Everything You Need To Know About Virtual Private Server (VPS)

A web hosting service is a type of internet service hosting service that allows an individual or an organization to make their own website accessible through World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that offer space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing internet connectivity. A server is any arrangement of hardware or software designed to provide services to clients.

A virtual private server (VPS) is a type of full featured internet hosting services. A virtual private server (VPS, also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server) is a method of splitting a server. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be autonomously rebooted. Physically there are multiple host servers which are actually hosting a user’s content but the user is unaware of the hosts and it appears as a single host. A VPS server is any combination of hardware or software designed to partition a physical server computer into multiple servers.

The physical server typically runs a Hypervisor which is tasked to create, demolish, and administer the resources of "Guest" operating systems. A hypervisor is a piece of software/hardware platform-virtualization software that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer concomitantly. The Guest system may be fully virtualized, paravirtualized, or a hybrid of both. In a fully virtualized setting, the guest is presented with a virtualized set of hardware and is unaware that this hardware is not strictly physical. . Almost all systems can be virtualized using this technique, as it requires no modification of the operating system; however a Central Processing Unit (C.P.U.) supporting virtualization is required for most hypervisors that perform full virtualization.

In a paravirtualized setting, the guest is aware of the hypervisor and interfaces directly with the host system's resources, with the hypervisor implementing real-time access control and resource allocation. These results in near-native performance since the guest sees the same hardware as the host and can thus communicate with it natively. Installing operating systems as paravirtualized guests tends to require more information about the operating system. UNIX- like systems such as Linux, currently known to support this technique of virtualization. Linux VPS hosting is done through Linux V-Server, Berkley UNIX, PLAN9 and Open Solaris.

Hybrid or partial paravirtualization, is full virtualization, but in which the guest uses paravirtualized drivers for key components such as Networking and Disk Input/output, resulting in greatly increase Input/output performance. As such, it is a common solution for operating systems which cannot be modified to support paravirtualiztion.

Microsoft Virtual Server is virtualization software which allows setting up a virtual private server on a Windows operating system. A WINDOWS VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVER (windows VPS) can be used on the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Hosting a virtual private server can be done through these operating systems, thus setting up a windows VPS hosting system. Linux VPS services gained more popularity than window VPS services due to its user friendly interface.

Virtual private servers bridge the hole between shared web hosting services and dedicated hosting services, A shared web hosting service refers to a web hosting service where many websites reside on a single web server connected to the Internet. Each site "sits" on its own section on the server to keep it separate from other sites, whereas a dedicated hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. As a VPS runs its own copy of its operating system, clients have super user-level access to that operating system, and can install almost any software that runs on the operating system. Certain software does not run well in a virtualized setting, including firewalls, anti-virus clients, and indeed virtualizers themselves.

Due to their secluded nature, VPSs have become common sandboxes for possibly-insecure public services or update testing. For example, a single physical server might have two virtual private servers operating: one hosting the production-level (live) website, and a second which houses a copy of it. When updates to critical parts of software need to be made, they can be tested in the second VPS, allowing for detailed testing to be conducted without requiring several physical servers. A sandbox is a security mechanism for untying running programs. It is often used to execute untested code, or non trusted programs from unverified third-parties, suppliers and non trusted users.

Virtual private servers are also sometimes employed as honey pots, allowing a machine to intentionally run software with known security flaws without endangering the rest of the server. Multiple honey pots can be quickly set up via VPSs in this way. A honey pot is important as a surveillance and early-warning tool.

A growing number of companies offer virtual private server hosting (VPS hosting), or virtual dedicated server hosting as an extension for Web hosting services known as VPS web hosting. Some web hosting companies call it a Virtual Private Server or a Virtual Dedicated Server/Dynamic Dedicated Server. There are two forms of virtual private server hosting; first is known as ‘Un-managed Hosting’ where the customer is left to monitor and administer their own server. While the other on is known as ‘Un-metered Hosting’ which is quite similar to un-managed hosting but a fixed bitrates is offered to the customer so that it is not possible for the customer to exceed a monthly budget.

VPS hosting is done by a number of companies such as Spry, Inmotion, Yahoo, VPSLINK and many others. These companies act as VPS hosts to their customers and provide them with VPS SERVERS. These firms offer a number of virtual private server plans to their customers who suit their budget and demands such as memory, storage disk and bandwidth. VPSLINK is a virtual private server host who provides its customers with Low rate or cheap virtual private servers (cheap VPS). Cheap VPS is handful for low budget organization who wishes to operate on virtual private server but compromising on the quality of the service or on storage capacity.

There are certain websites which provide virtual private server reviews. These websites review VPS hosts on the basis of reliability, support, network, and pricing. VPS ACCOUNTS and ENVISION WEB HOSTING are two examples of virtual private server review providers.

Some well known websites such as YouTube, Gmail, Hotmail, Wikipedia etc. are based upon Virtual Private Servers. Virtual private servers (VPS) are most widely used web hosting service nowadays because of its ease of use, reliability and a number of vps hosting companies providing this service. Thus Virtual Private servers are the best option to host a bulky website.