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DireVPS Sign-Up Process
I've only had this VPS for 24 hours, but I'll give you my write-up now, while the process is still fresh in my mind.
I was attracted to DireVPS because their website was honest about why their service is so cheap. (And cheap it is.) There was some discussion on LET a while back about whether they were too honest, whether the humor of the name didn't come across, or whether their website was too plain. I'll leave you to make up your own mind about those issues.
Having chosen DireVPS, I went to their website and signed up. At the last stage of the sign-up, I got a message to say that my account would have to be manually validated, and that this could take up to three business days. Meanwhile, I got an email with my password for the client area, along with advice to change the password as soon as possible.
Next day -- i.e., after one business day, not three -- I got an email to advise me that my account had been approved. (The emails come headed OpenITC, the name of the parent company.) This was immediately followed by an email with an initial invoice for the remainder of this month plus the whole of the first full month. Once I paid this invoice by PayPal, my server was immediately activated.
I found the process of starting the machine and installing the operating system confusing. Other (more expensive) VPS providers do this for you. Maybe for more expert VPS users it would be less confusing. There didn't seem to be any end-to-end instructions as to what you're supposed to do, in what order. What follows is the order I think you're supposed to do it in.
In the client area is an icon for Recovery Console. I couldn't get the recommended Spice client to connect to the Recovery Console, so I installed the VNC client on my PC and switched the option to VNC on the Recovery Console page. On the page for (Re)Install OS from CD/DVD, I switched the boot from CD/DVD option to Enabled, and entered the URL for a CentOS 7 minimal install ISO. I chose the OpenITC mirror for the ISO, since I figured that would be fastest.
You have to use VNC (or Spice) to connect to the Recovery Console to operate the install, obviously, since there is no operating system on the machine at this point. The CentOS 7 install went fine, except the reboot at the end didn't work. I've seen that problem before with CentOS installs, and I think it's a problem with the installer rather than with the VPS. You then have to set the boot from CD/DVD option to Disabled, then reboot your machine in the client area control panel.
It confused me that the eth0 network interface wasn't configured or even up. I had to look up how to do this, as it's not something I'd done before. You can either edit ifcfg-eth0 with the vi editor, or use the nmtui tool. Then you have to restart networking, using systemctl since this is CentOS 7.
With networking available, I was able to do my yum update and reboot to pick up the latest kernel. Also I was able to SSH into my machine rather than using the Recovery Console. I changed to public key authentication and disabled password login and root login. Checking with firewall-cmd (which by default replaces iptables in CentOS 7) I saw that the firewall was indeed closed to everything except ssh and dhcpv6-client. My server is ready for use.
Comments
24 hours..
Long time!
24 hours reviews, 72 hours reviews, 48 hours reviews are becoming LET standard these days
btw @bertan, the summary of your review is
I just want to ask, what value did it add for the provider or for the readers of this post?
Oh my god, it took you 24 hours to get a VPS, when you could go to any other VPS provider and get it within 10 minutes or less. I guess this is a bad review on DireVPS.
True unfortunately, I am afraid to say it is rather a tale of a sign up experience than a review of the level or service or customer support.
If I'm reading this right, the OP was a bit confused as this was his first KVM plan?
Just wondering, the OP posted something he thought was valuable. So why are there people on here always acting like dicks? He wasn't reviewing their services but rather telling people about the confusing sign up and setup process as it isn't the norm. Try and use better judgment when replying to a thread. Sheesh.. LET is for everyone. You don't have to read the threads if they don't interest you. This isn't LowEndTrolling now is it? Wait, I wonder if that domain is available.. Lol
I've only had my VPS for under 0 hours but i'll also give my review. I made a thought that i wanted to order a VPS, i waited for more than 24 hours already and you know what? DireVPS has still not ordered my VPS even though i spent time thinking about ordering a VPS with them.
I demand a refund. Now.
Is Dire VPS = Open ITC or am I still waking up and confused?
Why?
That's correct, DireVPS are the cheap and cheerful brand.
It is as if you read my mind...
People on LET like to post troll comments and just forget when people do something that they want. WE WANT PEOPLE TO MAKE MORE TUTORIALS!
http://lowendtalk.com/discussion/32169/script-single-factor-hybrid-authentication-with-pam-and-a-yubikey#latest
Not even a single comment.
I'm not sure if tutorials are as appreciated on LET as they should be, unfortunately. But hey, don't stop doing it, someone here will appreciate it :-)
My VPS with them was good, and nice performance, but I think they should have some install templates!
Because i demand it :P lol (joking btw)