Archive for March, 2008
VPS Hosting : A Great Suggestion to all hosting users
Virtual Private Servers have entered a new era of vps web hosting servers. Providing similar features of that of a Physical Private server on a virtualized environment has not only entered a new segment of hosting but also have enhanced the security and individualism of a server for a very low or a basic server cost.
Initially, open source projects such as openVZ provided support to these kind of environment and with time, Parallel’s introduced Virtuozzo Power Panel which have made VPS Hosting. operations a lot easier when compared to any other open source project.
However, providing vps servers and licensing costs are not an easy task. Pre-installation and configurations are important at the time of administration which ease out for users to operate and work within such an environment.
Lowering costs has another benefit when it comes to virtual private servers. One of the main features of a VPS web hosting is providing Full RDP access on a Windows environment and SSH Root access on a Linux VPS server.
Customizations, upgrations are a lot easier on virtual private servers especially when it comes to application upgrations such as MySQL or PHP.
Our Suggestion to all of the hosting users is that if you have a tight budget and need more functionality of that of a dedicated server, then the best you can have is a VPS Hosting package.
Virtuozzo VPS Glossary
VPS Hosting has many terms that we need to understand such as follows :
UBC : User Beancounter
It basically manages container memory and resources.
VENET :
It is a virtual networking device or basically a gateway from container to external network.
VzCC : Virtuozzo Control Center mainly defines Infrastructure manager.
VzFC : Virtuozzo File System mainly aims to mount container areas. Symlinks are found in the VPS.
Virtuozzo Private Server License File : License file should be load on the virtuozzo container softwares. These licenses are uniquely assigned by Parrallels.
Parallels Agent Protocol : It is a XML-based protocol utilized to manage and monitor hardware node.
Virtuozzo VPS Server Partition on Hardware Node
Virtuozzo VPS Server Partition on VPS Server Node :
/ - 10 -12 Gb
Root Partition which mainly contains all hardware node operating system and Virtuozzo Containers Software files.
SWAP - Twice the RAM
/vz - This partition for Virtuozzo Templates and Container Database.
All the remaining disk space
We need to make sure the partitions are made correctly in order for the Virtuozzo and it’s VPS Hosting Supported to function appropriately.
Virtuozzo VPS 4.0 Latest Features
Virtuozzo 4.0 has been recently released with many more features and Linux VPS Hosting | Windows VPS Updates and management tools. The newer version includes features are equally important for Data Center management :
Easier usability to centralize resources such as templates and virtual environments which includes streamlined installations. The newer version includes more option to ensure higher level of uptime. It also provides support for Network load balancing support and backups. It also allows grouping according to user selection.
It has also been known that few bugs in the earlier version has been resolved in this version with new updates. 
OS System-level Virtualization on a VPS
OS System-level Virtualization mainly defines virtualizing a physical server at the operating system whcic enables multiple isolated and secured virtualized servers to run on a single physical server.
The New environment share the same OS as the main system. Some of the examples are Linux-VServer, Virtuozzo for Linux VPS Hosting or Windows VPS, openVZ, Solaris Containers and FreeBSD Jails.
Virtuozzo is known to be one of the best virtualization software for hosting a Virtual Private Server
ESX Server : Virtualization Infrastructure
A variant of this design, called ESX Server 3i, does away with the first requirement by moving the server kernel into a dedicated hardware device. Both variants support the services offered by Virtual Infrastructure.
VMware ESX Server :
It is a virtualization software which is provided by VMware. This has related to enhance the reliability and management of the basic products. Any Server requires storage typically an array of HDD mainly for virtualization kernel and support files. This is mainly called ESX Server 3i. This moves the server kernel into the hardware. It support virtual infrastructure.
the VM kernel has three interface which are as follows :
> hardware
> guest systems
> service console
Following are some of the limitations of a ESX Server :
> Min. 64GB RAM
> HA cluster ( Number of hosts ) : 32
> DRS cluster( Number of hosts ) : 32
Virtual Private Servers are setup on different virtualization softwares
Emulator In relation to a Virtual Private Server
Emulator basically defines operation of the secondary system or device which enacts the same way as the first system or device. It aims to immitate the same characteristics as the primary system or device. VPS environment is designed and operates as a emulator. Their architecture are more or less the same.
Lighthttpd on a VPS Server Node
These days Lighthttpd is commonly known for its performance for higher-end web servers. They increase efficiency of a web server. It basically includes effective cpu-load management and advance features such as FastCGI, SCGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting. This is a great solution for servers which mainly have load issues.
It can also be implemented on a VPS Hosting Server Node.
Plesk Power Pack on a Linux or Windows VPS Hosting Package
Following are features of Plesk Power Pack :
1) MS SQL Server Integration : It allows users to manage SQL server databases with a lot of ease. These also include remote instances of MS SQL Server Standard or Enterprise Edition.
2) Tomcat : This enables environment to execute Java Servlets. It also helps managing Tomcat applications to enable JSP support.
3) Multi-Level Helpdesk : It is a multi-purpose helpdesk mainly structured to manage all support issues which means you can organize support requests from one location.
4) Application Pack : Group of all applications such as Mambo(Site Builder), post-Nuke(CMS), osCommerce ( Mainly used for E-commerce website ), phpBB (forums), Gallery (Picture Gallery), phpBook, bbclone (Counter) and gtchat (Chat engine)
5) Coldfusion : With this feature, administrators can configure Coldfusion paths.
6) SpamAssassin : This helps eliminating Spam which is basically a Anti-spam software
Plesk Control Panel is supported on Linux as well as Windows VPS Hosting packages
TUN/TAP ( VPN Module ) on openVZ VPS
openVZ supports Tun/TAP in a container through kernel TUN/TAP module. In order to allow for e.g. #9, following is the procedure :
Please make sure you have tun module already on the main hardware node :
================
lsmod | grep tun
================
In case it is not there, you may command the following :
============
modprobe tun
============
Or rather you may also add it to /etc/modules.conf in order to load next time you reboot.
Therefter, in order to allow Access to TUN/TAP :
vzctl set 9 –devices c:10:200:rw –save
vzctl set 9 –capability net_admin:on –save
Then, you may create a character device file within the container :
========================================
vzctl exec 9 mkdir -p /dev/net
vzctl exec 9 mknod /dev/net/tun c 10 200
vzctl exec 9 chmod 600 /dev/net/tun
========================================
You have now enabled TUN/TAP on your VPS Hosting package.