Review PhotonVPS – 512MB RAM Cloud VPS
PhotonVPS is one of the lowend Cloud VPS provider, which offer SSD based storage and KVM Virtualization. There are several mix reviews on the WHT about them, some customers are satisfied and some are angry. However here I’m going to write what I found about them within 48 hours of ordering a VM from them.
Starting with PhotonVPS
I found their PhotonVPS advertisement on WHT while I was searching for a lowend Windows VPS. Their prices for Windows looked very cheap, that a 1GB RAM Windows VPS was only $10.95/m. However after going to their product page link, I saw price of 1GB Windows VPS was $15.95. Upon further investigation, they claimed that it was typing mistake on WHT ad.
Anyhow, I thought to give a try to Linux VPS.
Ordering and Starting up
I placed order for 512MB RAM VPS, and received basic Emails. VPS login information was not instant, it took around 60 minutes to get order activated.
There are some features
- PhotonVPS offer SSD storage
- 1Gbps DDOS protection is freely added in every plan
- FREE monitoring service is available
There is some bug in their control panel, that it show 2000MB Bandwidth rather then 2TB (2000GB) and 10MB Disk space, rather then 10GB. I contacted them about it, and they said it is a bug and that VPS will not be suspended because if excessive bandwidth usage.
PhotonVPS is based on ONAPP, and almost all available features of ONAPP are available in their WHMCS
Testing on VPS
After installing basic Debian 7 32bit, disk space was
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root@:~# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on rootfs 9.9G 993M 8.4G 11% / udev 10M 0 10M 0% /dev tmpfs 51M 184K 50M 1% /run /dev/vda1 9.9G 993M 8.4G 11% / tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock tmpfs 306M 0 306M 0% /run/shm |
6% inodes were in use
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root@:~# df -i Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on rootfs 655360 35402 619958 6% / udev 62884 309 62575 1% /dev tmpfs 64142 227 63915 1% /run /dev/vda1 655360 35402 619958 6% / tmpfs 64142 1 64141 1% /run/lock tmpfs 64142 2 64140 1% /run/shm |
vmstats were
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root@:~# vmstat procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 1 0 0 404200 20236 65052 0 0 1 0 12 17 0 0 100 0 |
CPU information
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root@:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 13 model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6) stepping : 3 microcode : 0x1 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: processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 13 model name : QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6) stepping : 3 microcode : 0x1 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: |
Memory Information
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root@:~# cat /proc/meminfo MemTotal: 513136 kB MemFree: 404200 kB Buffers: 20244 kB Cached: 65080 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 29784 kB Inactive: 63212 kB Active(anon): 7708 kB Inactive(anon): 152 kB Active(file): 22076 kB Inactive(file): 63060 kB Unevictable: 0 kB Mlocked: 0 kB HighTotal: 0 kB HighFree: 0 kB LowTotal: 513136 kB LowFree: 404200 kB SwapTotal: 1048572 kB SwapFree: 1048572 kB Dirty: 0 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 7620 kB Mapped: 6588 kB Shmem: 188 kB Slab: 10100 kB SReclaimable: 5316 kB SUnreclaim: 4784 kB KernelStack: 480 kB PageTables: 488 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 1305140 kB Committed_AS: 41796 kB VmallocTotal: 509960 kB VmallocUsed: 1864 kB VmallocChunk: 507768 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB AnonHugePages: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 2048 kB DirectMap4k: 32752 kB DirectMap2M: 491520 kB |
Speedtest result
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root@:~# ./speedtest-cli --share Retrieving speedtest.net configuration... Retrieving speedtest.net server list... Testing from Psychz Networks (23.91.25.125)... Selecting best server based on ping... Hosted by KanOkla Networks (Caldwell, KS) [120.08 km]: 17.564 ms Testing download speed........................................ Download: 48.94 Mbit/s Testing upload speed.................................................. Upload: 29.12 Mbit/s |
Tested again
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root@:~# ./speedtest-cli --share Retrieving speedtest.net configuration... Retrieving speedtest.net server list... Testing from Psychz Networks (23.91.25.125)... Selecting best server based on ping... Hosted by KsFiberNet (Wichita, KS) [45.26 km]: 16.61 ms Testing download speed........................................ Download: 79.26 Mbit/s Testing upload speed.................................................. Upload: 26.84 Mbit/s |
100MB file download
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root@:~# wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test -O /dev/null --2013-09-14 12:12:52-- 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%[===================================================================================================================== 2013-09-14 12:13:01 (11.8 MB/s) - `/dev/null' saved [104857600/104857600] |
DD tests shows somehow inconsistent disk I/O speed
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root@:~# 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, 4.84672 s, 222 MB/s |
Tested again
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root@:~# 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, 6.09742 s, 176 MB/s |
This time result was lower, therefore I did third time, and it was back to normal again. Then I did few more times and this time result was consistent.
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root@:~# 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, 4.71906 s, 228 MB/s |
For Bench mark, here is UnixBench result
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# # # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # # # # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # # # # ## ##### ##### # # # # ###### # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # ## # # # # #### # # # # # ##### ###### # # #### # # Version 5.1.2 Based on the Byte Magazine Unix Benchmark Multi-CPU version Version 5 revisions by Ian Smith, Sunnyvale, CA, USA December 22, 2007 johantheghost at yahoo period com 1 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 x Double-Precision Whetstone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 x Execl Throughput 1 2 3 1 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1 2 3 1 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1 2 3 1 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1 2 3 1 x Pipe Throughput 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 x Pipe-based Context Switching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 x Process Creation 1 2 3 1 x System Call Overhead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1 2 3 1 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1 2 3 2 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 x Double-Precision Whetstone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 x Execl Throughput 1 2 3 2 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 1 2 3 2 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1 2 3 2 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1 2 3 2 x Pipe Throughput 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 x Pipe-based Context Switching 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 x Process Creation 1 2 3 2 x System Call Overhead 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1 2 3 2 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1 2 3 ======================================================================== BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.2) System: jupiter: GNU/Linux OS: GNU/Linux -- 3.2.0-4-686-pae -- #1 SMP Debian 3.2.46-1+deb7u1 Machine: i686 (unknown) Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8") CPU 0: QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6) (4000.0 bogomips) x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSCALL/SYSRET CPU 1: QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6) (4000.0 bogomips) x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSCALL/SYSRET 12:39:52 up 9:03, 2 users, load average: 0.21, 0.14, 0.09; runlevel 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Benchmark Run: Sat Sep 14 2013 12:39:52 - 13:07:45 2 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests Dhrystone 2 using register variables 11364756.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Double-Precision Whetstone 2014.2 MWIPS (10.1 s, 7 samples) Execl Throughput 2088.1 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples) File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 416053.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 114365.2 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1015125.3 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) Pipe Throughput 725856.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Pipe-based Context Switching 152611.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Process Creation 5077.3 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples) Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 4683.7 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples) Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 997.3 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples) System Call Overhead 680537.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 11364756.9 973.8 Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 2014.2 366.2 Execl Throughput 43.0 2088.1 485.6 File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 416053.7 1050.6 File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 114365.2 691.0 File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1015125.3 1750.2 Pipe Throughput 12440.0 725856.1 583.5 Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 152611.9 381.5 Process Creation 126.0 5077.3 403.0 Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 4683.7 1104.6 Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 997.3 1662.2 System Call Overhead 15000.0 680537.5 453.7 ======== System Benchmarks Index Score 710.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Benchmark Run: Sat Sep 14 2013 13:07:45 - 13:35:41 2 CPUs in system; running 2 parallel copies of tests Dhrystone 2 using register variables 20595375.3 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Double-Precision Whetstone 3989.8 MWIPS (10.2 s, 7 samples) Execl Throughput 5718.2 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples) File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 536145.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 149362.1 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1517174.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples) Pipe Throughput 1426494.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Pipe-based Context Switching 286317.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) Process Creation 16760.6 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples) Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 7318.0 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples) Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 1119.0 lpm (60.1 s, 2 samples) System Call Overhead 1237627.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples) System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 20595375.3 1764.8 Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 3989.8 725.4 Execl Throughput 43.0 5718.2 1329.8 File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 536145.4 1353.9 File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 149362.1 902.5 File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1517174.7 2615.8 Pipe Throughput 12440.0 1426494.7 1146.7 Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 286317.5 715.8 Process Creation 126.0 16760.6 1330.2 Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 7318.0 1725.9 Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 1119.0 1865.1 System Call Overhead 15000.0 1237627.9 825.1 ======== System Benchmarks Index Score 1258.5 |
GeekBench result
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System Information Operating System Linux 3.2.0-4-686-pae i686 Model Red Hat KVM Motherboard N/A Processor QEMU Virtual CPU version (cpu64-rhel6) @ 2.00 GHz 1 Processor, 2 Threads Processor ID GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 3 L1 Instruction Cache 32.0 KB x 2 L1 Data Cache 32.0 KB x 2 L2 Cache 4.00 MB x 2 L3 Cache 0.00 B Memory 501 MB BIOS Seabios 0.5.1 Integer Running Blowfish Running Text Compress Running Text Decompress Running Image Compress Running Image Decompress Running Lua Floating Point Running Mandelbrot Running Dot Product Running LU Decomposition Running Primality Test Running Sharpen Image Running Blur Image Memory Running Read Sequential Running Write Sequential Running Stdlib Allocate Running Stdlib Write Running Stdlib Copy Stream Running Stream Copy Running Stream Scale Running Stream Add Running Stream Triad |
Here is the detailed link for Geek Bench.
Overall VPS is stable and have reliable performance.
Customer Service and Support
Customer service is normal, ticket support is quick. Whenever I opened ticket, it was answered within few minutes. Billing ticket was answered within few hours though.
Conclusion
Overall I found PhotonVPS a better lowend vps provider, in just $5.95/m. I will be hosting some major applications on this VM and will post stability performance till next month.
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