[deanhills]

VPS 9 (Phoenix Location) - Review (14 April to 6 Sept 2018)

Introduction

I was completely blown away when I was awarded VPS 9 during Post4VPS's Giveaway in April.  The VPS was given to me on 14 April 2018.  VPS 9 is a very sought after VPS that comes with an exceptional service record at post4vps.  So when @perryoo11 informed me of this great news I was thrilled to bits.  Thank you to all of the helping hands who made this VPS possible.  They include all of the staff and members of the community who are always very generous in sharing their expertise.

I've given the VPS a good workout over the almost five months I've been the proud owner of it, enough to be able to write this review.

VPS 9 Host

As every one knows, VPS 9 is from VirMach who is one of post4vps’s favourite sponsors. VirMach specializes in high-quality affordable VPSs with locations in all of the main areas of the US and also in Amsterdam and Frankfurt in Europe (refer map below). They offer cheap Linux and Windows VPS plans as well as dedicated servers. As far as I know VPS 9 is one of the most popular VPSs at Post4VPS.  I feel very lucky to have won one.

Here is a map of all of the VirMach locations.  My VPS is located in Phoenix.




Specifications of VPS 9

Disk Size: 100 GB SSD
Monthly Traffic: 4 TB
Memory: 8 GB

IP Addresses: 1x IPv4 & 3 IPv6
Virtualization: OpenVZ
Location: Phoenix, USA
Control Panel: None
Connection: 1Gbps
Provided by: https://virmach.com/best-cheapest-linux-vps/


[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Network, Performance & Reliability[/font]

When I checked the packages before I applied for VPS 9 the most important consideration for me was the speed with which my ISP in South Africa could respond with the Virmach VPS in its Phoenix location.  I've had experiences already of unstable connections of the South African ISP with some of the locations in the US.  As it turned out the speed was below perfect as one can note from the high pings of the speed tests below, but because of the very generous specifications of the VPS as well as speed and reliability of the VirMach overall Network I haven't had any issues with speed when working with the VPS - to the contrary - the speed and performance of my VPS 9 have been consistently excellent from 14 April when I first took occupation of the VPS to date  I haven't experienced a single occurrence of down time.  You can read my blog article about speed tests that have been taken of VPS 9 in April and August 2018:
http://deanhills.us/vps-9-rocks/

Here is a speed test that was taken on 7 August 2018 from South Africa:




This speed test was taken today - from a UAE ISP:




System Information

The System Information below was generated by the Akamaras Test:

CPU Model:  Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2620 v3 @ 2.40GHz
CPU Cores:  2
Frequency:  2400.033 MHz
Total Amount of RAM:  8192 MB
Total Amount of SWAP:  0 MB

Uptime:   145 days, 53 min
Download Speed: (223.59 MB/s)
I/O Speed: [font=Calibri, sans-serif]571.667 MB/s[/font]


OS: CentOS release 6.9 (Final)
Architecture:  x86_64 (64 Bit)
Kernel: 2.6.32-042stab127.2
Hostname:  deanhills.us

Benchmark Test

First I tried Hidden Refuge's Benchmark 2.0 test  ./bench.sh -b and for some or other reason the VPS responded with "permission denied".  I then went on to use Dave McIntyre's version of the Akamaras Test:

Code: (Select All)

wget --no-check-certificate freevps.us/downloads/bench.sh      -O - -o /dev/null | bash

Canada
Download speed from Cachefly: 80.9MB/s

America - United States:
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta, GA: 1.49MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: 46.1MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 56.2MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 85.8MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 34.2MB/s

Asia
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, Japan: 17.3MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 10.0MB/s

Europe
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, Netherlands: 15.4MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, Netherlands: 91.5MB/s


Disks and Storage

Disk speed is very fast:

Drive Speed
I/O (1st run):  192 MB/s
I/O (2nd run):  787 MB/s
I/O (3rd run):  736 MB/s
Average I/O: 571 MB/s


Control Panel

VPS 9 doesn't come with a control panel.  I've been lucky in that I haven't had any need to ask for admin assistance since the VPS was given to me.  On the one hand this is testimony to the excellent functioning of the VPS.  In addition I was also very careful with using the VPS so as not to need to have to ask the Admin for assistance.  I have a cheap paid VPS which I reserve for experimentation instead.  VPS 9 is my serious VPS that I treat as best as I can.  However I am confident that if anything should ever happen from a technical admin point of view that turn around in support will be very fast.  


Usage

I'm currently using my VPS for WordPress projects of which I've had great enjoyment thanks to this wonderful new VPS.  [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]In the final analysis however I do realize that VPS 9 is given for promotion and as such may be withdrawn at any time.  This has already happened to me with three previous VPSs during the course of which I learned to become much more resilient and prepared and to be ready for instant migration of the content.  I use VestaCP on the VPS as I find it ideal because of how lightweight and fast it is and quick and easy to set up.  It barely uses any resources.  It also comes with fail2ban security that is already set optimally for VPSs.  I'm able to install a WordPress installation within minutes of starting the VPS.  All of my WordPress sites are backed up regularly and can be moved very easily to new servers.[/font]


Things to Improve

I don't know how one can improve on this fantastic VPS. All specifications are fine and awesome.  Location is perhaps not ideal - but that is relative to my own location.  For someone living in the US this must be a dream VPS.  Thanks to VirMach and Post4VPS!  There is really nothing I can fault with the VPS except perhaps it would have been nice to have a control panel.


Conclusion

I'm more than happy with my VPS 9.  I knew I was getting a great VPS after reading the specs, but the experience exceeded the expectations I had.  I can't believe how lucky I am to be the custodian of this great VPS.  Speed is unbelievable.  Working with my WordPress Websites a pleasure.  

I want to extend a special note of appreciation to VirMach.com for making this contribution to my experience.  Thank you for gifting VPS 9 to Post4VPS.com and thank you for providing such excellent products!

A special thank you too to all of the helping hands at post4vps that make my experience at the Forum and with this VPS so positive.  With the giving of VPS 9 a special thanks to @Dynamo and @perryoo11 for all of the time and effort in providing admin support for the VPSs.  Also to all of the Admin who are involved with the Giveaway System, the Giveaway system has to be one of the most efficient systems I've come across yet and a testimony to the very high standards of Post4VPS - thank you to all of you for making this possible.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Further Reading:

Review by Golden - 7 March 2018 - VPS 9 Location Seattle

Review by Arsalahmed786 - 18 September 2017 - VPS 9 Location Atlanta

Review by Tryp4vps - 26 July 2017 - VPS 9 Location Chicago

Review by Humanpuff69 - 29 June 2017 - VPS 9 Location Phoenix

[perry]

off-topic.

you like to tag me

on-topic.

nice review. virmach has overall the best reputation here. but their quality is top notch.

[deanhills]

off-topic.

you like to tag me

on-topic.

nice review. virmach has overall the best reputation here. but their quality is top notch.

You seem to feature high for me since you're the one who gave me the VPS info and password.  You did it very fast too.  Like everything happened in seconds.  So I guess it makes you worth tagging for this review.   

Virmach is definitely tops.  I'm planning to move to Canada next year - so wonder how the VPS is going to perform when I'm on the same continent as the VPS is.

[arsalahmed786]

Nice review, I love the way you explain everything in so deep details. I also had a plan to review again since i'm using VPS 9 from last 14 months. I will write new one as soon as possible.

[Mashiro]

@deanhills did @arsalahmed786 travel into the future? Joking. You made a mistake there. The year in the link to his review should be 2017 not 2018 .

[arsalahmed786]

@deanhills did @arsalahmed786 travel into the future? Joking. You made a mistake there. The year in the link to his review should be 2017 not 2018 .

Edited: xD i'm time traveler, sorry it getting off-topic but yeah it should be 2017 obviously.

[deanhills]

@deanhills did @arsalahmed786 travel into the future? Joking. You made a mistake there. The year in the link to his review should be 2017 not 2018 .

lol thanks for pointing that out Hidden, I've fixed it.  Haha ....

[tryp4vps]

First I tried Hidden Refuge's Benchmark 2.0 test  ./bench.sh -b and for some or other reason the VPS responded with "permission denied".......

The HR's benchmark script should work fine when you run it as root or sudo.

Overall, this is a nice VPS 9 review and is rich in information. I like that you included links to other VPS 9 reviews (also including mine) at the end.

Keep up the good job.

[humanpuff69]

The HR's benchmark script should work fine when you run it as root or sudo.

Overall, this is a nice VPS 9 review and is rich in information. I like that you included links to other VPS 9 reviews (also including mine) at the end.

Keep up the good job.

mine is included too but that review is kinda outdated that is after -+ 1 month after i receive the vps which is like a year ago . i probably make a follow up review after 1 year ++ if i have time . from june 2017 to march 2018 i use the phoenix location but because i fail the monthly post i dropped it and request again and get the seattle location from april 2018 until now but both of them are great vps in term of specs . both still have the same latency problem but that is because my location not blaming the vps

[deanhills]

Today had a look at how my VPS 9 was doing speed wise.  Still consistently excellent.  Up time is 143 days.  Right from the beginning of the installation of my last OS.  

Here is the last speed test I took with me in Canada now.  (The speed test in the OP was from South Africa).



This is the last speed test I did before I left South Africa:



I re-applied Hiddens Benchmark Test and these are the differences:

OS: CentOS release 6.9 (Final).  I changed to CentOS release 7.6 when VestaCP Named Server broke after a VestaCP automatic update.  Can't remember the exact date when I did, I think it was in November/December 2018.  I was unable to reboot Named Server and had to start the OS from scratch.

Canada
Download speed from Cachefly: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 80.9MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 98.9MB/s

America - United States:
Download speed from Coloat, Atlanta, GA: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 1.49MB/s From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 50.9MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Dallas, TX: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 46.1MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 61.4MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 56.2MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 48.6MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 85.8MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 88.2MB/s
Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 34.2MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 33.2MB/s

Asia
Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, Japan: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 17.3MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: No reading
Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 10.0MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 11.6MB/s

Europe
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, Netherlands: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 15.4MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 15.5MB/s
Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, Netherlands:
Download speed from i3d.net, Rotterdam, Netherlands: From South Africa 6 Sept 2018: 91.5MB/s  From Canada 29 Aug 2019: 79.5MB/s


Disks and Storage

Drive Speed (South Africa 6 Sept 2018)
I/O (1st run):  192 MB/s
I/O (2nd run):  787 MB/s
I/O (3rd run):  736 MB/s
Average I/O: 571 MB/s

Drive Speed (Canada 29 Aug 2019)
I/O (1st run)   : 650 MB/s
I/O (2nd run)   : 689 MB/s
I/O (3rd run)   : 744 MB/s
Average I/O     : 694.333 MB/s

Not a huge difference.

Any way.  VPS 9 still rocks for me after all of this time.  Particularly its consistency with reliable up time and speed.