Pros and cons of VPS servers?

[David Lama]

I am currenly looking in the Servint essential package for 50 dollars a month.

I hear VPS packages are better than shared hosting??

well. tell me if this is good for a vb forum

ServInt VPS Package Details
Included with every VPS you get:
Price $49/mo
Operating System Red Hat Linux
Bandwidth Included 200GB
Bandwidth Overage Rate $1/GB
Guaranteed RAM 256MB
Burst RAM 1GB

Hard Disk Space 10GB
Fully Managed service with 24/7 support by phone and email
FREE - Full daily backup, even if you're over your disk allowance
FREE - Exclusive access to ServInt VPS Forums
FREE - Registration in our Referral program to earn free service and cash
FREE - Virtuozzo Power Panel
Full root access - install custom software, control your VPS
Hardware Details
Host System Specifications:
Intel Dual Xeon 3.06Ghz
8GB Registered ECC DDR RAM
73GB 15,000rpm U320 SCSI drives in Hardware RAID 10
Hot-Spare drives, zero downtime during failure
Hot-Swap drives and fans, replaceable on the fly
Redundant Hot-Swap power supplies
Control Panel Details
Linux only (VPS without control panel):
Daemons : ftp, pop, imap, smtp, dns
Apache (redhat version, includes mod_ssl)
MySQL (redhat version)
PHP 4.3.xVPS with cPanel:
Apache (cpanel version, includes mod_ssl/frontpage extensions)
PHP (cpanel version)
Webmail: Horde, NeoMail, SquirrelMail
Database : MySQL (Default), PostgreSQL (available)
Web/Mail Stats : Analog, Webalizer, Awstats, EximStats
FTP Daemons : proftpd (Default), pure-ftpd (available)
E-Commerce : interchange
Chat servers : entropychat (html based), melange (java based)
Mail related : Spamassassin, autoresponders, mail filtering, mail forwarding, majordomo mailing list manager and spamd (spamassassin daemon).
Web Related : Redirects, phpBB (bulletin board), phpMyChat, HotLink protection, Search engine submission.
CGI Scripts : FormMail, CGI Email, Random HTML Generator, Simple/Advanced Guestbook, Visitor Counter, Countdown clock, Java Clock, Entropy Banner (rotating banner ads).
System related : Disk quotas, Customizable backup, Bandmin, Ability to cluster, Scan for trojan viruses, AIM/ICQ/Pager notification and Shell fork bomb/memory hog protection.
Daemons (general): ftp, pop, imap, smtp, dnsVPS with Plesk 7.5 Reloaded
Plesk 7 Reloaded Power Pack: A bundle of the SpamAssassin, Application Pack, Helpdesk, Tomcat, ColdFusion, and PostgreSQL Add-Ons.
Apache (Plesk version, Supports SSI, Suexec, SSL, log files, CGI-BIN, HTAccess, Custom error documents, Web users, Multiple subdomain creation and types supported)
PHP (Any perl / php modules installed on server may be used for enhancing scripting capabilities)
Mail: IMP, SMTP, POP3 authorization and open / closed types of mail relaying, Optional SpamAssassin anti-SPAM email filtering, Includes and supports mail aliases, autoresponders and vacation messages, forwarding, spam filters, mailing lists, POP3/IMAP servers
Database : MySQL, PostgreSQL
Web/Mail Stats : Webalizer, Plesk Usage Reports
FTP Daemons : Extended Anonymous FTP configuration, Supports anonymous FTP for name-and IP-based
E-Commerce : osCommerce included
Development Tools : Includes ColdFusion Configuration Setup screen
Includes Mambo Site Building Application, Support Microsoft FrontPage, scripting languages (Perl, Python, PHP, Perl / ASP), Tomcat JSP
System related : Online File Manager includes a WYSIWYG html viewer
Includes a graphical file editor, with upload, download and attributes managers
Daemons (general): ftp, pop, imap, smtp, dns

it doesnt talk about whether or not I can backup my site???. where could I find that out?, I mean it does mention backups but doesnt mention if I can get copies

cause I want a host that lets me backup my site and have copys of my back up for free.

do you think that this is a good deal? and is it good enough for a site that I expect to have like 100 people on at a time.. and how many posts and stuff is 10gb diskspace? is that alot or a little?

[Lats]

ServInt backs up your data for you, and you can always get it back very quickly. It's a good idea to do your own as well to keep them off-site :)

10gB of space is quite of lot and should be enough to see you well into the future.

Are you sure about the 100 people, as the base vps 'may' be a little under powered in terms of RAM. You can always upgrade without downtime though at ServInt.

[David Lama]

Im not too sure about the 100 people thing. but I have high hopes :)

thanks for the response.

oh and. do you know if you can backup your site on your own with servint?? or do I have to ask them for a backup???

[Lats]

Basically, you can do anything you like on a VPS, as you have root access :)

Site backups can be performed using cpanel (my fav) if you wish and you have full access to mysqldump etc through the shell.

Might see you over there :D

[David Lama]

oh great!, thanks :D

[joeychgo]

It partly depends on who is managing it also. Its not shared, your level of management may decrease to a point. You may have to do your own security upgrades and what not - just depends on the host.

[David Lama]

I've been told 256mb RAM wouldnt be enough for VB to run succesfull with cpanel and all

so I think maybe I should get a bigger package

well. I guess I may just end up getting the signature package with Servint

which includes

$89.00/mo total
$0 setup
350GB Monthly Transfer
20GB Storage
2GB RAM burst
(guaranteed 512MB minimum)
RedHat Linux 9.0
4 IP addresses
Unlimited Domains
Unlimited user accounts

12 month prepay = $961.20

would I be fine with that?

[rh2004]

I've been told 256mb RAM wouldnt be enough for VB to run succesfull with cpanel and all

so I think maybe I should get a bigger package

well. I guess I may just end up getting the signature package with Servint

which includes

$89.00/mo total
$0 setup
350GB Monthly Transfer
20GB Storage
2GB RAM burst
(guaranteed 512MB minimum)
RedHat Linux 9.0
4 IP addresses
Unlimited Domains
Unlimited user accounts

12 month prepay = $961.20

would I be fine with that?

First go for the 256MB and see how it runs if you go for the 512MB you will not know how it performs. You can easily upgrade to the 512MB, they just change the settings for the VPS.

[Lats]

Agreed, nothing wrong with starting off on the smaller set-up. I started that way, and vB & cpanel had no problem running.

[David Lama]

^you started with the 256mb ram?? when did you decide it was time to upgrade? how many posts and members?

[David Lama]

oh yea I forgot to mention I already have 400 members and over 15,000 posts.

thats from the invisionfree forum I have that I plan on transerfering and stuff.

would that work with the small package or na??

[Lats]

At the 2,000 members point, I started to notice a slowdown, so there's no rush there :)

I upgraded to a deuce package a while ago, (a host machine with just 2 main accounts), for reasons not associated with vB although the forum now speeds along nicely.