Experiences with SliceHosting (VPS)

June 20, 2024

Some Background

I was pretty much bored around the start of 2024 when I randomly stumbled into the r/selfhosting subreddit. It certainly piqued my interest at that time, but I didn't have the time to spend setting up a home server. (I didn't have any spare computer lying around in the first place and wasn't too invested to buy one for cheap either). Also, it seems like the most popular use case is to run a server for media with software like Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, etc. Not really my thing.

Fast forward to June, and I had the sudden interest to do "something" related to self-hosting. Luckily, I found this link (thanks Google SEO?): lowendbox.com

Jumping in

The blog basically mentions this:

Let's start with 16GB of RAM, 3 vcpu, 100GB NVMe, 10TB of transfer, IPv4 + IPv6…for $6/month. Or$ 60/year which is only $5/month. Service is in Frankfurt, Germany. How can they make money at those prices?

Maybe they can't. Maybe you know this, but would like a big beefy VPS for a little bit until it all goes away. Maybe you'll sign up and it'll perform like a dog. Maybe it'll sign up and it'll be wonderful, but you'll keep a sharp eye on backups.

Do you feel lucky, punk?

Well, I do feel lucky. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I thought, why not? I lay my eyes upon this offer in slicehosting.tech

Is this a good offer? After going through r/selfhosting and the same lowendbox website looking for other sites, it does seem pretty good, I'd say. Too good. But like I said, nothing to lose, so I jumped right in and impulse-bought this.

The information they ask from you:

Name, address, phone number
Payment details

Seems pretty standard.

I'm going to go on a side story here, but slicehosting.tech isn't the only one I looked into. I wanted to also try a reputed legitimate service and decided to register with Linode. But then, after submitting all my details, they emailed me this after a day or so:

What the hell? What "fraudulent behavior"? Seems like they just use some shitty algorithm that's probably racially motivated. Anyways, rant over.

This experience with Linode made me appreciate the straightforward process with SliceHosting, even if it comes with its own risks. So, back to SliceHosting, my suspicious yet beloved server hoster.

Spinning it up

After successful payment, I am greeted with this dashboard:

Looks pretty good. Now, the first thing to check after a fairly simple setup process of setting up SSH keys and installing an Ubuntu 22.04 template on my VPS, is to go and check if the specs match, and I didn't get horribly scammed.

Starting with a simple neofetch:

The CPU looks good. If you want to know more about the AMD EPYC 7401P model, do take a look at this wonderful article by servethehome.com

Now for the real deal, let's run a bench script. I'm using this one: bench.sh

-------------------- A Bench.sh Script By Teddysun -------------------
 Version            : v2023-10-15
 Usage              : wget -qO- bench.sh | bash
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 CPU Model          : AMD EPYC 7401P 24-Core Processor
 CPU Cores          : 3 @ 2000.000 MHz
 CPU Cache          : 512 KB
 AES-NI             : ✓ Enabled
 VM-x/AMD-V         : ✓ Enabled
 Total Disk         : 96.8 GB (8.3 GB Used)
 Total Mem          : 15.6 GB (430.4 MB Used)
 System uptime      : 4 days, 7 hour 50 min
 Load average       : 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
 OS                 : Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
 Arch               : x86_64 (64 Bit)
 Kernel             : 5.15.0-113-generic
 TCP CC             : cubic
 Virtualization     : Dedicated
 IPv4/IPv6          : ✓ Online / ✗ Offline
 Location           : Frankfurt am Main / DE
 Region             : Hesse
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 I/O Speed(1st run) : 81.4 MB/s
 I/O Speed(2nd run) : 217 MB/s
 I/O Speed(3rd run) : 266 MB/s
 I/O Speed(average) : 188.1 MB/s
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Node Name        Upload Speed      Download Speed      Latency
 Speedtest.net    908.37 Mbps       918.72 Mbps         6.56 ms
 Los Angeles, US  578.63 Mbps       652.31 Mbps         153.09 ms
 Dallas, US       701.05 Mbps       324.24 Mbps         124.27 ms
 Montreal, CA     647.44 Mbps       415.81 Mbps         94.08 ms
 Amsterdam, NL    908.17 Mbps       890.95 Mbps         13.15 ms
 Hongkong, CN     354.88 Mbps       550.80 Mbps         186.50 ms
 Mumbai, IN       433.22 Mbps       747.44 Mbps         145.16 ms
 Singapore, SG    79.40 Mbps        23.07 Mbps          263.84 ms
 Tokyo, JP        243.00 Mbps       478.46 Mbps         250.78 ms
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Finished in        : 4 min 51 sec
 Timestamp          : 2024-07-06 21:33:48 IST
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Honestly, this thing is packing way above its weight for $6/month.

Thoughts

Now that I'm all done with verifying, it's finally time to well, actually host some stuff on it. That's a story for another day!

quick disclaimer: it's very important to remember that using lesser-known hosting services can come with risks. Always keep backups of your data and be prepared for potential issues. As they say, if something seems too good to be true, it might be. But for now, I'm enjoying my slice of hosting heaven!

Update

As of 2024-09-12, the service has been down for a few days, and I have been having recurrent boot issues. I'm not sure if it's a temporary issue or if the service is gone for good. Nonetheless, I think thats the end for this chapter of my self-hosting journey, at least for now. I might think of setting up a home server in the future, but for now, I'm content with the experience I had with SliceHosting.