VPS hosting comes in a couple of different flavors. What OS you can use and what you can do on the box has a lot to do with how they are setup. Unless you're getting into the nitty gritty with doing strange stuff with the networking the portal software they give you is probably more important then what the VM is actually running on top of. As far as OS's goes, they hosting company will tell you which ones they support. You probably won't know how hard it is to switch back and forth unless you ask them, buy one or read up on them in their forums. Sometimes it's something you can accomplish from their portal, and sometimes you have to ask them to do it for you with a support ticket. As far as what it's all running on top of, here are the general categories as I see them.
* Full Virtualization - Using something like VMware or Xen on the back end. This technically means that you can run whatever OS you want. However, they will still need to provide you the mechanism to get that OS installed ( unless you're really, really creative which I won't go into ), that goes to the management software/portal that they are using. The cool part about these types of VPS's is that you get full access to your kernel/networking and whatnot. * Paravirtualization/Containers - Using something like OpenVZ (aka Virtuozzo). These are software based VMs and they can only be hosted on like minded hosts. However, many VPS companies will offer *nix, and Windows based options. How easily you can switch back and forth has more to do with the management software/portal and how the company has implemented it then the virtualization technology itself. Bad part about these is you don't have access to make changes to the kernel because it's the same kernel that's running on the host. Again, if you don't need to do that, and you don't need to do crazy things with your networking, then that's probably fine. These VPS's are 'sometimes' cheaper as the hosting company can usually run more of these then the fully virtualized kind. I've actually used linodes in the past as Michael Chaney suggested and they are very neat. Linode has their stuff together when it comes to VPS hosting in my opinion. If you have an application that you're thinking about for VPS's spit it out and maybe somebody can tell you what you should be looking for in a VPS. -K On May 21, 2010, at 7:51 AM, Mark J. Bailey wrote: > Since we are sort of on the subject, can anyone with first-hand experience > comment on how virtual hosting with VPS compares in practice to a vmware > virtual server (under ESX)? Does it make much difference if the guest OS > is windows versus Linux? Also, any here tried Linux under IBM AIX LPARs? > > > -----Original Message----- > From: nlug-talk@googlegroups.com [mailto:nlug-t...@googlegroups.com] On > Behalf Of Kelly Brown > Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 7:34 AM > To: nlug-talk@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: [nlug] Nashville Data Centers > > Thanks all for the feedback, you guys rock! > > On May 20, 2010, at 6:39 PM, Gibson Prichard wrote: > >> On 5/20/2010 10:05 AM, Kelly Brown wrote: >>> Hi Guys: >>> >>> I'm fairly new to the area and I need to get some quotes for rack space > at some data centers out here. Does anybody have any experiences to share > that might help point me in the right direction. I can google until I'm > blue in the face but I would like to hear 'reviews' from you guys. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> -Kelly >>> >> Depending on what you're looking for in a data center, I know TW Telecom > generally has a good deal for the money. When I last looked, they gave you > 24/7 access to your servers, but not much tech support or hands-on in your > absence. They have bandwidth and backup power, so are cheaper than a more > full-featured data center. Their center is in the 440 Business Park, sort > of in the Berry Hill area, right off I-440 at Nolensville Rd. >> Call Mike Martin - 615.627.3705 or mike.mar...@twtelecom.com >> >> Gibson >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "NLUG" group. >> To post to this group, send email to nlug-talk@googlegroups.com >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > nlug-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >> For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To post to this group, send email to nlug-talk@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > nlug-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NLUG" group. > To post to this group, send email to nlug-talk@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > nlug-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To post to this group, send email to nlug-talk@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nlug-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en
