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Secure Dragon - $14/Year 96MB OpenVZ VPS in Jacksonville

Secure Dragon KuJoe from Secure Dragon revealed his latest promo code here. $14/year on their “O96B” plan when you use promo code 14ME at checkout. Direct sign up link here, and it comes with

  • 96MB guaranteed/192MB burstable memory
  • 5GB storage
  • 100GB/month data transfer
  • OpenVZ/SolusVM

Offer is also available on their announcement page which is limited to 25 signups. Comparing to last time, you get 1/2 the disk space but double the monthly data. Servers with GoRack in Jacksonville FL where you can use their website for ping/traceroute test. You can find out more about Secure Dragon on their about page.

LEA
Latest posts by LEA (see all)

59 Comments

  1. KuJoe:

    Thanks LEA. I know you’re busy so I didn’t want to bother you with another promotion until you get everything else situated. :)

    July 21, 2011 @ 7:47 am | Reply
    • djvdorp:

      Thanks for this awesome promo KuJoe! Kudos for you and your company :)

      Any updates about the KVM plans you were talking about over at LET?

      July 21, 2011 @ 8:24 am | Reply
      • KuJoe:

        We invested a lot of time testing KVM and Xen HVM but we found that the performance we received on every server we installed them on was horrible. We are trying to enlist the help of and outside company or individual to assist us but as this time the best Disk IO speed we can achieve, even with our 10K SAS drives, is 13MB/s.

        Right now we have a user on here testing a Xen PV VPS for performance and bugs so we are focusing our resources on Xen PV as it appears to be working without issues.

        July 21, 2011 @ 1:16 pm | Reply
        • djvdorp:

          Thanks for the update KuJoe, I appreciate your hard work and effort. I wish you all the best and I am looking forward to updates from you and your company!

          Cheers

          July 21, 2011 @ 1:22 pm | Reply
        • What is the result of hdparm -tT /dev/arraydevice?

          example:

          
          [root@kvm04 ~]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda
          
          /dev/sda:
           Timing cached reads:   24860 MB in  2.00 seconds = 12451.00 MB/sec
           Timing buffered disk reads:  1254 MB in  3.00 seconds = 417.60 MB/sec
          [root@kvm04 ~]#
          
          July 21, 2011 @ 7:20 pm | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          I have to rebuild the KVM server which I plan on doing tonight. I’ll run the hdparm test since I find that to be pretty helpful (albeit not as widely used as the DD “test”).

          July 21, 2011 @ 7:59 pm | Reply
        • hdparm requires actual devices and only tests reading performance, not writes ;)

          Container based vps’s can’t run hdparm, the best they can do is writing a dd to the disk then doing like:

          dd if=/root/test-file of=/dev/null bs=64k

          conv isn’t needed and will be ignored in a read test.

          Francisco

          July 21, 2011 @ 8:05 pm | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          Francisco, I believe he was talking about our KVM servers which can run hdparm. As for the OpenVZ ones, we can still run hdparm on the node which should be pretty similar to the results the VPSs would achieve right?

          July 21, 2011 @ 8:46 pm | Reply
        • fanovpn:

          I suppose you’re using SolusVM for KVM, which rules out using virtio for a good-sized performance increase, though only 13MB/s with IDE emulation isn’t a good base to be starting from.

          July 22, 2011 @ 2:44 am | Reply
        • virtio works fine with SolusVM, but custom config in general is a work in progress and needs a lot more work. Many of the variables put unusable values into the config, so you cannot mount/unmount/change the CD or boot order once you’ve enabled virtio

          July 22, 2011 @ 3:25 am | Reply
        • Virtio defiantly improved my KVM VPS’s disk IO, went from 30-40MB/s most of the time with occasional spikes to 80MB/s to over 100MB/s most of the time.

          July 31, 2011 @ 2:15 am | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          I wish I could say the same. It looks like without RAID10 it’s not really worth running KVM even with 15K SAS drives due to the performance hit. The best I could get was 30-40MB/s so we’ve scrapped that idea for now and are finishing our testing with Xen PV which is showing a constant 50MB/s which still isn’t great but probably the best I can get without going SSD.

          July 31, 2011 @ 3:48 am | Reply
  2. KLIKLI:

    Yep many of us has been waiting for KVM:)

    July 21, 2011 @ 10:37 am | Reply
  3. dpflap:

    pity the code doesn’t work with other deals :(

    July 21, 2011 @ 11:21 am | Reply
  4. KLIKLI:

    BTW, SecureDragon Don’t have Comodo’s PositiveSSL intermediate certificate chain installed properly. I’d suggest you to install it properly or else it might be shown as signed from an untrusted CA to those system don’t have it.

    July 21, 2011 @ 12:37 pm | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      It’s not? Why do you say that? I’ll admit that it’s the first time I setup an SSL Certificate with Lighttpd but I’m fairly certain it is setup correctly and Chrome/IE confirm it when I check the Certificate from them.

      July 21, 2011 @ 1:18 pm | Reply
    • KLIKLI:

      But you don’t have the intermediate SSL chain installed:) Large companies even like VPS.net doesn’t get it installed right:)
      Download http://goo.gl/sqai9 :)
      Then add this to your SSL virtualhost:
      ssl.ca-file = “/path/to/thatpositivecachain.pem”

      July 21, 2011 @ 1:33 pm | Reply
      • KuJoe:

        According to the documentation I was using the .crt goes in the ssl.ca-file line and the .pem goes in the ssl.pem-file line. Does it look correct now?

        July 21, 2011 @ 1:57 pm | Reply
        • Google “verify ssl certificate” and you’ll find lots of sites that will test your ssl chain. I seem to have a mental malfunction when it comes to installing certs so it has been a blessing for me to be able to see it like it is, and usually I will neglect the cabundle, but if using a cert the browser already trusts, you’d never know it.

          July 23, 2011 @ 11:51 am | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          Thanks. I normally just rely on my browser (Chrome) to let me know if I did it right but as KLIKLI pointed out I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time (at least for Firefox, which I never use so I never noticed). I’m glad it was pointed out to me though but I’ll look into a verification test to use so I can uninstall FF. :)

          July 23, 2011 @ 12:36 pm | Reply
      • KLIKLI:

        Sorry simply what I said is wrong but please use the downloaded CA chain to place it under ssl.ca-file. I usually simply use .pem or .crt – as it wasn’t too important. Prove me wrong – purge-n-install/install Firefox – browser your web again.

        July 21, 2011 @ 2:12 pm | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          All set now. Thanks for the heads up! Not sure why I never got a warning in Chrome or IE.

          July 21, 2011 @ 7:58 pm | Reply
        • KLIKLI:

          You would get “signed from untrusted CA” error too on Chrome/IE. Only not if you’ve browsed any website with that chain of PositiveSSL intermediate CA properly installed. Your browser will then also save them in your trusted CA area. I saif Firefox above simply because Firefox has their own CA management which should have no intermediate CA pre-insed upon installation while Chrome and IE uses the Window Trust thing. Anyway just fyi – I mean it’s happy to see everything is set-up!

          July 22, 2011 @ 1:25 am | Reply
  5. KuJoe:

    Just a heads up, only 10 uses left for this promo and today’s the last day of the promotion. ;)

    July 23, 2011 @ 6:33 am | Reply
    • Daniel:

      How many left now? And how much time ;p ?

      July 23, 2011 @ 1:16 pm | Reply
      • Teiresias:

        Time left: ~14h (according to their latest Twitter message)
        Uses left: unkown

        July 23, 2011 @ 3:47 pm | Reply
      • KuJoe:

        I just added 9 more uses because we’ve had a few fraud orders and they eat up 1 coupon use per order.

        July 23, 2011 @ 8:14 pm | Reply
    • djvdorp:

      Thanks, I picked one up as I needed an trustworthy backupbox/lowendbox. I am looking forward to using it!

      July 23, 2011 @ 5:58 pm | Reply
      • djvdorp:

        By the way: a big heads up for censoring all the passwords (SolusVM, root and Client Login) which are normally in plain text in the emails!

        July 23, 2011 @ 6:12 pm | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          Yeah, that’s one of the first things I changed. It bothers me that they send the passwords in plain text by default AND WHMCS saves a copy of all e-mails so you’re root password could be sitting there waiting for somebody to read it.

          July 23, 2011 @ 8:09 pm | Reply
  6. When will the Xen plans be available?

    July 24, 2011 @ 5:47 pm | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      I gave KVM another shot but again, no dice so I’ve rebuilt the test system for Xen PV along with a production Xen PV node and once I get some OS templates in order I’ll be posting the plans on our website.

      July 24, 2011 @ 7:52 pm | Reply
      • Are you using at least 4 drive hardware raid? Did you enable virtio? I abandoned Xen after 4 years of instability, and while KVM is a tad slower IO, it’s a more then fair trade for rock solid stability to me.

        July 24, 2011 @ 11:31 pm | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          Unfortunately our blades only allow 2 hard drives so we’re limited to 2 SAS drives per blade in hardware RAID1. We explored the option of going with rackmount servers but the costs were way to expensive and we were able to purchase 10 blades for the cost of 1 rackmount server. We are using rackmount servers for our Backup VPSs though because we can’t get 2TB 2.5″ SAS drives.

          We haven’t enabled virtio but from what I’ve read enabling it on SolusVM VPSs prevents a lot of other things like mounting/unmounting ISO and certain boot options which is not something we want to do right now being so new to KVM.

          For the time being we are very happy with how the blades are working out for our OpenVZ nodes but we will probably look into other options for our KVM/Xen nodes once our finances are in order. We’ve only been online for less than 2 months so we’re still working things out in terms of hardware and vendors.

          July 24, 2011 @ 11:55 pm | Reply
        • Hmmm, maybe I can interest you in a slightly used IBM BladeCenter then with 14 3.4GHz dual Xeon blades ;) I’d offer some swampland in FL, but you probably already have that covered, being a native of the state. Rock Hill is only a 3-4 hour drive from Jacksonville, save on shipping :)

          July 25, 2011 @ 12:12 am | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          What specs? We’ve been using Dell exclusively but the blades we’re using are the older models and DDR2 is expensive. :(

          July 25, 2011 @ 12:25 am | Reply
        • 
          [root@blade2 ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
          processor       : 0
          vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
          cpu family      : 15
          model           : 4
          model name      :                   Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.60GHz
          

          Better then I remembered, dual dual cores, 4gb in each blade with 2 73gb I want to say u320 scsi, but it may very well be sas. Oh, that is HyperThreading, nevermind, I’ve been in the AMD world too long.

          2 cisco 1gbit switch modules and 2 4gbit FC modules, quad PS, weighs like 400 pounds, uses 7U, but with all the blades removed is easy to move around.

          Yeah, pretty sure it used ddr2 as well, and it is only going to go higher as time passes and more fabs are converted to ddr3 or whatever comes next. But shopping the lease return market usually turns up bargins like this and parts for it. I felt lucky to find this for $900 complete about 4-5 months ago, but it just doesn’t fit for any new use for me. I spent another $300 modifiying the colo power for the thing, so anything in the $900 range would make me happy. Actually, I’ll pay your gas to come get it to.

          July 25, 2011 @ 3:04 pm | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          Thanks but I think we’ll pass for now, we still have 5 blades not even turned on so I don’t think we’ll be purchasing any more hardware for the next month or 2.

          July 25, 2011 @ 7:08 pm | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      Just a quick update about our Xen plans. Right now our ETA is August 1st. We’ve got the nodes setup and the OS templates were all tested (some removed for various reasons). I was hoping to have something else to release Monday but it looks like that might be on hold for a bit longer. :( Tonight I’ll be doing the final changes (i.e. adding the plans to our website, setting them up in WHMCS, and setting up some of our internal scripts) so expect to see the new plans (and introduction promotion!!) after 12:00AM EST! :)

      July 31, 2011 @ 9:42 am | Reply
  7. Again, here is my review about their 14 per year VPS, for those who are interested in getting one:
    http://www.96mb.com/96mb-low-end-vps-review-part-xv-secure-dragon/

    July 29, 2011 @ 3:25 am | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      Very awesome review 96mb! I’ve posted a comment on your blog in response to it and hope it clears up some confusion we might have caused you in regards to some points. ;)

      July 29, 2011 @ 6:00 am | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      Also, with your permission I would like to post a link to your review on our site and in future advertisements if possible. Is that ok with you?

      July 29, 2011 @ 6:01 am | Reply
      • @KuJoe: You are more than welcome to do so, also I have just posted a review on the Xen VPS product line last night, you can check that one out too!

        August 8, 2011 @ 2:47 pm | Reply
  8. KuJoe:

    We’ve got Xen PV now! :)

    August 1, 2011 @ 6:20 am | Reply
  9. Just ordered the O96B, but then they refund my payment :(
    Anyone knows where I can find another good VPS below $2/month?
    Seems like onedollarvps doesn’t have a good review here.
    Thanks!

    August 1, 2011 @ 1:18 pm | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      Sorry about that but we have to weigh the fraud risk. :(

      August 1, 2011 @ 1:48 pm | Reply
      • NanoG6:

        It’s okay Joe
        Paranoid? :)

        August 1, 2011 @ 2:04 pm | Reply
        • KuJoe:

          You signed up 3 times from different countries and kept changing your phone number, MaxMind didn’t like it (it called you 4 times but 200000 is not a valid number in either country). Sorry.

          Normally when a user gets marked as fraud and they contact us we work with them, but changing IPs and phone numbers until you can pass the fraud check is a red flag for us.

          August 1, 2011 @ 2:20 pm | Reply
  10. NanoG6:

    I’m just not used to give my phone number when registering at a website. Honestly it was my first experience with MaxMind, and I was impressed.
    On the second attempt I had to give a valid phone number, but I still use my Germany VPN network. And again I do not know if your system does not allow for differences of IP addresses to the country mentioned on the form (Indonesia).

    August 1, 2011 @ 2:51 pm | Reply
  11. john:

    server down? i.p does not ping anymore and their site is down too.

    August 1, 2011 @ 5:42 pm | Reply
    • circus:

      Works fine here.

      August 1, 2011 @ 6:16 pm | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      We had a brief outage this morning at around 8AM EST due to a DDOS attack but since then we’ve been online without issue.

      August 1, 2011 @ 9:38 pm | Reply
  12. Frank:

    Any coupon available for the monthly plans last one says expired

    August 5, 2011 @ 12:06 am | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      Due to Paypal/Google Checkout fees it’s really hard to us to offer discounts on any payment methods other than annually because when clients pay monthly that’s 12 times we get hit with fees, where-as annual payments are only hit with fees one time and allows us room to work with. That being said we are working on some promotions for our monthly plans but they most likely won’t be for our 96MB plans.

      August 5, 2011 @ 1:27 am | Reply
      • circus:

        What about quaterly? ;) hehe..

        August 5, 2011 @ 2:29 am | Reply
  13. Jonathan:

    Gonna snatch up one of this really soon, Iv been having some minor network issues with my current vps provider and Secure Dragon looks really good for that price. Looking forward on a good expierence.

    August 8, 2011 @ 12:53 pm | Reply
  14. Again, if anyone is looking for a review on their Xen product line, here it is:
    http://www.96mb.com/96mb-low-end-vps-review-part-xvii-secure-dragon-xen-vps/
    In general, it is pretty good, I like the part where they have 32 bit OS template which has a minimal memory footprint, the network speed has some room for improvements though, so hopefully Joe could do something about that.

    August 8, 2011 @ 2:49 pm | Reply
    • KuJoe:

      I’m looking into the network speed thing. It looks like the problem is outside of our router though. :(

      # wget http://68.67.68.165/100MB.zip
      --2011-08-08 20:20:47--  http://68.67.68.165/100MB.zip
      Connecting to 68.67.68.165:80... connected.
      HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
      Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/zip]
      Saving to: `100MB.zip'
      
      100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 11.5M/s   in 8.8s
      
      2011-08-08 20:20:56 (11.4 MB/s) - `100MB.zip' saved [104857600/104857600]
      
      August 8, 2011 @ 8:21 pm | Reply

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