Please find answers to our most common questions about VPS’s below. If you have a question that is not answered here, please e-mail sales@claranetsoho.co.uk or give us a call on 0845 234 0711 between 9am and 8pm, Monday to Friday.

Questions

1. What is a virtual server?
2. What are the advantages of having a virtual server?
3. Are there any downsides to having a virtual server?
4. What virtualisation system do you use?
5. Do I get 'burstable RAM'?
6. How many virtual servers can you run on one host?
7. How many IP addresses do I get?

Answers

What is a virtual server?

A virtual server, sometimes referred to as a virtual dedicated server or a virtual private server, is a server that looks and acts like a dedicated server but which is actually a partition of a larger physical machine, which runs several virtual servers. The virtual servers do not have any hardware of their own but act as if the portion of the hardware allocated to them from the machine is their own.

What are the advantages of having a virtual server?

The main advantage is a significant reduction in operating costs. Most people using dedicated servers are not making use of all the CPU cycles, disk space or memory in their server; but are still paying for it. Virtual servers allow you to pay only for what you need.
There are other advantages - virtual servers can be upgraded with memory or disk space almost instantly, they can be migrated from one host to another easily and they reboot far quicker than dedicated servers.

Are there any downsides to having a virtual server?

The principal downside is that each server does not have exclusive access to the physical hardware. Although the virtualisation technologies we use are very good at ring-fencing memory and CPU resources, all the servers on one host share a physical network interface so you do not get access to the entire allocation. If you have an application which requires very heavy network or disk activity then a virtual server may not be for you.

What virtualisation system do you use?

We use Xen for linux and Hyper-V for windows.

Do I get 'burstable RAM'?

No, neither of the virtualisation technologies we use allow burstable RAM. There are a couple of reasons why burstable RAM is a bad idea: firstly, it means that areas of physical memory can be allocated to one server one minute and another server the next - this has security implications. Secondly, if you use burstable RAM your server might later see its memory allocation reduce. This can play havoc with the performance of some applications, particularly databases.

How many virtual servers can you run on one host?

Each host can run somewhere between seven and thirty virtual machines depending on the memory requirements of the virtual servers. We will never overload these machines, to the point where performance is affected.

How many IP addresses do I get?

Each server is installed with 5 unique IP addresses, the first is installed and the other four can be allocated from your Claranet control panel. If you need any more than that you just need to email us requesting more and telling us why you need them. We will not charge you for additional IP addresses.