----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurie Brown" laurie@brownowl.com
Thanks for that, Jim, looks good.
If anyone else has a suggestion for co-lo, please let me have it!
Do you know if they provide usage stats? Bandwidth, CPU, memory etc., for planning purposes?
They provide fairly basic stats for my VPS - bandwidth usage only in essence, but I would expect more is available in the paid-for control panel options (the included SolusVM panel is sufficient for my needs).
Also, I'm not too familiar with Xen, so, broadly, please, what's the difference between a "Virtual Dedicated Server (Xen HVM) [http://www.xensmart.co.uk/hvmplans.php]" and a "Virtual Private Server [http://www.xensmart.co.uk/plans.php]". Both are offering the same intro discount, but the former offers Gentoo 2010 and the latter Gentoo 2008... G2-2008 is reasonably easily updated, but that's likely to be at the consumption of a huge amount of bandwidth... We're still on Gentoo for a lot of services, so migrating to Ubuntu for those isn't an option right now.
As I understand it, the chief difference is the level at which the virtual machine is isolated from the host. The VPS offering has a shared kernel with the host OS (although you can load your own modules which are specific to your VM) whereas the VDS offering is a fully virtualised system, you run your own kernel within your VM. If you are looking to run Gentoo I presume you have rolled your own kernels so the VDS might a better option.
Regards,
Jim