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Contabo follow up - and: the *real* Contabo problem
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Contabo follow up - and: the *real* Contabo problem

jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker
edited December 2021 in Reviews

As some may remember I did a couple of Contabo VPS reviews which lead to diverse reactions and allegations ranging from me having got a somehow special VPS to Contabo having high steal and brutally limiting IO.

While the allegations of my benchmark not reflecting the VPS' performance in production were neither (completely) false nor surprising - after all I benchmarked pre-launch and I said so clearly - I did personally exclude the allegations of Contabo tricking me by providing a special test-VPS for me (meaning that they f_cked everybody by letting me benchmark a product "pimped up" for nice results but not available for purchase). But what counts at the end of the day is not my personal view but only cold facts and data.
Again, I had no, zero, nada reason to mistrust Contabo; they've been fair and square from day one and they even told me quite directly that their objective wasn't a nice review on LET but rather to gain more insight for themselves and to spot eventual rough corners.
But I had my own position too and while I'm a friendly person and ready to help most providers, my main focus and my loyalty always is LET and the users there. If a provider can gain some insight along the way or asks me to do some extra work, no problem, but at the end of the day I'm after data for LET - and I told them so.

Regarding the steal, (a) I myself didn't experience significant steal and frankly don't care a lot anyway because "shared" in my opinion and experience is basically just another word for "there will be quite some steal". If one feels to need dedicated resources one should look for a VDS (or whatever term you prefer); with a VPS some steal is to be expected. And (b) pardon me but with a VPS costing €6/mo (VAT incl.) and 4 Epyc vCores, even if the average steal were 25%, that would leave you with 3 vCores "net" and 8 GB (decent) memory, a generous NVMe (50 GB) -or- a very generous SSD (200 GB) and an unusually high traffic volume of 32 TB, so I don't see any basis for complaints even if the "steal" allegations were true.

Regarding the "special test VPS" I already explained that I indeed had a pre-launch VPS. But I don't complain about the beating I got for that. I personally think that it's great if LET gets early access to new products and I would do it again (albeit with an even more conservative approach), but I fully understand the POV of those who demand data based on a VPS in production - and I followed up on that.
As you may remember I PITA'd Contabo into a special arrangement, namely into permitting me to order a VPS with a false name and data in order to get at a VPS just like Joe Everybody - and they agreed. Thank you Contabo and kudos for that!
To really make sure that Contabo had no chance to know I'm behind it I waited about two weeks after having their OK because I played it in paranoid mode; who knows, maybe they would look closely at new orders for a couple of days to spot me. Plus I didn't follow my usual routine but ran far fewer benchmark runs per day so as to not give them a chance to spot me. And I did that for about 3 months ...

Here is the result, first the official test VPS

ProcMem SC [MB/s]: avg 300.9 - min 263.1 (87.5 %), max 321.9 (107.0 %)
ProcMem MA [MB/s]: avg 676.1 - min 288.0 (42.6 %), max 903.8 (133.7 %)
ProcMem MB [MB/s]: avg 832.5 - min 619.1 (74.4 %), max 947.3 (113.8 %)

--- Disk IOps (Sync/Direct)
Write seq. [MB/s]: avg 26.99 -    min 6.16 (22.8%),       max 37.82 (140.1%)
IOps                    : avg 6909.86 - min 1577.30 (22.8%), max 9682.29 (140.1%)

and now the "anonymous" VPS

ProcMem SC [MB/s]: avg 279.6 - min 245.5 (87.8 %), max 297.5 (106.4 %)
ProcMem MA [MB/s]: avg 554.2 - min 304.5 (55.0 %), max 789.2 (142.4 %)
ProcMem MB [MB/s]: avg 816.4 - min 601.6 (73.7 %), max 926.5 (113.5 %)

--- Disk IOps (Sync/Direct)
Write seq. [MB/s]: avg 13.98 -    min 3.19 (22.8%),     max 30.09 (215.3%)
IOps                    : avg 3577.82 - min 816.26 (22.8%), max 7703.09 (215.3%)

(all with vpsbench v. 244a)

So, yes, there is some difference, but before shouting "we got you, Contabo!", read on ...

Part 2 - or the real Contabo problems

As you might have noticed, there is a new vpsbench version 2.50 that also does some test using OpenSSL (AES-128-CBC and RSA-1024 key pair creation) and as always I tested the new version extensively on diverse VPS and dedis ... and noted something strange on my 3 Contabo VPS (DE, US STL, and SGP).

Let me show you:

DE       avg     min%    max%   US avg  min%    max%     SG avg  min%    max%
PMSC [MB/s]: 144.6 - 39.0 %, 166.8 %   148.5 - 40.8 %, 160.4 %   146.3 - 39.1 %, 162.8 %
PMMA [MB/s]: 626.5 - 31.0 %, 119.3 %   677.0 - 88.6 %, 110.8 %   652.7 - 79.4 %, 117.4 %
PMMB [MB/s]: 713.7 - 66.0 %, 109.5 %   732.4 - 90.7 %, 107.8 %   699.1 - 86.3 %, 108.6 %

PMAES [MB/s]: 980.5 - 48.9 %, 109.3 %   1057.1 - 82.8 %, 102.5 %   1010.2 - 81.3 %, 107.4 %
PMRSA [kp/s]: 67.6 -  83.4 %, 111.9 %   66.6 - 91.0 %, 106.2 %       65.7 - 87.1 %, 105.6 %

--- Disk IOps (Sync/Direct) ---
WrSeq. [MB/s]: 14.69 - 11.2%, 198.7%     1.97 - 100.0%, 100.0%    1.97 - 100.0%, 100.0%
IOps         : 3761.72 - 11.2%, 198.7%   505.11 - 99.9%, 100.0%   504.74 - 99.7%, 100.1%    

(all v.2.5.0, Sorry in case I f_cked up formatting.)

Looks quite nice at first glance right? Similar enough values and spreads over the 3 locations one would think. But have a closer look!
To show it (hopefully) even more clear what I mean:

--- ALL ---                min      max
ProcMem SC [MB/s]:   56.4    241.1
ProcMem MA [MB/s]:  194.3   750.2 u
ProcMem MB [MB/s]:  471.2   789.8 u
ProcMem AES [MB/s]: 479.6   1084.6 s
ProcMem RSA [kp/s]:  56.4     75.6

Write seq. [MB/s]:   1.65     29.19
IOps                    : 421.92   7473.65

These are the absolute min and max values of all 3 locations ('u' (US STL) and 's' (SGP) indicate the location if it's not DE). I liked Contabo, a lot, and still do (kind of), but sorry, that's not nice, not even acceptable, and indicates rather poor node management and/or cramming too many VPS onto a node and by the looks of it too different usage patterns (yes, that term does also hint at abusers)

Getting a VPS with a single-core performance between 56 and 241 (a factor of almost 5x), AES, a very important and frequently used algorithm, maybe half the speed, maybe double, and a disk with a performance factor between 5x to 10x, boild down to not buying a VPS but playing lottery, sorry.
And yes, 1 of my locations (DE) is NVMe while the others are SSD, but in fact the above min/max values are from the same device, the DE NVMe.

Plus, note the "perfect" SSD disk results from US STL and SGP: 500 IOPS with about 0.1% spread - or in other words nailed down and a not exactly pleasant - and also nailed down - 2 MB/s in 4K block size, 4 threads, sync. mode.

And, coincidence certainly, today I've got a robot email informing me that next monday some changes will happen on "my" DE node. I'm in suspense what it might be; maybe, just maybe, my NVMe performance will be nailed down, too?

Sorry, Contabo, while I do welcome your attempts to lower disk spread - and it is necessary - I do not welcome the way you do it and the results. They are poor and frankly, unless you find a better way I do not see a chance to recommend your products any more, sorry.

Thanked by 3justchil wpyoga Arkas
«1345

Comments

  • jenkkijenkki Member
    edited December 2021

    Disrupted. No more real orgasms.

    Thanked by 3Nekki Jesus wpyoga
  • Send bobs and vegene to me.

    Thanked by 3Nekki Hakim Jesus
  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    Thanks for the valuable feedback!

    Thanked by 2dahartigan lentro
  • dev_vpsdev_vps Member
    edited December 2021

    @jsg

    Thank you for sharing your updated review and benchmark for Contabo. Do you still stand by with your quote posted on their website?

    Thanked by 2Nekki Jesus
  • @dev_vps said:
    @jsg

    Thank you for sharing your updated review and benchmark for Contabo. Do you still stand by with your quote posted on their website?

    Excellente

    Thanked by 1vimalware
  • we live in a society

  • I have requested refund from only one provider this year. No prize for guessing that name

  • @jsg said:
    ...I'm a friendly person and ready to help most providers, my main focus and my loyalty always is LET and the users there. If a provider can gain some insight along the way...

    long story short:

    1. do not believe in single word of this person

    2. he is claiming that his priority is LET not providers... from whom he is trying to get free of charge servers (as he introduces himself to them as KING OF BENCHMARKS...)
      everybody remember, as he was part of big Romanian provider scam, and then this person for two months attacked victims of this scam (allegedly 3000 customers of this Romanian provider) to delay as much as possible initiation of chargeback procedure to pass beyond time window od such protection
      he also confessed that he has mental problems (anger management issues) and he tried to justify this way his strange behaviors here...

    3. more over, that provider cooperated with him in area of benchmarking his storage NetApp system, and later that provider got COMPLETE STORAGE SYSTEM INVOLUCRATION (complete new phenomenon for NetApp, not known previously in nature, happened first time in history... after using this person's snake oil malicious imaginary pseudo homemade benchmark)

    4. his tactic is: lying, lying, lying and producing miles of BLAH BLAH BLAH bs walls of text, impossible to read, and when he is proved to be wrong or lying... then he produces even more BLAH BLAH BLAH walls, changing topic

    5. there you have thread about his malicious pseudo benchmark:

    https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/173716/jsg-the-server-review-king-can-you-trust-him-is-yabs-misleading-you/p1

    and thread with him protecting Romanian scammer for 2 months and attacking his victims:

    https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/171566/cociu-hostsolutions-ro-netsilvania-move-your-services/p1

    summing up, for new LET members/providers not aware of nature of this person: under any circumstances DO NOT USE his malicious pseudo benchmark/disk involucration tool with imaginary/random results, do not get into any discussion with him, and do not believe in his evaluations of providers/services (usually it is quite opposite, he protected Romanian scammer, and he was bashing opensource, YABS, fio and Contabo). STAY AWAY

  • @jsg so you mean the performance keeps fluctuating up and down and not stable right?

  • Can anyone link the thread where the community awarded the resident benchmarker title? I'm curious who else was in the running.

    Thanked by 2Jesus DanSummer
  • I’ll just take a seat here.

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker
    edited December 2021

    @dev_vps said:
    @jsg

    Thank you for sharing your updated review and benchmark for Contabo. Do you still stand by with your quote posted on their website?

    [screenshot]

    Yes I do, because back then, when I said it, it was true. Now I wouldn't say it anymore.

    Interesting btw. what I get for being honest and saying the bad (see above) as well as the good.
    That seems to tell more about (by no means only) you than about me.

    @Andrews
    Your vile pile of BS, hate-driven bashing, and plain lies (proof right above your vomiting attack) doesn't deserve a detailed response. I might take notice of your existence again if ever the day arrived when you actually contributed some code, software, valuable advice or anything else of value to our community.

    @Kassem said:
    @jsg so you mean the performance keeps fluctuating up and down and not stable right?

    Yes and no. It does indeed fluctuate but that's - within reasonable boundaries - normal for a VPS. What I mean, and am concerned about far more, is that both in between nodes and locations which all, well noted run on the same hardware, are very significant differences so when one buys a VPS from Contabo one actually plays lottery.
    Plus of course the fact that Contabo now indeed seems to nail down disk IO and to a sadly low value. When I did my first benchmark that was not the case.

    All in all that makes the difference between 'go' and 'no' for me. I hope that their locking disk IO, which per se is a good thing but not the way they do it, will be changed to more reasonable values. Until then I don't think that buying from Contabo is a smart thing to do.

    @rogerwilco said:
    Can anyone link the thread where the community awarded the resident benchmarker title? I'm curious who else was in the running.

    The "resident benchmarker" tag was awarded by @jbiloh (who very unfortunately although doubtlessly with friendly intentions first gave me another tag I did not ask for and that (understandably) provoked quite a few).

    Thanked by 2wpyoga Arkas
  • dev_vpsdev_vps Member
    edited December 2021

    @jsg said:

    @dev_vps said:
    @jsg

    Thank you for sharing your updated review and benchmark for Contabo. Do you still stand by with your quote posted on their website?

    [screenshot]

    Yes I do, because back then, when I said it, it was true. Now I wouldn't say it anymore.

    That quote is still shown on the web site and with no updates. Site visitors will assume that your quote is still valid.

    Thanked by 1jsg
  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    @dev_vps said:
    That quote is still shown on the web site and with no updates. Site visitors will assume that your quote is still valid.

    Thanks, I didn't know that because I rarely look at their web site. I'll contact them and ask them to take it away.

    Thanked by 3dev_vps bsh Arkas
  • @jsg said:

    @dev_vps said:
    That quote is still shown on the web site and with no updates. Site visitors will assume that your quote is still valid.

    Thanks, I didn't know that because I rarely look at their web site. I'll contact them and ask them to take it away.

    Thank you, @jsg
    This is greatly appreciated.

  • @jsg said:
    @Andrews
    Your vile pile of BS, hate-driven bashing, and plain lies (proof right above your vomiting attack) doesn't deserve a detailed response. I might take notice of your existence again if ever the day arrived when you actually contributed some code, software, valuable advice or anything else of value to our community.

    in mentioned threads you were proven many times (not only by me, but by community) that your code have no value as it returns TOTALLY WRONG RESULTS. MISLEADING SOFTWARE WITH NO VALUE!
    in mentioned threads you were proven many times (not only by me, but by community) that your advice have NO VALUE, as you WERE SPREADING MISLEADING INFORMATION about Romanian scammer which (as it turned out later) you cooperated with (and you had perks from this cooperation). MISLIDING NO VALUE ADVICE!
    in mentioned threads you were bashing YABS and FIO, opensource software, with proven history and industry recognition. YOU WERE BASHING OTHER SOFTWARE to PROMOTE your BROKEN SOFTWARE and MISLIDING ADVICE.
    in mentioned threads you had opportunity to read what COMMUNITY thinks about YOUR
    MAJESTY BENCMARKING KING's expertise of benchmarking and his crap software, and why
    you where taken this title off

    more over, this whole thread (which you created) is about YOUR WRONG ADVICE about CONTABO. WRONG AGAIN, AGAIN and AGAIN. so, yeah, better stop talking about bringing value to the community you Romanian scam supporter, with wrong advices and broken software :D

    these are simple facts, which you can't change it using your disgusting words about vomiting, hate or attack

    Thanked by 3cybertech itsnotv Jesus
  • lets get this party started!!!!!!!!

  • DazzleDazzle Member
    edited December 2021

    ...while I'm a friendly person...

    Thanked by 1Jesus
  • Not taking anyone's side (when names are called, sides can rarely be right) - I have long history of using a Contabo VPSes - nothing drastic that would make me think they are incompetent or misleading or... whatever.

    I'd say Contabo is a reliable provider (in my case, at least). Good cost-performance, as well.

  • nikozinnikozin Member
    edited December 2021

    I have heard many stories about Contabo limiting IOPS on their plans, their plans are capped to 200 Mbps

    They really don't want users using their servers for file mirrors and hot storage.

  • To take a brick for sitting down here, I need some popcorns

    Thanked by 1chocolateshirt
  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    @Master_Bo said:
    Not taking anyone's side (when names are called, sides can rarely be right) - I have long history of using a Contabo VPSes - nothing drastic that would make me think they are incompetent or misleading or... whatever.

    I'd say Contabo is a reliable provider (in my case, at least). Good cost-performance, as well.

    Generally I'd agree. Their processors are OK, albeit no speed demons, their disk performance was decent and so is their connectivity. All in all not top but decent - and one gets a number of vCores, an amount of memory, and disk space quite rare for that price and in the low end segment.
    Yes, connectivity seems to be largely limited to 200 Mb/s (although I saw a few results up to ca. 20% above that with the St Louis VPS) but frankly I don't see a major problem with that; a large majority of customers, especially in the low-end segment doesn't even come close to using more plus when having to pick between 1 Gb/s and 3 TB or 200 Mb/s and 32 TB many will prefer the latter.

    But that was before at least their SSD based VPS got nailed down to ridiculously low ca. 500 IOPS. Unless they rise that to a minimum of 1k IOPS I consider their SSD VPS a no go.
    Plus the performance divergence between nodes is far outside of what (certainly not only) I consider acceptable. If buying a VPS, depending on the node one happens to end up on, means up to a factor of 5x and higher of difference in performance I can't recommend (or frankly, even consider) such a product.

    Let's wait and see how the NVMe VPS performs after the changes on monday...

    Thanked by 1wpyoga
  • ViridWebViridWeb Member, Host Rep

    I know about contabo's pathetic Disk limitation.

    But this case..

    It Looks like someone didn't receive his paycheck this month from Contabo :lol:

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    @ViridWeb said:
    I know about contabo's pathetic Disk limitation.

    But this case..

    It Looks like someone didn't receive his paycheck this month from Contabo :lol:

    There still are some possible explanations, for example them wanting to push SSD customers towards NVMe.
    That's one of the reasons why I say we should wait and see what monday (TM - a somewhat unlucky choice of day seen from LET) will bring ...

    I'll talk to them anyway (asking them to take down their jsg quotation if the NVMe gets ridiculously low IOPS limit too) and maybe I can learn more about their plans.

  • ViridWebViridWeb Member, Host Rep

    @jsg said:

    @ViridWeb said:
    I know about contabo's pathetic Disk limitation.

    But this case..

    It Looks like someone didn't receive his paycheck this month from Contabo :lol:

    There still are some possible explanations, for example them wanting to push SSD customers towards NVMe.
    That's one of the reasons why I say we should wait and see what monday (TM - a somewhat unlucky choice of day seen from LET) will bring ...

    I'll talk to them anyway (asking them to take down their jsg quotation if the NVMe gets ridiculously low IOPS limit too) and maybe I can learn more about their plans.

    Sometimes their support upgrade the Disk Speed little bit but it's still low compare to others..

    For disk intensive tasks Contabo not recommended at all even with Nvme Disks

  • I'm ready for some weekend shenanigans.

  • @jsg said:

    @dev_vps said:
    That quote is still shown on the web site and with no updates. Site visitors will assume that your quote is still valid.

    Thanks, I didn't know that because I rarely look at their web site. I'll contact them and ask them to take it away.

    Looks like you are changing the stance on this. Now conditions are being added to your “promise”

  • jsgjsg Member, Resident Benchmarker

    @dev_vps said:

    @jsg said:

    @dev_vps said:
    That quote is still shown on the web site and with no updates. Site visitors will assume that your quote is still valid.

    Thanks, I didn't know that because I rarely look at their web site. I'll contact them and ask them to take it away.

    Looks like you are changing the stance on this. Now conditions are being added to your “promise”

    That quote is clearly related to their (back then new) NVMe VPS. How could I reasonably demand them to take it down because a different product got worse?

    What I said to you was based on the, not unreasonable it seems, assumption that on monday the NVMe VPS will get a hard and low IOPS limit too. If that is the case I will demand to take out the jsg quote, and with good reason. If that turns out to not be the case there is no reason to make that demand.

  • Somehow I am getting this feeling

    No matter what happens, that quote is going to stay there

    New reasons will be added to justify why that quote is still valid.

    Have you considered a career in politics?

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