Secure Dragon OpenVZ 128 MB (New York)

[wlanboy]

Provider: Secure Dragon
Plan: OpenVZ 128mb VPS
Price: 17.99$ per year
Location: Weehawken, NJ

Purchased: 03/2013

This is one of my private vps that I am using for my mail server.
I migrated this vps from their Tampa location to their new location in NY.

You can find the old review of the Tampa vps

Hardware information:

• cat /proc/cpuinfo
  
  processor : 0
  vendor_id : GenuineIntel
  cpu family : 6
  model : 23
  model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5410 @ 2.33GHz
  stepping : 6
  cpu MHz : 2327.540
  cache size : 6144 KB
  physical id : 0
  siblings : 4
  core id : 0
  cpu cores : 4
  apicid : 0
  initial apicid : 0
  fpu : yes
  fpu_exception : yes
  cpuid level : 10
  wp : yes
  flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm dca sse4_1 lahf_lm dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
  bogomips : 4655.08
  clflush size : 64
  cache_alignment : 64
  address sizes : 38 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  power management:
  
  
• cat /proc/meminfo
  

  MemTotal:         131072 kB
  MemFree:           36588 kB
  Cached:            28784 kB
  Buffers:               0 kB
  Active:            27976 kB
  Inactive:          60428 kB
  Active(anon):       4164 kB
  Inactive(anon):    55456 kB
  Active(file):      23812 kB
  Inactive(file):     4972 kB
  Unevictable:           0 kB
  Mlocked:               0 kB
  SwapTotal:        131072 kB
  SwapFree:         118988 kB
  Dirty:                 0 kB
  Writeback:             0 kB
  AnonPages:         59620 kB
  Shmem:              3568 kB
  Slab:               6072 kB
  SReclaimable:       2496 kB
  SUnreclaim:         3576 kB

• dd
  

  dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=16k count=8k conv=fdatasync && rm -rf test
  8192+0 records in
  8192+0 records out
  134217728 bytes (134 MB) copied, 0.327991 s, 409 MB/s

• wget
  

  wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
  --2014-04-27 13:57:18--  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 7.35M/s   in 14s
  
  2014-04-27 13:57:32 (7.36 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]

Network:

traceroute dvhn.nl


2 xe-4-3-0.mpr1.ewr191.us.above.net (208.185.240.41) 0.277 ms 0.267 ms 0.248 ms
3 xe-3-1-0.cr2.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.27.110) 0.565 ms 0.568 ms 0.550 ms
4 * * *
5 xe-7-3-0.nyc30.ip4.tinet.net (213.200.66.205) 0.453 ms 0.435 ms 0.411 ms
6 xe-0-0-1.lon10.ip4.tinet.net (89.149.186.210) 75.732 ms 75.768 ms xe-11-0-1.lon10.ip4.tinet.net (89.149.184.130) 75.512 ms
7 bit-gw.ip4.tinet.net (77.67.75.70) 75.949 ms 75.694 ms 75.998 ms
8 806.xe-0-0-0.jun1.bit-2a.network.bit.nl (213.136.1.109) 84.900 ms 805.xe-0-0-0.jun1.bit-1.network.bit.nl (213.136.1.105) 84.820 ms 806.xe-0-0-0.jun1.bit-2a.network.bit.nl (213.136.1.109) 85.160 ms

traceroute theguardian.co.uk


2 xe-4-3-0.mpr1.ewr191.us.above.net (208.185.240.41) 0.263 ms 0.248 ms 0.226 ms
3 xe-3-1-0.cr2.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.27.110) 0.557 ms 0.541 ms 0.532 ms
4 ae3.er4.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.31.246) 0.376 ms 0.417 ms 0.402 ms
5 L3-Zayo.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.13.30) 0.389 ms 0.398 ms 0.414 ms
6 vlan80.csw3.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.155.190) 74.821 ms vlan70.csw2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.155.126) 74.785 ms vlan60.csw1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.155.62) 74.725 ms
7 ae-81-81.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.134.73) 74.771 ms 74.700 ms ae-61-61.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.134.65) 74.779 ms
8 ae-44-44.ebr2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.137.77) 74.725 ms ae-42-42.ebr2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.137.69) 74.680 ms ae-43-43.ebr2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.137.73) 74.766 ms
9 ae-58-223.csw2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.153.138) 74.807 ms ae-59-224.csw2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.153.142) 74.665 ms ae-57-222.csw2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.153.134) 74.804 ms
10 ae-21-52.car1.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.98) 74.963 ms 75.018 ms 75.085 ms
11 GUARDIAN-UN.car1.London1.Level3.net (212.113.8.30) 75.262 ms 75.336 ms 84.824 ms

traceroute washingtonpost.com


2 xe-4-3-0.mpr1.ewr191.us.above.net (208.185.240.41) 0.266 ms 0.241 ms 0.220 ms
3 xe-3-1-0.cr2.lga5.us.above.net (64.125.27.110) 0.512 ms 0.501 ms 0.517 ms
4 ae4.cr2.dca2.us.above.net (64.125.26.105) 4.814 ms 4.804 ms 4.787 ms
5 ae0.cr1.dca2.us.above.net (64.125.28.241) 6.073 ms 6.214 ms 6.045 ms
6 xe-1-1-0.mpr3.iad1.us.above.net (64.125.31.113) 4.977 ms 5.013 ms 5.000 ms
7 64.124.201.150.allocated.above.net (64.124.201.150) 5.221 ms 5.227 ms 5.254 ms
8 208.185.109.100 (208.185.109.100) 5.146 ms 5.199 ms 5.172 ms

What services are running?

• dovecot
• postfix
• spamassassin
  
• clamav
  
• proxy
  

Support:

No tickets needed.

Overall experience:

I am enjoying my vps.

Instant deployment, fast CPU and I/O.

The migration of my vps was without any issue.

They asked me for a suitable time and managed to migrate my vps within minutes.

The usable bandwith is not as high as in Chicago but way beyond their Tampa location.

So I am not regretting the migration at all.

This is one of my main mail servers (I do have two), something you won't run on a hoster you do not trust.

They keep their ip ranges clean and I am running this mail server without any issue.

Uptime:



So a total of 9 hours and 16 minutes.

I want to add that his was due to a datacenter migration:

• https://www.wlanboy.com/tweet/448761993017978880
  

  Apparently our NJ servers are being sent to another data center. No notice was given to us and we're not sure where they are going.

• https://www.wlanboy.com/tweet/448910845934698496
  

  Our NJ server came back up at 12:07PM EST today after RAM errors from the move. Node is now in Weehawken, NJ. IPv6 still down. RFO to come.

• https://www.wlanboy.com/tweet/449124692830347264
  

  Cifton NJ node migrated to Weehawken NJ http://t.co/0reLw7yHO6

There was some back chatter about how well COLO@ communicated the move to new customers.

For me as one of the first customers that were migrated to NY it was a rough start, but Secure Dragon managed to keep there customers updated and pulished a detailed RFO.

Even after 8 hours of downtime I did not open a ticket for that, right because I was informed.

 

[KuJoe]

Just to clarify, all of our COLO@ locations (LA, IL, NJ, GA, and AZ) were all limited to 100Mbps ports already. The locations that had 1Gbps ports were FL, CO, OR, and TX.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

A VM in SecureDragon's Tampa location is one of my more important VMs I have there and is definitely one of the most reliable one in the bunch. Basically, agree with you every step of the way @wlanboy!

 

[wlanboy]

Time for an update:



CPU and I/O are great.

Same for the network.

2 hours and 21 minutes of downtime due to a host restart - restarted my vps by hand and everything was fine again.

Routing the EU is great (except one):

69.632 ms to England (Above.net and afterwards Tinet).

121.547 ms to Sweden (Above.net and afterwards Level3 through AMS/DUS??).

82.283 ms to Germany (Above.net and afterwards Level3)

104.510 ms to Swizz (Above.net and afterwards Privatelayer)

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Thread has been split here: 

 

[wlanboy]

Time for an update:



24 minutes of network downtime since the last update.

Uptime of the vps is 18 days.

CPU and I/O are great.

Network is great:

wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
--2014-08-10 16:50:50--  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 11.4M/s   in 8.7s

2014-08-10 16:50:59 (11.5 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]

 

[wlanboy]

Time for an update:



1 hours and 28 minutes of network downtime since the last update.

Uptime of the vps is 90 days.

CPU and I/O are great.

Network is great.

 

[KuJoe]

That is strange, I am only seeing 2 minutes and 30 seconds of downtime since August for our New Jersey node. How are you measuring the uptime?

 

[mikho]

Statuscake as mentioned in another review thread.

 

[wlanboy]

That is strange, I am only seeing 2 minutes and 30 seconds of downtime since August for our New Jersey node. How are you measuring the uptime?

Looks like statuscake does have some problems with their own network connectivity.

I will move away from statuscake...

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Looks like statuscake does have some problems with their own network connectivity.

I will move away from statuscake...

Maybe a self-hosted network/group of smokeping? 

 

[fixidixi]

[off]

Looks like statuscake does have some problems with their own network connectivity.

I will move away from statuscake...

I've just got this from statuscake:1) "From next Monday 17th November (Statuscake) we’ll stop offering the Basic plan to new users. Anyone signing up for a Basic plan before then however will have their account automatically grandfathered and they will enjoy all the benefits of a Basic plan, at the same price, for life."

2) wlanboy: What solution do you use now?

I'm about to build a status app with nodejs that receives updates (webhooks) from the different monitors and "takes action" accordingly

The whole project is about to learn about message queues and using modules:

the webApp, api and workers..

[/off]

 

[marrco]

Time for an update from me too. I'm proud to be one of the KuJoe's users since june 2011, and i just paid for an additional year till the end of 2015. I used their Xen and OpenVZ VPS. Joe is one of the most honest, upfront guy i met in this industry. He's always been open and frank when issues happened, with no fear to admit problems, even his own faults. So no surprise the service got better and better, and right now is my host of choice in the east coast. Regarding the wlanboy problem i guess i'm on the same node, and i did not experience particular problems or downtime, so i guess that was just a statuscake issue

 

[comXyz]

Can it run ClamAV smoothly?

Each time ClamAv start running, my 1.99$ dedi from Online.net always has 100% system load.

 

[wlanboy]

Time for an update:



1 hours and 55 minutes of network downtime since the last update.

Uptime of the vps is 2 days.

CPU and I/O are great.

Network is ok:

 wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
--2014-12-20 17:34:13--  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 7.61M/s   in 13s

2014-12-20 17:34:26 (7.58 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]

 

[wlanboy]

Time for an update:



3 hours and 55 minutes of network downtime since the last update. Last spike was caused by the datacenter.

Uptime of the vps is 4 days.

CPU and I/O are great.

Network is ok but is getting better over the last weeks:

wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
--2015-01-26 18:25:27--  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 28.3MB/s   in 4.5s

2015-01-26 18:25:32 (22.2 MB/s) - '/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]

 

[Nyr]

Just passing by to say thanks for your really helpful reviews and making a point about service quality and uptime and not just some shitty benchmark.

Keep up the great work

 

[KuJoe]

Our NJ location has been lacking lately. We're still waiting for our data center to provide us an RFO for the recent outage and to get somebody on-site to fix our DRAC for us. Hopefully the uptime will get better.

 

[wlanboy]

Time for an update:



0 minutes of network downtime since the last update.

Looks like the datacenter recovered from the network issues.

Uptime of the vps is 32 days.

CPU and I/O are great.

Network is great again:

wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null
--2015-02-23 12:02:08--  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 83.1MB/s   in 1.2s

2015-02-23 12:02:09 (83.1 MB/s) - '/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600]

 

[KuJoe]

Our SSD node that we shipped a few weeks ago was lost/stolen by UPS so we'll be shipping a new one out this week that was originally destined for LA. Glad to see the network has stabilized since the last outage.