[REVIEW] Prometeus - KVM7 (Italy)
Here is my review after a little bit more than two weeks using a KVM7 box from Prometeus. With the promo offer and positive comments and reviews, I could not resist to get one.
I do not work in the hosting business, and I am not related to Prometeus. {{placeholder for all the usual disclaimer stuff nobody reads}}.
Notice: that post may contain some LEE (Low End English), apologies.
VPS (http://iperweb.com/site/budget-vps.php, http://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/3103/a-new-benchmark-for-letleb-kvm7-1gb-ram-35gb-sas2-disk-3tb-bw)
- 1024 MB Ram
- 35 GB HDD
- 2 vCores 2.0 Ghz (Host with 2 x E5-2620)
- 3000 GB Bandwidth, IPv4 + IPv6 (1 x /112), 1 Gbits/s
Signup & Purchase
- WHMCS
- Received email instructions are clear and detailed (Account, IP, network settings, SSH & VNC info). Account credentials in clear text, could be better (WHMCS related I guess).
- VPS was delivered 23 minutes after payment. Needs setup through VNC (no pre-installed OS).
Setup & Panel
- SolusVM Panel
- Custom setup through VNC:
- Network setup with DHCP enabled, defaults to Google public DNS servers,
- Debian 6 (32 bits) minimal setup from Netinstall CD image worked flawlessly.
- ISO images available: many Linux distros, FreeBSD, OpenBSD...
Support
Pre-sale questions: @prometeus quickly answered to my PM on LET.
Had no technical issues, but asked a few questions through the customers panel (Moderate priority). Kind and precise answer received about 4 hours and a half later.
CPU x2
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 13
model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6)
stepping : 3
cpu MHz : 1999.999
cache size : 4096 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 mtrr pge mca cmov pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx lm pni cx16 hypervisor lahf_lm
bogomips : 3999.99
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management :
Tests
Most tests were done before the Euro 2012 coupons madness. So to be fair, I've done some new tests after the coupons to check for possible impact.
Host node is pm20.
1. Tests Part 1 - before the coupons
ping done several times (stable):
$ ping -c 3 www.google.com
PING www.l.google.com (173.194.35.178) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from muc03s02-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.35.178): icmp_req=1 ttl=58 time=10.4 ms
64 bytes from muc03s02-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.35.178): icmp_req=2 ttl=58 time=10.4 ms
64 bytes from muc03s02-in-f18.1e100.net (173.194.35.178): icmp_req=3 ttl=58 time=10.4 ms
--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 10.407/10.437/10.471/0.087 ms
Tests done 10 times, different days & random times. Results:
$ wget -O /dev/null http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
Average / Min / Max (MB/s): 38.04 / 31.8 / 40.1
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
Average / Min / Max (MB/s): 183 / 110 / 246
(Most frequently between 167 and 200)
$ ioping -c 30 .
(stable around following values)
30 requests completed in 29011.8 ms, 4701 iops, 18.4 mb/s
min/avg/max/mdev = 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.0 ms
GeekBench 2.3.3 score: 3936 (http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/view/765570)
OpenSSL speed test (warning: system is 32 bits, 64 bits usually gives x2 to x3 better results):
$ openssl speed rsa
sign verify sign/s verify/s
rsa 512 bits 0.000513s 0.000037s 1948.1 26720.9
rsa 1024 bits 0.002257s 0.000094s 443.0 10671.1
rsa 2048 bits 0.011534s 0.000278s 86.7 3592.7
rsa 4096 bits 0.068299s 0.000889s 14.6 1124.3
$ openssl speed rsa -multi 2
sign verify sign/s verify/s
rsa 512 bits 0.000264s 0.000019s 3780.9 53342.8
rsa 1024 bits 0.001171s 0.000048s 854.2 20947.6
rsa 2048 bits 0.006178s 0.000141s 161.9 7092.2
rsa 4096 bits 0.035866s 0.000459s 27.9 2176.4
2. Tests Part 2 - after the coupons
Tests have been done 5 times, at random hours.
- Cachefly: network throughput is now around 30 to 31 MBits/s on average.
dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync: Average / Min / Max (MB/s): 119 / 69 / 213.
ioping: still pretty stable around:
30 requests completed in 29013.4 ms, 4292 iops, 16.8 mb/s
min/avg/max/mdev = 0.1/0.2/0.4/0.1 ms
Final thoughts
I am very happy with that "not so LEB" baby, which has replaced another KVM 512 box I used (lower specs, slower, and more expensive). Did not notice any network or service issue for now. Highly recommended.
Specific Pros & Cons:
- Pro: very good deal with promo code for such a box (of course Euro 2012 coupons were even better), stable network.
- Con: unique available location (Milan, Italy) may be a weak point for some users.
LowEndBox & LowEndTalk.
Comments
Simply, they are THE best !!!
Thats alot of bandwidth. are they using cogent or something?
http://danielmeah.gb.net/ < My Blog
Prometeus are great
And also kind
@Phil thanks for the review. Indeed all the euro 2012 KVM were provisioned on pm20 :-)
@LAKid and @ErawanArifNugroho thanks :P
Most of the traffic goes through level3 or seabone (Telecom Italia Sparkle), but a 10G backup link with cogent (heavly prepended) was added a few months ago to the mix (our upstream is cdlan a small telco I'm also cto for).
So many LET neightbours on the same node, you're taking some risks, that one has no right to fail :-).
At least complaint will be all of nothing :-)
I also have KVM7 from prometeus. Solid service. Excellent uptime and no problems encountered since I signed up.
Generous amount of memory is perfect for my Java apps needs. Thanks so much @prometeus !
Thanks for the review. I am also think to take one KVM7 from prometeus
apt-get -a beer
Ya I hope @prometeus doesn't sacrifice performance, keep it balanced
And also kind
Don't forget, beside all that insane discounts/coupons, He also sometimes will give domains for free :P
For a domain, it would be nice. But sometimes, I'm ashamed to get something for free without any reason
But if someone want to give me a free domain, I will gladly accept it. ( But ofcourse with a reason, what should I use that domain for)
no surprise here. I just got the 4th VPS with them, definitely the best offers in Europe of 2012. Not a cheap product but a business grade service at at budget price.
only the free geoVKS from ovh is a better deal !
the difference between ovh's vks and prometeus's kvm is performance, not being openvz, and ipv6.
i have a OVZ vps from prometus that works great, and my OVH VKS has ipv6 too, so we can discuss about about price/performance ratio. But being the price tag set to FREE for OVH test vks i doubt you can do better than that.
that said, i'm more than happy to pay for Prometeus great service. Ovh VKS are a test, maybe will stay free for a very long time, but I prefer the network and support of Prometeus.
Indeed, one of the best networks in EU.
The price is not low, but it beats other offers with less network and support. You get more than what you pay for IMO and this is the main point very-very few hosts can offer.
M
Extremist conservative user, I wish to preserve human and civil rights, free speech, freedom of the press and worship, rule of law, democracy, peace and prosperity, social mobility, etc. Now you can draw your guns.
this.
Prometeus is very very good and are really very helpful as well...
even..
Special Thanks to @prometeus .
I am really happy with their basic plan....
As the server is in Italy I hope it has a better response for Asian network as Well than those situated in USA...
Anyone selling Blesta Owned Lifetime Under $250? | Regards.
the most important thing in Vps is not the price, or specs, it's uptime.
No matter how big spec is, no matter how the price is low, etc, if the server goes down like flock of chicken killed by KFC, it's no use. The server with Prometeus DOES NOT go down..that's THE bottom line.
That's why @HostBluff is the leader on the market
Thanks for your recommendation, we strive to disappoint.
Damn! you're like a condor that hovers in the sky to tear the limbs of corpses of poor providers :-(
iwebhostu is much better than HostBluff
@LAKid: thanks for your feedback about uptime. Since I use the KVM7 for two weeks only, I trust all the positive comments I've read on LET.
"El cóndor pasa", and @prometeus keeps up the great service for us to enjoy :-)
that's not italian, if you tried to say it
No, did not try to write italian. It's the title of a known theater play and song from Peru, where condors may be found.
I can really say uptime is great, because the services I run are not auto-start on reboot. (Manual start). And ever since, the service has always been running
@jcaleb, node reboot happen (leap second problem, kernel upgrade, kernel panic etc...) so you better fix that issue.
maybe not my node, not sure.
I had to give up BlueVM because they do not restart the machines and mines been down for days because I dont monitor often. I would expect at least restarting them after a host reboot, nothing wrong with a reboot, a few minutes downtime are to be expected from LEBs, but when the machine is not brought back up and the customer has to take care of that, then there is a problem.
jcaleb, really you need to autostart services. Depending on your distro there are various ways, but at the last resort rc.local should be worth looking at.
Back on topic, there were a couple of days I had serious packet loss at prometeus, but otherwise absolutely no problem for many months now.
M
Extremist conservative user, I wish to preserve human and civil rights, free speech, freedom of the press and worship, rule of law, democracy, peace and prosperity, social mobility, etc. Now you can draw your guns.
On Sunday 2 nodes rebooted, the downtime was more or less 10 minutes, but if your service didn't start at boot then your downtime would have been longer :-)
My program is still up right now.
ddos are the plague for low end offers. At some point I was thinking to not accept order anymore because of the ddos we were receiving.
Having 10G upstream connection even the largest ddos (we got a few >3Gbps) however affected only the single node and for limited time but it was unacceptable for us to offer services with so much troubles caused from kids and botnet. Luckily we have a sFlow collector that help us to catch target/source flows in real time so most threat are identified and stopped in a matter of minutes. But this wasn't of any relief for me
Most users were alerted to stay with 2 foot in one shoe (as we say in Italy) and every single abuse sanctioned. We had more than 150 cancellation in two weeks...
So we had to change our mind about giving services for almost free "month by month" to let people try us and only give high discount for longer commitments.
:P
Yep, but then you are not so lowend anymore, which is not a bad thing, since there is a need for a big choice, I can get lowend stuff for very lowend money that will work lowend, and I can get good stuff for lowend money that will work well. You are in my second preferred category, with promotions and all, the deal is great
Regarding DDoS, having a fat pipe in EU, while the most bots are in Asia and US is very safe, I think some lowend providers should put together their resources and buy fat pipes to stay safe of DDoSes, 100 mbps or 1 gbps is far too low for today script kiddies.
M
Extremist conservative user, I wish to preserve human and civil rights, free speech, freedom of the press and worship, rule of law, democracy, peace and prosperity, social mobility, etc. Now you can draw your guns.
Once you asked me what retention had our 90% off introductory discount, now time is passed and I have that figures: near to 0, almost nobody that used the service for the first month (and some for 3 months!) with the 90% of discount renewd the service at regular price (or at 20% discount we were offering at the time)...
:-)
Hence you focus on long term engagement now, right?
Yes, and they are right. Once ppl trust that you wont pack shop tomorrow, that you have a proven record of quality, then you can do that without any problems.
Really lowend is wild, both for host and for non-fraud customers, it needs a lot of hard work and thinking, but this creates the environment that will produce good hosts.
In time, those good hosts will grow complacent and other good hosts will come from behind.
I can name a few here in all the categories, but I am sure you already know them well :P
M
Extremist conservative user, I wish to preserve human and civil rights, free speech, freedom of the press and worship, rule of law, democracy, peace and prosperity, social mobility, etc. Now you can draw your guns.
At least a three months commitment to have better deal, yes
This way we hope to discourage most of the one month abuser...
Edit: that said, if you look at our regular monthly prices they are still on par or better than other hosts. What we do is to offer better deals for longer commitments. :P
good point here. Not being interested in shady activities i've often problems finding good hosts where i don't share the node with wannabe hackers/ddosers/leet pirates. And i'm willing to pay a little more, and use less resources and cause lot less troubles.
what are you favorite high-end budget providers in Europe?
mine are:
-) Prometeus (Italy) (ovz and kvm)
-) OpenITC XenVZ (UK) (xen)
-) PCSmart Group XEN Smart (UK) (ovz and xen)
and i price i consider ok is about 25-40 eur for a low end annual VPS. 50EUR/year can be a good price for a small BIZ vps where there is less overselling.
BTW, i do prefer yearly contracts because I want a great discount, and have no fear about being suspended due to abuse. And my time to setup a vps (including monitoring, backup, dns etc) is worth more than a few bucks. Less administrative overhead, less paypal fees. And probably better neighbours.
And the very few times i need a node for just one or two months i don't mind spending a few extra euro.
It's sad when i read that 100% of the people that profited from the 90% discount of Prometeus didn't renew at full price.
this is exactly what i wanted to say.
Check my blog for more cool *nix tips & tricks!
Mine is:
Prometeus
AllSimple
YMMV
I cant afford the whole year, usually, and I go with really cheap deals for a month not being scared by abusers.
I am also rejected many times because of automatic rejectors as maxmind which dont like various countries, for example, so my choice is really limited and the nodes I am hosted on very likely to get abused.
When I find a good host I stick to it, but at times I need to cancel because of downtime, because of lack of money, because ppl I got them for are no longer in need, etc.
I have very good ways to test a host and see if it can be up to the job while also giving something for a more free and open net. I install Tor relays or even exit nodes where allowed, also freenet where not allowed or the bw is insufficient but the io allows it.
ATM Prometeus makes the top of my list also then comes Edis.
M
Extremist conservative user, I wish to preserve human and civil rights, free speech, freedom of the press and worship, rule of law, democracy, peace and prosperity, social mobility, etc. Now you can draw your guns.
@Maounique MaxMind doesn't flag Romania as high risk country anymore.
-
Hum, it must be so, I havent been rejected in some time. Thanks for the info.
M
Extremist conservative user, I wish to preserve human and civil rights, free speech, freedom of the press and worship, rule of law, democracy, peace and prosperity, social mobility, etc. Now you can draw your guns.
Glad to see that. I really prefer not to share the node with abusers.
"2 foot in one shoe": damned, will no more buy italian shoes :-)
Prometeus, EDIS.