A Root Server or, most commonly, a root virtual private server (VPS) is typically a Linux or Windows based server where you have full control over the operating system.
I take a look at three providers:
TL;DR
At this time, I have dropped Hetzner's services due to drops in performance in new VPS products. I have changed providers to Vultr and have been much happier ever since.
Scaleway is interesting but I have experienced data center issues, among others, so don't recommend them for anything critical.
KVM and Xen solutions do not allow oversubscribing and deliver much more consistent performance, albeit peak is lower.
Other requirements matched for these providers:
Scaleway is interesting but I have experienced data center issues, among others, so don't recommend them for anything critical.
General Tips
The use of good virtualization software is the first and most important feature of a quality root server, as OpenVZ/Virtuozzo (operating system level virtualization) allows oversubscribing that delivers both lower prices and terrible performance (most of the time). You also can't use swap with OpenVZ, so that doesn't leave a lot of margin for error in the server's configuration for periods of high load. I recommend you to stay away from OpenVZ for these reasons.KVM and Xen solutions do not allow oversubscribing and deliver much more consistent performance, albeit peak is lower.
Other requirements matched for these providers:
- No contract termination for full resource usage (CPU, disk).
- Offline console.
- Custom ISO install (Vultr).
Providers
Hetzner
This German based provider offers not only root servers of the VPS variety but also dedicated servers, web hosting and collocation services. I have used the VQ7 VPS service, which had the following characteristics:
Always interesting to test software, deploying servers is easy and the online panel is great, as is the pricing. Downsides have been insecure systems that transfer kernel modules unencrypted over network connections and I've experienced network issues with no notice issued.
I wouldn't use them, right now, for anything critical but they may be interesting for testing software or ARMv8 servers.
Performance has been great and the control panel is clearly among the best out there.
Windows Server options are also available at a reasonable price, so pretty much anything you need should be covered by Vultr.
- 1 Virtual CPU
- 512 MiB of RAM
- 25 GB of HDD space
- 2 TB of traffic
- KVM Virtualization
- Full root access
Hetzner not only provides the offline console but also a Linux rescue system, which then lets you install any distribution or lets you recover the machine from any state. Offline consoles are especially important if the providers don't have 24/7 support or any kind of management of the instances, as is the case with Hetzner. If you need 24/7 support, you need to contract one of their more expensive root server offerings, which start at €50/$69. Support has always been helpful and problems were with ease.
Hetzner has, in the last few years, upgrade to "CX" plans that have better hardware and a network SSD for disk space. My benchmarks of these machines have been very underwhelming, with incosistent performance on both the I/O and processing. Equivalent plans benchmarked much lower than VQ plans and are generally uninteresting compared to other offers.
Hetzner has, in the last few years, upgrade to "CX" plans that have better hardware and a network SSD for disk space. My benchmarks of these machines have been very underwhelming, with incosistent performance on both the I/O and processing. Equivalent plans benchmarked much lower than VQ plans and are generally uninteresting compared to other offers.
Scaleway
A more nimble member of the Online.net french server provider, it has come to market with the very cheap C1 dedicated ARM server. They have been expanding and now offer more powerful ARMv8 servers (up to 64 cores w/ 128GB of RAM) and x86-64 offers of both virtual and dedicated variety.Always interesting to test software, deploying servers is easy and the online panel is great, as is the pricing. Downsides have been insecure systems that transfer kernel modules unencrypted over network connections and I've experienced network issues with no notice issued.
I wouldn't use them, right now, for anything critical but they may be interesting for testing software or ARMv8 servers.
Vultr
Offering two types of servers over 15 datacenters spread worldwide, Vultr is not the cheapest provider but offers several features many don't:- Free disk snapshots.
- Custom ISO installs.
- High quality, low latency VNC client over the browser.
- Network disk add-ons on high redundancy hardware (Block Storage), on the NJ datacenter.
Performance has been great and the control panel is clearly among the best out there.
Windows Server options are also available at a reasonable price, so pretty much anything you need should be covered by Vultr.