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chicagovps.net

MopsyMopsy Member
edited March 2012 in Providers

I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong subforum, but, I'm writing about my experiences with a provider, and inquiring as to other users business with them.

Hey, does anyone know anything about Chicago VPS? I've got the "Professional" plan here: http://www.chicagovps.net/xen.html as a perk from my current employer, but, I'm thinking I'm going to ask them to switch companies.

Basically, last week, almost everything on my VPS started lagging horribly. I checked top, and wa was up ~99.8%, but I wasn't doing anything that should be remotely disk intensive. My first guess was that I'd maxed my disk, but df showed I was using 19 GB and had 10 GB free. I then started thinking it might be another user on the box abusing Disk I/O, but figured I might as well try a reboot. However, the box wouldn't come back up. Emails to them were met with replies like "What did you do?", "What commands did you run?", and "You broke it." They eventually decided it was because I ran apt-get upgrade, which I apparently shouldn't do on their systems... which is utter nonsense. Anyhow, they told me I had to reformat the thing to get it working again, and also that they didn't do backups. My employer convinced them to back up my /home and /etc directories, and a script I cron'd had my MySQLs backed up, so, that was fine, but my box wasn't actually up for three more days.

Anyhow, I get the thing back just under three days ago, and today, the same thing starts happening. I screencap'd it, but, I'm really thinking I ought to just get away from this company. I realize stuff happens sometimes, but to blame it on common usage... I feel like I'm being punished for using these guys. :-/ I've been looking up providers, and I'm really considering AllGamer. I'd appreciate input on them, too.

Oh, and the java process running in that screenshot is a simple bot for TeamSpeak 3, which, aside from normal web server stuff (Apache2, MySQL5.1, Bind9) is all I have running. :-/

For what it's worth, the VPS itself seems decent when it works- it can even run Minecraft no problem. But it just decides to lag horribly, and anything that requires disk write grinds to a halt.

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Comments

  • NickMNickM Member

    That's pretty much what I've heard from everyone else and experienced myself, at least on the OpenVZ side of things. Disk I/O is terrible, but you can get a ton of RAM for 7 bucks a month.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • I have a OpenVZ 2GB box with them. i/o is consistently good and i get 100Mbit transfers as well. Uptime is 100% all the way except a 15 min network issue once as indicated by my uptime script. I have seen people here having issues with ubuntu 11.10 before. I would like to know the OS you are using. Here is a bench i did a few minutes back. I do get a consistent 100+ ( upto 170 ) disk i/o. for the price am paying. i am a happy customer.

     wget freevps.us/downloads/bench.sh -O - -o /dev/null|bash
    CPU model :            Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz
    Number of cores : 4
    CPU frequency :  3392.510 MHz
    Total amount of ram : 2048 MB
    Total amount of swap : 0 MB
    System uptime :   6 days, 4:28,
    Download speed from CacheFly: 10.1MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Atlanta GA: 8.97MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Dallas, TX: 6.83MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 3.54MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, London, UK: 3.62MB/s
    Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 3.29MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 1.83MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 8.15MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 2.46MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 8.61MB/s
    I/O speed :  123 MB/s
    
    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • MopsyMopsy Member

    NickM, I'm on the $15/mo plan. I don't have a great demand of disk I/O, but, I need it to not freeze my system up for hours. :-/

    peppr, I'm on a Xen, and I'm on Debian Squeeze 64-bit. I'm running your script, but, it's taking forever. It's been a good 15, maybe 20 minutes now. How long is it supposed to take?

  • MopsyMopsy Member

    Finally finished:

    wget freevps.us/downloads/bench.sh -O - -o /dev/null|bash CPU model : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3450 @ 2.67GHz Number of cores : 1 CPU frequency : 2666.734 MHz Total amount of ram : 999 MB Total amount of swap : 1023 MB System uptime : 2 days, 22:08, Download speed from CacheFly: 11.2MB/s Download speed from Linode, Atlanta GA: 7.40MB/s Download speed from Linode, Dallas, TX: 8.76MB/s Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 4.88MB/s Download speed from Linode, London, UK: 4.83MB/s Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 3.89MB/s Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 2.77MB/s Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 9.50MB/s Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 2.66MB/s Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 10.5MB/s I/O speed : 3.4 MB/s

    Beautiful, isn't she? XD

  • @Mopsy definitely not right. It hardly takes a minute or two. Ask them to recreate the vps for you.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • What kernel are you using for your XEN?

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • Only Disk i/o is the issue here. have you tried using Virtio drivers?

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    It's XEN so it doesn't use VIRTIO.

    Francisco

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • MopsyMopsy Member

    @peppr: They seem to have avoided taking any blame earlier, but like I said, it's my boss that does the tickets and stuff. Would recreating my VPS wipe it? Because I'm not remotely psyched to have to set everything up for a third time.

    @AsuraHosting: No idea, whatever it came with; I haven't touched it. I don't know how to check, but I'd be happy to run a command if you've got one. If it's something in the panel, I'll ask my boss to check it.

  • @Mopsy show them how slow disk i/o is.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • @Mopsy: Try 'uname -r'

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • MopsyMopsy Member
    edited March 2012

    @Kairus: Alrighty.

    @AsuraHosting: Oh, I didn't know it was the same for a VPS. I don't know much when it comes to Linux virtualization, and I'm trying not to make assumptions based on my knowledge of dedicated server administration.

    ~$ uname -r 2.6.32-5-amd64

    EDIT: @Kairus: Shot an email to my boss, hopefully I'll hear something favorable. Still willing to try other stuff if anyone's got ideas.

  • gsxgsx Member

    I have a VPS on ChicagoVPS and I have a friend who has one too. He mentioned that when he contacted ChicagoVPS (I think a month or two ago) about the I/O issue they told him it was due to the "older node".

    I haven't had a issue with support...but it would be nice if they responded to this threat. @CVPS_Chris

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • upfreakupfreak Member
    edited March 2012

    @gsx said: if they responded to this threat.

    thread or you really meant threat?

  • MopsyMopsy Member
    edited March 2012

    That's a real shame. For what it's worth, the hardware seems great when it's working properly. As far as telling you why it's broken, that's poor customer service. You don't tell the customer what's wrong and why they're having problems unless they're tech-oriented and ask, and even then. You just reassure them that it's not their fault, and that it will be fixed soon, and apologize for the inconvenience. I've had plenty of bad experiences that were saved because the customer service was great, and they fixed my problem. It makes me place confidence in their ability to take care of my needs. I really don't care for how they're handling this. :-/

  • This is what I just got on my $7 OpenVZ ChicagoVPS plan, Node 31:

    wget freevps.us/downloads/bench.sh -O - -o /dev/null|bash
    CPU model :            Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz
    Number of cores : 4
    CPU frequency :  3392.518 MHz
    Total amount of ram : 2048 MB
    Total amount of swap : 0 MB
    System uptime :   19:24,
    Download speed from CacheFly: 11.0MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Atlanta GA: 7.92MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Dallas, TX: 9.87MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 6.47MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, London, UK: 7.42MB/s
    Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 3.02MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 2.65MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 7.79MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 2.72MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 9.75MB/s
    I/O speed :  98.6 MB/s
    

    Same plan, node 32:

    
    wget freevps.us/downloads/bench.sh -O - -o /dev/null|bash
    CPU model :  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5410  @ 2.33GHz
    Number of cores : 4
    CPU frequency :  2333.416 MHz
    Total amount of ram : 2048 MB
    Total amount of swap : 0 MB
    System uptime :   6 days, 23:04,
    Download speed from CacheFly: 11.1MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Atlanta GA: 6.53MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Dallas, TX: 8.01MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 6.32MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, London, UK: 6.07MB/s
    Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 4.11MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 1.94MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 9.06MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 3.16MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 10.7MB/s
    I/O speed :  32.7 MB/s
    

    Node32 does tend to be decisively slower for me (it's also older, from January and not March) but neither of those results are exceptionally awful. @CVPS_Chris does check these forums, and you can email him - chris at chicagovps.net, I believe. Hopefully he'll be able to help you.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • MopsyMopsy Member

    For what it's worth, I think I'd get decent I/O during normal operation, but, I don't know why this happens. It works fine for a few days, then it suddenly drops.

    Anyhow, thanks for your post, Ivraatiems, I found it helpful. I'll try contacting chris.

  • regsregs Member
    edited March 2012

    CPU model : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31270 @ 3.40GHz
    Number of cores : 4
    CPU frequency : 3392.514 MHz
    Total amount of ram : 2048 MB
    Total amount of swap : 0 MB
    System uptime : 22:30,
    Download speed from CacheFly: 11.0MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Atlanta GA: 9.40MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Dallas, TX: 5.39MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, Tokyo, JP: 3.98MB/s
    Download speed from Linode, London, UK: 5.46MB/s
    Download speed from Leaseweb, Haarlem, NL: 3.74MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Singapore: 2.70MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Seattle, WA: 7.19MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, San Jose, CA: 3.00MB/s
    Download speed from Softlayer, Washington, DC: 10.4MB/s
    I/O speed : 100 MB/s

    I've been happy with my vps so far; very pleased with it so far. I am using it as a US based varnish server

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • Yes, contact Chris / jeremiah to sort out this issue. I have to say my vps works well. Nothing to blame.

    dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync; rm test
    16384+0 records in
    16384+0 records out
    1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 8.504 seconds, 126 MB/s
    
    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • AdamAdam Member
    edited March 2012

    Everyone who is posting their $7 openvz vps results needs to pay attention to the details!

    Mopsy is on different hardware than the 2GB ovz plans
    Mopsy is on xen, not ovz

    Posting results of your node saying "everything is fine for me" and "never had a problem", are posting irrelevant comments/benchmarks.

    @Mopsy, running 'apt-get update' by itself should never cause or result in an I/O problem.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • @Adam

    The point of sharing my stats was only to state that this is not a universal issue with ChicagoVPS, and that his problems, while not directly related to my own services with them, are probably an error or other issue and not necessarily indicative of the service as a whole. At no point did I (or anyone) claim that because we were having no issues, he must not be.

    Our benchmarks are relevant as indicators of overall service quality, not because they'll exactly confirm/reject Mopsy's issues. True, OpenVZ and Xen are very different - but hosts that care will likely be good at both; hosts that don't will often have trouble with either.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • MopsyMopsy Member

    @Adam: That is what I thought, but, I didn't want to put down the people trying to help me. And I meant to type apt-get upgrade- I know update just does lists. :P Anyhow, the apt-get upgrade was what they were blaming the box not coming back up on after being rebooted. I don't know why the I/O issue is happening, but, it's certainly not anything I'm doing.

    @Ivraatiems: I was reading a bit online about this, and I actually found quite a few people having trouble with xen, but stellar reviews for ovz. It's possible something is set up incorrectly, or that they do something different with xen. It's also possible I fell through the cracks. I suppose we'll see how this pans out. Though it's worth mentioning that NickM had said he'd heard of Disk I/O issues as well.

    And I contacted Chris around 40 minutes ago. I should be able to get back to him tomorrow, if he replies. And again, thanks for all of your guys' input.

  • As far as I am concerned, the OpenVZ part of ChicagoVPS is awesomely priced, and very fast. Not sure about Xen.

    If you want to switch, you should try Linode. They are VERY good.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • @Mopsy Interesting; could be a misconfigured node or any number of things. My OVZ node suffered for a while because of abusive accounts - that seems less likely with Xen, but faulty hardware could be an issue. Hope I was helpful anyway ;)

    @lele0108 There've been some issues with Linode for LowEndBox, which you can ask anyone about... and their pricing is higher than a "budget" provider usually offers. But they are usually quite good, I agree.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • @Adam I specifically posted my benchmarks after seeing a geneic i/o comment on them. So i think it is relevant to the point i am making. For the OP Xen/OpenVZ this is not common and must be resolved by the provider.

    @NickM said: That's pretty much what I've heard from everyone else and experienced myself, at least on the OpenVZ side of things. Disk I/O is terrible

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • flyfly Member

    you've got an abuser on your node.
    ask them to switch you or fix the issue.

    it happens... but they deal with it pretty well.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • MopsyMopsy Member

    I've heard good and bad things about Linode, but, at this point, I'm thinking about AllGamer, who comes with stellar recommendations from a few different friends and acquaintances.

    Again, I realize stuff happens, but, it's frustrating to have to bring it to their attention more than once.

    I guess I'll wait to hear back from Chris.

    @kbar: That was my original thought as well, though it could be any number of things. Wouldn't they have something for keeping track of this, though? It seems like they should notice someone hammering the disk so hard that I can't squeeze more than 3 MB/s out of it.

  • IvraatiemsIvraatiems Member
    edited March 2012

    @Mopsy If you're hosting gameservers, I heartily recommend EscapedTurkey. Dunno how they are for other services.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • +1 for AllGamer

    They don't just do gamservers, you can do pretty much anything legal on their VPS plans. Support is great, Clinton is very knowledgeable and helpful. Performance is awesome too.

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
  • flyfly Member

    allgamer isn't bad. i'm hosting a couple of game servers on there. but i hear that they have issues with ddos?

    Thanked by 1Mopsy
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