.185.112.1 0.0% 10 98.1 98.0 97.8 98.3 0.2
tw@ad:~$ sudo mtr --report 199.195.255.1
HOST: ########################### Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 192.111.X.Y 0.0% 10 1.2 1.3 1.1 2.0 0.3
2.|-- 199.191.57.193 0.0% 10 10.3 2.5 0.5 10.3 3.3
3.|-- dct-cr03--v51.dacentec.co 0.0% 10 9.1 9.1 9.0 9.2 0.0
4.|-- atl-bb1-link.telia.net 0.0% 10 9.1 9.2 9.1 9.2 0.0
5.|-- ash-bb3-link.telia.net 0.0% 10 22.9 35.7 22.8 79.7 23.0
6.|-- nyk-bb1-link.telia.net 40.0% 10 27.6 28.3 27.6 29.8 0.8
7.|-- buf-b1-link.telia.net 50.0% 10 38.8 38.8 38.5 39.1 0.2
8.|-- giglinx-ic-155660-buf-b1. 50.0% 10 50.2 50.3 50.1 50.5 0.2
9.|-- 199.195.255.1 20.0% 10 37.0 37.6 36.9 38.7 0.7
tw@ad:~$ sudo mtr --report 199.241.28.6
HOST: ########################### Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 192.111.X.Y 0.0% 10 1.2 1.2 1.1 1.3 0.0
2.|-- 199.191.57.193 0.0% 10 4.8 3.0 0.5 8.5 3.4
3.|-- te3-4.ccr01.clt01.atlas.c 0.0% 10 23.3 89.0 23.3 184.7 63.0
4.|-- te0-0-0-5.mpd22.dca01.atl 0.0% 10 16.2 16.4 16.2 16.5 0.1
5.|-- te0-1-0-5.mpd22.iad02.atl 0.0% 10 27.0 27.8 19.0 33.6 4.1
6.|-- tiscali.iad01.atlas.cogen 0.0% 10 17.4 21.5 17.3 46.8 9.6
7.|-- xe-9-2-0.atl11.ip4.tinet. 0.0% 10 52.8 51.5 51.3 52.8 0.4
8.|-- ramnode-gw.ip4.tinet.net 0.0% 10 35.7 38.1 35.7 44.2 3.2
9.|-- 192.249.58.56 0.0% 10 35.6 35.7 35.6 36.1 0.1
10.|-- test.atl.ramnode.com 0.0% 10 35.7 35.6 35.5 35.7 0.1
tw@ad:~$ sudo mtr --report 192.249.60.11
HOST: ########################### Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 192.111.X.Y 0.0% 10 1.2 1.3 1.1 2.1 0.3
2.|-- 199.191.57.193 0.0% 10 0.7 2.1 0.6 8.9 2.8
3.|-- te3-4.ccr01.clt01.atlas.c 0.0% 10 24.9 24.6 20.2 30.4 3.6
4.|-- te0-0-0-5.mpd22.dca01.atl 0.0% 10 16.8 16.4 16.3 16.8 0.2
5.|-- te0-7-0-35.mpd22.iad02.at 0.0% 10 17.7 16.7 16.3 17.7 0.5
6.|-- tiscali.iad01.atlas.cogen 0.0% 10 17.5 23.1 16.0 80.5 20.2
| `|-- 154.54.12.118
7.|-- xe-3-3-0.sea21.ip4.tinet. 0.0% 10 107.0 108.8 107.0 124.1 5.4
8.|-- icastcenter-gw.ip4.tinet. 0.0% 10 105.9 108.0 105.7 113.4 3.2
9.|-- 192.249.62.12 0.0% 10 105.8 105.7 105.6 105.8 0.1
10.|-- 192.249.60.11 10.0% 10 105.8 105.9 105.8 106.0 0.1
tw@ad:~$ sudo mtr --report bhs.proof.ovh.net
HOST: ########################### Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 192.111.X.Y 0.0% 10 2.5 1.7 1.1 5.1 1.2
2.|-- 199.191.57.193 0.0% 10 0.7 3.1 0.5 10.4 3.8
3.|-- dct-cr03--v51.dacentec.co 0.0% 10 9.2 9.1 9.0 9.2 0.1
4.|-- 198.32.132.110 0.0% 10 9.4 9.4 9.2 9.6 0.1
5.|-- ash-1-6k.va.us 0.0% 10 21.6 21.9 21.6 24.0 0.7
6.|-- ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
7.|-- bhs-g2-6k.qc.ca 70.0% 10 36.1 42.7 36.1 56.0 11.5
8.|-- bhs-s3-6k.qc.ca 0.0% 10 36.1 36.2 36.1 36.4 0.1
9.|-- 198.27.85.58 0.0% 10 36.0 36.1 36.0 36.4 0.1These are the hardware specs I was given by FAPVPS:
Code:
2x Xeon L5520
36 GB of DDR 3 @ 1066 Triple Channel
LSI 9260-8I HW RAID controller + BBU
4X Seagate Constellation ES ST1000NM0001 1TB 7200 RPM RAID 10FAPVPS is a new provider. They manually provision all of their VMs so it takes some time to get set up. They need to work on automating this process as much as possible, and they know about that problem. The panel is VirtualMin/CloudMin, which for someone from Solus (and solus-like) land, this panel seemed a bit counterintuitive. FAPVPS's OS selection is based on restoring an image to the disk, as opposed to manual installation via CDROM/VNC, which had been my experience thus far. The Control Panel allows you to shell in to the system as root from the page without asking for my root password. This sets off some alarm bells in my head and I immediately used passwd from the shell to disable that functionality. Also a bit irritating but not show stopping is the inability for the user to select an ISO image and reboot to it. Any ISO mounting or unmounting must be done by FAPVPS on your behalf. The same is true of RDNS. In addition, the virtual console used does not present the IP and port or opportunity to change VNC password to use an external client in the event that java is not available on the client system.
Their billing/manage system is a classic tandem setup with WHMCS for billing and CloudMin for management. As of now, FAPVPS does not offer any addon services or upgrades for VPSes templated in WHMCS, though if you need something, you can probably ticket to get it added; small hosts tend to be more flexible. The only VPS management feature WHMCS offers is "cancel" which is about par for the course.
These guys have a different than average bandwidth/disk/RAM/CPU ratio, giving more CPU time and RAM allocation than their similarly priced peers. My 2GB RAM has 50GB disk, 2TB of transit and 3 cores whereas an equivalent cost VM from BuyVM or RamNode would run half as much ram, 50% more transit, and a fair chunk of disk more. CPU allocation would be about even, though I couldn't make an appropriate loading comparison.
As far as ticketing friendliness and technical aptitude of the owner/operators, it seems pretty good on both parts. Even without ssd caching, the setup seems pretty solid. They might not have 10 years of virtualization experience, but if I use an industry term, they know what it means. A little time and some panel fixups and they could be a nice little host.
So far I've only been playing around with it a bit, and it seems to hold up pretty well to my light loading. I'll update this thread with any changes or updates I might note.
