VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

dyscoria · 2010-12-29 01:27:50

I've just got myself a Linode VPS to have fun with but I am currently considering other options.

I've heard many good things about Linode especially from this forum, but has anyone used tilaa.nl??

Pricing seems roughly equivalent and they provide Arch Linux too but on KVM as opposed to Xen! I'm cautious to try them out though as I've never heard them mentioned. The fact they use KVM also attracts me, as it seems to be the future of Linux VPS.

fukawi2 · 2010-12-29 10:44:29

I don't have any experience I'm afraid (a very happy Linode customer!) but I'd be curious to hear your feedback if you do end up trying them out

dyscoria · 2010-12-29 10:59:19

Yes I will certainly give some feedback here Tilaa have only been taking customers since 2009 and their team is quite small, so I'm unsure about them, but they offer Arch Linux so they must be good

I think I'm likely to make use of Linode's 7-day money back guarantee and switch over to Tilaa and see what they are like.

.:B:. · 2010-12-29 11:48:57

I have had a Linode for almost two years now, sharing it with a friend, and I am very happy. However, we don't need that much RAM (their cheapest plan is 512 MB now, 19,95 $/month) and Tilaa has 256 for 8,95 € a month, that's hard to beat.

Last edited by .:B:. (2010-12-29 15:58:21)

dyscoria · 2010-12-29 13:09:43

I just sent Tilaa an email asking some questions and here's their response:

Tilaa.nl wrote:

Xen has indeed been around for much longer, but developement stalled a
year or so ago. Xen 3.1 on a 2.6.18 kernel was quite stable, I believe
that's what Amazon is using. We've been having lots of issues on newer
kernels, and having to patch every kernel and stabilizing it was just too
much work for little benefit, since KVM has been upstream for a long time.
One huge benefit is that each vm is just an unprivileged process, which
can be secured with SELinux etc.
>
> (2) am I able to run my own custom compiled Linux kernel?
Sure, since we're using HVM, the kernel/ramdisk are inside of the VM
image.
> (3) with Linode (who I am currently with) their VPS management
> interface offers the ability to create multiple images within your
> allocated hard drive space, which for example is useful for cloning an
> install as a quick backup, or to have multiple install images that can
> be booted at different times. Is this possible with Tilaa?
Not currently. I think Linode's interface is great, if you're an advanced
user. For less advanced users, not so much. We've found that most of our
users don't need those features, like choosing different filesystems for
example.
> (4) is there a paid backup service offered that can backup the VPS at
> specific time intervals?
That's in the pipeline, but we first have to get our second site online,
so you can store the backups on the other site.
> (5) are all of your data centres located in the Netherlands?
Yes, in Amsterdam and Haarlem.

So it seems Tilaa don't currently offer a backup service, but that is in the pipeline. I've just sent an email asking them roughly when the backup service will be offered. They run their hard drives in RAID10 which I hear is good for server performance but not as reliable as other setups. Still, I think i'll be able to survive without backups for a limited time!

Dieter@be · 2010-12-29 14:34:45

.:B:. wrote:

I have had a Linode for almost two years now, sharing it with a friend, and I am very happy. However, we don't need that much RAM (their cheapest plan is 512 MB now, 19,95 $/year) and Tilaa has 256 for 8,95 € a year, that's hard to beat.

s/year/month/g

Last edited by Dieter@be (2010-12-29 14:35:13)

.:B:. · 2010-12-29 15:58:03

Umm yeah . Fixed that.

litemotiv · 2010-12-29 16:35:16

dyscoria wrote:

I've just got myself a Linode VPS to have fun with but I am currently considering other options.
I've heard many good things about Linode especially from this forum, but has anyone used tilaa.nl??
Pricing seems roughly equivalent and they provide Arch Linux too but on KVM as opposed to Xen! I'm cautious to try them out though as I've never heard them mentioned. The fact they use KVM also attracts me, as it seems to be the future of Linux VPS.

I've used a Xen VPS before, now KVM with the same provider. Xen performance was generally better, especially cpu-intensive work.

fukawi2 · 2010-12-29 21:52:06

litemotiv wrote:

I've used a Xen VPS before, now KVM with the same provider. Xen performance was generally better, especially cpu-intensive work.

I suspect that may always be the case, being that Xen is a 'true' hypervisor (at least more so than KVM) since it is it's own kernel below Dom0, whereas KVM runs each VM as "just another process" inside the host OS.
Each Xen DomU is "closer" to bare-metal than KVM guests, so I don't know how the KVM guys can compete with that for performance.

(Disclaimer: My last job I setup a Xen VM server. My current job I'm about to embark on a KVM setup, so I'm not discounting either just yet )

dyscoria · 2010-12-30 13:14:30

Hmm I'm don't necessarily require absolute maximal performance, so I think KVM may be more suited to my tastes than Xen.

I'll let you guys know what my experiences of Tilaa are once I've played around for a couple days!

litemotiv · 2010-12-30 14:22:10

dyscoria wrote:

Hmm I'm don't necessarily require absolute maximal performance, so I think KVM may be more suited to my tastes than Xen.
I'll let you guys know what my experiences of Tilaa are once I've played around for a couple days!

Well you made me interested nonetheless, so i cloned a running webserver to Tilaa last night and have about 20 websites active there now. Performance seems just fine so far.

.:B:. · 2010-12-30 14:30:35

I think I'm going to switch too when my Linode expires in April .

dyscoria · 2010-12-31 11:05:15

Tilaa.nl wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Many thanks for your response. I have one final question: can you give
> me a rough date at which I can expect the backup service to be
> available?
That will probably be 2 months or so, there are some things which have
higher priority, and we're a small company.
Kind regards,
Ruben

I'm going to look at Amazon S3 as a backup solution for now until Tilaa finish setting up their own backup solution.

dyscoria · 2010-12-31 11:14:37

First experiences of Tilaa.nl are very good. I am using their Arch Linux 64 bit image.

1. (+1 Tilaa) The default filesystem is ext4 for Tilaa, whereas Linode uses ext3. This could go either way though, some people may really not like ext4 for use on servers.
2. (+1 Linode) Linode had a better selection of default packages installed, with some uneccessary packages removed like pcmciautils. Not a big deal though, can just pacman -Rscn, which is what I did for a few packages in Linode anyway.
3. (+1 Tilaa) Tilaa has fewer daemons running by default. You only really need sshd at the start, whereas Linode has netfs and some others running by default.
4. (+1 Tilaa) Tilaa has the Arch Linux kernel by default, whereas Linode has their own outdated Xen kernel running, though you can boot your own kernel in Linode using pv-grub.
5. (+1 Tilaa) BSD (and Windows) are also offered by Tilaa because of the flexibility of KVM, though I hear Linode has BSD support in the pipeline.
6. (+1 Tilaa) Tilaa has a cheaper offering for those that need only 256MB RAM, and their highest goes up to 8192MB RAM.
7. (+1 Linode) Linode's VPS management interface is simply awesome. Tilaa's is very basic in comparison, though they do offer both serial and video console.
8. (+1 Linode) cat /proc/cpuinfo shows 3 cpus for Linode's 512 plan but only 2 cpus for Tilaa's equivalent plan. This doesn't really tell you much in terms of the available CPU power per VPS though. I guess it depends on how many VPS's share each CPU.
9. (==) Both use a RAID-10 setup. I'm guessing they both use SAN.
10. (==) KVM vs Xen is a tough one. I found an interesting thread here, both seem good for different uses. Xen has been around for ages, while KVM seems to have more momentum right now. Xen is backed by Citrix, KVM is backed by Redhat. Neither are going to disappear any time soon and both will be widely used in VPS solutions, though I prefer KVM. Tilaa did in fact switch from Xen to KVM in mid-2010.
11. (+1 Tilaa) From what I can see, cpanel licenses are cheaper on Tilaa, which offers them at 17euros per month. Linode don't offer contracts so you have to get them from cpanel, where to gain a roughly equivalent price you have to buy 3 or more contracts for 3 or more years.
12. (+1 Linode) Linode offer yearly subscriptions with discounted prices, whereas Tilaa do not. Tilaa make it their policy: "We respect our customers and are aware that customers don't like to be locked in. That's why Tilaa doesn't work with yearly contracts. You can cancel your VPS monthly. Not with a complicated procedure, but with a single click in our service menu."
13. (+1 Linode) Linode have a backup service already, whereas Tilaa do not. However, Tilaa do have an off-site backup service coming in about 2months time.
14. (+1 Linode) Linode have more diverse locations for their data centres, while Tilaa's are only located in the Netherlands. Having them in one place could be a good thing though.
15. (+1 Tilaa) Tilaa also offer custom solutions (e.g. dedicated servers and private clouds).
16. (+1 Linode) Linode's team is larger and has been around for longer. Tilaa only started accepting customers since 2009 and their team consists of only 3 people.

So that's Tilaa=7 Linode=7....can't tell them apart! I'm enjoying my new Tilaa.nl VPS very much at the moment though and I'm about to cancel my Linode account. Both services have their advantages. We've yet to see if Tilaa.nl is future proof. Linode certainly have proven themselves to be a highly regarded service with excellent support and are more than likely going to be around for years to come.

Another host I've been interested in are bytemark.co.uk who I've heard only good things about, but they don't currently offer Arch Linux and their pricing is slightly steeper.

litemotiv · 2010-12-31 15:25:03

Dyscoria, where are you located? How is your ping to Tilaa?

dyscoria · 2010-12-31 16:54:04

litemotiv wrote:

Dyscoria, where are you located? How is your ping to Tilaa?

I'm in England, UK. Running "ping www.tilaa.nl" gives an average of 54ms. The ping to my VPS is about 48ms.

drahnr · 2012-01-10 13:10:26

I can recommend tilaa.nl too, intuitive website, good support and very good ping times.

Last edited by drahnr (2012-01-10 13:11:31)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-12-29 01:27:50

VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#2 2010-12-29 10:44:29

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#3 2010-12-29 10:59:19

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#4 2010-12-29 11:48:57

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#5 2010-12-29 13:09:43

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#6 2010-12-29 14:34:45

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#7 2010-12-29 15:58:03

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#8 2010-12-29 16:35:16

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#9 2010-12-29 21:52:06

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#10 2010-12-30 13:14:30

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#11 2010-12-30 14:22:10

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#12 2010-12-30 14:30:35

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#13 2010-12-31 11:05:15

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#14 2010-12-31 11:14:37

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#15 2010-12-31 15:25:03

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#16 2010-12-31 16:54:04

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

#17 2012-01-10 13:10:26

Re: VPS: Tilaa vs Linode

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