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SolusVM V2 vs. VirtFusion (+ rate my hypervisor)
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SolusVM V2 vs. VirtFusion (+ rate my hypervisor)

emghemgh Member

Hello!

So, providers, (and hobbyists, I don't discriminate!) - SolusVM V2 vs. VirtFusion?

I've played around with SolusVM V2 for awhile and I love it.

It seems to me that networking is somewhat easier in SolusVM using OVH additional IP's, since you don't have to bind each IP to a MAC IP.

Other than that, they seem fairly similar.

One master and one slave with unlimited VMs for each one of them:
SolusVM: $12.50
VirtFusion: $18 (If the master is free? Idk)

Feature-wise? Do any of them offer something unique?

I'll start off by saying that SolusVM V2 combined with WHMCS (and WHMCS only) supports hourly billing. VirtFusion does support this too, but only using its' built in billing, which has no payment methods.

For background, I'm not starting some LET hosting company. I have enough issues in my life that I don't need to spend money trying to get more of them.

I'm simply offering managed hosting, at a very small scale, and I'd like to do so on my own HW in the future.

For transparency, currently running SolusVM V2 on a OVH dedicated.

Finally, as a little bonus, does anyone recommend any special hardware?

For now I'm thinking, for my first hypervisor:

  • AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (Non-X because of lower power usage, thx @MrRadic)
  • Either a "gaming" or a server motherboard, @MrRadic had some very good points for recommending a proper server motherboard, but they seem to be very hard to get hold of. He mentioned stability, RAM slots don't block airflow and built-in IPMI. All very good points. However, I noticed even budget gaming motherboards support full ECC RAM, like the ASUS Prime B650-PLUS - and if something goes wrong, what are the odds that it was because I didn't use a proper server-grade motherboard? Not asking sarcastically, asctually wondering.
  • RAM seems easy, proper ECC (not On-die ECC) isn't much more expensive or hard to get compared to the other. Crucial DDR5-4800 C40 DC I'm thinking.
  • NVMe is hard too. I want a SW Raid 1 setup with 2 M.2 NVMe. PM9A3 I've seen recommended on here (@Harmony & @v3ng) - but it seems so much slower compared to the newest premium consumer grade stuff, Seagate® FireCuda® 520 PCIe Gen4 SSD offers up to 760 000 IOPS and the server-grade one offers up to 200 000 IOPS.
  • I'm thinking of putting it all in a Supermicro SC512 F-350B 350W

Would appreciate any feedback.

Since I'm not scaling (only offering managed hosting to 1 client right now, and I've got plans to in the future maybe scale to 2-3 clients total), server costs are very low compared to time I spend helping them etc, so if something can get a lot better for a few bucks, even lowering my profit margin, that's fine! I'd never try to profit on the lowend-market anyway, way too hard and complex.

Thanks! :D

Thanked by 1Umair

Comments

  • MikeAMikeA Member, Patron Provider

    I love Virtfusion (and Phil @VirtFusion), and my clients love Virtfusion. Reliable, modern, confident on the code. If you're asking which you should use, it's well worth the minimal extra cost.

  • labzelabze Member, Patron Provider

    I have only tried setting up Virtfusion, not SolusVM. But I gotta say Virtfusion is a breeze using routed networking. As a end user, the Virtfusion panel is miles ahead. It's faster, more pleasent and generally just a much better experience in my opinion.

    And I must say, the customer support from Virtfusion is just outstanding, going above and beyond helping with issues not even related to their product.

  • emghemgh Member
    edited May 2023

    @MikeA said: I love Virtfusion (and Phil @VirtFusion), and my clients love Virtfusion. Reliable, modern, confident on the code. If you're asking which you should use, it's well worth the minimal extra cost.

    .

    @labze said: I have only tried setting up Virtfusion, not SolusVM. But I gotta say Virtfusion is a breeze using routed networking. As a end user, the Virtfusion panel is miles ahead. It's faster, more pleasent and generally just a much better experience in my opinion.

    Have you guys used SolusVM V2?

  • MikeAMikeA Member, Patron Provider
    edited May 2023

    @emgh said:
    Have you guys used SolusVM V2?

    Not recently, no, I'm sure it's more refined than a year or so two when it was still actively being developed.

    Thanked by 1emgh
  • v3ngv3ng Member, Patron Provider

    NVMe is hard too. I want a SW Raid 1 setup with 2 M.2 NVMe. PM9A3 I've seen recommended on here (@Harmony & @v3ng) - but it seems so much slower compared to the newest premium consumer grade stuff, Seagate® FireCuda® 520 PCIe Gen4 SSD offers up to 760 000 IOPS and the server-grade one offers up to 200 000 IOPS.

    Yes, at least when talking about burst performance.
    As long as the consumer drives use the SLC cache the performance is fine, but once the cache is exhausted the performance will drop A LOT depending on the individual model.

    When picking a SSD have a look at the sustained write performance.
    Oh and in case you're planning on using the M.2 version of the PM9A3 keep in mind that it's longer than regular consumer NVMes and therefore often doesn't fit into the onboard M.2 slot.

    Go with the U.2 version if you want to do things proper.
    You can grab a PCIe to U.2 adapter in case your board doesn't support native U.2.
    (The adapter will likely require PCIe bifurcation, so make sure your board supports that as well)

    Thanked by 2emgh xray
  • FatGrizzlyFatGrizzly Member, Host Rep

    @emgh if you don't mind can you give me a very small vm for a few hours to see how solus v2 works?

    As far as @VirtFusion is concerned, its the michelin star software, works like a charm and @Phill is always to support.

    Thanked by 1emgh
  • emghemgh Member

    @FatGrizzly said: @emgh if you don't mind can you give me a very small vm for a few hours to see how solus v2 works?

    I can give you a large VM for a few hours.

    DM me an email that I should use and I'll give you a random password to go with it :)

    Thanked by 1FatGrizzly
  • FlorinMarianFlorinMarian Member, Host Rep

    I have a datacenter that I can recommend to you for colocation, my friend.

    Thanked by 1emgh
  • emghemgh Member

    @FlorinMarian said:
    I have a datacenter that I can recommend to you for colocation, my friend.

    BazementDC <3

  • dosaidosai Member

    @FlorinMarian said:
    I have a datacenter that I can recommend to you for colocation, my friend.

    Would anyone else recommend your datacenter?

  • FlorinMarianFlorinMarian Member, Host Rep

    @dosai said:

    @FlorinMarian said:
    I have a datacenter that I can recommend to you for colocation, my friend.

    Would anyone else recommend your datacenter?

    You realize that I don't recommend it either until it proves its quality, right? :)

  • ZreindZreind Member

    We are using VirtFusion and very happy with it. Easy to use and NAT port forwarding is out of box.

  • dosaidosai Member

    @FlorinMarian said:

    @dosai said:

    @FlorinMarian said:
    I have a datacenter that I can recommend to you for colocation, my friend.

    Would anyone else recommend your datacenter?

    You realize that I don't recommend it either until it proves its quality, right? :)

    Good luck.

    Thanked by 2FlorinMarian sh97
  • SirFoxySirFoxy Member

    Why not opt for Proxmox if it's managed anyways.

  • xrayxray Barred

    The ui of VirtFusion makes a better experience

  • Been testing Virtfusion and the code seems rock solid

  • emghemgh Member

    @SirFoxy said:
    Why not opt for Proxmox if it's managed anyways.

    I'm not the only one managing the servers, devs etc

  • @emgh said: VirtFusion: $18 (If the master is free? Idk)

    Yes, the control server is FOC.

    @emgh said: VirtFusion does support this too, but only using its' built in billing, which has no payment methods.

    We do have a WHMCS integration nearly ready for credit balance based billing.

    And then VirtFusion tracks the usage.

    You also have the ability to offer pre-paid packs of resources for self-service via WHMCS.

    Thanked by 1Daniel15
  • emghemgh Member
    edited May 2023

    @VirtFusion said: We do have a WHMCS integration nearly ready for credit balance based billing.

    Does it auto recharge or charge at the end of every month?

    Or only "manual pre-paid fillups"?

  • @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said: We do have a WHMCS integration nearly ready for credit balance based billing.

    Does it auto recharge or charge at the end of every month?

    Or only "manual pre-paid fillups"?

    It’s based on a pre paid balance (top up). The user makes a payment when the balance runs low. There is no auto top up at the moment. I suspect WHMCS wouldn’t play nice.

  • qpsqps Member, Host Rep

    @emgh said: ASUS Prime B650-PLUS

    Airflow will be a problem with this board. The RAM slots are not oriented properly.

    Thanked by 1emgh
  • emghemgh Member

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said: We do have a WHMCS integration nearly ready for credit balance based billing.

    Does it auto recharge or charge at the end of every month?

    Or only "manual pre-paid fillups"?

    It’s based on a pre paid balance (top up). The user makes a payment when the balance runs low. There is no auto top up at the moment. I suspect WHMCS wouldn’t play nice.

    That's definitely a drawback for me, my managed clients won't ever log in and manually "top up" regularely.

    They'd like to be invoiced, preferably after the fact, according to usage.

  • ralfralf Member

    @dosai said:

    @FlorinMarian said:
    I have a datacenter that I can recommend to you for colocation, my friend.

    Would anyone else recommend your datacenter?

    His mum and dad, while they're getting free electricity. They'll probably hate it as soon as he gets any servers there and they go back to paying for electricity.

  • @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said: We do have a WHMCS integration nearly ready for credit balance based billing.

    Does it auto recharge or charge at the end of every month?

    Or only "manual pre-paid fillups"?

    It’s based on a pre paid balance (top up). The user makes a payment when the balance runs low. There is no auto top up at the moment. I suspect WHMCS wouldn’t play nice.

    That's definitely a drawback for me, my managed clients won't ever log in and manually "top up" regularely.

    They'd like to be invoiced, preferably after the fact, according to usage.

    That’s post paid. Yes it’s possible and we maintain an endpoint to collect historic data. It’s how the solus.io addon works - Pulls the usage for the month and invoices.

    Most of our users would prefer their users to maintain a credit balance as they can’t really afford (or don’t want to) chase debts.

  • emghemgh Member
    edited May 2023

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said: We do have a WHMCS integration nearly ready for credit balance based billing.

    Does it auto recharge or charge at the end of every month?

    Or only "manual pre-paid fillups"?

    It’s based on a pre paid balance (top up). The user makes a payment when the balance runs low. There is no auto top up at the moment. I suspect WHMCS wouldn’t play nice.

    That's definitely a drawback for me, my managed clients won't ever log in and manually "top up" regularely.

    They'd like to be invoiced, preferably after the fact, according to usage.

    That’s post paid. Yes it’s possible and we maintain an endpoint to collect historic data. It’s how the solus.io addon works - Pulls the usage for the month and invoices.

    Most of our users would prefer their users to maintain a credit balance as they can’t really afford (or don’t want to) chase debts.

    It's in the API but not in the module, correct?

    Might it be coming?

    Or to be integrated right in the panel? That would be cool.

  • @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said: We do have a WHMCS integration nearly ready for credit balance based billing.

    Does it auto recharge or charge at the end of every month?

    Or only "manual pre-paid fillups"?

    It’s based on a pre paid balance (top up). The user makes a payment when the balance runs low. There is no auto top up at the moment. I suspect WHMCS wouldn’t play nice.

    That's definitely a drawback for me, my managed clients won't ever log in and manually "top up" regularely.

    They'd like to be invoiced, preferably after the fact, according to usage.

    That’s post paid. Yes it’s possible and we maintain an endpoint to collect historic data. It’s how the solus.io addon works - Pulls the usage for the month and invoices.

    Most of our users would prefer their users to maintain a credit balance as they can’t really afford (or don’t want to) chase debts.

    It's in the API but not in the module, correct?

    Might it be coming?

    Correct. It would be a separate module for post paid.

    To be honest post paid is pretty easy to implement as it’s a cron run and invoice.

    Thanked by 1emgh
  • emghemgh Member

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said:

    @emgh said:

    @VirtFusion said: We do have a WHMCS integration nearly ready for credit balance based billing.

    Does it auto recharge or charge at the end of every month?

    Or only "manual pre-paid fillups"?

    It’s based on a pre paid balance (top up). The user makes a payment when the balance runs low. There is no auto top up at the moment. I suspect WHMCS wouldn’t play nice.

    That's definitely a drawback for me, my managed clients won't ever log in and manually "top up" regularely.

    They'd like to be invoiced, preferably after the fact, according to usage.

    That’s post paid. Yes it’s possible and we maintain an endpoint to collect historic data. It’s how the solus.io addon works - Pulls the usage for the month and invoices.

    Most of our users would prefer their users to maintain a credit balance as they can’t really afford (or don’t want to) chase debts.

    It's in the API but not in the module, correct?

    Might it be coming?

    Correct. It would be a separate module for post paid.

    To be honest post paid is pretty easy to implement as it’s a cron run and invoice.

    Ah yes, could probably write that up myself honestly. Didn't even think of that.

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