I was still feeling irked with Linode after I discovered the performance of my Linode VPS decreased significantly after receiving a number of “free” upgrades, so with my Linode 2G coming up for renewal in December I recently starting digging around to see if there were any other hosting providers that might be worthwhile. That’s when I stumbled across Digital Ocean.
I fired up a $10 Droplet (the name of a virtual guest server at Digital Ocean) and ran some performance benchmarks, comparing my Linode 2G to Digital Ocean. The results were very exciting, I found my Linode 2G (2GB) turned out a score of 202.0 while the Droplet (1Gb) turned in a score of 842.9.
Here are the actual statistics from UnixBench v5.1.3;
Linode 2G
(2 GB, 48 GB, 4 TB, 8 cores (2x priority), $40 / mo)
========================================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3)
System: earth.michaelfmcnamara.com: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 3.8.4-linode50 -- #1 SMP Mon Mar 25 15:50:29 EDT 2013
Machine: i686 (i386)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz (4000.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext
CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz (4000.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext
CPU 2: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz (4000.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext
CPU 3: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz (4000.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext
CPU 4: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz (4000.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext
CPU 5: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz (4000.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext
CPU 6: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz (4000.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext
CPU 7: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz (4000.1 bogomips)
Hyper-Threading, MMX, Physical Address Ext
15:33:12 up 187 days, 8:58, 1 user, load average: 0.01, 0.03, 0.05; runlevel 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Sat Nov 09 2013 15:33:12 - 16:01:11
8 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 9047350.8 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 1674.1 MWIPS (10.2 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 824.2 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 62735.0 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 16425.8 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 256839.3 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 77091.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 9260.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 1427.0 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 1716.2 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 721.3 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 277578.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 9047350.8 775.3
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 1674.1 304.4
Execl Throughput 43.0 824.2 191.7
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 62735.0 158.4
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 16425.8 99.2
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 256839.3 442.8
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 77091.1 62.0
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 9260.1 23.2
Process Creation 126.0 1427.0 113.3
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 1716.2 404.8
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 721.3 1202.2
System Call Overhead 15000.0 277578.9 185.1
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 202.0Droplet
(2GB, 40GB SSD, 3 TB, 2 cores, $20 / mo)
========================================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3)
System: moon.michaelfmcnamara.com: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-358.6.2.el6.i686 -- #1 SMP Thu May 16 18:12:13 UTC 2013
Machine: i686 (i386)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
CPU 0: QEMU Virtual CPU version 1.0 (4600.0 bogomips)
x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
20:33:02 up 5 days, 38 min, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.03; runlevel 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Sat Nov 09 2013 20:33:02 - 21:01:06
1 CPU in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 16269312.5 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 2547.8 MWIPS (8.8 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 3643.5 lps (29.7 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 470232.0 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 133863.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 1146234.7 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 937630.7 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 193152.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 11101.8 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 3889.5 lpm (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 491.7 lpm (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 770778.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 16269312.5 1394.1
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 2547.8 463.2
Execl Throughput 43.0 3643.5 847.3
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 470232.0 1187.5
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 133863.4 808.8
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 1146234.7 1976.3
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 937630.7 753.7
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 193152.1 482.9
Process Creation 126.0 11101.8 881.1
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 3889.5 917.3
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 491.7 819.5
System Call Overhead 15000.0 770778.6 513.9
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 842.9It should be noted that there are a number of differentiators between Linode and Digital Ocean. Linode utilizes XEN while Digital Ocean utilizes KVM. Linode utilizes traditional hard disks while Digital Ocean utilizes SSDs (Solid-State Drives). It’s pretty well known that SSDs are much faster than traditional hard disks but SSDs also have reliability issues. And sometimes the biggest differentiator is price. While that 2GB VPS with Linode will cost you $40 /month, a 2GB Droplet with Digital Ocean will only set you back $20 /month.
I was impressed enough that I’m moving the majority of my workloads to Digital Ocean. I’ll probably end up with 2 Droplets, a 1Gb and 2Gb. Only time will tell if Digital Ocean will be as reliable as Linode but I’ll be here to let you know.
Cheers!
Update: Sunday November 17, 2013 – You can find a related post and follow-up here, Hosting Provider – Digital Ocean (Part 2)