Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : VPS Hosting : Learning curve

[nucleotide]

Hi

For someone who has no experience of using VPS or dedicated, how steep is the learning curve and how similar/ different is dealing with a VPS to a dedicated.

Thanks

[minsight]

VPS is almost identical to a dedicated. There are a very few differences, mostly to do with things that are virtualized, for example the hardware clock and the ethernet ports.

The learning curve to VPS (and dedicated), for those who have no experience, is quite steep. If you intend to learn how to use them, I'd suggest getting a low-end VPS to train on for a while. Many are set up so that if you wreck your setup, you can re-load a saved image and continue.

[Yaroslav]

There really is no big deal of a difference between VPS and Dedi, except understanding the concept of sharing resources. When you're on VPS, you can do nearly anything that is possible on a standalone server.

VPS is a good (and inexpensive) way to learn Linux administration. Just take a VPS with some control panel - or else, if you have no experience with Unix-systems, you'll end up with an unusable system.

[nucleotide]

Thanks to you both.

I think I will get a 'low-end VPS to train on for a while'.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a cheap yet reliable provider to suit this purpose, preferably with whm/cpanel.

[ICNick]

you should go with powervps, they provide os reinstall FREE.

[MacMadame]

When I switched from a shared hosting account to a VSP, I didn't find it to be that bad a switch. It took me a while to figure out how to set up the accounts but all I did was set them up and go. From that point on, I treated each account as if it was a shared hosting account. I had an account without root access turned on so there were hardly any options in my control panel and that helped.

I recently upgraded and now I am being more sophisticated about it -- doing optimizations and setting up my own DNS server. But you can gradually learn those things as you go and not jump into the deep end all at once.

[dale]

Originally posted by nucleotide
Does anyone have any suggestions for a cheap yet reliable provider to suit this purpose, preferably with whm/cpanel.

ServInt is my first VPS, and I'm very happy. There are a few other providers here that have good reputation. Make sure you do your research.

[David]

nucleotide,

Just be sure that anyone you're considering has OS reimaging free - they may require you to install any panels on your own (cpanel/plesk, etc.) afterwards however.

Research any considerations thoroughly and you can't go wrong!

[nucleotide]

Thanks all for the advice and suggestions!

[triscallion]

I almost want to keep these guys all to myself they're so so so good at teaching a total VPS newbie - but resellerpeak.com (http://www.resellerpeak.com/vpsorder.html) has the best support I've ever had anywhere with any company period. My previous host sold out to them (I have been a reseller for 2 years) and I made the decision to upgrade. I kept the reseller package that I brought with me (too darned good to give up - I probably wouldnt ever get it or anything similar again) and got a VPS as well so that I can learn and offer reseller plans. Matt (and the others but mostly Matt) walked me through everything, answer (present tense - as in, still ongoing) my stupid questions, and even did the configurations for me. They're not the cheapest I've seen out there but for all the features and the amazing support they're the best value and the extra few bucks are well spent. I'm sortof hoping they decide to outsource their support one of these days so I can offer 24/7 support and get some sleep at the same time (Hint Hint if they ever read this)