What is Virtual Private Server Web Hosting?

Written by Administrator Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00

Virtual private server web hosting, or VPS hosting, is an emerging type of package offered by quite a few web hosting providers. As its name suggest, it is a not a real machine dedicated to you, but is instead a virtual machine. Even though it is not a real machine, it looks and feels as if it were a real machine to you - it is private instance of the entire OS and web server to you, but you share a physical box with other VPS accounts. This is the beauty of a VPS hosting account - sin...

Virtual private server web hosting, or VPS hosting, is an emerging type of package offered by quite a few web hosting providers. As its name suggest, it is a not a real machine dedicated to you, but is instead a virtual machine. Even though it is not a real machine, it looks and feels as if it were a real machine to you - it is private instance of the entire OS and web server to you, but you share a physical box with other VPS accounts.

This is the beauty of a VPS hosting account - since it falls between a shared hosting account and a true dedicate server, you get the freedom and flexibility of a dedicated server without the full monthly expense. A VPS hosting package has components that are indeed private to you, and components that are shared with others. Here is a breakdown of the components into private and shared categories:

Shared on a VPSPrivate on a VPS

• Physical machine
• Hard Drive
• Network Bandwidth
• CPU
• Memory (RAM)
• Expense

• Operating System
• Web Server
• Security
• Applications
• Rebooting
• Your Website

It will be helpful to also show what is shared and private on a shared hosting account:

Shared on Shared HostingPrivate on Shared Hosting

• Physical machine
• Hard Drive
• Network Bandwidth
• CPU
• Memory (RAM)
• Expense
• Operating System
• Web Server
• Security
• Applications
• Rebooting

• Your WebSite

From the two tables above there may be a few things that may frighten or confuse you, so let me clarify.

Under a shared website hosting plan, everything is shared except for your website html, script, and code. Under a VPS plan, quite a few things are moved over to being private to you, such as the operating system, web server, security, permissions, applications, and rebooting. On a fully dedicated hosting plan, the entire list would be moved over to being private to you.

Here is a breakdown of the private features of VPS versus the shared hosting plans.

Operating System

A VPS hosting plan dedicates what appears to be complete machine to you, but it is really a slice of a bigger machine. It appears to be a complete machine because you have complete control of the operating system. You are able to choose the exact types and versions of the OS itself, drivers, and assorted supporting applications. You receive root or administrator access to this machine, are free to modify it in any way, and tweak it to meet your exact needs for your website.

Web Server

The web server on the VPS is completely controlled by you - not other websites are hosted on it. That means you are free to tweak the web server in any way you wish, control the administration of it, install additional features and optimizations as you see fit, and control startups and shutdowns of it. Some complex websites benefit greatly from the possible optimizations and tweaks.

Security

You control the logins to the machine itself, and allow others to have accounts as you see fit. This allows you to have unlimited FTP and email accounts with whatever features and permissions you wish. Typically you have access to control panel software to help you manage all of these as well. This also means that it is up to you to protect your server from viruses and hackers as well.

Applications

Whatever applications are needed for your website to run smoothly, such as special communication software and ports, shopping carts, or virtually anything else - they are all available for you to install. This means you could actually custom build special software or web services that are not part of the normal web server scripting languages to meet the special needs of your website. It is because of this flexibility that so many move to a VPS hosting plan.

Rebooting

Since the operating system is dedicated solely to you, the ability exists for you to reboot the system as you see fit without affecting any other website running on the same physical machine as yours. Your VPS is completely isolated from the others, allowing for this rebooting.

The Key Benefit of VPS Hosting Plans

Some may argue that the CPU, RAM, and bandwidth are also private on the VPS plans - this is because the virtualization servers not only throttle and meter your usage of these resources, they also throttle and meter the other virtual sessions. Let me explain this in a different fashion, since this is one of the key benefits of a VPS hosting plan.

Under a shared hosting plan, the CPU, RAM, and bandwidth are complete shared amongst the dozens (or often hundreds) of web sites residing on the same physical machine. If each of those websites were under heavy load then the CPU, RAM, and bandwidth requirements would crush the machine and make all of the websites perform poorly. If only a few of the websites were under heavy load then the machine would still be crushed! As more and more web hosting providers offer unlimited disk space, domains, and bandwidth on the servers, the potential for this problem gets worse - they are completely overselling the ability of their hardware.

With a VPS hosting plan, these problems do not exists. Sure the CPU, RAM, and bandwidth are still shared with a few others on a physical machine, but each VPS is guaranteed a set slice of CPU, RAM, and bandwidth. This means that if another site on the same machine is under heavy load, then they will eventually consume the resources of their VPS slice up to whatever their bottleneck is, and their website will start to slow down. Your website, however, will never experience any slow down whatsoever, since your VPS slice is complete isolated and guaranteed to have its resources dedicated to your slice.

For this reason you rarely see unlimited plans in the VPS hosting options - by selling you a set amount of resources they are guaranteeing you receive those resources.

Pricing

VPS hosting plans do cost more than shared hosting plans, but you are getting more for your money. Many of the VPS hosting plans are significantly cheaper than a dedicated server, and provide an easy upgrade path from a shared hosting plan as your websites grow and need the extra bandwidth.

If you are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with managing a server, you will need to go with a slightly more expensive option called the managed VPS hosting plan. These plans provide you with the additional service of setting up your VPS, monitoring, managing, and in general helping you keeping it running smooth for your websites.

Conclusion

A virtual private server is a perfect stepping stone up from a shared hosting plan as your requirement grow from a what a shared hosting plan can offer. In addition, the flexibility and ability to tweak the operating system and web server to your website will provide a boost in performance as well. Everyone hosting a website in a shared hosting plan should hope they are eventually forced, through the popularity of their website, into a VPS hosting plan!