Choosing The VPS hosting Package That Suits You

In today’s webhosting market, there is a lot of VPS hosting providers with many different hosting packages. So once you decide to buy VPS hosting, you have to do a thorough research before choosing the VPS hosting package that suits you the best. It might cost you a lot of money, not only if you choose a wrong VPS hosting package, but also if you choose the wrong hosting service provider. So if you have any concerns regarding a hosting package offered by any hosting provider, you should always contact them via email or live chat, prior to purchasing anything.

Here’s a short list of the most important things that we think you should keep an eye on while looking for the best VPS hosting package.

Budget

Budget is one of the most important factors that people choose to go for a Virtual Private Server in the first place. It also plays an important role in selecting the VPS server package that suits you the best. The main factor that determines the price of a virtual server is its resources. The higher the amount of resources, like RAM, CPU, disk space and bandwidth, which comes with a virtual server, more price you will have to spend to purchase it.

Features Needed

This goes hand in hand with the budget. You have to be clear about the features you want on your virtual server. You can always check what kinds of features are offered with a hosting package before you buy VPS servers. In case if you are not familiar with any of the features, a quick Google search will get you all the information you need. In addition, most of the features of VPS packages, including RAM, disk space and bandwidth can be customized.

Hosting Technology

This is also a very important factor you should consider when you buy VPS servers. This mainly depends on the applications you are planning to run on the server. Currently, the most popular VPS technologies are Microsoft’s Hyper-V and Virtuozzo. So you have to decide the correct virtual server package according to the applications you plan to run on them.

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Going for Windows VPS Hosting?

When you are on the search to buy VPS hosting, you would come across a number of VPS hosting providers with Windows VPS hosting packages and Linux VPS hosting packages. Some hosting providers would offer both hosting platforms.

There are many aspects to consider when choosing the correct VPS hosting platform. Anyway, while some times choosing windows hosting platform can be a personal preference, there are some other times when it becomes a necessity.

Windows or Linux

The truth is, it is always more important to focus your time and effort on finding a reliable hosting provider to buy VPS servers, more than focusing on the platform. However, there are some points to consider when choosing whether to use Linux or Windows platform.

• Price

This was a very important factor in the past as windows VPS hosting was very expensive than Linux VPS hosting. However, due to the competitive nature of the hosting industry, now the price difference between Windows and Linux platforms are negligible.

• Features & Performance

While price is becoming less of a concern, features offered by each platform and the performance have become an important factor on choosing the right VPS hosting package. Both platforms support a number of various features and will allow you to create pages, run scripts, install forums, create blogs, and many more with only a very little difference. Even though Linux might have a slight edge on the performance, most users will not be noticing any performance difference between the two platforms.

• Security

Although Linux is believed to be more secure platform, it is a fallacy. Both platforms have potential for vulnerabilities.

Windows specific features

Since there is a very little difference between the two platforms, the choice of using Windows VPS hosting finally comes down to whether you are using Windows specific features of not. Popular Windows specific features are:

1. ASP
2. FrontPage
3. .NET
4. Windows Streaming Media
5. Access
6. MsSQL

Any of the above features will work more smoothly on a Windows platform than on a Linux platform.

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Creating a Virtual Machine on Windows Server 2008 using Hyper-V

Hyper-V is the modern generation of virtualization, with Windows Server 2008 you no longer need to install an application such as Virtual Server 2005 or Virtual PC or other virtualization technology in order to build your virtual machines (VM). 

 

Hyper-V is one of the new roles available with Windows Server 2008 where you can install it and then start creating your VMs. You can use a virtualized computing environment to increase the efficacy of your computing resources.

 

Benefits you get from a VM

• Increasing the hardware utilization

• Decreasing the cost by sharing in number of VM

• Maximum availability and Secure

• VM can be accessed from anywhere in the intranet

• Possibility of running programs in other OS from what is running on the machine.

 

Creating Hyper-V Virtual Machines

 

 

Open the Hyper-V management console.

 

 or go to command prompt and type c:\Program Files\Hyper-V\virtmgmt.msc and press "Enter"

 

In the right side panel, click on "New" and select "Virtual Machine" 

 

 

 

Give nam efor your Virtual Machine, here you can specify a location as well (if required). Then click "Next"

 

 

 

 

You can specify the capacity of memory to your VM.

 

 

 

 

Select "Local Area Connection - Virtual Network" from the drop down list and click "Next"

 

 

 

Here you get few options, you can create a new Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) or you can simply assign an available VHD or else you can assign a VHD later.

 

 

 

If you need to install a new Operating system for your new VM you can do it in this step. Also you can install an Operating system from an image file you have created or from a Physical DVD / CD. You get four options to install your OS. Click "Next" to proceed further.

 

 

 

Now you can see the details of your VM. This is the final step and you are almost done. Click "Finish" button to complete the process.

 

 

 

Your new Virtual Machine is ready to use. You can start your VM from the Management Console. 

 

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How to Back-up your Virtual Machine?

A Virtual Machine (VM) is a software execution of a computing environment in which an operating system or program can be installed and run.

When working with technology we should be very careful about the data. We use secure methods such as virus guards firewalls to protect our data but still there is a risk from sudden crashes, virus/malware attacks. In such situation happens you will lose all the data or a part of it. Therefor we need to back up our data in regular basis even it if is a Virtual Machine either Physical machine. 

There are two types of Back up mechanism, one is called “Saved State” (default in Hyper-V) and the other one is “Child VM Snapshot”. In “Saved State”, snapshots are taken of the correct volumes, and the VM is returned to the default state.

In "Child VM Snapshot", use VSS inside the child VM to participate in the backup. And you should meet the following conditions in this state. 

• Backup (volume snapshot) Integration Service is installed and running in the child VM (Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor).

Backup Integration Service will not be supported for Windows 2000.

• The Child VM should be in the processing state.

• The Snapshot File Location for the VM is set to be the same volume in the host OS as the Virtual Hard Disk files for the Virtual Machine.

• All volumes in the child VM not dynamic disks (they are basic disks).

• All disks in the child VM must use a file system that supports snapshots (example, NTFS).

The unique behavior happens when the Hyper-V VSS writer (part of the "Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management" service) processes the PrepareForSnapshot event. If the backup was done using the "Child VM Snapshot" method, there is additional processing done but it is not visible to the child VM.

The following procedure describes how to back up VMs.

1. For each VM in the writer metadata, if the "Saved State" method is used, the VM is put into a saved state. For VMs using the "Child VM Snapshot" method, the Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor Service in the child VM processes the backup as detailed in Overview of Processing a Backup Under VSS. All VSS events in the child VM occur during the host operating system processing of the PrepareForSnapshot event.

2. After all VMs have either been put in the saved state or had snapshots taken, the Hyper-V VSS writer returns from the PrepareForSnapshot event. No processing is done by the Hyper-V VSS writer during the Freeze and Thaw events.

3. When the Hyper-V VSS writer processes the PostSnapshot event, VMs that were backed up using the "Saved State" method and were put into a saved state by the Hyper-V VSS writer are returned to the state they were in before the backup started. For the VMs that were backed up using the "Child VM Snapshot" method, the host image of the VHD files that had the snapshots taken are rolled back to the snapshot taken during the processing of the PrepareForSnapshot event. This processing is done independently of the VSS writers in the child VMs so the snapshots taken must be auto-recoverable. (VSS_VOLSNAP_ATTR_NO_AUTORECOVERY is not set in the context.)

 

Note  

• Partial backups are not supported. If any VM fails to create a snapshot, no VMs will be backed up.

• Pass-through and iSCSI disks are not visible to the host operating system and therefore not backed up by the Hyper-V VSS writer. Backups of these volumes must be done entirely within the VM.

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Wordpress on VPS

If you ask hundrad people about the famous CMS today, 80% will say it is none other than "Wordpress". Even a 12 years old kid can maintaing a Wordpress based website with zero programming knowledge. It is easy to customize and easy to manage and get alot of features also can use a lot of plugins to do magics within the website. Still a lot of people use shared hosting to host their websites, blogs. But the new trend is twisting Wordpress with Virtual Private Servers (VPS).

A VPS can offer the site owners the level of customizability, stability and security of a dedicated server while still costing much less than one.  Poor performance and high downtimes are two of the main problems with using a shared hosting option for WordPress hosting. A VPS hosting option can also easily eliminate these two problems while providing more customization options for the webmaster. In addition, a VPS hosting solution may also prove more cost-effective for any WordPress site that receives medium-to-high levels of traffic.

Virtual private servers are more secure, stable and customizable when compared to shared hosting servers. Each VPS server contains systems files, which are independent of each other. For this reason, any VPS hosting solution will not be affected by any potential security problem affecting a bordering VPS on the same physical server. Unlike shared hosting, when you buy VPS hosting, you are also granted with root access, which allows you to utilize your own secure configurations. An assigned disk space and memory is also given to each VPS hosting solution. This disk space and memory remains uninfluenced by the way that nearby VPS hosting solutions deal with their resources; in the case of a WordPress blog VPS, this suggest that extra bandwidth could be assigned to upload and run high-definition  images, videos and other medias without reducing the speed of your site or any others. Users will also be able, thanks to root access, to keep the control and easily customize the installed software. Moreover, extra resources can be added without any downtime, which means that sites with VPS hosting are scalable. Even though dedicated servers offer resembling functions as well as the control over the whole server and a more disk space, they do cost considerably more and often lacks technical support.

Although first-time users who buy VPS hosting solutions might find it a more challenging to administer, you can install a Control Panel, such as WebsitePanel, which simplifies the task through a very user friendly graphical user interface. You can easily install and configure the MySql databases, and many other third party applications required for WordPress through these GUIs. While some VPS hosting providers offer a pre-installed control panel as a feature of their hosting packages, others will offer them for you to purchase as a separate option.

You can use either a Linux or a Windows VPS hosting option to host your WordPress sites, and the minimum system specifications will vary according to the number of sites you are planning to host and whether or not you choose a control panel. For anyone who is running one or many WordPress websites, a VPS Hosting option is an affordable middle ground between cheaper, but unstable and less customizable shared hosting solutions, and more powerful, but very expensive dedicated hosting solutions.

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Static Website to Content Management System (CMS)

What is a Static Website?

The static website is simple website design which is cost effective and beneficial for the small businesses or individual. Each page is coded in HTML and displays the same information to every visitor. Mostly there will be few simple web pages with few images.

What is Content Management System (CMS)?

A Content Management System (CMS) is a system used to manage the content of a Web site / blog. There are two elements as CMA (Content Management Application) and CDA (Content Delivery Application. If you google you can find a lot of CMSs but out of all only few really do the job.

There are hundreds of free CMS options out in the market today. From those CMS programs, the most popular options are WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. And out of the top 100,000 websites online, 52.87% are using WordPress while Drupal and Joomla are being used on 17.12% and 7.11%. In addition they are also used on 83.16% of the top 1 million websites.

 

Why migrating to CMS?

If your company is performing fairly in the new global market, there is a good chance that it already has a website. However, if you are looking to make the most out of your online preference, it could be a good idea to migrate from your ordinary site to a CMS (content management system). 

Simply “having a website” is not enough to succeed in today’s highly competitive online market. In the contrary having an outdated website can do more harm for your business than good. Most of the internet users today do not like to meddle with web sites that do not appear decent or hard to navigate. They will just leave the site and look for a better alternative, thus you will use a potential customer.

The most significant feature that all these three CMS programs have in common is the ease of maintenance. Actually, the simplicity to use starts with the process of downloading any of these (WordPress, Drupal or Joomla) hosting options. It is as simple as going to the relevant website and clicking the “download” button. Moreover, while being really easy to update, the CMSs also make all the other aspects of maintaining a website very easy. Thanks to the wide variety of applications that can be installed on these CMSs, it is very simple and easy to manage, not only the posts you make, but also where and when they should be posted. And on top of all that, the communities behind all three CMSs are always ready to provide great support to any company that is looking to move their site into a CMS.

Today, a huge amount of popular websites are powered by these CMS programs. While thousands of websites, including Forbes.com and KatyPerry.com are powered by WordPress, most of the government websites, including whitehouse.gov are powered by Drupal. Joomla is also being used in many leading websites, which include the IHOP.com and Guggenheim.org. For any company’s static website, CMS programs like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla presents a number of advantages for setup and maintenance. And these options can easily help ensure a much better online presence, while also making a company’s website a lot more usable for its customers.

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Mobile Friendly Website on VPS Hosting

Since apple introduced their iPhone back in 2007, millions of people are accessing the internet via their mobile phones every day. With the introduction of the smartphone, that has amazing web browsing capabilities, every business was forced to rethink their website. If you are engaged in a business that depends on its online presence to drive income directly or indirectly, you should definitely think of making adjustments to your website in order to fit the millions of potential customers who might visit your website via mobile devices. And if you are a person who is planning your future online presence, you might want to think about making it mobile friendly before you buy VPS hosting and hosting it.

So I thought of giving you some tips on building your mobile friendly website on you VPS server.

• Create a designated mobile URL. The usual way of doing this is using your standard URL with a modification. The most common way is using the letter “m” before or after the standard URL.

Ex:

Google URL - http://www.google.com

Google mobile URL - http://www.google.com/m

• Do the designing of your website with a small screen in mind. Although PC monitors are getting bigger, mobile screens are not.
• Rethink the content. People who use the mobile phone for browsing are usually looking for useful information on the go. Typical mobile web users are not looking for shopping.
• Keep mobile consumption in the mind when organizing the content. As the mobile screens are very small, you have to organize your content in a way that requires the mobile user to minimize the scrolling experience.
• Minimize clicks.
• Limit the user inputs. It is often a frustrating experience to having to enter a lot of data to a website through a mobile device.
• Always use Java and not Flash. Java is the most mobile friendly website development platform.
• Think “vertical”. While your PC website is designed for a “horizontal” display, always make your mobile website vertically.
• Put links to your homepage and the previous page in every other page.
• Keep it simple!

Keep the above tips in your mind when designing your first mobile friendly website to host on your VPS server.

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