VPS is good value (after some setup tricks)

[beatgroover]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd share my experience with setting up a VPS with JPC. I have been a long, long time customer at a JPC on the shared hosting side. Mostly with no problems at all.

Plan: VPS Plus, $19/month

First the small gripes. It is a bit annoying to have to install 'yum' manually by first getting all the dependencies in place with remote rpms. Then it is a little annoying that I had to add 'extras' repos for Python2.6 because the Centos image is version 5.4.

Having said that, the value for money once set up is really, really good. It is worth futzing around for a while setting that up in the long run.

Yes, an Amazon image can be brought up and configured in seconds as compared with a 'ticket-based' setup, but have a look at this quick comparison. I fired up an amazon micro instance and ran:

echo '2^2^21' | time bc > /dev/null
84.98user 0.12system 1:25.38elapsed 99%CPU

1 minute 25 secs to run that. On my VPS it is:

echo '2^2^21' | time bc > /dev/null
18.10user 0.03system 0:18.32elapsed 98%CPU

So only 18 seconds. I had to ramp up to a "high-compute medium" EC2 instance to get the same 'benchmark' (OK, this is a simple one, but....) time of around 16-18 seconds.

Combine that with JPC's included traffic, 3 IP addresses, the value is great:

VPS Plus: $19 / month
Amazon EC2 "C1 Medium" $0.17/hr = $122.40 /month

[and just for info: Amazon micro instance = $0.02/hr = $14.40/month]

OK, so I could get a reserved instance, use spot pricing, etc. But that would not make a huge difference.

I also like the fact that email sent from JPC seems to get trapped a spam less. Anything from Amazon seems to be blocked these days.

Anyway, this has NOT been a paid announcement. But I thought I should share in case it helps someone's thinking.

This is the first 'shake-out' test of my VPS, but so far, so good!

Cheerio!

[Ron]

Great stuff!

Thanks for sharing.

[the_ancient]

Yes JPC is a good value but.....

You are comparing Apples to Oranges

JPC VPS uses Container Based OpenVZ style "soft" virtualization for the VPS, meaning it is not Strictly limited to the confines of the hardware profile, CPU, RAM, etc are all Burstable to consume more resources than your plan technically allows

The upcoming JPC Clould, AWS and all other "Cloud" services use Hypervisor (Xen) style VM's which means the Virtual Machine has no knowledge of and can not consume anything above and beyond the hardware profile, so this makes it appear to be less of a value, but "Abusers" can take down an entire node by abusing the Soft Virtual Layer, that can not happen with the VM's

Further on the CentOS 5.4 extra repos, you should be able to upgrade to CentOS 5.7 unless you have a need for 5.4

[JPC-Sabrina]

Beatgroover, thank you for posting on our forum and expressing your sincere appreciation for the affordable and reliable services we offer here at JaguarPC. Check back here on the forums and our website in the New Year because our options and rewards will only continue to improve. Thanks for choosing JaguarPC.

[beatgroover]

You are comparing Apples to Oranges

Yeah, that CPU comparison is not really accurate, and the 'benchmark' I used is hideously simplistic. But the three free static IPs, included bandwith and less spam trap issues is probably more what I meant in terms of overall value.

Thanks for the advice on 5.4 --> 5.7

I did upgrade to the 'top' of CentOS (once I had 'yum' in place). But I still needed the extras repos for Python 2.6 since (if I am correct....) Python 2.6 did not come until CentOS 6?

Anyway, looking forward to the XEN-based options from JPC too!

By the way, does anyone know if I can get a discount for paying a full year of VPS in advance like I can with shared hosting? Pay-by-the-month is hardly worth the effort at the $17/p/m rate.

[Ron]

I don't think there's a yearly discount, however I think I've read that they can arrange for you to pay your monthly tab up front to reduce the number of "physical" payments you need to make.

Neat way to approximate a benchmark, BTW. I wouldn't have thought of doing it that nice and easy and quick way. I usually wind up coding a quick little C program to test out the compiler and optimizer and CPU. Just about as bogus of an approach as yours! LOL

[JPC-Zachary]

Yeah, that CPU comparison is not really accurate, and the 'benchmark' I used is hideously simplistic. But the three free static IPs, included bandwith and less spam trap issues is probably more what I meant in terms of overall value.

Thanks for the advice on 5.4 --> 5.7

I did upgrade to the 'top' of CentOS (once I had 'yum' in place). But I still needed the extras repos for Python 2.6 since (if I am correct....) Python 2.6 did not come until CentOS 6?

Anyway, looking forward to the XEN-based options from JPC too!

By the way, does anyone know if I can get a discount for paying a full year of VPS in advance like I can with shared hosting? Pay-by-the-month is hardly worth the effort at the $17/p/m rate.

Please shoot me an e-mail at zach(@)jaguarpc.com and I'll see what I can do for you in regards to yearly billing.

[Vin DSL]

Great stuff!

Thanks for sharing.

Dittos!

[SarahL]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd share my experience with setting up a VPS with JPC. I have been a long, long time customer at a JPC on the shared hosting side. Mostly with no problems at all.

Plan: VPS Plus, $19/month

First the small gripes. It is a bit annoying to have to install 'yum' manually by first getting all the dependencies in place with remote rpms. Then it is a little annoying that I had to add 'extras' repos for Python2.6 because the Centos image is version 5.4.

Having said that, the value for money once set up is really, really good. It is worth futzing around for a while setting that up in the long run.

Yes, an Amazon image can be brought up and configured in seconds as compared with a 'ticket-based' setup, but have a look at this quick comparison. I fired up an amazon micro instance and ran:

echo '2^2^21' | time bc > /dev/null
84.98user 0.12system 1:25.38elapsed 99%CPU

1 minute 25 secs to run that. On my VPS it is:

echo '2^2^21' | time bc > /dev/null
18.10user 0.03system 0:18.32elapsed 98%CPU

So only 18 seconds. I had to ramp up to a "high-compute medium" EC2 instance to get the same 'benchmark' (OK, this is a simple one, but....) time of around 16-18 seconds.

Combine that with JPC's included traffic, 3 IP addresses, the value is great:

VPS Plus: $19 / month
Amazon EC2 "C1 Medium" $0.17/hr = $122.40 /month

[and just for info: Amazon micro instance = $0.02/hr = $14.40/month]

OK, so I could get a reserved instance, use spot pricing, etc. But that would not make a huge difference.

I also like the fact that email sent from JPC seems to get trapped a spam less. Anything from Amazon seems to be blocked these days.

Anyway, this has NOT been a paid announcement. But I thought I should share in case it helps someone's thinking.

This is the first 'shake-out' test of my VPS, but so far, so good!

Cheerio!

Good stuff thanks.

[JPC-Sabrina]

Thanks for the thumbs up Sarah. It is always nice to have a new and active poster on the forums as well. If you ever need any additional assistance then don't hesitate to contact us. Thanks for choosing JaguarPC.

[Ron]

lolz.

[JPC-Greg]

Wanna dig ths one up. btw thanks for the great review. I would like to find out more about the comment "(after some setup tricks) ". If there are some tweaks you think we should include in default templates we would like to explore them.