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pyramidserver.com review
Ran into their (https://pyramidserver.com/, http://twitter.com/cpserv) offer http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1093135 (256M/$4.2 KVM in Netherlands with promocode) and didn't find any reviews. So, here is one.
Order and setup
The first strange thing I noticed was that the absence of prices on their order page. The only way to see a price is to select a product, enter the domain name (dunno why) and click 'continue'. The link in their top menu leads to http://pyramidserver.com/fkvm with no info about Netherland boxes. Another strange thing is that you have to select a domain. It will be concatenated with hostname. Example.org worked for me.
The parameters of the vps:
CNK-256 - RAM 256 MB / SWAP 512 MB Disk 10 GB Transfer 150 GB Linux OS'es KVM Virtualization 1 ipv4 0 ipv6 (not available yet)
OS templates are a bit strange too - without debian 6, but with debian 5, ubuntu 10.10, suse 11.3 and fedora 13. Anyway, they say that I can install OS by myself from any iso, so I selected debian 5.
Payment was done via paypal and setup was instant. After that i received 2 emails with VPS detailes. The bad thing is that password was in plain text. There were 3 places with passwords and only in one it was hidden (http://bbreton.org/p_review/mail.png http://bbreton.org/p_review/mail2.png).
Some operations are available from whmcs (http://bbreton.org/p_review/whm.png). The contol panel is Virtualizor (http://bbreton.org/p_review/Dashboard.jpg).
The first thing I did there was installing Debian 6, which was available in the iso list ("VPS Configuration" menu entry). Installation was done via vnc. When I booted into fresh-installed system the network was down. HWaddr of the interface changed and it took some time to resolve it.
Virtualizor didn't recognize my debian 6 and still shows Debian 5.0, but boot/restart work fine.
Benchmarks
/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 : 3192.854 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 pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx lm pni hypervisor bogomips : 6385.70 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 : 3192.854 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 pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx lm pni hypervisor bogomips : 6385.70 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management:
free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 253928 38040 215888 0 5756 17680
-/+ buffers/cache: 14604 239324
Swap: 0 0 0
/proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 253928 kB MemFree: 215572 kB Buffers: 5772 kB Cached: 17696 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 13356 kB Inactive: 15324 kB Active(anon): 5220 kB Inactive(anon): 80 kB Active(file): 8136 kB Inactive(file): 15244 kB Unevictable: 0 kB Mlocked: 0 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree: 0 kB LowTotal: 253928 kB LowFree: 215572 kB SwapTotal: 0 kB SwapFree: 0 kB Dirty: 0 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 5224 kB Mapped: 4188 kB Shmem: 92 kB Slab: 6348 kB SReclaimable: 2684 kB SUnreclaim: 3664 kB KernelStack: 560 kB PageTables: 372 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 126964 kB Committed_AS: 37888 kB VmallocTotal: 766008 kB VmallocUsed: 5456 kB VmallocChunk: 752948 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
dd output
root@hbg:~# 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, 19.1551 s, 56.1 MB/s
download speed
root@hbg:~# wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null 100%[===========================================================================================================>] 104,857,600 10.3M/s in 11s 2011-10-27 00:50:35 (9.51 MB/s) - “/dev/null” saved [104857600/104857600]
root@hbg:~# wget http://hetzner.de/100MB.iso 100%[===========================================================================================================>] 104,840,234 4.68M/s in 23s 2011-10-27 01:08:27 (4.36 MB/s) - “100MB.iso” saved [104840234/104840234]
And Russia:
2011-10-27 01:08:27 (4.36 MB/s) - “100MB.iso” saved [104840234/104840234] root@hbg:~# wget http://www.smart-dedic.ru/test.100mb 100%[===========================================================================================================>] 109,518,848 1.33M/s in 80s 2011-10-27 01:10:55 (1.31 MB/s) - “test.100mb” saved [109518848/109518848]
And from InceptionHosting VPS in Netherlands:
root@hbg:~# wget http://bbreton.org/test 100%[===========================================================================================================>] 104,857,600 6.55M/s in 15s 2011-10-27 01:16:07 (6.54 MB/s) - “test” saved [104857600/104857600]
Upload speed is rather good - from InceptionHosting:
breton ~ % wget http://159.253.xx.xx/test 100%[===========================================================================================================>] 104 857 600 9,12M/s в 11s 2011-10-26 18:18:18 (9,28 MB/s) - «test» saved [104857600/104857600]
And ~1 megabytes/s from Russia.
Comments
UnixBench
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3) System: hbg: GNU/Linux OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-5-686 -- #1 SMP Mon Oct 3 04:15:24 UTC 2011 Machine: i686 (unknown) Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8") CPU 0: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1 (6385.7 bogomips) x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET CPU 1: QEMU Virtual CPU version 0.9.1 (6385.7 bogomips) x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET 22:02:43 up 1:49, 1 user, load average: 0.19, 0.07, 0.02; runlevel 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Benchmark Run: Wed Oct 26 2011 22:02:43 - 22:30:53 2 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests Dhrystone 2 using register variables 20030498.3 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Double-Precision Whetstone 3279.4 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples) Execl Throughput 2443.5 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1075606.0 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 282076.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 2467247.3 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) Pipe Throughput 2270443.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Pipe-based Context Switching 369270.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Process Creation 6785.0 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples) Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 4825.6 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples) Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2124.2 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples) System Call Overhead 3652243.8 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 20030498.3 1716.4 Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 3279.4 596.3 Execl Throughput 43.0 2443.5 568.3 File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 1075606.0 2716.2 File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 282076.7 1704.4 File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 2467247.3 4253.9 Pipe Throughput 12440.0 2270443.7 1825.1 Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 369270.2 923.2 Process Creation 126.0 6785.0 538.5 Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 4825.6 1138.1 Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2124.2 3540.4 System Call Overhead 15000.0 3652243.8 2434.8 ======== System Benchmarks Index Score 1470.2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Benchmark Run: Wed Oct 26 2011 22:30:53 - 22:59:05 2 CPUs in system; running 2 parallel copies of tests Dhrystone 2 using register variables 40206874.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Double-Precision Whetstone 6538.7 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples) Execl Throughput 12254.0 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1183833.6 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 313142.9 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 3588455.1 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) Pipe Throughput 4537834.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Pipe-based Context Switching 785568.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Process Creation 44079.4 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples) Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 16644.2 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples) Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2171.4 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples) System Call Overhead 5902733.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 40206874.9 3445.3 Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 6538.7 1188.9 Execl Throughput 43.0 12254.0 2849.8 File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 1183833.6 2989.5 File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 313142.9 1892.1 File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 3588455.1 6187.0 Pipe Throughput 12440.0 4537834.2 3647.8 Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 785568.6 1963.9 Process Creation 126.0 44079.4 3498.4 Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 16644.2 3925.5 Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2171.4 3618.9 System Call Overhead 15000.0 5902733.7 3935.2 ======== System Benchmarks Index Score 3018.63018.6 with 2 cores.
Support
The replies on my ticket were pretty fast - 15 minutes after creating a ticket, 30 minutes during the talk and ~2 hours after my 6-hours pause. Though I could manage the trouble by myself and cannot say anything about their technical level.
"Live support" banner seems to be always offline.
Conclusion
Pretty decent VPS for people who don't care about small issues.
This review will be updated in a month after some testing on a couple of projects
Oh, thanks for the big review
Btw, we need somethingb like scrolling on big 'pre' tags
@breton : thanks. what a very great review (according to number of line you've been write not for the positive review + feedback :P )
yes, i already asked the Data center about the network problem ( you seems look good with MB before /s, in my first test i only see KB
) and they said "we will looking on it".
for free domain in yearly payment.
i'm thinking to remove that free stuff.
plaintext password and localhost port is from Virtualizor default email template, thanks for remind me about that.
ticket support : mostly i'm the batman (only came out when the sun not shine) in CPS, sorry about that 6 hours. Live support seems to be broken after whmcs upgraded into 4.5, i'll change it with another software.
thanks again for your review and feedback.
PS: i really did't know who breton is, and i'm not giving him anything (yet?) :P
Let me add a bit more to it. I bought their CNK-1024 plan. Price is beyond LEB range. Costs me $10.2 per month (after discount). Comes with 1024 MB Ram, 25 GB HDD & 600 GB Bandwidth.
I'm adding GeekBench results-
Part 1/2
With Geekbench 2.2.1
Honestly speaking, this is the best score I have observed in a VPS.
Part 2/2
Smells to sandy bitch xD
@biplap thanks for sharing your result too. i really need that (waiting from CNK-512 client(s) :P )
@yomero no it's sandy sandoro (self country promotion :P )
I have to write a review shortly as well but I'm currently a bit behind.
The out of date OS'es are also an issue for me. I went ahead and stuck up rtorrent just to give it something to do while waiting for me. The version that came down from Debian is at least a full version behind what I'm running on my Quickweb setup.
I'll have to go look for the iso option. I didn't see it when I looked at the server menu.
The passwords in plain text I can live with. My issue is the passwords that I gave, a couple of them came back in the emails random. That was strange.
As I write this, I downloading an mp3 audiobook. rtorrent is currently running at 250KB/sec in both directions and I was able to pull at 600KB/sec via sftp on the library wireless network at a busy branch.
Not bad so far. The OS is the largest issue.
I'll throw up some numbers when I have a chance.
OK, I see where Debian 6.0.3 is listed in the iso drop down and I;ve gone ahead and selected it. I'm assuming that I also have to switch around the boot order which I will do shortly.
After that I'm a bit lost as to whats next and google'ing for this isn't getting me anywhere.
Do I charge the boot order, reboot and then login through the control panel to set things up?
Try switching the container off and on (top right of the panel).
He sings good
Is that a show like American Idol or sth like that?
I think I covered that when I said reboot but thanks.
While the VPS appears to be running, there's no contact and I can't get in there via ssh. any ideas?
edit: I'm trying a second reboot after waiting enough time for it to install the OS but with the hard drive as the first boot order selection.
reedit: No luck. Still 5.
@drmike Unlike OpenVZ and XenPV which use OS templates, KVM uses standard install ISOs. Once you mount the disc in the CD-ROM drive and reboot, you must connect via the VNC console and go through the installation process.
It's like I'm back in the early 80's and I'm coming across a low speed university connection.
and /moumt/cdrom is empty.
This is really becoming annoying.
Is this a new KVM that you have yet to install and have access to SolusVM?
EDIT: I see it is Virtualizor, so unsure how to advise you.
It's Virtualizor sitting on what I believe to be Xen HVM. (Well I see the HVM part on the Virtualizor pages.)
I'm going to open a ticket (once I find where my login information is for their client ticket side. 7 emails and no mention of such that I see.) and ask them to point me at a tutorial.
@drmike,
Next to ISO selection box, there are two textboxes indicating boot order - Hard disc & then CD Rom. Drag CD-Rom textbox and change the order by placing it at a higher level than HDD. then do a reboot. You'll booted straight to CD Rom.
If you do the cat /proc/cpuinfo and see "QEMU", it's KVM (like biplab's posts). Xen HVM actually shows the processor.
@drmike,
check my answer in ticket support.
the drmike's vps stuck in process. it's become normal after i kill that process. (libvirt going crazy)
yes, i'm on my way for upgrading all OS, but i'm still having problem with the UUID disk identifier.
@biplab I got that. Look up a few posts.
I got Debian 6 install but it appears I'm having the same network problems @breton had. I've requested via ticket the correct netmask as well as gateway as nothing is reachable. I knew something was up as during the CD install, none of the mirrors that tried were reachable.
@drmike ticket answered
and i forgot one thing. try to remove the net rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/ and restart the VPS to get eth0 working. in default installation we always see the correct interface is eth1.
I finally went back to 5 and upgrade manually. I'll fiddle with it this weekend.
Thanks
My container in the Netherlands and the VNC (or whatever it's called) appears to be down.
Ticket is #673942. See? Ticket
It was weird last night because the control pane was showing the container as being down but it was responding fine. Didn't think anything of it but maybe i should have.
If it's an OVZ, the signs you saw last night are typically a symptom of nodeid mismatch. (SQL shows the VPS to be on one node, when it's actually on another; alternately, they updated node info without correcting SQL entries). Usually not a cause for concern, as you only lose access to panel functions until the data's corrected.
yeah, i see that too. they are stuck in process. i think it's from libvirt bug. or as @Aldryic said. positive failed detection. i'll check it now (through my another VPS, because right now i can't access the NL Node from my home @ ___ @ )
about the downtime. yes i answer your ticket and your comment in LEB.
DDoS everyone!!! just another DDoS.. sigh...
Still down.
edit: In the ticket, a "Network Information" page got reference but no link was provided. Five minutes on their site and damn if I can't find it. having flashbacks of Quickweb. I replied asking for a link.
They also sent the virtualizor control panel IP and gateway IP addresses. Not sure what I'm supposed to do with them. They did reference that routing was being updated. I replied with a "huh?" for real this time.
I love it when LET becomes support ticket. :P
you must logged in if you want accessing the network issues page.
they are in different subnet (+gateway), when i reply to your ticket all ip in node block already up.
if you have different connection you can access it with any route except level3. we are still having routing problem with level 3.
it appears to be fixed, i can now access my vps via level3,bt,above
Hey you wanted reviews out of me. Just giving feedback.
I'm in as well. They replied with a direct link to the network status page which for me and my "all redirection is porn" networks is a huge plus.
The vps was up for all of that time it appears. Big +1
Wow O_o thanks drmike.. after this ddos + routing problem, positive feedback is always make me feel better.