How is cpanel compared to freevsd(http://www.freevsd.org/) ?

Hi Skeptical,

Here's my take on the issue (Site5 is currently a FreeVSD early adopter, so I have a little bit of knowledge regarding the system).

FreeVSD creates what are commonly refered to as "viarual servers" while Cpanel allows you to do "virtual hosting".

With virtual hosting, you have a single instance of the OS and all of the server daemons. Adding a new account requires creating entries in the configuration files for the daemons (like Apache, ProFTPD, Exim, etc). In a virtual hosting environment, this can only be done by root (the system administrator).

With virtual servers, each account is given it's own instance of the OS (or it may be emulated inthis case, FreeVSD is a tad different from other virtual server systems). Essentially this means that the account owner gets root or psuedo-root access to the server. They can install their own programs, configure daemons themselves, and have rull reign of their part of the server - whereas with a virtual hosting account, you can only access files that are owned by your user. This allows virtual server owners to have the benefits of a dedicated server without having to pay the large cost of leasing a server.

This is just a general overview however - every provider is going to define these terms a little differently.

Hope that helps!

Best Regards,
Matt Lightner
mlightner@site5.com

Originally posted by Site5-Matt
Site5 is currently a FreeVSD early adopter, so I have a little bit of knowledge regarding the system).

Are you satisfied with features and stability?

Originally posted by Walter


Are you satisfied with features and stability?
Let me clarify... we haven't actually used the system yet, mainly researched it. We will be setting up a test server within the next few weeks to evaluate it as a possible addition to our service offering. ;)

Best Regards,
Matt Lightner
mlightner@site5.com

Originally posted by Walter


Are you satisfied with features and stability?

Thought I'd drop a couple of comments in here if I may ;)

Features wise, it should be compatible with pretty much any Linux compatible software, especially if you have the source code avfailable. Some software may require a little more effort to integrate, but it's often just a case of permissions/ownerships. The system hinges around 'skels' which provide a template for virtual servers. All you do is install the apps you require into a skel and then create virtual servers against it. We also have some pre-built skels available.

We are trying to make it all as simple as possible, but moderate-advanced Linux skills are still required.

Stability-wise, I know of servers with 200+ days of uptime, but I attribute this to the sysadmins running the servers as much as to the software. It is considered stable on RH6.x, and more or less stable on 7.x. The next release will be fully stable and supported on 7.x.

Oh, and it's GPL...

Drop by the site for more info... Or ask me for a demo ;)

Originally posted by ComplexMind

Stability-wise, I know of servers with 200+ days of uptime, but I attribute this to the sysadmins running the servers as much as to the software. It is considered stable on RH6.x, and more or less stable on 7.x. The next release will be fully stable and supported on 7.x.


Don't tell me FreeVSD isn't stable on FreeBSD? (Say that 10 times fast).

Excellent explanations thanks!

As far as security-wise, how would it compare to say, if you just offered virtual hosting?

Also, Complexmind you said advanced linux skills are required. Exactly what kind of things does one need to know to operate it?

Finally, when will a stable final version be released? I'm very interested.

Originally posted by Planet Z


Don't tell me FreeVSD isn't stable on FreeBSD? (Say that 10 times fast).

Tried it - I've got a headache now - thanks :D

Nope, FreeBSD isn't a supported platform _yet_. If I could quote you from the official statement on our mailing lists:

-------------------------
Some initial work was carried out some time ago on porting freeVSD onto FreeBSD, however, due to a lack of resources the decision was taken to concentrate our development efforts on Red Hat Linux. Porting to FreeBSD is anticipated to be more effort than porting to some of the other Linux flavours and so I am afraid will be delayed until we have completed those.

In porting to FreeBSD we would intend to improve the freeVSD model beyond what can presently be achieved under Linux by utilising some of FreeBSD's excellent security features, such as jail, and the work being driven by the TrustedBSD project. We are keen to hear from any *BSD developers interested in contributing to an initial chroot based port of freeVSD to any of the BSD platforms."
---------------------------

Basically, we are aware of the urgency of a *BSD port but we want to do it in the best way possible ;)

Originally posted by Skeptical
Excellent explanations thanks!

As far as security-wise, how would it compare to say, if you just offered virtual hosting?

Also, Complexmind you said advanced linux skills are required. Exactly what kind of things does one need to know to operate it?

Finally, when will a stable final version be released? I'm very interested.

I'm going to pretty much duck out of the first question, simply because it's such a huge one that it probably deserves a new thread in itself. Basically freeVSD it is not designed to make your webserver any more secure, but to allow you to provide a dedicated webserver to each of your [reselller/multi-domain] customers, along with any other apps you want to provide (such as SSH, MySQL etc) in a chrooted environment. It's the difference between (for example) standard domain hosting and a Virtual Private Server...

There are lots of benefits to VPSs, but the main advantage of freeVSD is that it does not emulate hardware like VMWare or other similar Virtual Machine based VPS solutions. This means much lower CPU/RAM overhead allowing higher customer:server density ;)

With regard to skills required, basically any experienced Linux SysAdmin with some spare time to learn how freeVSD works should have no problem running freeVSD servers. We're not talking about UNIX Guru territory here but I wouldn't suggest it for Linux newbies ;o)

Finally, the current version (freevsd-1.4.8) is considered stable on Redhat 6.x. With regard to Redhat 7.x support, this will be official with the 1.5 release which takes advantage of certain new features such as iptables and Xinetd (I stand corrected from my previous statement of RH7 support in 1.4.9).

The 1.4.9 release will contain lots of feature enhancements in preparation for the 1.5 release.

Hey Matt,

I know you wrote this replies awhile back .. hehe.. but how's the test with freevsd going ? I'm really interested in your result and opinion .. specially on maintenance and management of the software itself.


Let me know ... :D

Originally posted by drhonk
Hey Matt,

I know you wrote this replies awhile back .. hehe.. but how's the test with freevsd going ? I'm really interested in your result and opinion .. specially on maintenance and management of the software itself.


Let me know ... :D
I certainly will. We should be doing some extensive testing within the next week or so. I will post our thoughts/opinions once we have some. (opinions that is, not thoughts :D )

Best Regards,
Matt Lightner
mlightner@site5.com