Linux Server

A Linux server is a sophisticated and high performance variant of the Linux open source operating system which is designed to cope with the more demanding needs of business applications such as network and system administration, database management and Web services.

Linux servers are being prefered over their competitors for their security, stability and flexibility advantages. Leading Linux server operating systems include RedHat, Debian and SuSE but there are also many others which are based on the source code of these Linux variants. These alternatives include CentOS and Ubuntu who have gained a lot of momentum in recent years because of their low cost and often free license. There are many small business around the globe using servers that are operating with Linux or one of its variants.

Linux and its variant distributions have long been used as server operating systems. In September 2006, Netcraft reported that eight of the ten most reliable internet hosting companies ran Linux distributions on their web servers. Linux distributions are the cornerstone of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) server-software combination which has achieved popularity among developers, and which is one of the more common platforms for website hosting.

Pricing and open-source model of Linux distributions make it increasingly popular on mainframes in the last decade. In December 2009, computer giant IBM reported that it would predominantly market and sell mainframe-based Enterprise Linux Server. Linux distributions are also commonly used as operating systems for supercomputers: since November 2010, out of the top 500 systems, 459 (91.8%) run a Linux distribution. IBM's Sequoia is the world's most powerful supercomputer which use Linux as an operating system. IBM's Sequoia became operational in 2011.

Small and medium size businesses feel the need to have a managed IT service which handels their business related sensitive data and information. A hosted small business server is provided by a managed service provider (MSP) such as Microcom IT or Cheap VPS UK. There are many other companies providing similar type of services.

BSD/OS - BSD Server

Berkeley Software Design, Inc. launched a proprietary version of BSD operating system which is also known as BSD/386 (not to confuse with 386BSD) and BSDi. Reliability in server roles is the prime identification of BSD/OS. A famous Unix programmer and author W. Richard Stevens tested it on his own personal web server.

Members of the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at UC Berkley formed BSDi in 1991 to develop and sell proprietary version of BSD Unix, initially for PC compatible systems with Intel 386. This made use of work previously done by Bill Jolitz to port BSD to the PC platform.

In March 1993 BSD/386 1.0 was released. The Berkeley Software Design sold licenses and support for it, License terms permitted use of the BSD software in proprietary systems, as long as credit goes to the University. The company in turn contributed code and resources to the development of non-proprietary BSD operating systems. Later Jolitz had left BSDi and independently released an open source BSD for PCs, called 386BSD.

Initially BSD/386 licenses (including source code) were priced at $995. It was much cheaper than AT&T UNIX System V source licenses. As part of the settlement of USL v. BSDi, Later BSD/386 2.0 was released and renamed "BSD/OS". Later releases were also supported Sun SPARC-based systems.

KVM VPS has support for BSD server. There are many VPS service providers and the Cheap VPS UK is one of them who is offering BSD server based KVM VPS.

Hypervisor - Introduction

A Hypervisor is also known as a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) which is a piece of software or hardware that's responsible for creating and running virtual machine's. Servers which run hypervisor's with one or more virtual machines are known as host nodes. A Virtual machine is also known as guest as its a guest system on the host node. The hypervisor provides the layer for running guest operating systems which are a virtual operating platform and manages the execution of the guest operating systems.

There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 (Native or Bare Metal) and Type 2 (Hosted).

Type 1:

Type 1 hypervisor runs directly on the host's hardware to control the hardware and to manage guest operating systems. A guest operating system thus runs on another level above the hypervisor. This model represents the traditional implementation of virtual machine architectures. IBM developed the original hypervisors; SIMMON, and CP/CMS as a test tool, in 1960s. CP/CMS was the ancestor of IBM's z/VM. Modern equivalents of this are Oracle VM Server for SPARC, Oracle VM Server for x86, the Citrix XenServer, VMware ESX/ESXi, KVM, and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor.

Type 2:

Type 2 hypervisor runs within a conventional operating system environment. With the hypervisor layer as a distinct second software level and the guest operating systems run at the third level above the hardware. BHyVe, VMware Workstation and Oracle VirtualBox are examples of Type 2 hypervisors.

Around 2005, Unix and Linux server vendors realized the need of using Virtualization technology among Unix and Linux servers. The following are the factors which played key role in introducing virtualization technology among the Unix and Linux community.

• Enhancing hardware capabilities in order to allow each machine to do more simultaneous work
• Cost effectiveness and simplicity in management
• Controlling cluster installations and large multiprocessors
• The improved device independence, reliability and security
• The ability to run complex OS-dependent applications in different hardware or OS environments

What are Data Centers ?

All the information that one can found on the internet is stored on very sophisticated and powerful computers known as Web Servers. These servers, are located in secure and specialized facilities. These facilities are known as Data Centers. These data centers provide the technical infrastructure. These facilities have centralized air conditioning system for keeping the servers fully functional and safe around the clock.

Today most organizations keep a record of their business related information online in the form of archive directories or websites. These organizations want to make sure that this information is available online for managing their daily operations. Data Centers serve the same purpose by ensuring the necessary backend environment for making the stored data accessible online at any time. This includes providing a reliable infrastructure for running the routine IT operations and setting high security standards for keeping the stored information intact all the time.

Server Machines are main hardware component of data centers. These machines are normally organized in racks along with elevated floors to access them. In order to provide the right operational conditions for web servers, data centers make serious investments in additional computer system components. This system includes environmental control mechanisms such as air-conditioning for maintaining humidity and temperature, as well as fire suppression and earthquake protection devices. Backup power supplies and redundant data communication connections (fiber optic cables), are responsible for keeping the data stored on the server machines safe. Special security devices are meant to protect the servers against hacking attacks and viruses (Anti DDoS device, etc.) and unsolicited physical access to the site (video cameras, security guides).

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KVM VPS

VPS (Virtual Private Server), virtualization comes in many shapes. The KVM technology provides a very reliable and cost-effective solution to governments and businesses for complex computer needs. The purpose of have a single server, serving as multiple servers gave birth to the concept of VPS which saves energy and hardware cost. KVM is free and supports both Linux and Windows virtualization. KVM VPS is perfect for those who need full virtualization. It provides more of everything. Get a hosting environment based on KVM and run your own BSD, Linux or Microsoft Server VM.

KVM provides virtualization on CPUs that is on hardware virtualization extension. This allows highly stable virtual machines and true virtualization. KVM also provides an added layer of isolation. Each KVM VPS operates as an independent server which makes it private and int secure area. Each KVM machine has private virtualized hardware such as network card, disk etc.

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OpenVZ VPS

OpenVZ, known as Open Virtualization (OpenVZ), is a virtualization technology based on the Linux kernel. These instances are known as "containers", "virtual private servers" (VPS), or "virtual environments" (VEs). OpenVZ is the open source version of SWsoft's virtualization software, Virtuozzo. OpenVZ offers reliable performance, full root access and compartmentalized file systems to virtual private server administrators. OpenVZ is still the most preferable VPS platform at Cheap VPS UK, even when there are other VPS hosting platforms are getting more popular.

Features:

We at Cheap VPS UK, recommend openVZ because of the following reasons:

• OpenVZ is inexpensive and offers the best virtual private server performance.
• OpenVZ includes Linux operating system templates and application stacks.
• OpenVZ resources can be reallocated on the fly without need for a reboot. It makes it flexible.
• Lowest licensing cost for WHM / cPanel web hosting re-seller control panel.

Virtual Private Server

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) also known as Virtual Dedicated Server is a machine provided by an Internet Hosting Service and appear to user as it is a dedicated server but basically it is running on a machine which is handling many other websites. A user can have multiple VPS with its own operating system on a single machine. The hosting software comprise of Web Server, File Transfer Protocol or FTP and an Email server.

Small and medium size business and organizations who wanted to have a customizeable website but can not afford to have their own dedicated server, go for VPS technology. There are growing number of companies who are providing VPS services. Mostly they provide two types of VPS services.

Managed Hosting:

People and organizations which do not know anything about how to development and management of their website usually go for managed hosting server and pay a little extra. In this case it is the responsibility of hosting provider to keep their website managed and up to date as per their instructions and requirements.

Unmanaged Hosting:

With unmanaged hosting customer has to manage everything. Hosting company is only responsible for providing hosting services. This service is cheaper than managed hosting but require to have knowledge or a professional who has knowledge about information technology.

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Virtualization

Virtualization seems to be the buzz word these days and although virtualization technology has been used a lot over the last few years many organization are still not fully aware of the significant benefits that come with it. Virtualization is known for various methods, approaches and techniques of creating a virtual (not actual) layer of virtual hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or network resources.

Let us first have a look at how virtualization technology actually works. At the most basic level you have your server hardware, then on your server hardware you would expect to have an operating system installed. This is where virtualization comes in, virtualization uses a Hypervisor which simply means an extra layer between the server hardware and the operating system where all the business applications are run. This Hypervisor manages all the resources of the server such as memory, disks, network and CPU and controls which virtual machine (your application server) receives how much of those resources and when. The virtual machine is an independent server which runs on top of the Hypervisor and the number of virtual machines you can run on 1 server is limited only by the servers hardware capabilities.

There are some key terms, which you need to know before you go for virtualization.

Hardware Virtualization:

The term Hardware Virtualization commonly refers to build virtual machine which act like a real machine with an operating system. Here actual machine known as "host machine" is the base machine as hardware virtualizaton took place on it. And virtual machine is known as guest machine. Virtual Machine Manager or the Hypervisor is the software which creates virtual machine on host hardware.

There are three types of Hardware Virtualization.

• Full Virtulization: Complete simulation of target environment.
• Partial Virtulization: Partial simulation of target environment.
• Para-Virtulization: Program of guest machine runs on their own isolated domains and needs modifications to work in this environment.

Snapshotting:

Snapshotting comes handy when you want to start a risky business. This term specially relate to storage devices. Snapshot refers to the state of a virtual machine with its storage devices at an exact point in time. Snapshots can be reverted any time and so as the virtual machine also appear the same when the snapshot is being taken.

Teleportation:

Teleportation or Migration means to move from one host machine to other having its own hypervisor, without and or little disruption in services.

Failover:

An organization can not afford its system to stop completely in case of any failure. Failover means virtual machine keep on working even if the host machine fails. However, virtual machine keep on working from its last known coherent state, in this case.

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