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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    1,378

    Very Early ServerWays Review

    I've seen a few posts asking about ServerWays, but no actual responses. Mostly out of curiosity, I signed up for VPS222: $6.90/month for 200 MHz, 200 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, and 200 GB transfer.

    This is currently a very early review.

    I signed up at about 8pm last night. It asked me to check the box that I agreed to their TOS/AUP, which took me to a copy-and-paste job of the BurstNET AUP/TOS. They've since explained that this is deliberate: they're hosted in their data center, hence you agree to their ToS. It's a bit disconcerting at first, as you wonder whether this is a "real" company.

    I was similarly troubled when my attempts to pay through PayPal inexplicably wound up with with the PayPal interface in French. This may have just been some transient fluke; who knows. I switched to English and completed the transaction.

    I received myriad e-mails over the next ten minutes as my payment was processed, but it wasn't until 3:30 this morning that I got e-mail that the VPS had been activated. The e-mail lacked any login information, but I found it in their 'client portal' fine--an IP, username, and password.

    I'm unable to log in with this information, and opened a trouble ticket not 5 minutes ago. I'll keep you updated.

    So my super-early review summary: don't expect world-class service or a polished sign-up/setup, but don't expect your money to disappear into a blackhole, either.

    Update: The IP is 38.103.164.xx, which is registered to Cogent. A traceroute shows DirectSpace.net (Portland, OR) as the third-to-last hop, which looks to be where we're located. DirectSpace seems to have very cheap CoLo, which may explain how ServerWays is offering low prices.
    Last edited by fog; 01-31-2008 at 11:38 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Fort Worth
    Posts
    265
    I was just thinking about getting a backup server with them, but it seemed to good to be true for less than 10 a month....I appreciate your review and please keep us posted as to performance and any other issues you might or moght not have. Thanks again

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    1,378
    They just responded to my ticket; turns out it was a problem on my part (using the wrong login information).

    I will say that 200 MHz is quite slow. I just tried a download and got 3.8 MB/sec. Niiiiice bandwidth!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Fort Worth
    Posts
    265
    Would you be willing to post a link for me too see speed from there servers to Texas? Anything would work, website, file, or whatever?

  5. #5
    I signed for the same plan last week.

    They took about some hours to reply the first email, but the account was set up in 30 minutes.

    About the server, it's a disgusting PD at 3Ghz (microarchitecture NetBurst arh!) and 4GB memory. All right since all you want is some not so crowded phpbb forum or a gallery. But if you're thinking about compiling from source your webserver applications like php, lighttpd, mysql etc, i suggest you to open multiple terminals and let it working before going to bed. LOL

    I donno anything about its arrays of disks or anything else. That's all lshw can obtain from that box. There goes its output:

    Code:
        description: Computer
        width: 32 bits
      *-core
           description: Motherboard
           physical id: 0
         *-memory
              description: System memory
              physical id: 0
              size: 200MB
         *-cpu
              product: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz
              vendor: Intel Corp.
              physical id: 1
              bus info: cpu@0
              version: 15.6.5
              serial: 0000-0F65-0000-0000-0000-0000
              size: 18EHz
              width: 64 bits
              capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx x86-64 pni monitor ds_cpl est cid cx16 xtpr
              configuration: id=0
            *-logicalcpu:0
                 description: Logical CPU
                 physical id: 0.1
                 width: 64 bits
                 capabilities: logical
            *-logicalcpu:1
                 description: Logical CPU
                 physical id: 0.2
                 width: 64 bits
                 capabilities: logical
    If anything is wrong, just select your fave OS and click rebuild so everything is instantly reinstalled. Current distros avaliable are:

    Code:
    centos-4-i386-afull (288.94MB)
    centos-4-i386-updhib2 (2159.7MB)
    centos-4-x86_64-default (398.11MB)
    centos-5-i386-afull (304.28MB)
    debian-4.0-i386-minimal (134.91MB)	- (The one i picked)
    fedora-core-5-i386-afull (319.8MB)
    opensuse-10-i386-default (282.33MB)
    slackware-12.0-i386-minimal (76.72MB)
    ubuntu-6.06-i386-minimal (155.74MB)
    Where the heck is Ubuntu 7.10? It's not in the list right now, but I though i had seen it yesterday...

    My IP blcok is 38.100.214.XX and it sounds to be from NY, according to ip2location.com. Its bandwidth is just amazing! I can reach over 3.5MB/s sometimes depending where i get it from. Yeah, that's about 30mbps! Nothing bad! Ping is close to 250ms from here (Brazil) with no more than very few packages lost after sending 1000s. My DSL link is 1.2/1.0mbps (down/up).

    I havent run UnixBench yet because i cannot take all process down in order to get a reliable result cuz that runs a prodution server. Btw i'm gonna do that tonight when it gets unloaded then i post results here.

    HyperVM is pretty cool. I donno about LXAdmin because i uninstalled it right after my first access.

    Just like "fog" said, it is not an "enterprise world class" solution. But if you are looking for a self-managed reasonable VPS, Serverways is the way!

  6. #6
    So as i promised, here goes unixbench results. Basically the only non OS dependent process running was tinydns.

    Code:
    Start Benchmark Run: Fri Feb  1 04:31:31 BRST 2008
     04:31:31 up 2 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.23, 0.10, 0.03
    
    End Benchmark Run: Fri Feb  1 05:06:45 BRST 2008
     05:06:45 up 37 min,  1 user,  load average: 10.01, 5.17, 3.73
    
    
                         INDEX VALUES
    TEST                                        BASELINE     RESULT      INDEX
    
    Dhrystone 2 using register variables        376783.7   249038.1        6.6
    Double-Precision Whetstone                      83.1     1039.9      125.1
    Execl Throughput                               188.3      169.8        9.0
    File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks         2672.0     6251.0       23.4
    File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks           1077.0     1924.0       17.9
    File Read 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks        15382.0    35544.0       23.1
    Pipe Throughput                             111814.6    48772.1        4.4
    Pipe-based Context Switching                 15448.6     7352.7        4.8
    Process Creation                               569.3      440.8        7.7
    Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                    44.8       32.2        7.2
    System Call Overhead                        114433.5    35161.1        3.1
                                                                     =========
         FINAL SCORE                                                      10.9
    And here is the result of openload against a coppermine gallery index which contains 36 albums by simulating 20 concurrent users:

    Code:
    MaTps   0.68, Tps   0.68, Resp Time  1.473, Err   0%, Count     1
    MaTps   0.68, Tps   0.73, Resp Time  2.843, Err   0%, Count     2
    MaTps   0.70, Tps   0.86, Resp Time  4.009, Err   0%, Count     3
    MaTps   0.72, Tps   0.85, Resp Time  5.189, Err   0%, Count     4
    MaTps   0.73, Tps   0.84, Resp Time  6.376, Err   0%, Count     5
    MaTps   0.74, Tps   0.82, Resp Time  7.593, Err   0%, Count     6
    MaTps   0.75, Tps   0.82, Resp Time  8.816, Err   0%, Count     7
    MaTps   0.76, Tps   0.85, Resp Time  9.993, Err   0%, Count     8
    MaTps   0.77, Tps   0.85, Resp Time 11.171, Err   0%, Count     9
    MaTps   0.77, Tps   0.84, Resp Time 12.355, Err   0%, Count    10
    MaTps   0.78, Tps   0.85, Resp Time 13.534, Err   0%, Count    11
    MaTps   0.79, Tps   0.85, Resp Time 14.707, Err   0%, Count    12
    MaTps   0.79, Tps   0.85, Resp Time 15.887, Err   0%, Count    13
    MaTps   0.80, Tps   0.83, Resp Time 17.087, Err   0%, Count    14
    MaTps   0.80, Tps   0.85, Resp Time 18.264, Err   0%, Count    15
    MaTps   0.81, Tps   0.85, Resp Time 19.439, Err   0%, Count    16
    
    Total TPS:   0.79
    Avg. Response time: 10.546 sec.
    Max Response time:  19.439 sec
    Total Requests:      16
    Total Errors:         0
    Server runs on a lighttpd 1.4.18, with php5 5.2.5 fast-cgi, mysql 5.0.51 and XCache 1.2.2.

    What? That's a $6,90 VPS!

    Let me know if you want some more specific tests.
    Last edited by Smell; 02-01-2008 at 03:40 AM.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    124
    good luck with your new vps

    btw, newbie here...
    How do you run that test? What command in ssh or any tools?

  8. #8
    Serverways is the way!
    Yes i have bye VPS 333 it is very cool for me and low prise
    i have got some problem in my VPS , support is very Good , maximum responce to ticket is 10 minute i have more then 20 tiket , the problem in my vps are cause of me not from Serverways
    i have debian 4 minimal now is work greate with xampp i have 2 domain name and 2 blog's they run very Good
    for (Smell)
    You ask about ubuntu 7.10
    before they aren't in the list i ask hani the support to add it for me
    ubuntu 7.10 and slackware 12 , ubuntu 7.10 seam to be not stable then he delete it
    finaly Serverways rock's ! other sock's
    sorry for my bad english

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by QuickInstaller
    How do you run that test? What command in ssh or any tools?
    You can try UnixBench by googling "unixbench vps dedicated" without quotes, then visit the topic "VPS vs Dedicated". Sorry, i cannot post links because this board says "You need five posts before being able to use any of this board's vB code features. Including smilies and linking to URLs." I really don't know why, as i posted smiles yesterday. (here would come a mad face...)

    Just don't forget, if you own a multicore, multiprocessor or HT server, use "./Run" followed by the amount of cores or virtual processors avaliable.

    In order to install openload, i suggest you to use a package manager (yum, apt-get, synaptic, aptitude etc). That's gonna be pretty easy.

    That's it. Let us know if you get any doubt. (Wink)

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    471
    Coppermine is pretty resource intense. How does the server respond for some static sites and a few light php dynamic sites?

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Bristol, UK
    Posts
    232
    Quote Originally Posted by root1987 View Post
    Serverways is the way!
    Not any more they're not!
    They've just sold all their VPS customers to web-wide-hosting.co.nz
    So that is the end of that!
    Good while it lasted though!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    471
    See my review of Web Wide Hosting here:

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=681890

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Christchurch, New Zealand
    Posts
    18
    Quote Originally Posted by slowdive View Post
    Not any more they're not!
    They've just sold all their VPS customers to web-wide-hosting.co.nz
    So that is the end of that!
    Good while it lasted though!
    Reports of the death of the ServerWay's plans have been greatly exaggerated .

    Once we took over the business we could see that there was going to be a couple of months work to get things how we wanted them. It was pretty clear that to update all the systems, while still continuing to actively sell product was going to be a tough job. So, we went underground for a while .

    The clients that stayed around are well aware of the amount of work that has gone into this, and to be honest I am glad we did it the way we did.

    We're now at the end of the development cycle. Aside of sorting out a few website integration items, which are currently on the back burner, we are ready to rock.

    Watch out for a launch special coming up very soon!

    Best Regards

    Jon

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