VirMach

uptimeuptime OG
edited December 2019 in Reviews

I think there may be enough to say about virmach to warrant a thread unto itself - so may as well start this one right here right now :)

(Following some recent discussion in another thread here)

For now I'll just summarize my assessment from last couple years in a few of their USA locations: solid systems, great uptime, modest specs, okay-ish network (depending on what you need it for - it is colocrossing after all) ... Also reasonable to deal with in terms of support.

So all things considered I've been pleasantly surprised. I'm guessing that the CPU limits (etc) are actually fine for some medium-load webserver duty (such as this forum) - but probably less so for more sustained usage patterns such as transcoding.

tl;dr: could be a good option for many but not all lowend applications - and proven to be worthy of consideration (in my own limited experience at least).

Questions, suggestions, critical comments, horror stories, and/or kudos and benchmarks welcome.

Also feel free to mention any good alternatives in the general price range

HS4LIFE (+ (* 3 4) (* 5 6))

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Comments

  • uptimeuptime OG
    edited December 2019

    Apologies for not including more gory details in the OP. I'm typing with my thumbs, 6 hours into an 11-hour train ride ... Will be adding more bits and pieces in subsequent posts in this thread at random intervals - possibly for the next several years. (That's an inside joke referencing the 2018 BF flash sale thread from the old forum ...)

    HS4LIFE (+ (* 3 4) (* 5 6))

  • WSSWSS OGRetired

    Take a nap; sober up. Godspeed!

    Thanked by (2)uptime Edmond

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  • "The good stuff comes on slow ..."

    Thanked by (1)Janevski

    HS4LIFE (+ (* 3 4) (* 5 6))

  • Also, just to note that VirMach is not exclusively CC, e.g., at their Seattle location.

    Thanked by (1)uptime
  • Their services are rock solid. But, if you are thinking about using their promo services purchased during BF / CM / XMAS for anything beyond initial bench-marking, idling and hosting odd websites or services that require sustained Disk I/O and 'fair share' of CPU cycles, you are better off looking elsewhere, for you'll likely get a crash course in learning to manage expectations and a resounding reminder that you get exactly what you pay for :P

    Thanked by (3)uptime cybertech vimalware
  • @K4Y5 said:
    Their services are rock solid. But, if you are thinking about using their promo services purchased during BF / CM / XMAS for anything beyond initial bench-marking, idling and hosting odd websites or services that require sustained Disk I/O and 'fair share' of CPU cycles, you are better off looking elsewhere, for you'll likely get a crash course in learning to manage expectations and a resounding reminder that you get exactly what you pay for :P

    I'm using their BF specials for sustained 40 iops, which isn't 'heavy' but also isn't zero. They clearly publish their limits, and I'm in a position where I can throttle my own stuff to stay within them. The most annoying thing for me is that they hit me for iops once, and gave me a log of it, and their log numbers were significantly different from what I was measuring in /proc/diskstats. I don't understand why there's a difference or where it came from, so I ended up just scaling my measurements by a factor, which is an ugly hack.

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  • cybertechcybertech OGBenchmark King

    the best thing about Virmach is rock solid stability. IMHO its really suitable for production but in order to do so i believe the resources are really limited on the CPU and I/O side. perhaps such is the specs for BF deals. A simple nench shows some insight on how it is regulated.

    Thanked by (1)uptime

    I bench YABS 24/7/365 unless it's a leap year.

  • @tetech said:

    @K4Y5 said:
    Their services are rock solid. But, if you are thinking about using their promo services purchased during BF / CM / XMAS for anything beyond initial bench-marking, idling and hosting odd websites or services that require sustained Disk I/O and 'fair share' of CPU cycles, you are better off looking elsewhere, for you'll likely get a crash course in learning to manage expectations and a resounding reminder that you get exactly what you pay for :P

    I'm using their BF specials for sustained 40 iops, which isn't 'heavy' but also isn't zero. They clearly publish their limits, and I'm in a position where I can throttle my own stuff to stay within them. The most annoying thing for me is that they hit me for iops once, and gave me a log of it, and their log numbers were significantly different from what I was measuring in /proc/diskstats. I don't understand why there's a difference or where it came from, so I ended up just scaling my measurements by a factor, which is an ugly hack.

    The same happened with me once.

    While I still keep a couple of $3/y and $5/y services with them that I use for playing around with random scripts, apps etc, I have largely migrated casual projects and personal web services to other hosting companies that do not race to the bottom with their prices and consequently do not suffer from overcrowded nodes or general paucity of resources. Also, servers in USA have little use for me, so that has certainly helped me move on from some seemingly incredible deals I had with Virmach.

    At the end of the day, as long as one understands his/her requirements vis-à-vis limitations of said VM, things will likely end on a pleasant note.

    Thanked by (1)uptime
  • AbdullahAbdullah Hosting ProviderOG

    I had some question about their KVM lite.
    I had OpenVZ with them which was recently migrated to KVM lite for free.(bought it in last yr sale)

    I dont find any AUP for their KVM lite. Does someone know about their AUP.
    What is the cpu share for KVM lite.?

    50GB SSD
    3 cores
    2TB BW
    2GB RAM
    12$/yr.
    KVM

    Thanked by (1)uptime
  • I've got 2 VPS that haven't provisioned yet, one since Friday. Presumably other folks are the same?

    Thanked by (1)uptime

    It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
    NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)

  • edited December 2019

    Funny how we moved to a new forum but have no problem advertising CCs biggest progeny and stating "it's super awesome".

    I mean, I get it, a stable cheap service, is a stable cheap service, however, you have to see the irony in this thread being here (regardless of the fact they 'use more datacenters than only CC'). Their main marketing point and ability to offer said services so cheaply is the fact they rely on CC to basically subsidize them with cheap servers and hosting like any other CC elevated brand has in the past.

    Just saying, moving to a new forum because we are wanting to get away from CC, then we advertise their largest brand here.. for sure gives me a chuckle to read...

    Cheers!

    Have an Allwinner H3 device? Android? Check out H3Droid! | Lichee Pi Zero - The 6$ SBC | #SYSarm - Get It! | Atomic Pi - $35 x86 SBC
    20+ Years IT Experience in Linux/Windows Hosting, Administration and Development

  • @TheLinuxBug
    Do you often cut off your nose to spite your face? Just saying. ;-)

    It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
    NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)

  • edited December 2019

    AlwaysSkint said: Do you often cut off your nose to spite your face? Just saying. ;-)

    If your question is, do I avoid all CC properties and related providers like the plague? Then the answer is most assuredly, YES!

    So, yes, in this case I would, because, I personally would NEVER recommend a single provider mixed up with CC to anyone.

    That's just me though, for some people price is more important than anything else, so I am sure they will blindly continue to purchase anyway. I just won't be one of those out there promoting them and suggesting people gamble on it.

    my 2 cents.

    Cheers!

    Thanked by (3)uptime AlwaysSkint vpsgeek

    Have an Allwinner H3 device? Android? Check out H3Droid! | Lichee Pi Zero - The 6$ SBC | #SYSarm - Get It! | Atomic Pi - $35 x86 SBC
    20+ Years IT Experience in Linux/Windows Hosting, Administration and Development

  • @Abdullah said:
    I had some question about their KVM lite.
    I had OpenVZ with them which was recently migrated to KVM lite for free.(bought it in last yr sale)

    I dont find any AUP for their KVM lite. Does someone know about their AUP.
    What is the cpu share for KVM lite.?

    hello @Abdulla

    I would just assume resource limits as described in https://virmach.com/terms-conditions/#tab1

    (these do seem sufficiently restrictive :))

    D) High Usage Policy: Any usage by Customer that disrupts the overall performance of our server(s) is not permitted. Customer agrees to operate within the VirMach usage parameters, which are as follows:
     
      High CPU: Customer’s Service cannot burst to 95-100% usage for more than five (5) minutes and cannot average higher than 50% usage within any two (2) hour period. Packages advertised to include dedicated CPU, Services with the high CPU option, and any customized Service plans that include high CPU option may burst to 100% at all times.
     
      High Load: Customer’s Service cannot have a 15-minute load average higher than the number of full logical cores assigned and cannot have a 1-day load average higher than 70% of the number of full logical cores assigned.
     
      High Mail Volume: VirMach reserves the right to block port 25 on Customer’s Service. Customer cannot send more than 100 maximum e-mails per hour, and must maintain a similar average volume of mail on a week-to-week basis—no bursting permitted. VirMach reserves the right to waive this requirement for the purpose of a customized Service plan.
     
      High I/O: Customer’s Service cannot average more than 80 IOPS within any two (2) hour period, cannot burst above 300MB/s disk write average for more than ten (10) minutes, cannot average more than 300 write operations per second for more than 1 hour, and cannot be above 20% average utilization within any six (6) hour period.
     
      High Network Usage: Customer’s Service cannot have more than 50,000 conntrack sessions at any given time, and cannot use more than the allocated bandwidth. Customer understands that the network is shared and utilizing maximum network speed will not always be possible.
     
    VirMach reserves the right to deprioritize,. power down, or suspend Customer’s Service(s) at any time in order to avoid congestion and/or disrupting the performance of other customers, which may directly affect the performance of Customer’s Service.

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    HS4LIFE (+ (* 3 4) (* 5 6))

  • @TheLinuxBug

    it's a fair cop.

    I am indeed an incorrigible troll.

    :smiley:

    Thanked by (1)Janevski

    HS4LIFE (+ (* 3 4) (* 5 6))

  • Drat! Missed the $1 - OoS
    :'(

    It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
    NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)

  • WSSWSS OGRetired

    @AlwaysSkint said:
    Drat! Missed the $1 - OoS
    :'(

    I didn't, but shit still died before I could checkout.

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  • WSS said: I didn't, but shit still died before I could checkout

    Well, it did die on me 1st time but when retried it was OoS.
    Got a nice Cloudflare page after that.
    Ach, maybe there were only 5 available ;)

    It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
    NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)

  • cybertechcybertech OGBenchmark King

    Thanks for reminding me about the history of virmach.

    Cheap as they are, will not be supporting them any longer.

    I bench YABS 24/7/365 unless it's a leap year.

  • Just learned about them now, after renting for a full year. At least I'll pass on the $50 8GB/80GB from them. Might get UltraVPS 8GB instead, even if it's higher pricing. Their 4GB SAS is the most reliable VPS I've ever had and the pricing is still unbeatable for the reliability.

  • Doesn't AlphaVPS use CC for their LA location? So you'd put Alex on your blacklist, too, even his UK/Clouvider location?

  • @AlwaysSkint said:
    I've got 2 VPS that haven't provisioned yet, one since Friday. Presumably other folks are the same?

    Mine said it was "Active" but also said something like "Virtual server not found" on the Manage Product page. If you go to the Control Panel the server was there and working fine.

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  • uhu said: Virtual server not found

    I had that until late last night - now Active and Solus available.

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    It wisnae me! A big boy done it and ran away.
    NVMe2G for life! until death (the end is nigh)

  • So the next question is, can I use HE.net or tunnelbroker to automagic a proper IPv6 address for my CC Virmach?

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  • AbdullahAbdullah Hosting ProviderOG

    @uptime said:

    @Abdullah said:
    I had some question about their KVM lite.
    I had OpenVZ with them which was recently migrated to KVM lite for free.(bought it in last yr sale)

    I dont find any AUP for their KVM lite. Does someone know about their AUP.
    What is the cpu share for KVM lite.?


    hello @Abdulla

    I would just assume resource limits as described in https://virmach.com/terms-conditions/#tab1

    (these do seem sufficiently restrictive :))

    Thank you. Yes it is restrictive enough.

    Thanked by (1)uptime
  • RahulRahul OG
    edited December 2019

    uptime said: these do seem sufficiently restrictive

    Abdullah said: Yes it is restrictive enough

    That makes Any Low End Spirit box look Prettier

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  • @uhu said:
    So the next question is, can I use HE.net or tunnelbroker to automagic a proper IPv6 address for my CC Virmach?

    Replying to myself. Yes, easily, and the speed is pretty decent (so far).

    Thanked by (2)uptime Abdullah
  • WSSWSS OGRetired

    @uhu said:

    @uhu said:
    So the next question is, can I use HE.net or tunnelbroker to automagic a proper IPv6 address for my CC Virmach?

    Replying to myself. Yes, easily, and the speed is pretty decent (so far).

    Just send them a friendly note that you did this. The TCP fixup notices spam the shit out of the hypervisor kernel - and it can't be turned off. If they don't set it to ignore these notices, you will be spamming the living fuck out of the logs.

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  • @WSS said:

    @uhu said:

    @uhu said:
    So the next question is, can I use HE.net or tunnelbroker to automagic a proper IPv6 address for my CC Virmach?

    Replying to myself. Yes, easily, and the speed is pretty decent (so far).

    Just send them a friendly note that you did this. The TCP fixup notices spam the shit out of the hypervisor kernel - and it can't be turned off. If they don't set it to ignore these notices, you will be spamming the living fuck out of the logs.

    Will do, thanks, I had no idea!

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  • WSSWSS OGRetired

    Most don't. It's annoying for admins to deal with, and makes work a little more difficult if they're not already setup to handle this.

    That said, I ran n+1 (where N=last) as a backup using HE+VirMach for a couple years in the event of everything dying outside of Buffalo.

    Worked great. Just a bit slow for UDP and a shitty way to add IPv6 to the box.

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