Time4vps Halloween sale

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: The Cest Pit - Q4 2020.

Bochi

Not sure it that's the right place, but I thought I might share the halloween offer Time4VPS sent around via mail:

Link: https://time4vps.com/storage-discount/

I am now in for more than 5 years on their 512GB storage server and it never let me down.
Promo code also is valid for a biennially subscription, so the price is locked in for quite some time.

InceptionHosting

Moved good deal that may be missed otherwise.

tetech

@Bochi said: I am now in for more than 5 years on their 512GB storage server and it never let me down. Promo code also is valid for a biennially subscription, so the price is locked in for quite some time.

Kernel is also locked in for quite some time.

[me@host ~]$ uname -a
Linux host.example.com 2.6.32-042stab145.3 #1 SMP Thu Jun 11 14:05:04 MSK 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

willie

30 euro/year for 1TB, openvz, 1gb ram, 100 mbit network (gbit available for 12eur/y extra). This is ok but not spectacular these days, and the host got in some drama various times at the other place. I'm gonna pass.

debaser

@willie said: and the host got in some drama various times at the other place

Probably more due to people on the other green site than due to the provider. Have been with them for 3 years in the (not too distant past) and was always pretty good for storage.

InceptionHosting

@debaser said:

@willie said: and the host got in some drama various times at the other place

Probably more due to people on the other green site than due to the provider. Have been with them for 3 years in the (not too distant past) and was always pretty good for storage.

They had a hard time sticking to the offer rules on LET when I was admin there, they got 3 warnings in a very short period of time then I had to strip their tag. It was nothing personal, the rules were there for a reason and they were given every oppertunity to do better.

Other than that the only drama was when they put prices up on a few plans and some people felt betrayed.

lentro

@tetech said:

@Bochi said: I am now in for more than 5 years on their 512GB storage server and it never let me down. Promo code also is valid for a biennially subscription, so the price is locked in for quite some time.

Kernel is also locked in for quite some time.

[me@host ~]$ uname -a
Linux host.example.com 2.6.32-042stab145.3 #1 SMP Thu Jun 11 14:05:04 MSK 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Just ordered, and I am shocked - default installation is Centos 6???? And for Ubuntu, the latest version they have is 16.04!!! Not even 18.04 when the world is moving to 20.04....

ehab

@lentro said:

check the disk io maybe you'll feel better or maybe not.

tetech

@lentro said:

@tetech said:

@Bochi said: I am now in for more than 5 years on their 512GB storage server and it never let me down. Promo code also is valid for a biennially subscription, so the price is locked in for quite some time.

Kernel is also locked in for quite some time.

[me@host ~]$ uname -a
Linux host.example.com 2.6.32-042stab145.3 #1 SMP Thu Jun 11 14:05:04 MSK 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Just ordered, and I am shocked - default installation is Centos 6???? And for Ubuntu, the latest version they have is 16.04!!! Not even 18.04 when the world is moving to 20.04....

Yup. Running OVZ6 is my understanding.

InceptionHosting

@tetech said:

@lentro said:

@tetech said:

@Bochi said: I am now in for more than 5 years on their 512GB storage server and it never let me down. Promo code also is valid for a biennially subscription, so the price is locked in for quite some time.

Kernel is also locked in for quite some time.

[me@host ~]$ uname -a
Linux host.example.com 2.6.32-042stab145.3 #1 SMP Thu Jun 11 14:05:04 MSK 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Just ordered, and I am shocked - default installation is Centos 6???? And for Ubuntu, the latest version they have is 16.04!!! Not even 18.04 when the world is moving to 20.04....

Yup. Running OVZ6 is my understanding.

That is crazy

willie

I had a 0.5TB plan with them for several years. It generally worked ok but there was drama in several areas:

• The plan cost $2/TB/mo which was astounding at the time. They insisted it was sustainable and a regular offer, when it was obvious that they were losing their shirts. Of course they had to stop offering it after a while, but they did let existing users keep renewing.
• At one point they unilaterally cut the bandwidth from 1Gbit to 100Mbit causing another uproar. After much protest they relented and said existing users could get the 1gbit back by opening a ticket. There may have been some minor sweetener for not doing this: it's escaping me now. I didn't bother about it since I was using the space as static backup so it didn't matter much.
• Eventually they notified everyone that the plans would be shut off but allowed 1 more renewal (I renewed for 2 years). Then they did shut it off. This was obviously lots of notice but it showed that everyone was right from the beginning.
• I don't remember but I think there was another incident or two.
• The stuff at issue in each case was generally fairly minor in the scheme of things but they were rather combative about it in forum discussions.
• As others have said, it's OVZ6 and had some limitations that didn't bother me too much.

This isn't "stay away" but more like "meh". I do need to move some storage around and am trying to find a new home for around 2.5TB but I don't think I'll take this offer up.

InceptionHosting

My concern would be, what happens when an exploit goes wild for vz6 (and it will), and they loose 60% (guess) of their customers overnight.

Strong advice is don’t host anything on the servers you would not make public and don’t use any terms but monthly, this is a ticking time bomb.

Bochi

@tetech said:
Kernel is also locked in for quite some time.

[me@host ~]$ uname -a
Linux host.example.com 2.6.32-042stab145.3 #1 SMP Thu Jun 11 14:05:04 MSK 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

@tetech said:
Yup. Running OVZ6 is my understanding.

I was somehow under the assumption, that this only is true for my old box, but newly provisioned ones are OV7. (based on this community post)
So yes, this is a big downer and be most likely the reason why I won't renew it after 6 years of service then.

@willie said:
30 euro/year for 1TB, openvz, 1gb ram, 100 mbit network (gbit available for 12eur/y extra). This is ok but not spectacular these days, and the host got in some drama various times at the other place. I'm gonna pass.

I am still on one of the grandfathered plans, that already includes the 1Gbps port and higher IOPS (which never really was an issue for my storage box). And I must have missed the drama then!

@AnthonySmith said:
Other than that the only drama was when they put prices up on a few plans and some people felt betrayed.

Atleast no issues regarding the service, the usual price drama seems to be the same with every provider that rises anything other than resources...

@AnthonySmith said:
My concern would be, what happens when an exploit goes wild for vz6 (and it will), and they loose 60% (guess) of their customers overnight.

Strong advice is don’t host anything on the servers you would not make public and don’t use any terms but monthly, this is a ticking time bomb.

Yeah... like I said above: I somehow thought this would only be valid for old customers that were not migrated. I guess this should be a showstopper then!

tetech

@Bochi said: I was somehow under the assumption, that this only is true for my old box, but newly provisioned ones are OV7.

You are probably right about that. To be 100% clear, my service was provisioned earlier than this year and is not from the current offer. I would have guessed they are putting new customers on OVZ7. I have also not tried specifically asking if my (OVZ6) container can be wiped and re-created, they may be willing to do that by ticket if customer starts with a fresh install.

The point of my original post was that if you buy something for a longer (e.g. biennial) term, expect that what you get now will be the same thing you have in two years. Keeping existing users on OVZ6 with no clear plan is playing with fire.

lentro

@tetech said: new customers on OVZ7

I just signed up earlier today, and I was placed on OVZ6.

Bochi

@tetech said:

@Bochi said: I was somehow under the assumption, that this only is true for my old box, but newly provisioned ones are OV7.

You are probably right about that. To be 100% clear, my service was provisioned earlier than this year and is not from the current offer. I would have guessed they are putting new customers on OVZ7. I have also not tried specifically asking if my (OVZ6) container can be wiped and re-created, they may be willing to do that by ticket if customer starts with a fresh install.

The point of my original post was that if you buy something for a longer (e.g. biennial) term, expect that what you get now will be the same thing you have in two years. Keeping existing users on OVZ6 with no clear plan is playing with fire.

See below, my assumption turned out to be wrong... Their other container VPS are on OV7, though.

@lentro said:

@tetech said: new customers on OVZ7

I just signed up earlier today, and I was placed on OVZ6.

Just got my ticket answered (<30min!) and unfortunately, there is no OV7 yet for the storage VPS.

TigersWay

I must be crazy but I really don't understand why - as of now - anyone would accept any type of box under OVz6... Even for free!

tetech

@lentro said:
I just signed up earlier today, and I was placed on OVZ6.

@Bochi said: Just got my ticket answered (<30min!) and unfortunately, there is no OV7 yet for the storage VPS.

Wow.

seanho

I've had an 0.5TB biennial plan with them since very early days, grandfathered 1Gbps and (slightly) higher iops, still OVZ6 to this day. Only used them for last-resort DR with a remote-dmcrypted loopback device. It's slow and has had short downtime, but it does work. Letting it go when the final renewal allowed at the original price expires, next fall.

InceptionHosting

They are using openvz6 because it supports simfs which saves a TON of disk space and allows massive overselling with zero effort when compared to ploop based file systems on OpenVZ7.