We find ourselves in need to some tertiary DNS and other services, and am looking at either using a VM, or some co-lo.
In the case of the former, can anyone on-list recommend a Linux-supporting VM company, either Ubuntu or Gentoo (the latter fairly important)?
In the case of the latter, does anyone know and can recommend a local (to Ipswich) co-lo company with reasonable rates?
Bandwidth is an issue in each case, as we need to keep the servers current, and there's a fair amount of traffic flowing through.
Cheers, Laurie.
Laurie,
I can recommend these guys for a VPS:
http://www.xensmart.co.uk/plans.php
Their support is prompt and reliable, although I've not had cause to contact them for anything more technical than adding IP addresses to my VM. At the moment they have a 25% discount offer which I believe is still running.
I run ubuntu but they have system images for Gentoo, and you are able to re-kick your VM at any time through the management pages into a different distro.
HTH,
Jim
----- Original Message ----- From: "Laurie Brown" laurie@brownowl.com To: "ALUG" main@lists.alug.org.uk Sent: Wednesday, 6 October, 2010 10:25:15 AM Subject: [ALUG] Co-lo and VM hosting
We find ourselves in need to some tertiary DNS and other services, and am looking at either using a VM, or some co-lo.
In the case of the former, can anyone on-list recommend a Linux-supporting VM company, either Ubuntu or Gentoo (the latter fairly important)?
In the case of the latter, does anyone know and can recommend a local (to Ipswich) co-lo company with reasonable rates?
Bandwidth is an issue in each case, as we need to keep the servers current, and there's a fair amount of traffic flowing through.
Cheers, Laurie.
Jim Rippon wrote:
Laurie,
I can recommend these guys for a VPS:
http://www.xensmart.co.uk/plans.php
Their support is prompt and reliable, although I've not had cause to contact them for anything more technical than adding IP addresses to my VM. At the moment they have a 25% discount offer which I believe is still running.
I run ubuntu but they have system images for Gentoo, and you are able to re-kick your VM at any time through the management pages into a different distro.
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?
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.
Cheers, Laurie.
----- 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
Jim Rippon wrote:
----- 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).
I reckon that's ok, and much as I suspected.
[SNIP]
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.
Yeah, kernel-rolling (and much else) is pretty much a given on Gentoo, so yes, it looks as if the VDS is the one we need.
Many thanks for your help.
Just some local co-lo info needed now!
Cheers, Laurie.
On Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:25:15 +0100 Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com allegedly wrote:
We find ourselves in need to some tertiary DNS and other services, and am looking at either using a VM, or some co-lo.
In the case of the former, can anyone on-list recommend a Linux-supporting VM company, either Ubuntu or Gentoo (the latter fairly important)?
In the case of the latter, does anyone know and can recommend a local (to Ipswich) co-lo company with reasonable rates?
Bandwidth is an issue in each case, as we need to keep the servers current, and there's a fair amount of traffic flowing through.
Laurie
I use three different providers and can recommend all of them.
1. Bytemark - linux savvy and top marks for support. Their VMs are reasonably priced (starting at £15 pcm). They offer debian, ubuntu or centos, but not gentoo. I use my bytemark server for mail and web and the uptime is impressive. This is thgeone to go for for professionalism and reliability.
2. Daily.co.uk - not quite as good as Bytemark, but very high bandwidth allowance (750 Gig pcm) and cheaper. They too offer ubuntu/debian/centos.
3. A new kid on the block called Thrust (thrustvps.com) who offer silly bandwidth (1 TB pcm) for silly money (I paid 58 quid for a year). My only complaint here is that they are not too stable (not as bad as rapidswitch, but if you must be up four nines or more you may be disappointed.) But they are new and they offer Centos, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Slackware (!) and Gentoo as well as a bunch of BSDs
Mick
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Jim Rippon -
Laurie Brown -
mick