Control Panels for VPS Hosting

If you have a VPS, whether it be Linux or Windows based, you are probably using some sort of control panel with it so that you are able to manage the websites that you have hosted on it, or in the case that you are using it for a standalone service you might have some sort of service management control panel on it in order to monitor and configure the service concerned. If you are using your VPS server to host multiple domains or web hosting or design clients, then you might have a control panel installed that allows you to administrate almost every aspect of your VPS, meaning that you only need one control panel in this situation rather than multiple control panels which you might be using in other situations. Control panels are powerful programs that allow you to carry out the relevant actions on your server, for example if you are using a web hosting control panel such as cPanel then you will be able to add, edit and delete clients that you have hosted on your web hosting VPS; you will also be able to manage the more technical aspects of the server if necessary, such as the Apache configuration although extra features such as these are dependent on your choice of control panel.

Other control panels such as the popular Webmin control panel are designed solely for server administration, and not for web hosting administration; this is because they have features built into them that allow you to manage the more technical parts of the server such as the configuration of programs and services that you might have installed on your VPS. Control panels are programs that you only really need if you are unsure on how to use your VPS either through SSH in the case of Linux or via Remote Desktop if your VPS is Windows based; this is because most tasks that can be carried out through control panels are relatively easy to replicate over SSH or via Remote Desktop, meaning that if you don’t have the knowledge to use either currently then you can easily use a control panel until you have the necessary knowledge to administrate your VPS either over SSH or Remote Desktop.

In some cases, when you purchase VPS hosting you will get a control panel free with your VPS and will be unable to uninstall it, ultimately meaning that you have a control panel stuck to your VPS; in some cases, you are able to choose the control panel of your choice and sometimes don’t even have to have a control panel for your VPS, this means that you should always try and purchase a VPS with which you are able to have a choice over your control panel and whether you want one or not, since at the end of the day you want your VPS to be the way you want it to be and not how someone else wants it. If choosing a hosting control panel, then you will most likely want one that allows you to customize the theme which is applied to the control panel which you customers will access; this is because you will want to extend your corporate identity so that any part of the control panel that your customers visit or use will still have your branding on, thus keeping up a professional and stable corporate identity - if you are unable to change the theme then the default one will be used which in most cases is advertising the company that have provided the control panel, and you don’t want another company to be making money off your customers.

In the case that you are unable to use the control panel that you have install on your VPS server, you can search the net and this blog for article and tutorials related to the control panel of your choice, thus allowing you to learn how to use it; it is because of this reason that it is suggested you know how to use the control panel that you have chosen before you purchase a VPS with it installed otherwise you might not be able to change your choice - there are many tutorials and articles available for the most popular control panels such as Plesk and cPanel, meaning that if you choose either of these two then you are guaranteed to be able to find a large amount of resources in order for you to learn how to use it.

Web Hosting Control Panels

If you are going to be using your VPS to host web hosting or design clients, then you will want to consider installing a control panel on your VPS so that your clients can easily manage their domains and web space without having to hassle you. If your clients are able to manage any aspect of their website and domain themselves, then they are able to achieve the most simplest of tasks themselves which can help speed you up if they don’t have to hassle you and can also speed them up since they are able to ensure that actions are carried out and applied as quick as possible. There are many different web hosting control panels for you to choose from, although your choice is mainly dependent on the resources of your VPS such as the amount of guaranteed RAM that you have available; for example, the more popular and feature packed control panels use up more VPS resources than the lower range control panels, also some control panels are designed for use with the Linux operating system whilst others are designed for the Windows website hosting environment.

You should consider whether or not the control panel that you have chosen to use is able to hard large amounts of websites, since you don’t want to have a control panel that ends up buckling under large demand; this factor is especially important for large web hosting companies, since control panels can become uneconomical if they start causing downtime or start to become unavailable because they can’t cope. You will want to be using a feature rich web hosting control panel, since you want to ensure that your clients are able to manage as many different aspects of their domain and website as possible, and if the feature isn’t there then they won’t be able to manage it; if you choose a web hosting control panel that doesn’t contain many features, then you are basically limiting yourself to what services and features you are able to provide your clients with, which is not something you want - this is the main reason why you should choose a more expensive and feature filled control panel. cPanel is a web host control panel currently designed for use with the Linux operating system only, thus meaning that you are limited to using it for Linux based web hosting at this current time; however, a Windows version of the popular control panel is currently in production.

A new version of cPanel has been designed specifically for use on VPS servers, meaning that you can easily provide your Linux web hosting and design clients with stable Linux based web hosting at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server with a standard cPanel installation; the VPS version of cPanel has been designed to use less resources, meaning that your VPS will most likely run faster with this version of cPanel, and will in the long term please your clients if they are able to access their websites more quickly and efficiently. If you want to use a control panel that is available for both Windows and Linux, then you can always try the Plesk control panel; Parallels has created Plesk for both Windows and Linux meaning that you can easily offer the two different types of web hosting without causing any confusion that might occur if you are providing both types of web hosting but at the same time are using different control panels for clients. There are many different web hosting control panels that you should consider for your requirements, although most come at a premium meaning that you should make sure that the control which you have chosen is exactly what you want before you decide to depart with any money. Popular web hosting control panels that you should check out include:

• Parallels Plesk - http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/ - this control panel is available for both Windows and Linux, meaning that you are able to provide your clients with both Windows and Linux based website hosting but still have the ability to use the same control panel
• cPanel - http://www.cpanel.net/ - cPanel is said to be the best Linux web hosting control panel, since it uses shells and Perl scripts to run meaning that it has a fast loading interface
• Helm - http://www.webhostautomation.com/ - Helm is a Windows based control panel which contains many features that will allow your clients to manage their Windows based website hosting
• LXAdmin - http://lxlabs.com/software/lxadmin-sse/ - LXAdmin is another light weight control panel for Linux based web hosting, it has been specially designed for use in VPS based environments meaning that it has a fast loading interface when compared to other Linux based web hosting control panels.

Standard Server Control Panels

If you are not using your VPS to host website hosting or design clients, then you will probably have no need for a web hosting control panel; in this case you might want to consider using a standard server control panel so that you are still able to manage many aspects and service of your VPS, much in the way that you are able to with a web hosting control panel. Unlike web hosting control panels where you have to use certain pieces of software like a certain mail server so that the control panel is able to function, most standard server control panels give you the ability to use any program that you want for any purpose; this means that you are able to install programs as you like and configure your VPS server the way that you want it to be with the use of a standard server control panel.

Most standard server control panels allow you to add on separate modules to them, so that you can easily expand the uses of them and to allow you to administrate different parts of your VPS and other services, if the ability to isn’t one that is included as standard with the control panel. The most important point about a standard server control panel which you should consider is the features that it has and what services/programs you are able to control with the use of it; this is because a standard server control is useless to you if you are unable to modify and configure the services that you have installed and running on your VPS, it also means that if you go for a control panel which isn’t feature rich, you run the risk of ending up with something which won’t let you manage the more complicated aspects of your VPS, which might be one thing that you were aiming to achieve.

One of the most popular standard server control panels is Webmin; Webmin is a web based control panel meaning that you are able to control many different aspects of your VPS server over the internet from any internet connected location in the world. Another factor that makes Webmin so popular is the fact that it can be easily expanded through the use of extra modules; the extra modules that you can add to Webmin differ meaning that you can easily make this standard control panel the one that you want it to be, for example you might want to administrate a service or program through Webmin which doesn’t have a Webmin module - in this case you could check the module database to see if the module you want exists, and if it doesn’t then you can create your own module for the program or service concerned. Most standard server control panels allow you to manage your VPS or dedicated server effectively, since you are able to configure services as well as start, stop and restart them meaning that you will have no need for SSH or Remote Desktop in the case that you don’t have the necessary knowledge to administrate a VPS server through either method; you can also configure the control panel to cluster certain services of your VPS or dedicated server with those of other servers, meaning that you are able to ensure maximum uptime when compared to a single server solution. Standard server control panels that should fit your needs and which you should take a look at include:

• Webmin - http://webmin.com - Webmin is a server control panel which you can easily expand with the use of modules
• EasyAdmin - http://www.easyadminservers.com/ - EasyAdmin is a program designed for easy server administration.

Dedicated hosting refers to Web hosting in which the environment with which you are provided is a dedicated one, meaning that you are not sharing it with anyone else. Dedicated servers normally come under this category, since you are leasing a physical server from a web host and the resources contained within that one server are not shared between multiple users; however, a new technology known as VPS (virtual private servers) could also be delegated to this category since the environment which they provide is dedicated, but at the same time is still virtual since the VPS is sharing a physical node with other VPS - the only resource which is only being constantly shared is the CPU. Dedicated hosting solutions are normally taken up by companies or individuals who need their hosting environment to be customized, for example with the use of certain programs which might not be available on shared hosting packages, but in this case since you have your own dedicated environment you are able to install what you want. Dedicated server hosting solutions are only normally chosen in a situation where a return can be made easily, since both VPS servers and dedicated servers are quite costly.

Supported Operating Systems

With Dedicated server hosting solutions, you are normally able to choose any operating system to be installed on your server since your choice will not have any effect on other users or customers; one thing to note is that if you go with a VPS your operating system choices are generally restricted to those which are support by both the VPS partitioning software and the physical hosting node. Cost, support and skills are also factors which can effect the choice of operating system; for example, you could be restricted from going with Windows Server 2003 because it is too costly for you, and you don’t have the necessary skills to administer a Windows server - your web host might also not support Windows Server 2003. If you find either of those three a limitation, then you could always opt for an open source Linux distribution; this is because open source means free, and because of this you are normally able to find a mass of online forums and e-books which give you support on how to configure certain OS settings. The application or content that you are wanting to host might also put a limitation on your choice of operating system; for example, you might have an ASP.NET web application which would mean that you are stuck with choosing Windows Server 2003 as your server operating system. Finally, the security of the operating system should always be a key factor affecting your final choice of operating system; this is because you do not want your system to end up being hacked, most Linux distributions can’t be affected by viruses but by things called rootkits which can lead to an OS reload if a server becomes infected with one; there are many viruses for the Windows operating system, but with the correct precautions and protection you should not face any problems.

Bandwidth and Connectivity

Bandwidth is assigned to each and every server by the upstream provider, and is normally given in an amount; connectivity refers to the different peers with which you are connected to, the more peers you are connected to, the more likely it is that your website will have a fast connection around the entire world. Most peers connect to the main bandwidth exchanges in the world, an example of which being LINX - the UK’s main bandwidth exchange which is based in London. Bandwidth is normally assigned per GB (gigabyte), however until quite recently it was still being assigned as MB (megabytes) - the change being because of the increasing amount of internet traffic; some providers hand out unmetered data pipes which basically means that the servers on the end of that data pipe have an infinite amount of bandwidth (although this is technically not possible). Service Level Agreements, which are better known as SLAs, are normally provided for network uptime and come along with dedicated servers; an example of the content contained within an SLA would include something along the lines of customer credit for the network being down for longer than ‘x’ amount of time. Some dedicated hosting providers claim to be able to provide 100% uptime on their networks, this is normally achieved by the use of multiple connections to a mix of bandwidth and connection providers.

Management

Most Dedicated server hosting providers are able to provide management for dedicated and VPS servers to a certain extend, normally for node, network and included software problems. Since the environment given is a dedicated one, the customer is expected to have a certain amount of knowledge in order to be able to keep the server in working order and to be able to carry out general tasks such as maintenance. Support for the node would cover issues such as problems with the physical node and any hardware to which it is connected as well as software and hardware upgrades and maintenance; network support would cover general issues with the network as well as the maintenance of routers and switches; included software support would cover the base operating system as well as any software which you chose to be installed at the time of purchase, for example a control panel. Simple tasks such as server reboots, and system reload in the case of VPS servers, will normally be carried out for free by the host at no extra cost.

Security

Most dedicated servers and VPS servers are normally located behind both a software and hardware firewall. Most also contain virus scanners and rootkit hunters so that any malicious programs that do find their way onto client servers are found and removed as soon as possible. In the case of VPS servers, the nodes normally have some sort of virus scanner which means any VPS which is found to have a virus will be shut down or sorted in the correct manner Some types of software are banned from being used on the networks of some hosts for the reason being that they can compromise both the security of the client’s server and the hosts network.

Software

With dedicated hosting, you are normally able to install your own software on your server since it is a dedicated environment and your actions will most likely not effect anyone else. Some hosts allow you to purchase licenses for certain pieces of software at the same time when you purchase the server - this can prove to be an advantage for the customer since the host might be selling licenses cheaper, which is normally the case if they are a license reseller. Over the past few years, some software vendors have seen the advantages which the dedicated hosting market could bring them, meaning that many have decided to try and have their software bundled with dedicated server packages as well as setting up special pricing structures for both VPS and dedicated server solutions. Some hosts are able to offer Microsoft software through the giant’s ‘SPLA’ (service provider license agreement) which allows providers to offer Microsoft software on a monthly basis, which can cut the cost down for customers. Most hosts also offer software such as control panels from vendors including SWSoft and cPanel to allow you to manage your server effectively. One thing to note is that software such as IRC servers are not allowed on many host’s networks for the simple reason that they can easily trigger ddos attacks against the host which could lower the network speeds for all customers.

One of the most important factors that you should be constantly monitoring with your VPS or dedicated server, especially if you host clients on it, is the uptime of it; this means that you should always be using some type of monitoring service to ensure that your VPS or dedicated server is online, and if it isn’t you need to ensure that you are notified of the down time ASAP so that you are able to sort the problem out yourself, or notify the support team of your web host to ensure that the down time caused is minimal and that your server will come back online ASAP.

If you are a web host which is providing a responsible and sensible service, then in your terms and conditions you will probably have conditions set out regarding up uptime, which in most cases states things such as if a customer’s service is down for over a certain amount of time, or if the monthly uptime record doesn’t meet the one which is guaranteed then customers are able to request a refund; this in itself should provide you with the motivation to fix a server problem if you have set such rules out in your terms and conditions, since most companies wouldn’t want a servers worth of customers requesting refunds since they don’t think they have been provided with the amount of uptime which has been guaranteed. Most web hosts use their own internal monitoring system for their servers, since in most cases it will alert them quicker to a problem than an external solution would since an internal system is most likely monitored more closely, but with an external solution in place as backup in case the internal one fails. One thing to consider is that most external monitoring services monitor your website or server from multiple geographically different locations which means that they are able to provide a more reliable source of information when it comes to checking to see whether your VPS or dedicated server is online or not when compared to a monitoring system which is monitoring your VPS or dedicated server from one location or from one country or data centre, which means that the produced results might not always be accurate and reliable.

When considering uptime solutions for your VPS or dedicated server, you should always take into consideration the effect that a program might have on the performance of your VPS or dedicated server; for example if you use an internal solution then you might need to install an ‘agent’ program which posts data about your server back to the master monitoring node, since information such as the speed that your server’s CPU is running at and the amount of memory that your server has left are factors that can only be gained by internal access to your server unlike other factors such as whether certain services are running or not that can be found out easily via pinging the port which the service runs on. You want to try and maximize the uptime of your VPS or dedicated server, which means that you should optimize the programs that you have installed on it, so that they don’t use up too many resources since the most common reason for a server crashing is that there aren’t enough resources available to keep the operating system going, which means that it just crashes because it is unable to run for any longer on the scarce resources that are available for it.

To maximize the uptime of your VPS or dedicated server, in the case that you are running the Microsoft Windows Server operating system, you should ensure that you have Microsoft Update scheduled to run at a certain time, since in most cases it will require you to restart your machine once that you have installed the updates; if you schedule the updates to take place at a certain time of day when the server isn’t going to be accessed much, as such as midnight then you should be able to minimize the disruption that is caused to you and your customers. If you are using a VPS or dedicated server that you have purchased from a web hosting company, then you should ask them about the monitoring services that they are able to provide you with; if you have co-located your own dedicated server then you can always ask the data centre in which your server is located about the monitoring services that they provide - although both solutions would be internal, the price that you would be charged might be less than that for an external service.

Uptime

As previously mentioned, you should try and maximize the uptime of your VPS or dedicated server to ensure that if you are hosting clients on the machine concerned, that they are happy with the level of service and uptime that you have provided them with; if you fail to provide them with a certain amount of uptime then in most cases they will request a refund - this will most likely happened if you have set out a sensible terms and conditions policy which states that if services that you provide fail to stay up for a certain percentage of a period of time, in most cases a month, customers can request for their money back.

If you are using your VPS or dedicated server to host one primary website, then you might find that your website is losing visitors since your server is unable to stay up for a respectable amount of time; this means that if you run a website which you use to make money, such as online shop or an advert supported website then you might also find that your income from your website is decreasing since the amount of visitors that you are receiving is decreasing as well. One way in which you can easily increase and uphold the uptime of your VPS or dedicated server is to optimize both the operating system and the programs that you run on your VPS; by doing this you are ensuring that there are more resources available for use by other programs that are on your VPS or dedicated server, since you have reduced the amount of resources that were being used by other programs that you have installed and running on your VPS or dedicated server hosting - an article which can help you with optimizing your VPS or dedicated server hosting for lower resource consumption can be found here.

If you are running a VPS or dedicated server that has low specifications, but is running cPanel then there is a new version of cPanel which you can use within your dedicated environment that will ensure that the amount of resources that cPanel uses is much less than what the standard version uses, which means that you are able to host more websites and domains on your VPS or dedicated server allowing you to use it as much as possible; a useful article discussing this new optimized version of cPanel and the changes that have been made in it can be found here.

If you are a web host that displays its uptime statistics on a part your website, then you should always try to maximize the uptime of your servers since if customers see a high percentage of uptime, then they are more likely to purchase a hosting package from you; this rule is more likely to apply to businesses and customers who require a high percentage of uptime to ensure that they are able to sell their products through their website still, in the case that they are running an online shop through their website. If you do need to carry out emergency maintenance such as the installation of new updates and hardware that will require for a server to be switched off for a certain amount of time or for one to be restarted then you should try and schedule these tasks to be carried out late in the evening or in the middle of the night since less disruption to customers will be caused at this time. If you do schedule for maintenance tasks to be carried out during the day then you could annoy a large amount of your customers or website visitors, and might even lead to some leaving your company or going elsewhere for the information that they might need; this is because most visitors come to websites during the day which means that daytime maintenance would cause the most amount of disruption to people which is the mean reason as to why it should be avoided.

Monitoring Systems

One of the most important tools which you should use when trying to maximize the uptime of your VPS or dedicated server are monitoring systems, since they are able to alert quickly if your VPS or dedicated server goes down, or if in the case of an internal monitoring system, whether there is an internal problem with the server such as a low amount of memory available for use by the operating system that you are running as well as the programs that you have installed on your server; this means that you are able to be notified of any problem as soon as possible, allowing you to alert your web host’s support team of the problem so that they can fix it for you, or so that you can then fix the problem yourself. If you are to use an internal monitoring system for the monitoring of your VPS or dedicated server, then you are able to gain the ability of being able to monitor internal resources of your server such as the amount of CPU which is available for use by the operating system and programs that you have installed on your server, as well as the amount of memory that is available for use by the programs that you have installed on your server; however, one thing that you are losing with the use of internal monitoring systems is that you aren’t able to monitor your server from different parts of the world to ensure that it is reachable from almost any country that visitors to your website might originate from.

If you choose to use an external monitoring system for your server than you are able to have the status of your server monitored from multiple geographical locations, thus ensuring the most accurate results when producing a chart to show the uptime of your server; with the use of external monitoring systems you are unable to monitor the status of particular resources within your server, you can however monitor the status of different services that are running on different ports of your server. If you are hosting clients on your VPS or dedicated server then it is important that you use an external monitoring system that is able to provide you with accurate results and that are able to produce graphs for you; this is because you might have customers complaining about the uptime of a particular server, which means that with the use of graphs and other material you can easily prove them wrong as they can be used as evidence.

If you don’t actively monitor your VPS or dedicated server then you might find that it is going down without you knowing; this can prove to be annoying for you since if you use the server concerned as an email server, then you might find that any email which has tried to be sent to has gone astray and that if you are using it as a web server, then your website visitors won’t be returning since your website has been down for too long - if you host clients on it then you might have some of them asking to leave you since the server has been down for a period of time with no communication on your half. If you are to purchase an external monitoring solution, then you should always take into consideration the number of external locations from which it monitors your server or website, since the higher the number the more accurate the results produced are likely to be, and it also means that the monitoring vendor has plenty of failover is one of the monitoring servers that they use was to fail; with the use of geographically located monitoring systems, you are also able to ensure that your website is accessible from different countries - for example it might be accessible from one country but not from another, for a reason such as the country from which your website does work doesn’t employ a country level web block, whereas the country from which your website doesn’t work has deployed one since they don’t want citizens viewing certain material on the internet.

Conclusion

In conclusion, with the use of either internal or external monitoring systems, you are able to maximize the uptime of your VPS Hosting or dedicated server, thus ensuring that your customers, if you host them on your server, are happy with the service and level of uptime that you have been able to provide them with; you are also ensuring if you use your server for other purposes such as for receiving emails or for a website that emails are received as often as possible, and that visitors will still return to your website thus increasing your amount of revenue that you earn from adverts if applicable. You can also optimize your VPS or dedicated server as well as the programs that it runs to ensure that the amount of resources used is far lower, thus ensuring that you can install some more applications on your VPS or dedicated server or leave it as it is so that it is able to run fast; if running cPanel, then you can use the new optimized version since this will run much fast on a lower specification machine since it has been designed to take up less memory and utilize less CPU.

If you choose to use an internal monitoring system then you gain the ability to monitor internal factors of your server, such as the amount of CPU and memory that is available for use by the operating system and programs that you have installed on your VPS or dedicated server - this is very important if you are running a server which is hosting web hosting and design clients, since you don’t want their websites going down because of a lack of resources. Other factors which you might want to consider when choosing a monitoring system is the accuracy of the results that are collected and in turn produced; for example, with an external monitoring system you will want to be considering how spread the multiple geographical monitoring stations are and with the case of an internal monitoring system, you should find out whether internal server resources can be monitored or not - this will give you an advantage since you will be able to monitor all aspects of your server then, both internal and external which means that accurate results should be produced.

Optimizing Performance of your Virtual Private Server

VPS are the latest range of hosting products that have taken the market by storm, since they are a cheaper alternative to dedicated servers because of their ability to provide you with a dedicated environment such as that provided by a dedicated server but at a fraction of the price; this means that they are a fill in for the large price gap that sites between regular shared and reseller hosting packages and dedicated servers. VPS are able to run any type of software as long as its compatible with the specifications of the VPS, since you are installing the software within your own dedicated environment which means that any actions which you carry out on your VPS hostingare unable to affect the other VPS which are hosted on the same node as you; this means that you are able to use your VPS hosting service for a variety of purposes, just as long as the programs which you want to use are unable to conflict with each other since this would mean that your VPS would crash easily and neither of the conflicting programs would be unable to function correctly within your VPS Hosting.

When you are first provided with your VPS, you might find that there are already certain applications installed on it which you might want to remove since they might not serve any purpose to you because they are not the right programs for you; by removing these programs you are also ensuring that you don’t have unneeded programs on your VPS server which are taking up disk space and memory which might be better used by another program that you already have installed on your VPS or by one which you are wanting to install on your VPS so that you can use it for what you want. An important thing to consider is that with the more programs that you install on your VPS hosting, the slower that it is likely to become, meaning that you should always consider carefully the programs that you want to install on your VPS hosting since you don’t want to install programs that you don’t need since they will be taking up needed disk space and memory, as well as CPU if they are to be running as well; this means that if you do want to use your VPS for multiple purposes, then you should consider buying multiple VPS hosting plans for your needs since it means that you will be able to run all your services plus more if you have multiple VPS hosting plans that you are able to use.

You should always optimize your VPS hosting as well as the programs that you have installed on it to ensure that you are able to achieve the best possible performance from it, since if your VPS is slow and in some cases unusable then you should consider finding another web host or ask to be moved to a different node since you don’t want to be paying for a slow VPS hosting service; you will be able to notice a performance increase in both terms of the programs that you have installed on your VPS as well as in the VPS itself - you might even be able to install another couple of programs if you are able to get your VPS to function with speed with the existing programs that you have installed on your VPS hosting.

It is also important that you check the performance of your VPS at regular intervals - especially the amount of disk space and RAM which you have free, as well as the average CPU utilization if your VPS; these three factors are the main ones which should always be checked since they are the three different main resources that programs utilize when they are running - they use CPU to carry out their main operations, RAM to temporarily store program related data and disk space to place their main files to ensure that they can run without any problems. If you find that either of the main resources are being utilized too much then you should consider uninstalling the offending program or even upgrading your VPS hosting package to the next higher one that is provided by your web hosting company; although upgrading your VPS will mean more money, the benefits to you in the long term will be far better than the negatives which could affect you if you don’t upgrade, and uninstalling the offending program might prove to be inconvenient for you since it might be one of the main programs that you use on your VPS.

Apache/HTTPD

Apache is the world’s most popular web server, and has a large market share of over 50% - it is also referred to sometimes as ‘HTTPD’ since this is the name of its host process when run on a Linux distribution; Apache is known to be a large resource hogger since there are many modifications and add-ons which you can use to expand its use and capabilities, although these can in some cases add to the low performance of Apache on a VPS when someone using it has not optimized it correctly to reduce its resource usage. If you are planning to use Apache on a system in conjunction with other programs, especially other resource hoggers such as MySQL, it is important that you optimize Apache to ensure that it uses as little resources as possible since it could end up affecting the overall performance of your VPS server, and in some cases might even lead to your VPS server crashing; a crashing VPS is the last thing you ant since it will affect your overall uptime, and if you are using your VPS to host other people’s website whether they be friends or clients, they will start to get annoyed if their website is online and offline at intermittent times since it means that people accessing their websites when they are down will not be able to do so.

The first factor for Apache that you should consider when optimizing it to run better on your VPS is whether you want to load certain modules dynamically or to make them static; this factor is an important one to consider since if you dynamically load modules, then you will be able to cut down the amount of memory which is used by Apache, since modules will only be loaded when they are needed, since if you were to make modules static then they will be running all the time along with Apache meaning that the amount of memory used will be more constant but is more likely to be higher than if you were to make modules load dynamically when they were needed. If you have multiple modules attached to your Apache install, then you should consider optimizing the configuration files of these modules to ensure that they are able to run efficiently just as Apache will be able to once you have made the necessary changes to its configuration files as well as other files that it is based on to ensure that it uses less of your VPS’s resources; by modifying and optimizing the configuration files of modules that you have installed for use with Apache, you are able to ensure that the modules concerned will be using up less resources than they would have been if they were not optimized to operate in a more controlled and less resource intensive way.

You can modify modules all you want to ensure that you reduce the amount of resources which are used by them, however, you should always optimize your actual Apache install since this is where the largest amount of resources can be saved then you get around to finishing your VPS optimization work; the most basic way to improve Apache’s performance to ensure that it isn’t using so much of your system’s resources is to clean up the main configuration file by simply removing a few commented lines which can benefit you hugely since it means that several hundred unneeded directives will no longer be used whilst Apache is running which in turn allows both your VPS server and Apache to run faster - after that you can then move on to uninstalling certain elements and other parts of Apache that do not benefit you in any way since they may not be used and might be taking up needed resources.

One final method that you can use to reduce Apache’s resource usage within your VPS server is to disable certain parts of it which you might not want to use at this point in time, but might come in useful at a point in the future; if you find that there are certain components within Apache that you don’t need and feel that they might be using up a certain amount of your VPS’s resources, then you should consider removing them - it is suggested that you disable Apache logs since they are a time consuming Apache process and when they are being written, Apache tends to use up quite a bit of memory which is the reason why you should disable them unless you absolutely need them.

MySQL

MySQL is arguably the world’s most popular open source database system, for the main reason that it can be easily integrated with PHP based websites and applications to ensure maximum use of it; it is also commonly used in conjunction with the resource hogging Apache web server, which means that with MySQL and Apache running at their best on a lower specification VPS hosting plan, you will find that you will be running into problems whether it be either of them crashing or your entire VPS crashing since your resources are just being exhausted by both programs.

If you are using a website which is based on a MySQL database, then you should certainly consider optimizing MySQL since you want your web pages to load as fast as possible, and if MySQL itself isn’t functioning all that fast then you shouldn’t expect your web pages to be loading quickly either; this is because if your website is waiting for access to a MySQL database, then your website will load at the speed which is dictated by how fast MySQL is running - for example if MySQL is running and processing queries slowly then your website will load slowly since it isn’t able to gather the necessary information from the database which is trying to be accessed, and if your website fails to access the database at all then you might find that your website’s visitors are being presented with error messages from the web server that you are using.

One of the main things you can do to ensure that MySQL is able to run fast and effectively within your VPS is to ensure that MySQL has its dynamic durability settings enabled - this will mean setting a certain value for the ‘innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit‘ option which is located within the MySQL configuration file; there are 3 main values which you are able to change this option to, these are: 0 - with this value, Innodb will flush the log approximately once per second, 1 - this should be chosen if you have high durability requirements since log records will be automatically pushed to the disk on transaction commit, 2 - this will ensure that data is flushed to the operating system cache. If you have not installed MySQL yet, then there are certain options which you should consider changing once you have installed it within your VPS hosting environment. The first option which you should consider changing is ‘key_buffer size‘; this option can end up taking up as much as 30-40% of the memory which you have available on your VPS, although this is only really applicable if you have chosen to use MyISAM tables within your MySQL database server setup to serve your website. Another option which you should consider changing is ‘innodb_buffer_pool_size‘; this option is only applicable to you if your tables are using the Innodb framework since they are much more sensitive to the buffer pool size than MyISAM tables are.

Conclusion

In conclusion, with the optimization of both the Apache web server and the MySQL database server which you will most likely have installed on your VPS server, you can easily reduce the amount of resources used on your VPS meaning that your websites will be able to load fast, and that you have the space to install more programs to expand the uses of your VPS if you feel the need to; by having a faster VPS, you are also able to ensure that your VPS will be up more than it would be if more resources were being used and you weren’t able to cut down on its resource usage.

It is apparent that with optimized Apache performance that there are probably components and modules which you have attached to your Apache installation which aren’t necessarily needed and might be using up resources which you could otherwise be using for other programs which you have installed on your VPS server; this means that you should always check and optimize the different parts of your Apache installation to ensure that there aren’t any components or modules installed and running which you don’t necessarily need on your VPS server.

Another improvement which has been discussed is how your databases will be able to be accessed quicker since MySQL will be optimized to run faster but at the same time use less resources which means that both you and your server will benefit. It has also been shown that with optimized Apache and MySQL installations, you are able to cut down the amount of time that it takes for your website to load for your visitors at their computers, meaning that you might even want to consider making your web pages more graphic heavy for example if you want to take advantage of the faster loading times; however, a faster loading CMS based website will only be achieved with optimization of both applications, whereas a static website will only need an optimized Apache installation since static pages don’t need to and are unable to access any sort of database application, even if it is installed on the same machine as the static page is being hosted on.

VPS and dedicated server hosting are two types of dedicated hosting; VPS is also a partially a type of shared web hosting since the CPU on the node is shared amongst all the VPS on the server unequally in some cases. Due to the technical nature of VPS servers and dedicated servers, there are many different terms which you will come across when searching for either a VPS or dedicated server package. Before purchasing either, it is important that you know the meanings of these terms since they could end up effecting your final decision when you come to purchase either; if you don’t know the meanings of these complicated terms whilst looking for or when you have purchased either a VPS or a dedicated server, you could end up with something that you don’t want because it isn’t what you need since they might not actually fit your requirements. One thing to note is that some web hosts don’t offer a money back guarantee on dedicated servers due to the costs of setting them up; this could mean that if you have ended up with a dedicated server that doesn’t fit your requirements because you didn’t know the meanings of some technical terms originally, you will not be able to get your money back. However, the story is different with VPS since many hosts do offer a money back guarantee on VPS servers since they are a type of shared hosting as well as dedicated hosting meaning that there are no costs involved in setting them up; this means that if you do not know the meanings of some VPS and dedicated server< related technical terms to begin with, you can start with a VPS because if you find out about something that you don't understand or receive something that turns out not to fit your requirements, you are able to get your money back.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is something referred to as traffic, and is the amount of data that can be transferred between your website and the client computers which visit it. Bandwidth is normally measured in gigbytes (GB), but used to be measured in megabytes (MB) before the internet became the busy traffic exchange that it is now. In dedicated server terms, bandwidth also refers to the data transfer rate (normally both up and down) that the server will receive; in most cases dedicated servers are connected to 1GB/ps internal networks and then fed through to the internet via 100mb/ps uplinks - the same can also be applied to virtual private servers, but the NIC (network interface card) on the host node is shared between all VPS which are hosted by the machine. When looking for a VPS, you should always consider the amount of bandwidth that you will receive on the package concerned since this will effect how many visitors your website can recieve; if you are a web host or a reseller then the amount of bandwidth assigned to you could effect how many clients that you are able to host on your VPS.

Disk Space

Disk space is the amount of space that you are able to use to host your files, or clients. Disk space is a valuable resource, and since the amount of disk space the host node has is ‘limited’, you are in most cases unable to purchase extra disk space, and your only choice if you do want more disk space is to upgrade to the next VPS hosting plan that your web host offers. The amount of disk space that you have can dictate how much you are able to host; for example, if you had an account with 200MB (megabytes) of disk space then you will not be able to host many images or videos for your website, one another thing to note is that emails take up a certain amount of disk space, thus reducing the amount that you are able to use.

RAM

RAM stands for ‘Random Access Memory’ and is the amount of usable memory which is assigned to your VPS. RAM for VPS comes in two different forms: guaranteed RAM and burstable RAM. Guaranteed RAM is the amount of RAM which has been uniquely assigned to your VPS, and will always be available for your VPS to use - in other words this is the amount of RAM which you ‘own’ and cannot be touched by other VPS that are hosted on the same node as you; burstable RAM (sometimes referred to as swap RAM) is left over RAM on the physical node which can be accessed by any VPS which may have run out of guaranteed RAM and just needs a bit more so that it can get it’s activities back on track - this type of RAM is shared amongst all the VPS on the host node meaning that it might not always be available for your VPS to use. The amount of guaranteed RAM that you have assigned to your VPS is crucial for your the performance of it; this is because if you don’t have enough RAM then certain programs might not be able to run at all, and if your VPS runs out of free RAM at a certain point and there isn’t any burstable RAM available, then your VPS might just crash or be shutdown by the VPS daemon software.

Root Access / Remote Desktop Access

Root access is the name given to the ability of being able to access a Linux VPS over SSH using the root account; Remote Desktop access is its Windows counterpart. This is one important feature of VPS hosting over other types of hosting which fall below it; for example with root / administrator access to your VPS you are able to administer any part of it you want since you are able to access any part of it, the most crucial point though is that you are able to install any program you want since the actions of the program will not have any effect on the other VPS that are hosted on the same node as you. With the ability to install any program that you want, you are open to a whole load of idea on what you could use your VPS for; if your VPS is powerful enough then you might want to run several different programs or services off it to make the most of it, or even sell hosting on it so that you can make a return on your investment within a VPS.

Virtuozzo / OpenVZ

Virtuozzo is the software produced by SWSoft to enable web hosts to host VPS servers in physical nodes; the program is available for both Linux and Windows. Virtuozzo adds a virtualisation layer to the main node to ensure that the VPS which will come to be hosted on it do not interfere with each other in any way. OpenVZ is an open source alternative to Virtuozzo for Linux; it has most of the features that Virtuozzo has, but does not have the Virtuozzo Power Panel which is used by customers to manage the basic needs of their VPS. There are however other panels which can be used alongside OpenVZ to enable customers to manage the basic needs of their VPS, an example of which being HyperVM which is made by LXLabs.

Private Name Servers

Private name servers are name servers that can be created under the branding of a domain of your choice. For example, with private name servers you are able to have ‘ns1.yourdomain.com’ and ‘ns2.yourdomain.com’, both of which should point to separate IPs - most VPS come with at least two individual IP addresses anyway. If you are a web host or website designer, then using private name servers is a big ‘must’ since it can help improve your corporate identity, as well as extend it. Private name servers are only achievable on VPS hosting and dedicated servers due to the nature of IP address assigning; however, in some cases it is achievable on reseller hosting but never on standard shared website hosting.

Control Panels

Most VPS web hosts offer some sort of control panel as such with their VPS packages - some offer one for free, others you have to pay to receive a control panel. Most VPS control panels give you the ability to create multiple ‘client’ accounts and host multiple domains along with many features such as email account creation and managements, FTP account creation and management as well as file manager so that you can manage the contents of the web space of the domain concerned whilst you are on the road as well as an auto-script installer to help get your website started. A control panel is the perfect solution for you if you are new to VPS hosting and have no or little knowledge of server administration since they give you a web based graphical interface which you are able to use to administer your server and websites; if you have a good level of server administration knowledge then you might not need a control panel since you will probably have the skills to set your VPS up to the way you want it to be.

Clustered website hosting is a type of hosting which involves multiple servers for the same task, and is generally seen as a more reliable type of hosting over standard shared website hosting. With clustered web hosting, all website services are ‘load balanced’ across multiple servers to ensure that the best redundancy possible is achieved; security resources and other standard features are also spread across multiple servers. No human interaction is required for the clustered hosting system to work; this is because most clustered hosting platforms are data driven in some way or another. Most clustered hosting services suffer no downtime because if one server within the cluster fails, there is multiple servers to take over its role; if downtime is ever experienced with clustered website hosting, the reason is normally because there has been a major problem with either the power or the network at the data centre in which the clustered setup - although both instances of fault are very rare. Most clustered setups are normally continually monitored, so if a server does happen to malfunction or face an error of sorts, an on-site network team or support team from the web host will be quickly dispatched to ensure that the problem is fixed quickly and effectively; there are also normally automated systems in place to ensure that the cluster isn’t affected if it is missing a server or two, but in most cases the end-users will not see any problems. Clustered hosting is seen as a solution for businesses and large corporations who require an update percentage which is near to or equals to 100%; this is because although clustered hosting does come at a cost, it is one that is cheaper than a dedicated server - one other thing to note is that the reliability of dedicated servers is not as good as clustered hosting, although some individuals think the opposite.

Virtualization

Clustered hosting could also be seen as a type of virtual website hosting; this is because the actual system is in a sense ‘virtualized’ because of the number of servers that are clustered together. To ensure reliability, and to allow clustered website hosting to achieve its job, websites and services related to the hosted websites are always spread across multiple servers; the systems are ‘load balanced’ to ensure that websites are always available since load balancing makes the use of the server which is being used at the given time of the request for any service - it goes one step further from redundancy since normal redundancy just makes the use of several servers, but does not spread the information out to ensure the maximum reliability is achieved. An example of load balancing would be an end user requesting a page on a website which is hosted on a clustered hosting service; all the web servers within the cluster are too busy serving other websites, so the user is served the web page from a server which is currently free and not serving too many visitors, it also has a low CPU usage at this point because it is not being utilized much. Some web hosts allow you to purchase power for your website; what is meant by power is ‘CPU’ or ‘RAM’, this is because a clustered server pool is a more or less infinite source of resources, and is perfect if you are unable to afford a dedicated server which can match the specifications and reliability of clustered website hosting.

Security

With standard shared website hosting, the security which is provided on both the hosting node and the network is pretty poor when compared to that of a standard clustered website hosting network. In most cases, a standard shared hosting network incorporates a basic hardware firewall as the main line of security to keep a number of server secure; after that layer of security it is then down to security software installed on the servers to fight back any attack or to stop any intruder from accessing the server and compromising any information that it hosts. With a clustered hosting network, the security is normally much more stronger as a series of hardware firewalls as well as redundant proxy, routing and switching technology to ensure that the network is both fast and secure; intelligent routing can help load balance information across multiple servers, along with the use of VPNs and proxies the intelligent routing is also able to bind more than one server to just one IP address to ensure that if one server on one IP does go down, there is a number of other servers to take over its role. This type of network architecture can benefit both the servers and their users / websites that they host during a DDos attack; this is because the attack is being dispersed amongst a large pool of servers in which it is having no effect, when the attack is aimed at one piece of equipment, that piece autmatically stops serving traffic because it is unable to take the strain.

High Availability Cluster

A high availability cluster is one that makes use of several physical hosting nodes with a goal of achieving a reliable network for a certain service which it has been built to host. High availability clusters are normally deployed for things such as file sharing, business class enterprises, customer services (specifically e-commerce websites) and mission-critical databases; all these types of business related IT activities are of the utmost importance for some companies and it is important that the information for them can be accessed when needed, this is the reason for deploying a high availability cluster to host them - albeit at a high cost. The automation processes involved are fairly complicated; nodes have the ability to start services on each other if the service concerned has gone down on another node - they can also carry out the appropriate processes automatically in order to start a service if needed, such as the importing and mounting of file systems. However ‘good’ this high availability may seem, the automation processes involved in it can easily cause problems; for example if the private ‘heart beat’ connection between the nodes goes down, then each node could think that every other node is down when in fact they aren’t and lead to an instance of a service being started although that service is the responsibility of another node - this could lead to data corruption, or even worse: data loss. Implementations of high availability clusters are sometimes put in to increase the reliability of a regular cluster; via the use of things such as storage area networks (SANs) and the erradication of single points of failure; multiple network connections are also used to ensure that there is always at least one connection route available, even if one does fail. Most nodes take advantage of a number of technologies to ensure that they can provide the utmost best reliability. Hard disk wise, they take advantage of disk mirroring meaning that if one internal disk does fail, another internal disk which is a mirror of the main one can take over to ensure that the server carries on running - the technical term for this is RAID (’Redudant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks’). Redundant network connections are also utilized to ensure that if one switch or network interface card fails, there will be another one network switch or network interface card available to ensure that the node stays connected to both the network and the internet. Most of the storage on a clustered network is taken care of by networked storage devices; multiple connections to the storage area network are also used to ensure that files can always be accessed. Multiple power connections are also available for servers via the use of UPS and diesel generators which can be used in the event of a power outage of sorts. The use of multiple connections and other devices ensures that even in the event of connections going because of a fault, the cluster will still be able to operate.