Introduction
Are your looking for your own VPS Hosting account? In this article we have written some advice that we feel will benefit people ordering their first virtual private server.
Before ordering your VPS Hosting account it would be wise to decide the requirements you will need, this will assist you as you decide which VPS Hosting account is for you. However if you are unsure what resources your VPS Hosting will need; after purchasing your VPS Hosting you can upgrade your account with minimal downtime. The platform that you choose to run your VPS on requires a little more fore thought as it cannot be modified easily. All of our VPS Hosting accounts are run as guest accounts on a host machine built specifically to ensure the smooth operation of your VPS Account. In the following sections we will cover some of the important aspects of a VPS Hosting account.
Memory and swap space
This feature of your VPS hosting account is the most important facet of your new VPS Hosting account. The memory (RAM) that a VPS server has available to use at any given moment makes for a smoother and faster VPS. The swap (Virtual RAM) that your account has available to use is only used in extreme circumstances where onboard RAM has been depleted due to extremely high traffic loads etc.
Some thing to keep in mind at this point is that alot of VPS hosting providers may offer a comparatively large quantity of memory, but this may be because the memory is being shared with every other VPS on the host machine, but the VPS will not perform in the same way as with dedicated RAM.
If your host machine offers dedicated memory for the VPS then you have an amount of memory to use that no other VPS on the same host has any access to, which is clearly an advantage.
Host machine processors
As VPS Hosting accounts are all supported by one “host” machine; it is imperitive that the host machine has multiple cores so that it is cabable of serving the requirements that any or all of the VPS accounts ask of it.
Each of the host machines we use to serve our VPS hosting accounts have multiple core processors; this means that all of our VPS’s have access to two or more processors, providing ample processing power when and as they need it.
Virtual Hardware
Some VPS providers do not use true hardware virtualisation, but instead use a software layer with which the guest machines must communicate. This software layer must then relay the commands to the operating system. This approach causes a reduction in performance as the software layer is shared among all of the guests on the host machine.
Our host machines use true hardware virtualisation, so that the guest machine accesses to the hardware as directly as possible, which adds a significant increase in performance.
File System
Some VPS solutions use a single file in the host machine’s file system as the disk for the VPS. This approach decreases the performance of disk activity in the guest VPS, particularly as the size of this “file system” file increases. For this reason we offer direct disk access wherever possible.
Conclusion
It can be very difficult to pick a VPS solution that you can rely on for solid performance and a reliable host machine. At GLX Web Hosting we pride ourselves on high quality products and our excellent after sales support. If you are interested in a VPS I highly recommend that you take a look at the VPS offers we have, and if you have any questions then post a comment or send an email to info@glxwebhosting.co.uk
GLX Web Hosting Server Technician
