Virtual Dedicated Hosting Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q) How is network utilization calculated?
A) Traffic sent and received by the virtual machine is summed to provide a count. This is the value used for billing. In other words, traffic is calculated using "in plus out".
Q) What kind of performance can I expect?
A) Our virtual systems are some of the lightest loaded in the industry. Where other virtual hosting companies may run 30 or more users per system, we run fewer than 10. This means that you will rarely experience anything less than snappy performance. We also have large disc caches and powerful hardware, to keep our users happy. Finally, we monitor systems for excessive usage and will take steps to reduce the impact of virtual machines which regularly make excessive use of CPU or disc resources. Long-running, heavily CPU or disc intensive jobs such as distributed computing clients are not permitted on the virtual systems.
Q) Do these systems run RAID?
A) Yes. All host systems are running RAID to ensure that a hard drive failure will not take the system out of commission. The RAID arrays are monitored to ensure that failed hard drives are replaced in a timely manner. Additionally, all hard drives are stress-tested before being put into service.
Q) What steps do you take to ensure reliable operation?
A) All host systems are stress tested extensively before being put into service. Hard drives are RAID protected, as mentioned above. Additionally, we always keep a cold spare full system available to allow us to quickly recover from any single hardware failure. Finally, all our host machines are lightly loaded, allowing us to shift virtual machines to other existing hosts if required, without severely impacting performance.
Q) How can I control bandwidth usage on my system?
A) Linux provides a very rich set of bandwidth control tools. The "iptables" commands can be used on your virtual machine to create simple or complex rules for limiting how much bandwidth may be consumed by your system.
Q) Can I purchase extra network traffic?
A) Yes. If you exceed your network utilization allocation, you will be billed $1 per extra GB used in a month. If you regularly exceed your allocation by a large amount, we can arrange discounts for pre-paying for large amounts of traffic.
Q) How are backups handled?
A) Backups are an extra-price option if you wish for us to handle them. They are implemented using rsync from your server to our backup server over the public network interface to your virtual machine. This usage is not separated out from other network access by the virtual machine right now. To accommodate this, the backup option includes a 50% increase in the base system network allocation.
Backups cost $5, $10, and $15, depending on the service level. They include nightly backups to another physical system. Recoveries are done by sending an e-mail request, and you are entitled to one user-requested recovery per month. Additional recoveries will be charged $50 per occurrence.
These backups will require our backup system to make a root SSH connection to your server, and to run rsync. We will provide a SSH public key with limits to prevent the key from being used for anything but backups. Our backup server is on a private network with no direct public net access into it, and is accessed only by our senior level staff.
Q) Why can't I access the web or other services on the system.
A) A fairly restrictive firewall is configured on the systems, rejecting remote access to most resources. As you add new services, they can be allowed by modifying the file "/etc/sysconfig/iptables" or "/var/lib/iptables/active" and then running "/etc/init.d/iptables start". The base system allows SSH access (port 22), others can be added by adding additional lines after the line with "22" in it. For example, a web server uses ports 80 and 443, and e-mail uses 25, 110, and 143.
Q) Can I create partitions on the filesystem of my virtual server?
No. There can be only one big partition.