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NodeServ - 3 months review, bad hosting!
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NodeServ - 3 months review, bad hosting!

Hello! I want to share my experience after 3 months of using NodeServ.
I've ordered a cheap OpenVZ solution (256MB RAM, 1xIPv4, 2xCPU) because I do not need large RAM/powerful CPU etc, it was only for running some simple applications. But there are problems and using this hosting can be hard.

1) Sometimes available free space is rapidly decreasing, while my used space is stable! Sometimes free space comes down to zero, so I cannot write any data to hdd. This is not my fault, my used space is around 2gb. Output of 'df -h' command looks like this:

root@molehole:/tmp# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/simfs 50G 1.6G 0 100% /


My applications require disk access, so this is fail. I think this can happen because they are overselling disk quotas. I opened a ticket 2 months ago, problem still not solved.

2) Sometimes hdd speed is damn slow for writing. Simple touch /tmp/myfile operation can take up to 20-30 seconds. My applications require disk access, so this is fail. I think this can happen because they dont share i/o access properly between different OpenVZ users. I opened a ticket 2 months ago, problem still not solved.

3) Sometimes hardware time is wrong. On OpenVZ engine, you can fix timezone but cannot fix time offset on host. It looks like this:

root@molehole:/home/user# date --set="11:30"
date: cannot set date: Operation not permitted


My applications require SSL access, so this is fail. I opened a ticket week ago, problem still not solved.


Also there are pros:

  • Low price, it was only $9.99/year
  • Good uptime, reboot/network failure happens about once per 2 months
  • Fair CPU, not fast, not slow
  • Good web interface, easy console access

Cons:

  • Bad HDD free space (overselling?)
  • Slow HDD speed
  • Wrong host time
  • Low support quality, big responce time

I will not recommend to use NodeServ unless you are high-skilled Linux pro and ready to solve various unexpected problems. I will search for another provider with lower specs but higher quality.

Comments

  • jvnadrjvnadr Member
    edited March 2017

    At first, it is always fishy when someone registers in LET just to post a bad review. Seem like you don't want to participate to the forum but just to bash a provider. This behavior is fail! (Except if you have another account and you just want to bash a provider without revealing witch member are you in real. This is also fail). I wish you prove me wrong and start participating to the LET discussions fron now on.

    Now, on topic: I have 3 vps with nodeserv for backup purposes mainly, 1 of 50GB and 2 of 100GB. At least the two 100GB, are on different nodes. I have never experienced such disk issue and there are daily rsyncs and scp from other servers to nodeserv (erasing older backups and creating new). Also, time stamp is always correct, because if else it would mess up the time stamps of the transfers.
    As of disk speeds, they are rather slow compared to others (~40-45MB/s) but this should be acceptable for a vps of 10$ per year with 100GB hard disk.

    Thanked by 1notFrecyboy
  • @jvnadr said:
    Now, on topic: I have 3 vps with nodeserv for backup purposes mainly

    Well its definitely good if i'm the only one unlucky.
    Maybe you have any vps on node 'laovz3'?

  • user6752 said: Maybe you have any vps on node 'laovz3'?

    No, i am on JAX5 and JAX3

  • Okay I understand that i'm a newbie here and my post will not be rated.

    To be clear, I have only one VPS at 'laovz3' node. And some screenshots.

    1) Time of support





    2) Situation with HDD - looks like this:




    green line is used space, blue line is available space. Available space decreased without using any additional space.

    3) Situation with time - right now:

    root@molehole:/tmp# date; curl -sI www.google.com | grep Date
    Sun Mar 5 11:29:34 GMT 2017
    Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2017 11:37:41 GMT
    root@molehole:/tmp# date --set="11:40"
    date: cannot set date: Operation not permitted
    Sun Mar 5 11:40:00 GMT 2017
    root@molehole:/tmp# date
    Sun Mar 5 11:29:43 GMT 2017
    root@molehole:/tmp# whoami
    root

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    user6752 said: root@molehole:/tmp# date --set="11:40"

    date: cannot set date: Operation not permitted
    Sun Mar 5 11:40:00 GMT 2017
    root@molehole:/tmp# date
    Sun Mar 5 11:29:43 GMT 2017
    root@molehole:/tmp# whoami
    root

    That is normal for OVZ. Only the admin on the host node can set the date or use a ntp-like service to set it automatically.
    I think that, for such a cheap VM with so much disk space, you are still getting a fair, if not good service. I would expect downtime for that price, even a runner. Don't use it for production, you will have bad surprises if you do, the host may decide to pull the node and refund everyone, for example, if you do use it for production, have redundancy and good backup policies.

    Thanked by 1jvnadr
  • i dont have such issue with them. still solid 509 days uptime.
    using their vm for internal server check, yes it writes report to database on vm, but never hit that issue related disk space.

  • FalzoFalzo Member

    after all a rantless review/post without calling the provider names, so I can't see any wrong with that.

    I would come to the same conclusions as OP - nodes heavily oversold hence disk not usable to limit and slow IO. also sad to see that support obviously don't care about this and also about correcting the date, which shouldn't be an issue in the first place if the node is properly set up. maybe just a single node gone wild, but one should be allowed to expect the provider to look into those issue in a timely manner.

  • add_iTadd_iT Member
    edited March 2017

    I only saw jacksonville location try to when ordering it
    Where u have been ordered on LA location @user6572 ?

    BTW, are they (nodeserv) support for rdns from solusvm panel @jvnadr @mgilang?

  • I am not sure about location, here's my info from services information page:

    Registration Date: 12/18/2016

    Product/Service: HOLIDAY DEALS - OVZ-256M Active

    Location: Jacksonville



    Info from SolusVM management page:

    Virtualization Type (OpenVZ)

    Node laovz3


  • add_iTadd_iT Member
    edited March 2017

    @user6752 said:
    I am not sure about location, here's my info from services information page:

    Registration Date: 12/18/2016

    Product/Service: HOLIDAY DEALS - OVZ-256M Active

    Location: Jacksonville



    Info from SolusVM management page:

    Virtualization Type (OpenVZ)

    Node laovz3


    Weird that your vps location detail show jacksonville in client area , but your vps put in la ( Los Angeles ) node

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    jvnadr said: At first, it is always fishy when someone registers in LET just to post a bad review.

    True enough, but I know I've lurked in forums for a long time and only joined when I had something to say. His story seems to have a lot of data backing it up. Sounds legit to me, but of course I only know what I read here.

    Maounique said: you are still getting a fair, if not good service

    ...he can't use the disk space he paid for, so...I would not give so charitable a grade. Yeah, it's only $10/yr, but the deal was made to provide X/Y/Z for $10/yr and he's not getting it.

    OP, you can't set the date in OvZ but the provider should keep it reasonable for you.

    As for your other complaints: I'm guessing the thread @busbr linked to has something to do with the quality of the service (NodeServ was acquired about a month ago).

    Not sure to mention here to draw their attention :-(

  • My VPS with them has now been moved to Seattle. When I raised a ticket with them, I was informed that they are scaling back/reducing nodes (etc.) in Jacksonville. That was a pretty bad move as well - migrating a VPS from one end of the country to a diagonally opposite end. Latency is completely shot as a result.

    I still have issues - IPv4 and IPv6 are broken (only one of them works - pick what you want). IO has definitely improved from before, but because of the network issues, I'm unable to use my VPS properly for now. So I'm not really sure how it'll stack up if/when I begin to use it legitimately.

    Support continues to remain very poor - responses take days and apparently migrations are still in progress. I do get replies though (so yes, they've not abandoned ship), and the replies are courteous and professional - so no complaints on the content/context - I only hope these kinds of fundamental issues would be resolved in a more timely fashion (but I understand they're probably overworked with lots of migration etc.).

    Definitely way way worse than how it was when Jade was running things. I will certainly not be going forward with them any more and will just use the services I have in whatever way I can (if I even can).

    There was a related thread earlier (where I had commented as well).

    https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/2079495/#Comment_2079495

    Hope this helps.

    Thanked by 1user6752
  • sinsin Member

    I had a Nodeserv VPS over the summer (or around then I believe) and canceled after a month...the disk io was really bad (I remember frequently seeing 5MB write speeds with latency measured in seconds...apt-get would cause load to shoot through the roof) and it was just blah.

  • Note about movement. As I remember, someday my machine was at 'JAX5' node, but about 2 weeks ago it went to unexpected reboot and now it is on 'laovz3' node. Maybe they moved it (it is only suggestion, I did not monitor these things).

    After reboot, disk latency is a lot better (most of time it is 0s, worst latency was 0.2s), disk size is a lot better (most of time I have all my 50Gb space, worst lack of space was 1...10Gb)

    Only problem right now is time offset, and tech support is still fixing it...

  • WSSWSS Member

    I have rarely had an OpenVZ host which was smart enough to setup NTP before renting bits of it.

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