Last Update | May 2022

Monthly Update – May 2022

During May, Vultr Hosting:

• Announced the addition of the And Media Server.
• Announced that it was named a 2022 Stevie American Business Awards Bronze Honoree.
• Announced that its Vultr Kubernetes Engine is Now Generally Available.
• Had a partial network outage in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.
• Performed scheduled maintenance in its Dallas location.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Honolulu, USA.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Mumbai, India.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Performed infrastructure upgrades on its server in Sydney, Australia.

Vultr promises to deliver a global cloud hosting solution with some of the fastest SSD speeds available. Its main mission is to create the most reliable as well as efficient service available. Each of their servers runs on solid-state drives (SSD) and takes advantage of Intel processors’ latest generation that has a control panel that you can easily manage.

You can choose from a variety of locations, and their lowest package starts at $2.5 per month, which makes it extremely affordable.

With so many other services that are in direct competition to Vultr, how does this service stand out from the pact, and what truly makes it special?

When it comes to the real-world usage of Vultr, how good is it? Let’s take a deep dive and find out.

Today I’ll be looking at the insides and outs of Vultr and all of the packages and services it offers.

Before we dive deeper, keep in mind that Vultr has a strict policy when it comes to returns. In fact, you’ll need to destroy any active instances and create a support ticket if you want to close your account. This means that you can easily cancel an account, but you need to ensure that you do not have a large amount of funds deposited within it. You will not receive a refund.

Getting Started with Vultr

Getting started with Vultr is actually quite simple if you know what you’re looking for.

Let’s take a deep dive into Vultr and see what actually makes it exciting.

From the very first moment that you visit the website, you are greeted by the certain packages Vultr specializes in.

But before we dive deep into the pricing, let’s analyze the signup process itself.

On the top right corner of the screen, click on sign up.

You’ll need to enter your email address alongside your password to get started.

Keep in mind that you have to confirm your email address, so ensure that it is fully legitimate.

Once you confirm your account and log in, you’ll need to enter credit card information if you want to get started.

Here’s the main screen you’ll be greeted by.

You have products, billing, support, affiliate, account, and Vultr docs on the left side of the screen.

The products tab showcases your instances, snapshots, ISOs, Scripts, DNS, Block Storage, Objects, Firewall, Network, and Load Balancers.

The Billing tab shows your added cards, so you can make a payment, shows your limits and your history.

On the next screen, you have the support tab, where you can open a ticket or review the frequently asked questions.

The affiliate tab is actually quite interesting, as you can essentially refer Vultr to friends and earn $10 per signup.

You are given a unique, randomly generated link that works only for you.

In the account tab, you’ll be able to view your profile, preferences, authentication, SSH keys, API, Users and Notifications.

The Vultr Docs lets you review all of their documents, and you can even sign up as a trusted author, request an article, and submit an article.

You have interesting and informative documents such as deploying a MERN application on Ubuntu 20.04 or creating Reverse DNS in the Vultr Control Panel, which is unique.

That’s all there is to sign up and getting started with Vultr, now let’s move on to the part where we set things up.

Settings Things Up at Vultr

When you click on Products, on the Instances tab, you have a large, blue + sign on the screen’s right side.

Once you hover over it with your mouse pointer, you’ll have several options to pick from, including:

• Deploy New Server

  This is one of the main screens that you need to focus on initially.

  There are multiple servers that you can choose from; these include:

  1. Cloud Compute
     This allows you to create powerful compute instances for your web application or development environment. You can pick from a wide variety of instances, which are charged per hour or on a monthly basis.
  2. High Frequency
     This is quite similar to the previous option, except that you get servers that are quite a bit faster and offer quite a bit more.
  3. Bare Metal
     This is a dedicated server with no virtualization. You stay in full control of your environment with high-performance, single-tenant dedicated servers. Bare metal servers give you access to the underlying physical server and feature no virtualization layer. These can power the most resource-intensive workloads as a result. At the time of writing, you only have the E3-1270v6 option.
  4. Dedicated Cloud
     This offers you dedicated resources, however, the unique aspect of Vultr is in the fact that you can rent 25%, 50%, 75%, or even an entire dedicated server. You can essentially never have the need to share resources if you do not want to. This is a unique approach and I find it genuinely interesting.
  5. Object Storage
     The object storage option gives you the flexibility to add scalable storage on demand and manage it through the S3 API. You can essentially only have to pay for the data that you store or transfer out of your buckets.
  6. Block Storage
     Block storage allows you to create expandable storage volumes and mount them directly from a compute instance. It is controlled through an API, flexible and scalable, and has a distributed design.
     
     Question: Can I upgrade my block storage?

     Answer: Yes, and you can do so within the members area. Also, keep in mind that this will require a reboot of the instance in which your block storage is attached.
  7. Load Balancers
     Through load balancers, you can enable horizontal scaling and increase reliability on your applications within seconds. They are simple and easy to manage, and you can deploy fully configured cloud-based load balancers from the user-friendly customer portal.

• Add Domain

As the name implies, you can add a domain to a DNS by entering the domain name and the default IP Address.

• Add Firewall Group

You can add a firewall group with a description.

• Add Load Balancers

In this menu, you can add the previously discussed load balancers by selecting a location, and seeing the load balancer configuration, and setting forwarding rules and health checks.

• Add Objects Storage

Here, you can add object storage and select a location as well as a label.

• Add Reserved IP

Here you can add a reserved IP

• View More Options

The view more options menu gives you an array of other features as well.

• Add Snapshot

You can upload a snapshot. However, it has to be in RAW format, not VMDK, QCOW2, and so on. The maximum uploaded snapshot size is 150 GB, and the snapshot has to support VirtIO Ethernet/Disk Controllers.

• Add ISO

Here, you can upload ISO from a remote machine.

• Add Startup Script

You can add a startup script, which is convenient in many situations.

• Add SSH Key

This menu allows you to add an SSH key.

• Add Block Storage

Last but not least, you can add block storage here.

With that out of the way, let’s deploy a new instance.

Learn more about Vultr:

Deploying Instances with Vultr

For the sake of this review, I’ll select the Cloud Compute option, but feel free to select what works best for your specific case.

Next, you’ll need to pick a location, and I’d recommend picking one that is either in the area of your target audience or near you, depending on your needs; I’ll go with Frankfurt in Germany for the time being.

Next, we’ll need to set up the server type.

Here you can make it either a 64 bit OS or a 32 bit OS. Honestly, at the time of writing, 64 bit makes the most sense, so I’ll pick that.

In terms of OS, I’ll use CentOS, but you can choose from the following:

• CentOS
• Debian
• Fedora
• Fedora CoreOS
• FreeBSD
• OpenBSD
• Ubuntu
• Windows

Next you’ll need to pick the server size.

Now, I’m not that keen on spending, and I’m testing things out, so I’ll go with the $5 plan. Keep in mind that you can pick whatever you need here.

Last but not least, you can enable additional features, such as IPv6, Auto Backups, DDoS protection, and private networking.

You can also add startup scripts, SSH keys, and server hostname and label.

You’ll see the total cost on the very bottom of the screen and the deploy now button.

Click on deploy now to get started.

Your server will now be active, and the software will begin installing.

Once it’s completed, you’ll see it running.

If you click on the three dots on the right side, you’ll be able to see additional features.

These include:

• Server Details
• View Console
• Server Stop
• Server Restart
• Server Reinstall
• Server Destroy

The one you’ll be using most of the time is the server details tab.

Here you’ll see information about the server, such as the IP address, username, password, CPU, RAM, Storage, Bandwidth, Label, Tag, OS, and charges.

Now, here you’ll have access to features such as the overview, but you can also see the usage graphs, settings, snapshots, backups, and DDoS.

As we move on to the Usage Graphs, you can review your monthly bandwidth.

On the settings tab, you can see a lot of things.

Most notable ones being the public network information, such as the address, netmask, gateway, and reverse DNS.

You can create snapshots, enable backups, and enable DDoS protection as well.

Now, through the console, you can basically do anything you want to with your server.

In terms of other features, you can also deploy apps in a single click, and these include CentOS Web panel, cPanel, Docker, Drupal, GitLab, Jitsi, Joomla and much more.

With that out of the way, let’s try and terminate the server.

On the top right corner of the screen, click on Server Destroy.

You’ll have to check a little check box before clicking on Destroy Server.

You’ll now see the status of your server is at the “Destroying” phase.

Just wait for it to finish.

And that’s all there is to using servers.

Level of Support

With that out of the way, let’s see the level of support.

I’ll open a ticket.

In order to open a support ticket, you’ll need to select a category, server, subject, and message.

Click on Open Ticket and you are good to go.

Keep in mind that regular hours are weekdays 9 AM to 6 PM EDT (1 PM to 10 PM UTC).

That’s about it.

Let’s talk about the refund policy for a second.

If you cancel any service prior to the expiration of the pre-paid fees, you understand, and agree that Vultr will not issue you any refund at all. This isn’t limited to any remaining pre-paid fees, set up fees, and special programming fees.

Instances that are in a stopped state continue to reserve dedicated system resources, such as RAM, SSD storage, IP aliases, CPU cores and so on, and therefore need to be charged, until the instance is fully destroyed. If you do not want to accumulate charges, you have to destroy the instance completely.

If you have funds in your account, and want to cancel or destroy the account completely, these will also not be refunded.

Performance, Speed and Uptime

I really love Vultr because they promise 100% host Node Uptime and 100% network uptime.

They also have outage credits. If the availability is below the guarantee, the accounts become eligible for SLA credits based on any affected instances’ hourly costs.

In my experience testing it, speed was solid, and I saw no downtime.

In terms of pricing, it starts at $2.50, up to $540 per month depending on the type of performance you need. You can even purchase additional storage as well as bandwidth, which allows for easy scaling.

Security and Backups

Vultr’s native DDoS mitigation system protects your cloud server inside the Vultr network, meaning no increased latency and no routing of your traffic to a third party.

In terms of security, you can also benefit from free TLS/SSL certificates, SSH Keys, two-factor authentication, Vultr Firewall, Cloudflare, and One-Click OpenVPN.

Vultr offers automatic backup. You can configure this feature to run daily, every other day, weekly, or monthly and choose the time of day when it occurs. Vultr stores the backups in the same data center as the original instance but on a separate, fault-tolerant storage system. The provider keeps the two most recent snapshots of the entire server, not individual files. When it comes to content, the backups include the VPS active file system but not the attached block storage volumes.

Monthly Updates

During April 2022, Vultr Hosting:

• Announced that its parent company Constant made the JMP Securities Hot 100 list.
• Announced the launch of its new datacenter in Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Announced the launch of its new datacenter in Mumbai, India.
• Performed infrastructure upgrades on its server in Toronto, Canada.
• Reported medium compute availability for its server in Seattle, USA.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Mumbai, India.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Honolulu, USA.

During March 2022, Vultr Hosting:

• Announced its new VMs.
• Performed emergency maintenance on its Amsterdam Server.
• Customer experienced issues with deploying new instances on the Madrid Server.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Announced that Mist Multi-cloud management is now available on the Vultr Marketplace.

During February 2022, Vultr Hosting:

• Announced its new cloud data center location in Madrid, Spain.
• Performed scheduled maintenance on its Amsterdam Server.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Announced that the Lite edition of the Jelastic DevOps Platform as a Service product is now available on Vultr Marketplace.
• Added four more server mods for Minecraft.
• Announced that it partnered with Wasabi Technologies.
• Vultr was recognized by CRN as one of the 20 coolest cloud infrastructure companies of 2022.

During January 2022, Vultr Hosting:

• Announced Vultr Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) with Peering.
• Announced its new cloud data center location in Warsaw, Poland.
• Announced that its Node API Client is now on v2.3.0.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

During December 2021, Vultr Hosting:

• Announced its 20th data center location in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Announced that for their new Brazil location their customers will receive standard cloud compute instances and high frequency compute instances.
• Reported low compute availability for its servers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
• Announced two new Vultr Kubernetes Engine versions.
• Announced new DNS Enhancements.
• HostAdvice Special Deals: $100 of free credit when signing up for Vultr expires on the 31st of December, 2021.

During November 2021, Vultr Hosting:

• Performed two scheduled maintenances
• Vultr Kubernetes Engine becomes certified by CNCF
• Announced three new updates to the Windows Support
• Released a new API endpoint 

During October 2021, Vultr Hosting:

• Announced its 19th data center location in Mexico City
• Introduced 2FA via Yubikey; light mode / dark mode on the left sidebar of all articles
• Added OwncastLive – a self-hosted live video and web chat server for use

During September 2021, Vultr Hosting:

• Performed a scheduled server maintenance
• Added WooCommerce to the Vultr Marketplace
• Announced a partnership with Backblaze B2
• Had a “Give $100 Get $25” referral promotion
• Launched a new server location in Stockholm, Sweden
• Added VzLinux 8 on the Vultr Marketplace

During August 2021, Vultr Hosting:

• All servers were operational
• Ranked on the prestigious Inc. 5000 List of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States
• Added new apps and enhancements to the Vultr marketplace
• Introduced a new Vultr Bare Metal option that makes provisioning dedicated servers incredibly inexpensive
• Introduced Vultr Kubernetes Engine (VKE) in Beta in its New Jersey and Los Angeles locations

During July 2021, Vultr Hosting:

• All servers were operational
• Added two new OS

During June 2021, Vultr Hosting:

• Announced new Load Balancer features to make them even more flexible, convenient, and powerful
• Didn’t report any server issues

During May 2021, Vultr Hosting:

• Officially introduced Vultr Marketplace as a one-click setup for popular apps & stacks.
• Didn’t report any server issues

Specific Features of Vultr Hosting

Now that you get the overall idea let’s see what makes Vultr unique, thus gives them a competitive advantage in the market.

To start, I especially like their server infrastructure, accounting for superior speeds and uptime. After all, 100% host Node Uptime and 100% network uptime are not something you can find every day.

Furthermore, I love their custom control panel, offering you a bunch of features on an easy-to-use channel as the end-user. Essentially, it’s easy to navigate, even for a beginner.

Vultr also comes with dedicated IP addresses and other top-notch security features to protect you on the web at all times. As you can also benefit from an ultra-fast Intel Core, it’s safe to say the provider grants extraordinary value for its price.

Summary

Vultr is essentially the perfect solution for people or corporations that want a scalable hosting solution. It’s a company that specialized in cloud computing and boasts some of the fastest SSD’s on the market. Their strength is in their multiple data centers, and they are extremely reliable.