1. Provider: Hetzner, "SSD-Accelerated" tier, purchased 2026-05-15
2. Advertised: "Ultra-fast SSD storage for demanding workloads"
3. Observed sequential read: 82.4 MB/s via fio --name=test --filename=/tmp/test --direct=1 --rw=read --bs=1M --size=1G
4. Expected NVMe SSD range: 500-3500 MB/s; expected SATA SSD range: 400-550 MB/s
5. Diagnostic method: hdparm -I /dev/vda reveals "ST1000NM0008" model string; smartctl confirms rotational media with 7200 RPM
The 80 MB/s figure is consistent with cached HDD throughput under light controller load, not any SSD technology.
Recommendation: Always run hdparm -I and cross-reference model strings against manufacturer databases before trusting storage tier labels.
It's always DNS. Always.