This section describes the environment in which the tests are executed. Each field can help validate or troubleshoot results from the later benchmarking sections.

• Uptime Shows how long the system has been running since its last reboot. A very low uptime may indicate the server was just deployed; high uptimes suggest long-term stability.

• Processor / CPU cores / frequency Displays the CPU model string, the number of cores available to the VM or host, and the clock speed. On virtualized systems, the reported CPU name often does not match the actual physical hardware but instead shows a generic identifier (e.g., “Haswell, no TSX”). Providers sometimes mask or alter CPU flags, so this value should be taken as indicative, not authoritative.

• AES-NI Indicates whether the AES instruction set extension is available ("NI" stands for New Instructions). It is an x86 CPU extension from Intel and AMD that accelerates the AES block cipher, improving performance for workloads such as TLS, IPsec, and disk encryption. Without AES-NI, encryption falls back to slower software implementations.

• VM-x / AMD-V Indicates whether hardware-assisted virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) are available to the virtual machine. These CPU instruction set extensions allow more efficient context switching between the hypervisor and the virtual machine, improving performance for nested virtualization and workloads that run a hypervisor inside the VM. In some hosting environments, these extensions may be disabled.

• RAM / Swap Lists memory allocated to the system. Many VPS providers do not provision swap, showing “0.0 KiB” as in this example. The absence of swap can cause out-of-memory termination under heavy load.

• Disk Reports the capacity of the primary block device. On VPS platforms, this value may be thin-provisioned or subject to quotas. The number here should be cross-checked against the provider’s advertised plan.

• Distro / Kernel Identifies the operating system release and kernel version. This is useful for compatibility checks and troubleshooting, especially if a provider runs nonstandard kernels.

• VM Type Indicates the hypervisor technology (e.g., KVM, VMware, Xen, Hyper-V). This does not imply dedicated hardware — it only shows the virtualization method.

• IPv4 / IPv6 Confirms whether both address families are online. Dual-stack connectivity is increasingly important, and some providers still lack full IPv6 support.