Just a place to braindump my thoughts, talk about IT and other random stuff.
Some time ago I did a review of my VPS host Pcextreme (dutch). Back then which is not even that long ago their VPS packages where based on the XEN hypervisor. Now they have migrated their VPS infrastructure to KVM, I was invited to their beta test about two months ago so I had some time to play with it. Now their full infrastructure has migrated to KVM and I thought a new review was appropriate.
The new KVM platform is hosted on the same hardware as the XEN platform was, using top of the line servers with dual Intel Xeon quad core CPU's, totaling 8 cores per physical server. All machines have 64 GB of ram and use 16 15000RPM SAS disks configured in raid 50 to guarantee both throughput and high availability. Each server also has dual 1Gbps uplinks to the backbone configured for failover in case a connection might fail.
Just as with their old XEN platform they offer customer controlled reboots, shutdowns and reinstalls. A very big plus is that it is now also possible for customers to have a real time view on their data usage, while they did sent an email on their old platform when you came close to your monthly bandwidth limit you can now see how much data your VPS used any time you want from the easy to use VPS-Shell. This has been one of my suggestions in the past and they seem to have implemented it showing that they listen to their customers.
While the data storage for most VPS packages are a bit small compared to other VPS providers. (Pcextreme usually only gives you half the amount of storage space other providers offer) They do offer two partitions with every VPS, a data partition with the size of your ordered package and a second partition that is twice the amount of your ram to be used as swap space. So while the data storage you get seems to be a bit limited at first, you can actually use everything of it to store well . . data! Most other VPS providers I have seen do not do this and in that case you have to give up some storage space for your swap partition. This seems like a small thing but it actually tells a lot about how Pcextreme thinks about stuff before implementing a solution and offering it to customers.
The new SSH-Shell now also supports key based authentication. This is really cool and I have not yet seen any other provider that does this. It.s the small things in IT that usually make your work a bit easier and more enjoyable. This is in my opinion one of those things.
Pcextreme also offers custom solutions at request. You want private interfaces between VPS servers, VPS servers on different physical nodes for load balancing or high availability? Just contact support before ordering and they will help you out. Their support people are friendly and willing to help even with more complex setups and requests.
If you administer mail servers you might know that anti spam packages are real resource hogs and often also take up a lot of time to configure and maintain. Pcextreme now offers their anti-spam services for free with every VPS. You can filter up to 3 domains for every VPS you rent from them. Saving you time and money in the long run.
On the old XEN platform you only had the option to have a pre configured operating system template and while you could reinstall the template itself if stuff went wrong there was no option for a real operating system installation. Also the choice of operating systems was a bit limited under the XEN platform. This improved a lot with the introduction of KVM as there are now a lot more operating systems available including a large scale of different flavors of Linux, FreeBSD and even Windows XP and Windows Server 2003! They do charge a small monthly fee for the last two though.
It is also a big relief that while there are still preconfigured templates available for beginners. You can now launch an expert installation from the SSH-Shell giving you the option to install and partition an operating system of your choice from scratch as if you were right behind the physical machine. This is done through a VNC console that gives you access to the console of your VPS.
While Pcextreme.s backup service is actually a service you have to order separately is nice to see they have integrated it into the new KVM platform. This means that if you also use their backup services you can make backups and snapshots of your running VPS right from the VPS SSH-Shell. You can also restore a backup from the backup service any time you want. While this is a simple thing it just makes your life as a sys admin easier.
As I helped beta test the new KVM platform I have a good view of the technical staff at Pcextreme. Overall they are helpful and simple bugs are solved within minutes. I really like the way they handle suggestions and it is fun to see that a lot of the suggestions I made where implemented before the KVM platform went live. Responses to emails are usually answered within a decent timeframe as well.
The new KVM VPS platform is everything their XEN platform was and more. There is a huge amount of extra options compared to XEN especially in the selection and installation of your VPS and I did not have to think twice about migrating my VPS when their KVM platform went live. Overall I am still really pleased with Pcextreme.s services and it is good to see that they develop solutions for a competitive price while still maintaining a decent level of customer support.
If you are looking for a competitive VPS provider with its datacenter located in the Netherlands give them a try. I am sure they won.t disappoint you.
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