Exoscale Bulgaria Sofia Intel Xeon Standard Instance VPS Hosting Test and Review
We’re reviewing the Exoscale Bulgaria Sofia Standard Virtual Private Server (VPS). It runs on an Intel Xeon Processor, with a setup that includes a dual-core processor, 4 GB of memory (RAM), 50 GB of solid-state drive (SSD) storage, a super-fast 10 Gbps internet connection and comes with 2 TB of data transfer allowance, along with one IPv4 address.
Here’s our rundown of the different tests we used:
- Basic tests: We looked at simple speed and hardware efficiency through common benchmarking tools.
- Network test: We assessed the server’s network reach and speed by testing how it connects to different locations globally and how quickly it responds to pings (think of it as measuring the server’s reaction time to requests worldwide).
- Media Access tests: We checked if the server can access media content that might be restricted in certain regions to see how well it performs for users in different locations.
- Connection quality test: We used CloudFlare’s tools to see the quality and reliability of the server’s internet connection.
- Website performance: We analyzed how fast websites would run on this server using tools like PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix Performance, which tell us how well a website will likely perform for users.
In short, we’ve put the server through a series of trials to measure its speed, power, and reliability for all sorts of tasks you might throw at it.
About Exoscale
Exoscale is a European cloud hosting company that provides various services to help teams develop cloud-native applications. It’s a trademark of Akenes SA, a private company founded in 2011 and headquartered in Switzerland.
Exoscale offers high-performance SSD cloud servers and self-sustained zones for resilient deployments. They also provide snapshots and custom templates, instance pools to manage groups of machines and anti-affinity groups.
Their networking features include dual 25 Gbps secure private networking, security groups to manage firewall rules, network load balancers, elastic IP addresses, and IPv6. They also offer a private virtual cloud with private networking, dedicated hypervisors, and private connections.
Exoscale has an Anycast DNS network for low latency resolution and geo-replicated redundancy for optimal uptime. They also offer a simple-to-use content delivery network for all your assets.
Exoscale offers a 99.95% SLA, trustworthy support, and access to resources via web application, CLI, and API. They also offer a marketplace with a curated collection of solution templates, services, and components.
Official Website: https://www.Exoscale.com
BasicBench: Server Profile, I/O Speed, Upload and Download Speed
CPU Model : Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake)
CPU Cores : 2 @ 2200.000 MHz
CPU Cache : 16384 KB
AES-NI : ✓ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ✓ Enabled
Total Disk : 49.2 GB (845.5 MB Used)
Total Mem : 3.8 GB (63.6 MB Used)
System uptime : 0 days, 0 hour 12 min
Load average : 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
OS : Debian GNU/Linux 11
Arch : x86_64 (64 Bit)
Kernel : 5.10.0-26-cloud-amd64
TCP CC : bbr
Virtualization : KVM
IPv4/IPv6 : ✓ Online / ✗ Offline
Organization : AS61098 Akenes SA
Location : Sofia / BG
Region : Sofia-Capital
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I/O Speed(1st run) : 425 MB/s
I/O Speed(2nd run) : 937 MB/s
I/O Speed(3rd run) : 939 MB/s
I/O Speed(average) : 767.0 MB/s
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Node Name Upload Speed Download Speed Latency
Speedtest.net 6685.44 Mbps 8692.59 Mbps 0.26 ms
Los Angeles, US 483.11 Mbps 2152.06 Mbps 167.59 ms
Dallas, US 550.34 Mbps 2928.15 Mbps 145.52 ms
Montreal, CA 585.38 Mbps 900.25 Mbps 111.32 ms
Paris, FR 2264.44 Mbps 7102.98 Mbps 36.75 ms
Amsterdam, NL 2095.85 Mbps 9287.09 Mbps 31.53 ms
Shanghai, CN 290.78 Mbps 2933.19 Mbps 275.33 ms
Mumbai, IN 279.90 Mbps 3006.89 Mbps 234.21 ms
Singapore, SG 216.96 Mbps 2136.72 Mbps 344.35 ms
Tokyo, JP 214.07 Mbps 3428.01 Mbps 221.97 ms
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Finished in : 5 min 19 sec
Timestamp : 2023-11-27 08:25:53 UTC
YabsBench: Disk Speed, iperf3 Network Speed, Geekbench 6 Benchmark
Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime : 0 days, 0 hours, 22 minutes
Processor : Intel Xeon Processor (Skylake)
CPU cores : 2 @ 2200.000 MHz
AES-NI : ✔ Enabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ✔ Enabled
RAM : 3.8 GiB
Swap : 0.0 KiB
Disk : 49.2 GiB
Distro : Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
Kernel : 5.10.0-26-cloud-amd64
VM Type : KVM
IPv4/IPv6 : ✔ Online / ❌ Offline
IPv4 Network Information:
---------------------------------
ISP : Akenes SA
ASN : AS61098 Akenes SA
Host : Akenes SA
Location : Sofia, Sofia (23)
Country : Bulgaria
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition /dev/vda1):
---------------------------------
Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 353.24 MB/s (88.3k) | 3.07 GB/s (47.9k)
Write | 354.17 MB/s (88.5k) | 3.08 GB/s (48.2k)
Total | 707.42 MB/s (176.8k) | 6.15 GB/s (96.2k)
| |
Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 3.58 GB/s (7.0k) | 3.69 GB/s (3.6k)
Write | 3.77 GB/s (7.3k) | 3.93 GB/s (3.8k)
Total | 7.35 GB/s (14.3k) | 7.62 GB/s (7.4k)
iperf3 Network Speed Tests (IPv4):
---------------------------------
Provider | Location (Link) | Send Speed | Recv Speed | Ping
Clouvider | London, UK (10G) | 4.93 Gbits/sec | 4.45 Gbits/sec | --
Scaleway | Paris, FR (10G) | busy | busy | --
NovoServe | North Holland, NL (40G) | 5.32 Gbits/sec | 3.39 Gbits/sec | --
Uztelecom | Tashkent, UZ (10G) | busy | busy | --
Clouvider | NYC, NY, US (10G) | 1.53 Gbits/sec | 1.27 Gbits/sec | --
Clouvider | Dallas, TX, US (10G) | busy | 391 Mbits/sec | --
Clouvider | Los Angeles, CA, US (10G) | 970 Mbits/sec | 732 Mbits/sec | --
Geekbench 6 Benchmark Test:
---------------------------------
Test | Value
|
Single Core | 1439
Multi Core | 2612
Full Test | https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/3740955
YABS completed in 12 min 25 sec
UnixBench: CPU Performance, A score higher is better
Benchmark Run: Mon Nov 27 2023 08:48:55 - 09:16:56
2 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 43574048.3 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 6294.0 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 4395.4 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 482533.3 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 125277.8 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1665664.5 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 605925.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 81058.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 8704.6 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 11879.5 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2235.9 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 299185.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 43574048.3 3733.9
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 6294.0 1144.4
Execl Throughput 43.0 4395.4 1022.2
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 482533.3 1218.5
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 125277.8 757.0
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1665664.5 2871.8
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 605925.5 487.1
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 81058.7 202.6
Process Creation 126.0 8704.6 690.8
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 11879.5 2801.8
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2235.9 3726.6
System Call Overhead 15000.0 299185.5 199.5
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1042.2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Mon Nov 27 2023 09:16:56 - 09:44:58
2 CPUs in system; running 2 parallel copies of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 86400422.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 12590.3 MWIPS (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 8015.8 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 814343.1 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 209174.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 2873545.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 1215295.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 295382.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 20017.8 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 17309.2 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 2332.0 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 577337.3 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 86400422.1 7403.6
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 12590.3 2289.1
Execl Throughput 43.0 8015.8 1864.1
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 814343.1 2056.4
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 209174.7 1263.9
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 2873545.7 4954.4
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 1215295.6 976.9
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 295382.1 738.5
Process Creation 126.0 20017.8 1588.7
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 17309.2 4082.4
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 2332.0 3886.6
System Call Overhead 15000.0 577337.3 384.9
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 1940.3
======= Script description and score comparison completed! =======
Looking Glass
Located in the A1 Lift data center, our BG-SOF-1 zone offers GDPR-compliant servers to help regional Startups, SMBs, and enterprise projects meet European legal requirements regarding data privacy standards.
Global Node Test
## CDN Speedtest
CacheFly : 208.33 MiB/s | 1666.67 Mbps | ping error!
Gdrive : 0 B/s | N/A | ping error!
## North America Speedtest
Softlayer, Washington, USA : 1.38 MiB/s | 11.03 Mbps | ping error!
SoftLayer, San Jose, USA : 2.18 MiB/s | 17.41 Mbps | ping error!
SoftLayer, Dallas, USA : 0 B/s | N/A | ping error!
Vultr, New Jersey, USA : 527.08 KiB/s | 4.12 Mbps | ping error!
Vultr, Seattle, USA : 10.30 MiB/s | 82.37 Mbps | ping error!
Vultr, Dallas, USA : 13.49 MiB/s | 107.91 Mbps | ping error!
Vultr, Los Angeles, USA : 10.00 MiB/s | 79.99 Mbps | ping error!
Ramnode, New York, USA : 19.82 MiB/s | 158.55 Mbps | ping error!
Ramnode, Atlanta, USA : 17.49 MiB/s | 139.93 Mbps | ping error!
## Europe Speedtest
Vultr, London, UK : 59.70 MiB/s | 477.61 Mbps | ping error!
LeaseWeb, Frankfurt, Germany : 54.63 KiB/s | 0.43 Mbps | ping error!
Hetzner, Germany : 772 B/s | N/A | ping error!
Ramnode, Alblasserdam, NL : 63.28 MiB/s | 506.26 Mbps | ping error!
Vultr, Amsterdam, NL : 59.92 MiB/s | 479.33 Mbps | ping error!
EDIS, Stockholm, Sweden : 793 B/s | N/A | ping error!
OVH, Roubaix, France : 1.16 KiB/s | 0.01 Mbps | ping error!
Online, France : 67.25 MiB/s | 538.04 Mbps | ping error!
Prometeus, Milan, Italy : 1.20 KiB/s | 0.01 Mbps | ping error!
## Exotic Speedtest
Sydney, Australia : 2.20 MiB/s | 17.63 Mbps | ping error!
Lagoon, New Caledonia : 116 B/s | N/A | ping error!
Hosteasy, Moldova : 80.71 MiB/s | 645.68 Mbps | ping error!
Prima, Argentina : 99.04 KiB/s | 0.77 Mbps | ping error!
## Asia Speedtest
SoftLayer, Singapore : 1.40 MiB/s | 11.20 Mbps | ping error!
Linode, Tokyo, Japan : 4.52 MiB/s | 36.19 Mbps | ping error!
Linode, Singapore : 8.65 MiB/s | 69.19 Mbps | ping error!
Vultr, Tokyo, Japan : 2.62 MiB/s | 20.93 Mbps | ping error!
Benchmark finished in 109 seconds
Global Latency Test
Query: ping 194.182.178.13, interval: 5s, dense mode: no
Probing 194.182.178.13 – RIPENCC /22 AS61098 EXOSCALE – Bulgaria, Sofia
Media Unlock Test
** Test Starts At: Mon Nov 27 08:46:34 UTC 2023
** Checking Results Under IPv4
--------------------------------
** Your Network Provider: Akenes (194.182.*.*)
============[ Multination ]============
Dazn: Yes (Region: BG)
HotStar: No
Disney+: Yes (Region: BG)
Netflix: Yes (Region: BG)
YouTube Premium: Yes (Region: CH)
Amazon Prime Video: Yes (Region: BG)
TVBAnywhere+: Yes
iQyi Oversea Region: INTL
Viu.com: No
YouTube CDN: MOBILTEL in Sofia
Netflix Preferred CDN: Associated with [A1 Bulgaria] in [Sofia ]
Spotify Registration: No
Steam Currency: EUR
ChatGPT: Yes
Bing Region: WW
=======================================
No IPv6 Connectivity Found, Abort IPv6 Testing...
Testing Done!
CloudFlare Internet Test
PageSpeed Insights
GTmetrix Performance
Admin Control Panel
Exoscale’s admin console is a user-friendly interface that allows you to manage your cloud infrastructure. It provides a simple and intuitive way to interact with Exoscale’s services.
One of the key features of the admin console is the Exoscale command-line interface (CLI), known as Exo. This tool allows you to manage your infrastructure from the command line, offering all the benefits of a scriptable interface. The CLI is available for operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Apple macOS, and Microsoft Windows.
The admin console also supports advanced features like anti-affinity groups, which ensure your machines are created on different hypervisors for increased resilience. It also provides user data functionality, allowing you to automatically provision your instance with additional software or settings.
Server Pricing
Official Website: https://www.Exoscale.com
Coupon
The merchant did not provide
Payments
Exoscale offers several payment methods to cater to the needs of its customers. They accept major credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. In addition to credit cards, they also accept PayPal, but only for pre-paid billing.
Exoscale provides two billing modes: pre-paid and post-paid. In the pre-paid mode, you add funds to your organization before consuming resources. When your organization’s balance reaches zero, the organization is suspended. It’s important to keep the credit in your account topped up to avoid suspension.
In the post-paid mode, you can register one or more credit cards and consume resources freely. They automatically charge your default credit card for the amount you consume every month. Established companies with a proven line of credit can request access to post-paid billing with wire transfers after a manual vetting process.
If you are in pre-paid billing mode, you can move to post-paid by credit card mode by registering a credit card. To post-pay by wire transfer, you need to open a support ticket. If you are in any post-paid billing mode (card or wire transfer), you can move to any other mode by contacting their support team.
Exoscale supports CHF, EUR, or USD currencies. All prices exclude any applicable tax.
Customer Support
Exoscale offers a variety of support plans to ensure the success of their customers. They provide hands-on, direct contact with the engineers powering their cloud platform.
- Built-In Support: This is for all customers and is perfect for testers, developers, and non-critical applications. It offers the best-effort response time during office hours. You can open and track tickets within the portal.
- Starter Support: This is for startups and SMEs running production infrastructures. It includes everything from Built-In, a four-hour guaranteed response time, additional authentication options, and detailed usage reporting.
- Pro Support: This plan will be available soon. It offers a one-hour response time out-of-the-box service to detect and track events on the platform.
- Enterprise Support: This plan will also be available soon. It offers a response time of 30 minutes (24/7), support via ticket, phone, or chat, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager.
Two main options for non-customers to contact the Exoscale support team are email and phone. If you’re a customer, your best bet is to log in to your client portal and send a support ticket. You can also contact them through their website.
Conclusion
The server demonstrated impressive I/O speeds, with an average of 767 MB/s, which indicates swift read/write operations—this is crucial for data-intensive tasks. Network performance tests revealed high download and upload speeds, particularly noticeable in European locations such as Paris and Amsterdam. Conversely, Asian regions like Singapore and Tokyo presented higher latency, which can be typical due to greater geographical distances.
Systematic benchmarks, including YABS, UnixBench, and Geekbench, revealed the server’s raw computational power. Both single and multi-core tests showed excellent performance, with high scores in process creation, context switching, and system call overhead—indicating that the server can efficiently handle various demanding workloads without bottlenecking. The performance decreased, as expected, during full load but maintained robust results.
Regarding global accessibility and media services, the server passed most of the Media Unlock Tests, indicating good regional accessibility. It allows access to various streaming services, evidencing its capability to handle geo-restricted content effectively.
In conclusion, the Exoscale Bulgaria Sofia Standard VPS emerges as a strong performer. From rapid I/O to solid computational power and good international accessibility, it’s well-suited to handle various web hosting needs. Given its excellent performance in most tests, we recommend this server for businesses and individuals looking for reliable and efficient hosting solutions.
Official Website: https://www.Exoscale.com