Free VPSes are somewhat problematic TBH. I'd go shared hosting and possibly add SSH (no root).
There's a reason why people don't often give away free VPSes, unless it's to their friends or something (in which, you probably won't be giving out that many).
How are they problematic? I'm probably only going to give out about 50 or so.
No but they are really cheap when you buy them in bulk.
Just for fun...
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz
stepping : 11
cpu MHz : 2400.084
cache size : 4096 KB
processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3220 @ 2.40GHz
stepping : 11
cpu MHz : 2400.084
cache size : 4096 KB
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 64 53 10 0 1 15
-/+ buffers/cache: 36 27
Swap: 127 9 118
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/simfs 5.0G 1.4G 3.4G 29% /
/dev 32M 0 32M 0% /dev
none 32M 0 32M 0% /dev/shm
Linux version 2.6.18-128.4.1.el5xen ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)) #1 SMP Tue Aug 4 20:51:12 EDT 2009
==============================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 4.1-wht.2)
System -- Linux tset.jweb2.com 2.6.18-128.4.1.el5xen #1 SMP Tue Aug 4 20:51:12 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
/dev/simfs 5160576 1378500 3519932 29% /
Start Benchmark Run: Fri Aug 28 07:51:30 PDT 2009
07:51:30 up 2 min, 1 user, load average: 0.50, 0.17, 0.05
End Benchmark Run: Fri Aug 28 08:02:07 PDT 2009
08:02:07 up 12 min, 1 user, load average: 14.20, 6.38, 2.88
INDEX VALUES
TEST BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 376783.7 11690762.8 310.3
Double-Precision Whetstone 83.1 1171.6 141.0
Execl Throughput 188.3 2894.8 153.7
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 2672.0 105561.0 395.1
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1077.0 27465.0 255.0
File Read 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 15382.0 673536.0 437.9
Pipe Throughput 111814.6 631205.0 56.5
Pipe-based Context Switching 15448.6 174810.0 113.2
Process Creation 569.3 6050.7 106.3
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 44.8 865.3 193.1
System Call Overhead 114433.5 542460.6 47.4
=========
FINAL SCORE 160.7
This is with LXLab's HostInABox setup.
I plan on running some more tests but from the looks of it I'll be handing out free VPSs by next week.
Please please please please! Don't forget me. If you want you can use me as a tester
Just ran some HTTP stress test...
** SIEGE 2.69
** Preparing 25 concurrent users for battle.
The server is now under siege...
...
Lifting the server siege... done.
Transactions: 2870 hits
Availability: 100.00 %
Elapsed time: 59.15 secs
Data transferred: 13.80 MB
Response time: 0.00 secs
Transaction rate: 48.52 trans/sec
Throughput: 0.23 MB/sec
Concurrency: 0.17
Successful transactions: 0
Failed transactions: 0
Longest transaction: 5.05
Shortest transaction: 0.00
** SIEGE 2.69
** Preparing 50 concurrent users for battle.
The server is now under siege...
...
Lifting the server siege... done.
Transactions: 5673 hits
Availability: 100.00 %
Elapsed time: 59.92 secs
Data transferred: 27.28 MB
Response time: 0.02 secs
Transaction rate: 94.68 trans/sec
Throughput: 0.46 MB/sec
Concurrency: 1.55
Successful transactions: 0
Failed transactions: 0
Longest transaction: 2.22
Shortest transaction: 0.00
** SIEGE 2.69
** Preparing 100 concurrent users for battle.
The server is now under siege...
...
Lifting the server siege... done.
Transactions: 11958 hits
Availability: 100.00 %
Elapsed time: 60.02 secs
Data transferred: 57.51 MB
Response time: 0.00 secs
Transaction rate: 199.23 trans/sec
Throughput: 0.96 MB/sec
Concurrency: 0.19
Successful transactions: 0
Failed transactions: 0
Longest transaction: 0.04
Shortest transaction: 0.00
** SIEGE 2.69
** Preparing 200 concurrent users for battle.
The server is now under siege...
...
Lifting the server siege... done.
Transactions: 8251 hits
Availability: 100.00 %
Elapsed time: 29.50 secs
Data transferred: 39.68 MB
Response time: 0.21 secs
Transaction rate: 279.69 trans/sec
Throughput: 1.35 MB/sec
Concurrency: 59.80
Successful transactions: 0
Failed transactions: 0
Longest transaction: 9.19
Shortest transaction: 0.00
** SIEGE 2.69
** Preparing 400 concurrent users for battle.
The server is now under siege...
...
Lifting the server siege... done.
Transactions: 996 hits
Availability: 100.00 %
Elapsed time: 36.23 secs
Data transferred: 4.79 MB
Response time: 4.72 secs
Transaction rate: 27.49 trans/sec
Throughput: 0.13 MB/sec
Concurrency: 129.69
Successful transactions: 0
Failed transactions: 0
Longest transaction: 32.01
Shortest transaction: 0.00
Ok so 200 users at a time is a lot for a 64MB VPS (but still no dropped transactions even at 400 users at a time), but 100 users at at time seems to be doable.
Keep in mind this is for a static HTML page and the last 2 tests (200 and 400 users) were only for 30 seconds each instead of 60 seconds. I would have tried further but there was not enough memory to run 500 users at once.
I would agree that anything under 128MB is a waste and you would be better off with a shared hosting environment. People want VPS's normally don't need them. Shared hosts are pretty good nowadays and very cost effective. Why run a server that's subpar (VPS) and deal with updating and maintaining. It's likely if you have a VPS it's not managed and the renter has no clue how to manage it. You can rent a server for fairly cheap at many places for as little as $50 and you'll get much better specs than a VPS. Hosts love VPS as it's a total money maker. They can split up a server 10+ ways and not do a thing for you.
I have shared hosting at 2 places and never had any serious issues. Dreamhost has handled Mybb Central along with a couple dozen other sites totally fine for about $8 a month.
