Possible VPS Services

[AndrewT]

Below is a list of the VPS packages that I've been able to come up with thus far. The RAM and CPU allocations may end up being a bit higher on each plan but the bandwidth and disk space should not be a problem.

It is important to note that the lowest plan is significantly more expensive for the amount of resources that you are given. This is due to the simple fact that licensing for cPanel Virtuozzo is not cheap, especially on small accounts. That's the only way we can offer a fully featured VPS for $20/month.

All of the VPS plans below come with cPanel/WHM, all CPSkins.com themes and auto-installers, 2 dedicated IPs, and 1 hour of system administration. This 1 hour would be used in helping you to resolve problems on your VPS. General server, hardware, and network issues are not included in this one hour.

All VPSs would come pre-loaded with the above mentioned software along with a firewall specifically configured for cPanel. Your nameservers would also be setup on the 2 IPs assigned to you. These will all basically have a template of what our shared hosting servers run at the time of purchase.

Some advantages of having a VPS:
Full root access
Bandwidth & Disk Space can be oversold
You can actually resell cPanel/WHM reseller plans
PHP can be recompiled with your choice of features
You can reboot your VPS at any time

Some disadvantages:
With root access you do have the ability to cause a lot more problems
The kernel cannot be modified

3GB Disk Space
30GB Bandwidth
200Mhz Guaranteed
1000Mhz Burstable
96MB RAM Guaranteed
192MB RAM Burstable
$20/month

8GB Disk Space
175GB Bandwidth
250Mhz Guaranteed
1000Mhz Burstable
128MB RAM Guaranteed
256MB RAM Burstable
$40/month

12GB Disk Space
265GB Bandwidth
350Mhz Guaranteed
1000Mhz Burstable
192MB RAM Guaranteed
384MB RAM Burstable
$60/month

18GB Disk Space
395GB Bandwidth
500Mhz Guaranteed
1500Mhz Burstable
256MB RAM Guaranteed
448MB RAM Burstable
$90/month

24GB Disk Space
525GB Bandwidth
750Mhz Guaranteed
3000Mhz Burstable
384MB RAM Guaranteed
512MB RAM Burstable
$120/month

That's about all of the information that I have right now. What I'm really looking for is opinions from everyone here!

[DesignURL]

These look great Andrew. I've been searching around to see the difference between vps and dedicated. Basically, from what I've gathered is that a vps is a sliced up dedicated, and the resources you receive are guaranteed to you.

Maybe this is what we need vs a dedicated server? Is the vps a good solution where I have a client wanting consistent up time because of the amount of revenue they generate?

Comparing the reseller accounts to the vps accounts is a huge bargain!

If you could step back from your perspective, and down to my level to help me better understand, it would be very helpful.

1) You mention an hour of setup. Is this hard (for the average person who is used to your reseller accounts) to setup and maintain? With the reseller accounts, I don't have to manage anything, really, I just go add a new site when I need one. If there is a problem, I submit a trouble ticket and it's always fixed fast.

2) Will you update/maintain these the same way you maintain the reseller servers? In other words, if an exploit comes out, you act quickly on your servers and I want to be sure these will be updated/maintained the same way.

3) I have no need to recompile php or other modules. I've never had any problems with any scripts or the need to do so. I just want it setup, and it works how the reseller accounts work, except that I can now sell reseller accounts.

4) The only time I've ever really needed support was with issues like the server is down, I can't access my sites, etc. These almost always revolve around one of the servers undergoing a DDoS, firewall filter problem, or something small that you've always fixed quick. Are we left to deal with these issues on a vps, or will there be support? In my case, I will not need to modify anything, if setup like the reseller accounts are now. I wouldn't know how, nor would I want to even venture into it. I just want to make sure if there is a problem (that is not caused by something being recompiled or tinkered with), that there will be the same level of support.

5) Two IP addresses. I have a number of customers who have their own IPs because of SSL. How will this be addressed, and if I need more for SSL, will they be available for purchase?

6) How hard would it be to migrate my account(s) to a vps? I have a few OSCommerce stores with SSL and MySQL. Is it possible to do a mass transfer?

I apologize if some of these seem redundant or awkward. These are my primary concerns and not having experience with vps (or dedicated), I want to better understand. I'm a web designer and programmer, so I need a solution that will not require me to become a web hosting professional.

[AndrewT]

1. That's one hour of system administration time, that is seperate from the initial setup of the VPS. This would be if you wanted us to compile your PHP differently or something along those lines or even just upgrade PHP. As long as you do not do anything custom to the VPS it will function just fine and all you'll ever have to deal with is WHM.

2. Not automatically. The exploits would really only apply to kernels, which you cannot modify and are a part of the VPS system which would be updated at once on all system if this were to occur. If, for instance, a PHP exploit is announced and you want us to upgrade your PHP version to fix this you will need to request this which will be a part of your one hour administration time per month.

3. In that case, you will need to do very little as it will already be setup like our current servers are.

4. DoS attacks would still be something that we deal with and unless you actually change settings on the firewall that won't be an issue either. Your WHM will simply have many more options with a VPS than it would a reseller account.

5. The additional IP address pricing would apply - $1.50 per IP address per month. You would still need a dedicated IP for each SSL enable domain.

6. If everything is currently hosted on a cPanel problem it can be done very easily via WHM.

[DesignURL]

Thank you for the explanations. These help me better understand what to expect.

I will watch for the announcement of when your VPS packages are available and signup as soon as they are available.

[Buddha]

2. Not automatically. The exploits would really only apply to kernels, which you cannot modify and are a part of the VPS system which would be updated at once on all system if this were to occur. If, for instance, a PHP exploit is announced and you want us to upgrade your PHP version to fix this you will need to request this which will be a part of your one hour administration time per month.

This brings up a question ... what is the hourly rate beyond the one hour per month ... for that month where everything needs updating? Or is such service even available?

It sounds like these VPS account would be a real bargin for anyone who could handle an unmanaged dedicated server.

[AndrewT]

This brings up a question ... what is the hourly rate beyond the one hour per month ... for that month where everything needs updating? Or is such service even available?

Probably $20/hour after the first hour. Although even "everything" being upgraded should easily fall within an hour unless you have a very custom install of PHP or something like that.

[dammitjanet]

1) backup strategy? how will this differ.
Will this be a managed solution from yourself as before, or will we have ability to restore clients sites from backup. Either or both of the options above would be useful, but i'd expect that if I were to pay extra for managed backups that any administration time would be part of that particular payment.

2) root access. If we wanted to compile and run ruby or other CGI languages then we could do so yes?

I'm certainly interested.

[AndrewT]

1) backup strategy? how will this differ.
Will this be a managed solution from yourself as before, or will we have ability to restore clients sites from backup. Either or both of the options above would be useful, but i'd expect that if I were to pay extra for managed backups that any administration time would be part of that particular payment.

2) root access. If we wanted to compile and run ruby or other CGI languages then we could do so yes?

I'm certainly interested.

1. This is still being worked out. I will post more information on it once we've decided. It will likely be an additional service as it is now but since it is automated will not cost you any administration time.

2. Yes.

[jobe]

A couple more questions:

1. How does this affect emailing list capabilities - at the moment it is limited. Would this enable greater freedom when sending to lists or, as the server is still shared, would it be the same?

2. How upgradable would this be, from a small plan to a bigger one on the same server? Or would it need a change of server. Clearly it would depend but any ideas on this?

Thanks.

[halyfax]

A couple more questions:

1. How does this affect emailing list capabilities - at the moment it is limited. Would this enable greater freedom when sending to lists or, as the server is still shared, would it be the same?
.

I believe any server overloads will only affect your server, so only your acounts on your site would notice if you sent loads of email all at once. And I would suspect you would get a suspension, your server would just slow down.

[AndrewT]

A couple more questions:

1. How does this affect emailing list capabilities - at the moment it is limited. Would this enable greater freedom when sending to lists or, as the server is still shared, would it be the same?

2. How upgradable would this be, from a small plan to a bigger one on the same server? Or would it need a change of server. Clearly it would depend but any ideas on this?

Thanks.

1. You would have much more freedom as it is your own VPS but it is still not wise to send out hundreds or thousands of e-mails instantaneously.

2. This would depend on the situation but even if it had to be moved to another server this can easily be done with Virtuozzo with maybe a couple minutes of downtime while the IP addresses are being re-routed.

[Tycho]

main server specs ? Accounts per server ?

[AndrewT]

Dual Xeon 2.4Ghz+, 2GB RAM+, etc.

Accounts per server, as awlays, varies depending on the types of accounts being sold. Though this is much less of an issue with VPSs as we can easily move them to another physical server with virtually no downtime at all.

[Pedja]

It would be fine to see some comparation table for standard hosting and new service.

I am not sure, but is it correct that difference is in that if we use VPS we will have the same level of service and support but with additional resource limit that would primarily make us feel free to use some more demanding stuff on sites (ie. mail lists, forums etc...) which are not welcome in shared environment but in VPS, if we run something that takes too much reources we will hurt only sites hosted on out account not others?

If that is case then I am in, since it will solve out "sitting ducks" problem.

[AndrewT]

It would be fine to see some comparation table for standard hosting and new service.

I am not sure, but is it correct that difference is in that if we use VPS we will have the same level of service and support but with additional resource limit that would primarily make us feel free to use some more demanding stuff on sites (ie. mail lists, forums etc...) which are not welcome in shared environment but in VPS, if we run something that takes too much reources we will hurt only sites hosted on out account not others?

If that is case then I am in, since it will solve out "sitting ducks" problem.

That is almost the case. The one thing that you cannot control in a VPS environment is disk I/O of each VPS. For the CPU and RAM usage, you are correct though.