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I moved over the weekend as well. Even after this update, Digital Ocean is cheaper: 1GB RAM + 30GB SSD for $10 vs 1GB RAM + 24GB disk for $20. Linode offers 8 C

I moved over the weekend as well. Even after this update, Digital Ocean is cheaper: 1GB RAM + 30GB SSD for $10 vs 1GB RAM + 24GB disk for $20. Linode offers 8 CPUs compared to Ocean's 1, but the SSD seems to more than compensate in my experience. The one aspect that has me considering going back: Linode's backups seem much more confidence-inspiring.

mrinterweb 14y ago
"the SSD seems to more than compensate" that really depends. If you are using the server for a web app, disk IO should be minimized and CPU is more likely to be a bottleneck. This assertion largely depends on how well your database can cache its queries. For the web apps I host, I'd rather have CPU over faster disk IO.
- akkartik 14y ago
  Depends on the characteristics of the webapp, and how much I/O it needs per request. On the other hand multiple CPUs only matter if you have a ton of traffic. My side projects do not :) At least for hobbyists Digital Ocean is very compelling.
- trustfundbaby 14y ago
  Tbh, I actually moved for the RAM and not the SSD, but again if you're running stuff like Sphinx or Elasticsearch (search engines which have their entire index stored on disk and then read into memory as needed), then having an SSD helps. Also in the case where you're running with swap because you don't have enough memory, SSD comes in handy too, mysql is particularly badly behaved in this respect, it swaps too easily unless you load the entire db into memory by setting innodb_buffer_pool_size equal to the size of the db + a little bit. long story short, an SSD can help out quite a bit more than you seem to suggest.
  - mrinterweb 14y ago
    If you are hitting swap often, you're doing it wrong. The second any machine I'm running is hitting swap I'm reconfiguring the machine or resizing the machine so that it does not hit swap. MySQL can be tuned to work with the memory you allocate to it such that it does not hit swap. With the doubled memory it will be easier to allocate for query cache hits. There are definitely some things where disk IO is important, but swapping should not be in that equation unless you have a problem. I prefer better CPUs and Memory to disk IO on servers usually. The database server is the only server I care about having decent IO, and Linode does have decent IO for non-ssd drives (a lot better than AWS).
trustfundbaby 14y ago
Yeah. I was paying $29.99 for a 768MB VPS, with backups which made it about $40. For half of that I got a 2GB VPS with SSD and free daily backups. total no brainer. Why do you say Linode's backups are more confidence inspiring though?
- akkartik 14y ago
  Partly it's the UI. It's hard to tell how many snapshots they promise and what frequency. Partly it's observations over the past week. I noticed a few days after moving that I had two backups the day I created my account, and no backups for 3 days after. Contacted support and was told they have some 'randomization for load balancing'. Asked what the worst-case frequency could be, and was told it's "usually 24 hours". This is the kind of thing that can bite you when the shit hits the fan. (And the experience definitely shows what other commenters said about Linode's support.)
- endijs 14y ago
  Backups in DO are free only for now (until June 1st). Price will be 20% of what you pay for your VPS. Plus - snapshots will be 0.02$ per GB. Plus DO bacukps does not happen every day and they are put on randomizer (based on load of backup system). For me every 3rd day is skipped.
  - trustfundbaby 14y ago
    wow ... thats good to know. I thought they'd be free forever. Do you work for digital ocean? how did you get this info?
    - endijs 14y ago
      No, I dont work for DO. I'm just using their VPS to do some testing and to compare it to Linode (I use both). Source: https://www.digitalocean.com/blog_posts/snapshot-and-backup-roadmap https://www.digitalocean.com/blog_posts/snapshot-and-backup-...

mrinterweb 14y ago

"the SSD seems to more than compensate" that really depends. If you are using the server for a web app, disk IO should be minimized and CPU is more likely to be a bottleneck. This assertion largely depends on how well your database can cache its queries. For the web apps I host, I'd rather have CPU over faster disk IO.

akkartik 14y ago
Depends on the characteristics of the webapp, and how much I/O it needs per request. On the other hand multiple CPUs only matter if you have a ton of traffic. My side projects do not :) At least for hobbyists Digital Ocean is very compelling.
trustfundbaby 14y ago
Tbh, I actually moved for the RAM and not the SSD, but again if you're running stuff like Sphinx or Elasticsearch (search engines which have their entire index stored on disk and then read into memory as needed), then having an SSD helps. Also in the case where you're running with swap because you don't have enough memory, SSD comes in handy too, mysql is particularly badly behaved in this respect, it swaps too easily unless you load the entire db into memory by setting innodb_buffer_pool_size equal to the size of the db + a little bit. long story short, an SSD can help out quite a bit more than you seem to suggest.
- mrinterweb 14y ago
  If you are hitting swap often, you're doing it wrong. The second any machine I'm running is hitting swap I'm reconfiguring the machine or resizing the machine so that it does not hit swap. MySQL can be tuned to work with the memory you allocate to it such that it does not hit swap. With the doubled memory it will be easier to allocate for query cache hits. There are definitely some things where disk IO is important, but swapping should not be in that equation unless you have a problem. I prefer better CPUs and Memory to disk IO on servers usually. The database server is the only server I care about having decent IO, and Linode does have decent IO for non-ssd drives (a lot better than AWS).

trustfundbaby 14y ago

Yeah. I was paying $29.99 for a 768MB VPS, with backups which made it about $40. For half of that I got a 2GB VPS with SSD and free daily backups. total no brainer. Why do you say Linode's backups are more confidence inspiring though?

akkartik 14y ago
Partly it's the UI. It's hard to tell how many snapshots they promise and what frequency. Partly it's observations over the past week. I noticed a few days after moving that I had two backups the day I created my account, and no backups for 3 days after. Contacted support and was told they have some 'randomization for load balancing'. Asked what the worst-case frequency could be, and was told it's "usually 24 hours". This is the kind of thing that can bite you when the shit hits the fan. (And the experience definitely shows what other commenters said about Linode's support.)
endijs 14y ago
Backups in DO are free only for now (until June 1st). Price will be 20% of what you pay for your VPS. Plus - snapshots will be 0.02$ per GB. Plus DO bacukps does not happen every day and they are put on randomizer (based on load of backup system). For me every 3rd day is skipped.
- trustfundbaby 14y ago
  wow ... thats good to know. I thought they'd be free forever. Do you work for digital ocean? how did you get this info?
  - endijs 14y ago
    No, I dont work for DO. I'm just using their VPS to do some testing and to compare it to Linode (I use both). Source: https://www.digitalocean.com/blog_posts/snapshot-and-backup-roadmap https://www.digitalocean.com/blog_posts/snapshot-and-backup-...