Hi - im commenting on the offer seen at:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31146

Could you please tell me:-

* Are virtual deds any good?
* Will I notice any difference with a virtual ded and a ded?

Thanks.

freevsd (freevsd.org) has had a wonderful response till now. But I haven't actually seen any one actually using it as a production server as yet. I tried it locally and it was quite cool... :)
Anyway, I'd say you must see the server specs, the connectivity and and reliability before you buy. The software may be good but you have to confirm on the NOC first..

Have a great day :)

regards
amar

I think "Virtual Dedicated" in the case if FreeVSD is quite misleading. And you do not get true root with FreeVSD.

To be a true "Virtual Dedicated" you would need to have true isolation from other "VDs' on the same server for the following:

CPU
MEMORY
DISK
NETWORK
PROCESS


Unless they can give you a Gaurantee that one VDS will not hurt another if attacked/hacked/abused then it is not a "Virtual Dedicated"

If you are looking for QOS/SLA Gaurantees you need to go with "Private Servers" - Ensim is the only software company that can provide these features.

I wrote an article on this which can explain more.

http://www.tophosts.com/articles/1496.htm

Matthew,

I am interested in how Ensim has implemented their Virtual Private Servers. Is it something like VMWare, or is it somewhere between the jailed type systems (FreeVSD) and VMWare? Beyond this, how many VPS's can run on a typicle server (Say, Dual 866Mhz P3 with 1 Gig RAM)?

Thanks,

Scott

I have found that the best VDS solution for now is http://www.diginode.net

You can see their offers at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29742

I've been running on CagedTornado's Virtual Servers (FreeVSD) for two months or so now, and I really love them.

No, you don't have root - you have an "admin" account that gives you near-root control.

No, there is no CPU or I/O throttling. You are still at the mercy of the other users of the box for available bandwidth. You are counting on the hosting company to monitor and mange this for the box.

However, you have complete control of the application environment within your virtual server space, you are isolated from the other file systems on the box so the problem with shared server script and file security is eliminated.

I've had nothing but great experiences with my account at CagedTornado so far, and highly recommend it if you are not ready, willing or able to run your own dedicated server immediately.

I see this as a very cost competitive way to get near dedicated server control in a smaller bandwidth and disk space environment.

-t

Originally posted by thewitt
No, you don't have root - you have an "admin" account that gives you near-root control.
I have a real "root" account at diginode.net not an "admin".

Originally posted by yakov

I have a real "root" account at diginode.net not an "admin".
What technology is Diginode using to give you full root? Is it a chrooted jail?

-t

They are not answering about their technology...

I've tryed a VSD and like it a lot. It's not exactly at the level of true Virtual dedicated servers, but it comes close. Cpan can get relitively annoying with FreeVSD, but that's the only problem I have had. User management is very nice, though.

A VSD virtual server is good for somebody who wants to have their hosting managed and doesn't want to pay the fee for a private server or a true virtaul server.

Check out http://www.sw-soft.com

I have been really impressed by the techology. You basically have full root access to virtual server on a box with several other virtual servers.

You are able to provision how much hard disk and memory any customer can have. It's really clean.

The only issue I've seen is that you can not specify how much processor everyone gets. It's the item that an HSP will oversubscribe. This is the biggest downside of a virtual server. While there are mechanisms that prevent total take over of a CPU it can effect your performance. You can specify the amount of CPU. The problem arises if you have a 1GHz processor and 10 customers. They can all share or you can hardcode them all at 100MHz.

Who is going to buy a server with 100MHz processor and 256MB of ram with a 5GB HD? This is the magic question

The sw-soft software is a knock off of the Ensim Private Server.

BTW Ensim Private Servers are THE ONLY ones that DOES HAVE the CPU/MEMORY/NETWORK/PROCESS/DISK isolation and throttling.

Originally posted by DizixCom
I am interested in how Ensim has implemented their Virtual Private Servers. Is it something like VMWare, or is it somewhere between the jailed type systems (FreeVSD) and VMWare? Beyond this, how many VPS's can run on a typicle server (Say, Dual 866Mhz P3 with 1 Gig RAM)?



An Ensim Private Server is a true virtual server running in side a physical server. In the configuration you state I would go to 2GB RAM and then you could easily run 20 Private Servers with 256MB Virtual Memory and 5% Minimum CPU Utilization. You would need enough disk space to cover those servers.

Originally posted by thewitt

What technology is Diginode using to give you full root? Is it a chrooted jail?

-t

Not sure, but I think it's a FreeBSD-based chrooted jail.

Dan

The sw-soft looks interesting. I was looking at the ServerXchange platform myself as I found Hsphere and others to be less then desireable but I will have to look into this new one further.

As far as the comment of who would buy a 100mhz machine, thats my only concern with completely locking in the % of processor each client can use.

Hi Matthew

I am getting a Dedicated server form Rackshack running Ensim. I want to know how i can use this server so is can have 2 or 3 VPS running on it.

Any help would be nice.

Thanks

Hello,

RackShack provides WEBppliance LS which is the dedicated version of WEBppliance. To have multiple VPSs you need to go to a Ensim Host that has ServerXchange.

Matthew

Do you know off the top of you head ,, the cost involved

Also will Server Exchange allow me to manage multiple servers.

I case i decided to get more server.

How will that work?

Hello,

Well, you don't need ServerXchange, you just need a host that can sell you multiple VPSs. I can't discuss my individual offerings here (it will break the rules), but most Ensim Hosts with ServerXchange can provide you with an Server Manager GUI that allows you to control/manage each VPS.

I can tell you that Multiple VPSs will be more money due to the nature of being a more of a managed solution.

Originally posted by CagedTornado

Not sure, but I think it's a FreeBSD-based chrooted jail.


I have to add that it is probably not using chroot. Chroot can be easily circumvented if the chrooted user has access to root account.

I believe they are using jail(), this is an enhanced version of chroot() available only on FreeBSD for now. Unlike chroot(), it is impossible to break (or so they said). It is also possible to associate an IP address to a jail. So user inside the jail won't be able to use IP address other than one assigned to it.

While we are on this topic, I want to add another technology to consider. User Mode Linux (http://user-mode-linux.sf.net), is Linux system inside Linux system.

From the homepage: "User-Mode Linux gives you a virtual machine that may have more hardware and software virtual resources than your actual, physical computer. Disk storage for the virtual machine is entirely contained inside a single file on your physical machine. You can assign your virtual machine only the hardware access you want it to have. With properly limited access, nothing you do on the virtual machine can change or damage your real computer, or its software."

this is in response to Matthew's posts re: Ensim.

"If you are looking for QOS/SLA Gaurantees you ... Ensim is the only software company that can provide these features."

this is not true. the sw-soft software can give you the same thing. but it's one thing to read something, another to prove it. there's a free trial of the hspcomplete (the swsoft product) at servy.net. it's time-limited (30 minutes) but it'll help you try the product. there's also an article in about the swsoft vps/vds technology at eWeek online (http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%3D1884%26a%3D20823,00.asp).

Originally posted by priyadi


I have to add that it is probably not using chroot. Chroot can be easily circumvented if the chrooted user has access to root account.

I believe they are using jail(), this is an enhanced version of chroot() available only on FreeBSD for now. Unlike chroot(), it is impossible to break (or so they said). It is also possible to associate an IP address to a jail. So user inside the jail won't be able to use IP address other than one assigned to it.

They running on linux rh7.2 with most of the common utility installed (linuxconf etc). however some dir are locked. I'm not expect in linux but this offer been very attractive if they could only get the webcp thing to work properly for me. it can be used to host many different name-based domain each with individual e-mail control and quota = bw setting. This(webcp combined) is much more than what freevsd has to offer - which just an virtual environment (good for app testing)but not any tools for reselling space on on a vsd.

Btw has anyone has a working version of webcp / VishwaKarma in a virtual environment?

Hello,

When you sign up for a plan with say 1 GB storage, will you lose some megabytes due to settings of the VDS, or is this 1 GB net? In other words, will the programs that come installed (webserver, ftp, email etc.) eat your quota? Or probably they are installed outside of your space.

Also, if you install some programs on your VDS, they get installed into your space, right?

Thanks for inputs.

rdx.

[Edited duplicate post]

When you sign up for a plan with say 1 GB storage, will you lose some megabytes due to settings of the VDS, or is this 1 GB net? In other words, will the programs that come installed (webserver, ftp, email etc.) eat your quota? Or probably they are installed outside of your space.

Yes. (although some might not - most do.) We have seen a 500 MB install after Miva and other stuff is added, which would leave only 500 MBs to work with.