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What is OpenVZ?

OpenVZ is server virtualization software provided by SWSoft, Inc. licensed under the GPL version 2. OpenVZ is the software that every system administrator requires. It allows you to host multiple Virtual Environments (Aka VE) on a single server. The only limitations are RAM and CPU.

OpenVZ is an operating system-level virtualization technology based on the Linux kernel and operating system. It allows a physical server to run multiple isolated operating system instances, known as Virtual Private Servers (VPS) or Virtual Environments (VE).

Unlike VMWare and Para virtualization technologies such as Xen, OpenVZ is more limited in that it requires both the host and guest OS to be Linux (although Linux distributions can be different in different VEs) under the same kernel. OpenVZ claims a true performance advantage. According to its website, there is only a 1-3% performance penalty for running OpenVZ compared to using a standalone server.

As OpenVZ employs a single kernel model, and is scalable as the 2.6 Linux kernels; in that it will support up to 64 CPUs and up to 64 GB of RAM. A single virtual environment can scale up to the whole physical box (known as a “heavy VPS”) i.e. use all the CPUs and the entire RAM.

OpenVZ is divided into a custom kernel and a number of user-level tools such as vzctl, vzstat etc. OpenVZ lacks some of the features of the commercial product Virtuozzo, such as the advanced vzfs file system, templating features, to save disk space, and additional user land tools and control panels (though third party ones have been written).

OpenVZ improves efficiency, flexibility and quality of service in the enterprise environment. Each Virtual Private Server is hardware independent and can be moved to another OpenVZ-based system in seconds over the network.

Some Important OpenVZ Commands:

1. vzlist -a : Shows list of all the VPS’s hosted on the Node.
2. vzctl start VPS_ID: To start the VPS.
3. vzctl stop VPS_ID : To stop (Shut Down) the VPS
4. vzctl status VPS_ID : To view the status of the particular VPS
5. vzctl stop VPS_ID –fast : to stop the VPS quickly and forcefully
6. vzctl enter VPS_ID : To enter in a particular VPS

Configuration Commands

1. vzctl set VPS_ID –hostname vps.domain.com –save: To set the Hostname of a VPS.
2. vzctl set VPS_ID –ipadd 1.2.3.4 –save : To add a new IP to the hosting VPS.
3. vzctl set VPS_ID –ipdel 1.2.3.4 –save : To delete the IP from VPS.
4. vzctl set VPS_ID –userpasswd root:new_password –save : to reset root password of a VPS.
5. vzctl set VPS_ID –nameserver 1.2.3.4 –save : To add the nameserver IP’s to the VPS.
6. vzctl exec VPS_ID command : To run any command on a VPS from Node.
7. vzyum VPS_ID install package_name : To install any package/Software on a VPS from Node.

Here VPS_ID refers to the ID of the Particular VPS.

Posted under Webhosting

Surfing the internet, I have noticed that in industry, lots of website are dealing with virtual private servers or VPS and most of the sites provides their advantages and disadvantages. But, none of them have offered any practical information about the pros and cons of Dedicated Servers and VPS.

Having knowledge about VPS is always useful, but if you can’t compare it versus other hosting types, then you won’t be able to notice what’s good for your specific online business and what’s not. So I decided to bring to light the advantages and disadvantages of virtual private servers, not by providing hard definitions and a cold list of features, but actually by listing the differences with other available hosting alternatives. In this article, I’m going to compare the Pros and the Cons of Dedicated Servers and Virtual Private Servers (VPS).

The Pros

The first thing that gets people’s attention is the price of VPS. Less expensive than dedicated servers, VPS are a good choice for those people who are looking to set up a website that will be complex enough to render a shared hosting solution useless, but that will not yet deal with a large amount of visitors or huge database needs, and therefore won’t require the full power of a dedicated server.

The capabilities and features of VPS make’s them very similar to dedicated servers in certain aspects, especially when it comes to software and custom-made component installation. In this sense, VPS are as flexible as dedicated servers, allowing a much deeper control of advanced administrative tasks, like configuration and assignment of resources.

The independent, isolated, standalone nature of virtual private servers makes them ideal for testing purposes: a website can be fully tested in a VPS by a small group of people before it is made available for the general public. This also makes them suitable for testing software applications, especially those made for servers; and to securely run software that is suspected of being malicious or contain viruses. For this reason, virtual private servers are vastly used in companies’ intranets.

The Cons

The disadvantages of a VPS become visible when dealing with high-demanding sites. Since a virtual private server is essentially a form of shared server, the resources of the physical hosting computer are all the hosted VPS, which may lead to an unbalance in the bandwidth and processor power if one of these VPS is in a heavy load condition, or is aggressively performing hardware-eager tasks like very complex calculations or big-bulk database operations.

Also, it is important to keep in mind that virtual private servers are often created in bulks, with a single computer hosting a lot of them. In extreme conditions (i.e. when a computer hosts too many VPS), this may force the system to work very close to its limits, decreasing the durability of the hardware components.

Every solution has its goods and bads, and the first thing you should do before you choose your hosting plan is to take your own business’ present and future requirements into consideration.

Posted under Dedicated Server Hosting, Linux VPS Hosting