The point of a VPS ?

[cowboybebop]

Well, I always thought the advantage of using a VPS was that I didn't have to worry about effecting other people when I'm using a lot of CPU or something like that because i've been 'alotted' a certain amount of RAM and CPU.

So I got a VPS, paid $30 a month and all I use the VPS for it to download and re encode some stuff using Mencoder.


Now I just want to understand, why is it that a hoster can complain about my resource usage on a VPS ? I thought i'm supposed to be limited and all :/ , or is the whole point of a VPS that you have the same interface as a dedicated server but can still effect other customers ?

I got this message from my hoster a few days ago, when one of my scripts malfunctioned and started re encoding 30 things at the same time instead of queuing it all (Fixed the problem) (At the time all I thought was that it would make my VPS crash and that I shouldn't have any problems)

We have recently been killing off processes that cause your host servers to become VERY slow. Please ensure your processes are not consuming all the hard disk Input/Output.

I'll probably have to change hoster as there isn't much point in a VPS which was only used to encode which can't encode anymore as mencoder has been killed :/ . Now I doubt something like that will happen again, but I'm still confused as to why the situation became like this in the first place.

Anyone care to explain ? I'm wondering if I should stop using VPS, serverload on the VPS is usually only 1.0 - 2.0 for standard encoding though.

 

[.amaZe]

You summed up VPS's yourself when you said:

The whole point of a VPS that you have the same interface as a dedicated server but can still effect other customers.

When your on a VPS, you are splitting a dedicated server with other clients. But, unlike shared web hosting you have more power, and you can alter your VPS just as you would for a dedicated server.

 

[fnixws]

In my limited VPS experience, this will happen if the dedicated server has more resources allocated to VPSs than it can handle, in other words, its being oversold. Just like oversold webhosts, the provider blams the client when they try use what was promised in the first place.

eg: Dedicated machine has 8gb ram, but runs 16x 512mb VPSs.

Id change provider.

 

[Volt.Networks]

eg: Dedicated machine has 8gb ram, but runs 16x 512mb VPSs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't 16 x 512mb = 8gb RAM? As long as they don't promise dedicated RAM, then why is this considered overselling?

Does virtualization software split up CPU resources as well? Or just RAM?

 

[.Bobby]

I believe VPS Providers usually state a certain amount of Dedicated RAM, and then a Burstable Amount. If i'm correct, Virtualization already uses CPU Resources by itself.

 

[fnixws]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't 16 x 512mb = 8gb RAM? As long as they don't promise dedicated RAM, then why is this considered overselling?

Does virtualization software split up CPU resources as well? Or just RAM?

Yeh, but the virtualization software itself needs system resources. Itd likely use a good 1gb of that RAM for itself, and yes it does split up the CPU.

 

[LSComputers]

Hello,

You are forgetting the main reason a person purchases a VPS. Yes there are alot of crappy providers around any more that are damaging the market like they have the shared/reseller industry by overselling. However when you purchase from a company who doesn't do this, your getting great benefits.

The purpose of an VPS was to reduce your costs but still have a fast dedicated resource. For those hosts that only sale say 75% of the resources (leaving 5% for the program and 10% for burst periods) the end user would be getting (depending on the processor) power of say an P4 or Dual Core machine but only paying $40/month instead of $100.

These days companies are cramming more then they should on and yes that will effect your site.

 

[Darknight]

I brought a VPS once and they suspended it for CPU abuse as they used fair share policies instead of limiting CPU, I abused them v much and moved.

A good VPS provider shouldnt be botherd by what you use on your VPS, the current one I have I have raped the ---- out of from time to time, cpu/ram/hdd etc and never had a issue with the provider.

I gave the VPS I had with steadcom a flogging to and they never complained about my tasks slowing down other users.

I think it just depends on how well setup the host is to handle 'real clients' and not just people who plan on running one website off a vps.

I am a long time user of VPS systems, love them as they give root access so you get better control over the programs used to serve up your websites
& they only cost like 10$/month.

 

[Patrick]

Keep in mind I'm pretty sure Hard Disk I/O isn't limited on a VPS (I've never dealt with reselling VPS' so I'm not 100% sure). Meaning you could use the majority of it on the server, slowing down others VPS' and the host machine as well. An encoding software would probably be one of those Disk I/O heavy applications as well... you can't totally blame the provider for this one.

 

[cowboybebop]

Ah, I'm not blaming anyone (yet) , that is also the reason why I never stated who is hosting me .


I'm just trying to understand why this happened to understand whether I will have to get a dedicated server or not.

 

[.Bobby]

If you think your Hosting Provider actually gives you limits which others don't, switch to reliable Hosting Providers which don't! If you're going with VPS, I heard Server Complete and SteamCom are quite good.

PS: Daniel paid me to say that.

 

[heymrdj]

I'm with Steadcom for awhile now and they do have extremely high IO limits on their VPS. I run a pretty demanding service (IO wise) but I never get close to the limit.

 

[iHubNet-Matt]

PS: Daniel paid me to say that.

That is nice.

 

[Evcthosting]

I have been working with VPS reselling for almost 2 years and i had several "bad" experiences. what i found to work for me and my services was to find a company that is prepared to handle my buisness. so the issues can be 100% avoided if you know what you plan to do, have knowledge of what effect your services have on a server and relate this to to hosting provider before signing up. you could also check to see who the "Provider" is getting their services from, buy using legal measures, and you find out if you do you homework properly what the capability's are of the provider you are renting from.

just my opinion.....

 

[InfiniteTech]

This issue of 'resource abuse' notice from hosts comes only with OpenVZ & Virtuozzo platforms. Get hosted on a Xen server and you'll see the difference.

Your server will crawl while not effecting any other customers on the node. In a way your suspending your VPS yourself... on OpenVZ, you'll get that extra juice while risking suspension from your host.

All the best

 

[kexhosting]

Actually, I can't agree that slow servers are always oversold, a few things to blame is the total of Ghz available. If you don't have enough ghz, then you won't have enough to go around. Thus slow vps, but I think that a VPS is a cheap solution that replaces a dedicated server in some way, but not all.

 

[serverorigin]

Actually, I can't agree that slow servers are always oversold, a few things to blame is the total of Ghz available. If you don't have enough ghz, then you won't have enough to go around. Thus slow vps, but I think that a VPS is a cheap solution that replaces a dedicated server in some way, but not all.

Ermm.. ok..

Actually the biggest problem is simply stated. Too many hosts that offer VPS' have too little experience. They download HyperVM or OpenVZ kernels, drop them in and start running pre-built configurations (unsecure at that).

They have no real idea about resource limitations, file descriptor limits, memory thresholds, etc. OpenVZ can be just as reliable as Xen if it's configured properly. It does require a bit more knowledge than Xen because of it's ability to oversell and that's where the problem comes in. Virtuozzo has nearly the same configuration as OpenVZ, just with an interface. The largest difference is only the "REAL" serious hosts were running Virtuozzo because of the costs. If half of the hosts I see popping up offering VPS', didn't have something like HyperVM to do the install for them, they wouldn't even be in business.

It's not a very mature technology (in the hosting business), it has blown up quick in the past 3 years and many hosts brought the technology in-house with no idea what they were doing. Biggest reason: It's open source and there is little training/documentation available. Now before someone says, "Virtualization has been around years...". I understand it has but it hasn't been big in the hosting industry except for the last few years. Before that, the closest "reliable TYPE" of virtualization that was seen offered by more than a few companies was FreeBSD jails.

This is exactly why you go with hosting companies with long-standing reputations built around virtualized technology. Companies that make it their mainstream income. The guys who try to sell VPS, dedicated, shared, shoutcast, irc, reseller, alpha reseller, etc... stay away. IMHO if a host (the owner or main support staff) has never found themselves using the command "make depmod" in their linux experience, then they shouldn't be eligible to download the software. Most of these hosts couldn't compile a kernel if their life depended on it and that's where the 'unreliable' factor comes into play.

Find a host whose primary focus and reputation has been built around their continued service with providing VPS'. Good example: vpslink.com (spry.com), PowerVPS.Com, SolarVPS.com

Now don't mistake my claim that it isn't completely mature. OpenVZ is mature enough to be run in a production environment but the staff running it must be mature enough in their knowledge to do so. Much like Spry.Com (running Virtuozzo YEARS...no idea how long...oldest VPS host as far as I can remember) who opened VPSlink.com with OpenVZ/Xen platforms to keep costs down.

Each of those providers, you will never go wrong.

Others have mentioned SteadCom in the above posts, I have no real life experience but it sounds like they have a tight configuration if you're pounding the VPS and they aren't complaining. You know what that means? They have the configuration worked out so it doesn't affect users. In VERY rare instances should a user have to be suspended from a VPS for resource hogging. When I say rare, I mean a DDOS attack caused by the user or intentional abuse. Normal usage should be handled correctly by the hypervisor so it isn't affecting everyone else.

Sorry for the long rant... Just bugs me to see the suspensions... My VPS company (Not ServerOrigin - so I'm not soliciting mods) gets users just like you all the time who have lost their annual payments + data because of companies just like that. Best of luck to you. I'd recommend one of the above companies I mentioned or possibly check out SteadCom as there seems to be a happy user base here on the forums.