Basic types of hosting Types of hosting: advantages and disadvantages

Hostingis a way of hosting a website on the Internet, a service provided by a so-called hosting company that allows you to host websites on its servers.

Content:

• § one. Types and types of hosting
• § 2. How to choose hosting for the site?
• § 3.

The site cannot just work on the computer of a web programmer or a novice novice. To work, you need locally on the Internet (hosting).

Professional hosting companies provide developers with the right to host websites on special servers that are securely protected from all sorts of surprises.

Servers are located in special rooms, which maintain a certain microclimate (temperature and humidity). They have an autonomous emergency power source (so they are not afraid of power outages).

§ one.Types and types of hosting

Hosting services are of the following types:

Free hosting - completely free for the user. As a rule, a domain name is given in the hoster's subdomain, banner advertising often hangs on the hosting, which interferes with the design, the list of supported technologies is limited, and there is often no support for scripting languages ​​(php, asp.net and java). other divorces (the possibility of infection with a virus and sending spam).

Virtual hosting - the website is on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. The operation of all sites is managed through virtual hosts using the apache web server.

Hosting Resellers - hosting provider allows customers to become independent hosting providers. Dealers can set up their own server, create separate domains. The resellers then resell their hosting at a higher price to their customers, capitalizing on the difference. Dealers can vary greatly in size: they can have their own servers or rent them from a host.

Virtual Dedicated Server - Rent of a part of the server. It differs from the virtual one in that each user thinks that he has his own dedicated server, but he actually only shares it with other users. As a rule, users have access to the configuration settings of the part of the server that they rent, as well as adjust the amount of traffic, the number of databases, e-mail boxes and ftp accounts.

Dedicated server - The user rents or puts his server on the hosting site. Provides full control over the server (root access for Linux / administrator for Windows). Dedicated hosting is divided into customer self-service or hosting administrator service (for an additional fee). If the user has full administrative access, then this means that he is responsible for securing and maintaining his server.

Managed Hosting Services - The user gets their own Web server, but does not have full control over it (Linux root / administrator access for Windows). However, he can manage his data via FTP or other remote management tools. Users are denied full control for the reason that the provider must guarantee the quality of service by not allowing the user to change the server configuration or create potentially dangerous configuration problems. The user, as a rule, does not own the server, but only rents it.

Colocation - this is a hosting company's service to provide the client with a platform for installing client or equipment rented from the hoster with the condition of an Internet connection. A clear advantage of this type of hosting is that in this case the client needs to pay only for the "visitor - operator's server" segment. Colocation is justified if the site receives very high traffic from a large number of entry points.

§ 2. How to choose hosting for a website?

When choosing free hosting services, you must clearly understand what tasks are set for the existing site. Because hosting providers do not give anything to anyone for free, and in return they automatically add their advertisements to your site. Free hosting sites do not support most modern Internet technologies, or have limited access to them. And if you make your choice consciously, then ouran objective review of free hostingfully answer the question:which free hosting to choose?

Find out the location of the site, the closer they are to the site visitor, the faster the site itself loads;

Read reviews;

Do not pay immediately for hosting for a long time;

Technical support should respond quickly within a few hours, around the clock and seven days a week;

Disk space up to 1000MB. enough for anyone;

Traffic is preferably not limited.

The choice of hosting depends on the individual needs of the Webmaster. Almost all providers offer similar services. Their difference is only in price, quality of service and time spent on the market of services provided.

§ 3. How to put a site on the Internet?

In order for your site to become available to many millions of people on the Internet, you need to do two things:

• 1. Assign it an individual name - domain.
• 2. Place the site on any server - (use the hosting service)

Step by step placement of the site on the hosting:

1. Download Filezilla.

2. Enter hosting information.

3. Upload the necessary files to the host folder.

Without such a service, the Internet simply could not exist and develop so intensively. Webmasters would have nowhere to host their sites. Even if you place the site on a local (home) computer, it is impossible to keep it up and connected to the Internet all the time.

Hosting services can be divided into:

• - Virtual Hosting (or just Hosting);
• - Virtual dedicated server (or VPS, aka VDS);
• - Rent a dedicated server.

§ 4. List of free hosting

Here is an overview of services only for the purpose of showing the highest quality services that provide free hosting.

Free hosting is usually provided for the following reasons:
- earning from advertising on the client's website
- earning from SEO-links on the client's website
- earnings from SMS sent by customers during registration
- earnings from domains purchased by clients
- the client will eventually grow and start paying
- collect client sites, register domains for yourself and disappear
- collect client sites and turn your hosting into a paid hosting (if the site was on a pre-installed constructor, you simply cannot move to another hosting).

Technical support will not help in solving your problems, and the site may be down for many hours during maintenance. But on a free hosting you can "practice". In general, take risks and make backups.

We strongly recommend that you pay attention to our review of paid hosting, because if your web project claims at least a drop of seriousness, in the future you will be very dissatisfied with the quality of free hosting services.

Do not forget to write your comment if you liked the article. A few words from you, and for me - the recognition of search engines that I write normal human articles. Thank you in advance!

In Russia, more than a hundred companies offer VPS hosting services, supplementing them with management and support services, security, and software licensing. Previously, the "right" hosting company was determined by the storage capacity, CPU power, and network bandwidth that it provided for a certain amount of money. Now the emphasis has shifted somewhat: among the most important factors is high availability. For example, Forbes magazine recommends that those who are going to launch and constantly develop their site use VPS when choosing a VPS provider. A complex approach, that is, take into account a whole set of criteria. Of course, the best choice of web hosting provider depends largely on the type of site you are hosting. However, there are some general but very important factors to consider when choosing a VPS provider.

The differences between VPS hosting and cloud hosting, which is gaining popularity, are worth explaining in more detail. The VPS user gets a virtual environment with dedicated disk or SSD space and bandwidth, but the compute resources and RAM of the host system are evenly distributed across all VPSs. Cloud hosting is virtual machines in the cloud. With such hosting (essentially - IaaS, infrastructure as a service), physical servers are combined into a cluster, and storage systems - into a storage area network (SAN). As a result, cloud hosting uses a distributed server infrastructure. This makes the provisioning process more flexible and increases the fault tolerance of the service, but the freedom of users in choosing hosting options is more limited than in the case of VPS, and configuration may require certain knowledge.

So how do you choose a truly reliable and high-quality service? What to pay attention to? Here are some tips.

1. Availability level

Using servers with insufficient processing power and unstable network connections can often block access to your site. This not only leads to the inability to view web pages or stop sales in the e-commerce system, but also leads to a low ranking of the site in search engines such as Google and Yandex. A guaranteed reliability level of 99.5% is usually sufficient, but sometimes 99.9% or higher is required. The performance of your site can be monitored using the appropriate tools.

For example, hosting company-based financial transactions require choosing a provider with high uptime rates, preferably above 99.5%, is the key to your site's success. Avoid companies that have an uptime rate below 99%.

High availability and fault tolerance of servers is guaranteed not only by the use of a Tier III level data center provider, but also by several high-speed communication channels and independent power supplies in conjunction with a reliable redundancy system and load balancers.

2. Customer service

How effectively and quickly are they eliminated? technical problems? How does the support service work? VPS hosting is preferred, which offers constant support to its customers - 24/7. Also pay attention to those who provide support via chats and social networks rather than just relying on emails. Priority is given to companies that have their own customer support department and certified specialists. They better understand the essence of the client company and the specifics of its business in comparison with the outsourced support service.

3. Data protection and availability of website backups

The current wave of cyber threats has resulted in an increase in the number of sites targeted by various types of attacks and ransomware. Such actions often lead to irreparable losses, the inability to recover data encrypted by ransomware. Therefore, regular data backup becomes very important. You should choose a host that provides regular backups, which will allow you to restore your site if it does suffer from hackers or other unpredictable events.

4. Registration and maintenance costs

Usually web hosting offers attractive hosting services for a certain period after registration or after the first payment or even a free trial period. However, subscription renewal fees are often more than three times as high. To avoid surprises at the end of the discount period, check how much you will have to pay for the renewal of the selected package.

5. Ability to add domains

You can start with one website and domain name, but then you need multiple sites, domains, and subdomains. Therefore, before entering into an agreement with a particular service provider, analyze the different packages, paying close attention to whether they allow you to use multiple websites on one account.

Usually hosting providers allow unlimited subdomains. If, however, this option does not suit you to create several sites, and you need top-level domains, then you will need an appropriate tariff plan.

Find out the price of a package with unlimited websites and subdomains. Choose a web host that provides plans that allow you to add new domains, scale over time.

6. E-commerce and mail

You will be able to get more reviews and increase the number of subscribers if there is an email associated with your domain name. Choose a web host that provides mail for your website's primary email address. If you want your hosting provider to handle addresses Email, then you need to make sure that email support is included in his tariff plan. If this is the case, then you need to find out how many email accounts you can have, whether this is enough for your tasks.

7. Security level

In addition to ensuring the availability of the site and data, you need to use a secure hosting solution. Any site requires security, but in some cases enhanced protection is needed. For example, the site may store personal data of users or process data bank cards. Pay attention to firewalls, malware detection tools, DDoS protection, whether servers are being monitored for unusual activity, etc.

8. Storage capacity and network

The storage capacity required by VPS depends on site traffic, size/number of files. The larger the size and number of files, the more storage capacity and network bandwidth required. For example, if the site works with databases, it stores high-quality images or videos, then you will need a large storage capacity. If the amount of data is large and you know there will be a lot of traffic, then you need to find out how much bandwidth you have allocated and whether you will exceed it.

9. Managed hosting

In the case of managed hosting, most of the tasks are performed by the provider. He is also responsible for optimizing the speed and performance of the VPS. This option may be useful, for example, in the case of the processing of personal and financial data. However, this hosting is more expensive and usually allows you to create fewer sites. It is usually offered for a specific type of site.

10. Special conditions

Each hosting company has a set of conditions, the violation of which leads to additional costs client, or even temporary or permanent termination of hosting. For example, some hosting providers prohibit excessive use of processor power for intensive computing and scripting. Take the time to review all terms and conditions and discuss requirements. Most importantly, you should avoid hosting companies without clear conditions for participation, when "limitation and suspension of the account is at the discretion of the management" of the hosting.

VPS configuration

Your server configuration - especially if you're on a regular VPS hosting - plays an important role in your site's performance.

How much processing power you get, how much RAM and disk capacity you get, everything matters. In addition, it is useful to know what hardware platform your VPS is based on. To create a convenient and high-quality service, you need equipment from a well-known Entreprise class vendor and a Tier III data center.

• RAM and Storage Capacity: How much RAM and storage space is offered and included in the plan? You will need at least 1 GB of RAM and 20 GB of disk space. Of course, the exact needs will vary depending on your site traffic, storage requirements, etc.
• Data transfer (traffic): Are there any restrictions on data transfer? If yes, what are the options if you exceed these limits? Most VPS providers impose some restrictions. You need to know what they are and what will happen if you need to surpass them.
• OS Distribution: What is the choice in terms of VPS operating system? Will your site run on a specific Linux distribution (or is it dependent on latest version distribution) or requires Windows? It is important that the VPS provider updates the OS regularly.
• Backup: What are the backup options? How secure is your data and site architecture?
• IP Addresses: How many IP addresses are included in your service? If there is a limit, what is the cost of additional addresses?
• CPU Cores: Web servers tend to use little CPU power unless you're running a game server or mining crypto. But it's still better to know how many cores are allocated to a VPS account.
• The speed of the storage system. If the requirements for the I / O subsystem are high, then you can use high-performance eMLC-class SSDs with speeds over 100k IOPS. Some hosting providers provide such features.

Virtualization environment

VPS is often used by small companies and is suitable for web hosting (including high-load sites) and application hosting, software testing and development, server consolidation, virtual desktop deployment (VDI). All this at an attractive price, without the purchase of physical servers and capital investments in infrastructure.

VPS services can use different types of virtualization, for example, OpenVZ (at the operating system) or KVM (hardware). In the first case, one common core of the system and the type of OS chosen by the provider are used. With full virtualization (based on Xen, KVM or Hyper-V), the OS core is physically separated, and each "tenant" can install the required OS. It is considered more reliable, because. virtual servers are completely isolated from each other, offering a wider choice of operating systems.

VPS based on Hyper-V is a complete analogue of a physical server in terms of administration and configuration. You can install any OS, Windows or Linux, install any additional software, configure it, adjust the capacity of RAM or disk space, IP addresses. Microsoft Hyper-V provides the ability to scale resources without stopping the service. Such a VPS can be used as a database server, terminal server, DNS, FTP or as a remote workplace. The VPS management process can be fully automated.

Virtual Data Center or Virtual Server?

The use of virtual servers allows you to solve a number of important business problems. The service allows you to significantly save time due to the rapid deployment of an IT infrastructure with the necessary parameters and with the possibility of further expansion. No need to invest in your own IT infrastructure, which allows you to minimize CAPEX. And finally, the current costs for the development and maintenance of the IT infrastructure are significantly reduced.
To create a complex IT infrastructure, you may need a virtual data center - a collection of virtual resources (servers, disks, networks), which is a set of elements for storing, processing and transmitting data.

The answer to the question posed in the title is not as obvious as it seems at first glance. A virtual server and a virtual data center have quite a lot in common. Choose a virtual server if you have a small project (a simple website or web page) that does not require a complex IT infrastructure, if you have previously worked only with a virtual server or shared hosting, you have no experience in OS and network administration, you do not want to deal with NAT rules (you will have to configure them in a virtual data center in order to get access via RDP or SSH) and other settings.

A whole virtual data center (VDC) may be needed if you have a medium or complex project (online store, accounting or corporate information system) that requires the creation of several VMs in one local network, you need settings for a load balancer, firewall and others network services, if the capabilities of a typical VPS are not enough, and you want to create virtual machines with your own OS.

However, this requires an advanced level of OS and network administration, experience with VMware or OpenStack products, and a high level of knowledge of issues information security. VDC- a good choice when there is a need to use test environments, or it is required to activate several VMs during peak periods with the possibility of dynamic billing based on resource consumption.

If we proceed from the capabilities of these two services, then they are much wider for a virtual data center and include changing the configuration and quantity, connecting to a VM different types drives (HDD, SSD), installing your own OS, creating your own VM templates, importing/exporting your own VM templates and ISO images, creating a network infrastructure with a firewall, NAT, DHCP, load balancer, VPN (SSL, IPSec).

Using a virtual data center, the customer receives a wide range of functions, in particular, creating and configuring an unlimited number of VMs, setting up network parameters and creating the required network topology with full control of services placed in the cloud.

A virtual data center is a secure environment and the freedom to scale resources, but if you have a small budget, VPS hosting is recommended. In fact, a virtual server is similar to a dedicated one - you have full control over it, you can reboot it, and it costs much less. VPS hosting is preferred for personal use and SMB customers, while virtual data center is preferred for larger customers who require more customization and scalability. If you want high reliability and powerful features, then virtual data center is a good choice.

The VPS service is popular with small companies that often cannot afford to buy or rent a server in a data center (physical equipment). You can create a virtual server in minutes, and the process itself can be automated. VPS is suitable for those who are just interested in website hosting. However, it does not guarantee the uptime of your site in the event of heavy traffic or technical failure. You just need to remember about the limitations, because the resources of one dedicated server are distributed among several virtual ones, a common communication channel with virtual servers running on one dedicated server is used.

In general, the pros and cons of different types of hosting come down to the following:

Typical examples of using a virtual server

If you need somewhere to host your site or several sites, then VPS will be the best solution. Installation and configuration is simple and understandable even for a beginner. In most cases, VPS are purchased specifically for hosting sites. This makes it possible to organize the workspace according to your needs (selection of CMS, database and control panels for the site). If you have a large number of sites, it is much easier to manage them using one control panel, as well as pay with one service provider.

Another option is a VPN server. VPN is an encrypted channel between your device and a remote virtual server. The reasons for creating a VPN tunnel can vary. For example, to transfer payment data or other information of a commercial nature that has strategic importance or intended for internal use only.

On the basis of VPS, you can run your own secure telephone server, with the ability to create many internal numbers. Cloud PBX on VPS - replacement of a physical office PBX with its virtual counterpart. What do virtual (or cloud) PBXs give businesses? This is accessibility outside the workplace, the ability to use a single office number, flexibility of configuration and management, the use of additional functions that are difficult to implement on a classic mini-PBX, for example, video communication or integration with a CRM system, information about calls is stored in a database in a digital form - more opportunities for analyzing activity and using information for marketing purposes.

A VPS-based proxy server allows you to protect the client's computer from some network attacks and helps maintain the anonymity of the client. Many providers provide IPV6 addresses, and proxies can be used to replace your address with the address of the provider, if such a task is required.

VPS can also act as a remote computer. This is a computer "that is always with you" and to which you have access from anywhere.

On a virtual server, you can install a mail server familiar to users (Outlook, The Bat, Thunderbird, and others). You get full control and extensive administration options. VPS can be used to organize work with applications to support teamwork. It is great for applications that have a large number of employees working at the same time, such as project management systems, accounting and CRM systems. With daily backups, you don't have to worry about losing your data. Add tags

The choice of hosting type is very important even before placing an existing site on the hosting platform. If changing the tariff plan (increasing RAM, disk space, processor time) is possible within certain limits without any problems, then changing the type of hosting is associated with a fairly large amount of work, in fact, transferring the site to a new server.

Main types of hosting:

Shared (shared, general)- on one powerful server, the hoster creates many home directories for domains and subdomains. Directories of one user are isolated from viewing by another user at the level of file system rights. Quite frequent problems are associated with this, when users in one way or another manage to bypass this restriction and gain access to all directories, thus downloading the scripts and documents of all users hosted by the hoster on one server.

Each user of shared hosting is allocated a limit on the number of domains that can be created on one tariff. There is a limit on the amount of disk space and many other limits. Processor time and RAM on this type of hosting is not limited, because due to its architecture it is impossible to do this.

As a rule, hosters use two (at least) physical servers to create shared hosting. One - under HTTP and FTP, the second - DBMS.

Similar limits are set on the database server: one hosting user can create no more than several databases and use no more a certain number accounts to access them. Moreover, on the cheapest tariff plans, access to the database server may not be available at all.

When choosing a tariff plan for shared hosting, you should pay attention to Special attention on a set of options offered at a certain tariff. For example, the site you are planning to migrate uses SSI (automatic insertion of pieces of code into all pages on the server side even before the page is given to the visitor). There is a non-zero chance that SSI will be disabled at the minimum tariff and the site will not work as expected.

Unconditional and the only advantage of shared hosting in the price. It doesn't have any pros and cons...

The first and main disadvantage is the performance of the servers. Any hoster hosts thousands of sites on one server at the initial rates of shared hosting (the cheapest). If this is not done, then it is impossible to ensure the profitability of the business. There are Western hosting companies that host more than 10,000 sites on one (!) physical server. This is a very powerful server, but if 10 visitors and a couple of search robots visit 500-1000 sites at the same time, then the server will "lay down" and all the other thousands of sites will become thoughtful with it.

Normal hosters are always looking for a balance between the number of sites on one physical server and its performance during peak hours. For such servers, 100% memory and processor utilization during peak hours is perfectly acceptable, but a slow disk subsystem will kill the server.

Similarly, the load on the DBMS servers is distributed. That is, on shared hosting, the hoster squeezes the maximum out of iron, otherwise shared becomes unprofitable for him.

The main signal about problems with server performance under shared hosting is the loss of connection to the database by the scripts (by timeout) and / or indecent for a long time return of the static page to the visitor. Less commonly, failures on the database server with broken tables can occur.

If such problems occur regularly, there is no point in contacting the hoster's technical support (they are well aware of these problems), but it is better to go to another hoster. This recommendation is valid only in cases where your site does not add traffic. If traffic is growing, then without waiting for problems, at the first sign of their appearance during peak traffic hours, you need to switch to more productive types of hosting (and not to more expensive shared hosting tariffs, because there are no limits on the processor and memory on this type of hosting ).

If your site gets more and more traffic, and you do not change the type of hosting to increase its speed, you remain on shared hosting, then the hoster can start "squeezing out" such a site from the hosting. It's ugly, but that's their business. Your site can create a noticeable load on the server (on shared hosting, the load on the server by each site is necessarily analyzed by the server admins) and in peaks one site can "stack" thousands of others. In such situations, the hoster can, without prior notice, transfer your site to a "killed" server or to a server they call "sump" (old hardware, almost always 100% loaded). Your site will practically cease to work, but, technically, it will be available. This "squeezing out" can continue until you change the type of hosting or hosting provider.

A DDoS attack on any of the sites on a shared site, even with active opposition from the hoster, is a problem for thousands of customers. The server does not have the performance reserves to serve garbage traffic leaked through DDoS filters.

As a rule, immediately after the start of an attack on a site on shared hosting, the hoster simply blocks all traffic to such a site at the entrance to the data center. Your site may not be available at all.

A new site with a large number of pages may cause increased interest from search robots. On the other hand, traffic to such a site will be minimal, and the load from it during indexing will be noticeable. Limit restrictions may start to work, for example, an error message will be returned instead of site pages for queries to the database and search engines. With the regular occurrence of such problems, search engines may stop coming to such a site for a very long time.

So is it possible to use shared hosting with so many disadvantages? Yes, definitely. But always at the stage of preparing the site, you need to remember that it will work on a shared site. Hundreds of clients on the same server with you may have problems with their sites using CMS, which require a database to work, and you can create a site that at the same time will open in the visitor's browser in a fraction of a second. The secret is simple - use statics on the initial rates of shared hosting, i.е. pages as html files. Apache without special tuning to give more than 1000 static files per second. At the same time, when using dynamics (database, scripts), performance will be around (ideally) 10-15-20 requests per second. The load on the server and the resources required to return one static and dynamic page to the visitor are incommensurable.

Using statics is much easier if the tariff allows SSI. You can make all the design and menu of the site in the form of several files and include them in certain places of the article templates. Your static site will be easy to administer and it will delight visitors and search robots with the speed of work even at a rate of 100 rubles per month.

VPS (VDS, virtual machine)- the hoster uses any common virtualization system and virtual machine control panel via https. This can be Hyper-V if hosting Windows, or, for example, Virtuozzo in the case of Linux.

For those who are not familiar with virtualization, a few words about this type of hosting. A virtualization system (hypervisor) is installed on bare metal, without an OS or with an OS in a minimal configuration. The system allows you to create "containers" (virtual machines, guest systems), in which ordinary operating systems are then installed. Thus, on one physical server, a spherical hoster today has an average of 16-32 guest machines (one gigabyte of memory each).

By purchasing this type of hosting, you get a full-fledged operating system at your disposal, you can format disks and reinstall the OS in a semi-automatic mode using the control panel. You can install any software you want, etc. Depending on the OS, you get administrative access either via RDP or root access via SSH. Accordingly, the burden of supporting the OS, its settings, tuning and updating falls on you. Many hosting companies offer the services of their administrator for money.

The main characteristics of a virtual dedicated server are the processor time and the amount of available memory. The details of these limits depend on the specific host and virtualization system. For example, the hoster may allow you to use more processor for a short time than indicated in the tariff, but on the condition that this is not for a long time and the processor is not yet particularly loaded by other virtual machines. Likewise with memory. If your VPS suddenly wanted 1.5 gigabytes of memory, and the tariff is only per gigabyte, then the VPS can get these 1.5 gigabytes, or maybe it will be denied. Then your OS will start swapping (using a swap file) and that's where the fun begins in this type of hosting.

Disk activity for virtual machines is not limited.

Rather, there are limits (for volume), but they are not related to the speed of reading or writing to disks. If you're not lucky, then there will be someone on the same physical server as your VPS who will either hard swap or actively write / read from disks. In this case, file operations on all VPSs on this physical server will start to slow down. The problem has an avalanche-like development. One VPS ate the entire exchange with the disk - the rest of the VPS began to wait - all web servers began to keep open connections for visitors, waiting for content to be read from the disk - everyone began to increase the amount of memory used - gradually there was no more memory for each - everyone starts using the swap file (write and read from the disk) - the disk is already loaded to zero - everything is dead. In practice, this happens very rarely and is more often associated with problems in the disk subsystem of servers (a degraded raid array, for example), but if this happens, then everything on the server gets worse.

Almost all hosters offering VPS declare unlimited traffic, subject to the ratio of incoming to outgoing and foreign to Russian traffic. This means that as part of the tariff payment, you must ensure that you download 4 times more data than you upload to the server. Usually, the excess of this ratio is paid according to the results of traffic statistics for the month at a separate rate, which is specified in the annex to the contract. If, according to the results of the month, you see an insufficient ratio of outgoing to incoming, then you can fix it by downloading several large files. Full system backups are best for this role. The situation is completely similar with the division into foreign and Russian traffic. The division of subnets into Russian and foreign ones can be different for different hosters and depends on their agreements with the sellers of backbone data transmission channels. It would seem that if you comply with the ratios, then there is nothing to worry about, because no more restrictions are stated in the tariff and additional conditions for it. Unfortunately, there is an unwritten limit on the amount of traffic leaving the server. Theoretically, the hoster gives you a bandwidth of 100 megabits (or a piece of it left after dividing the bandwidth into all VPS). But if your VPS starts actively downloading something that noticeably loads the hoster's channel, then the shaper will not keep you waiting long. The speed to your VPS will be reduced to 5-10 megabits, depending on the mood of the host. This is done by all hosters, both in Russia and in Europe. Similar restrictions apply to both rented servers and your own servers located in the hosting data center, which will be discussed in the following parts.

Another feature of VPS is the need to create backups not only of the root directory of the web server and databases, but of the entire state of the server. This will allow you to quickly restore the entire server in a variety of bad situations, but the hoster will either allocate very little space for storing such large backups as part of the tariff, or this option will be offered for separate money.

Most virtualization systems offer (semi)automatic full state backups of the entire server (a copy of its virtual hard disk). This feature should be looked for in the virtual machine control panel, accessible via https. Usually, the hoster allows you to store one or two copies of the entire hard drive for free. In some virtualization systems, creating a complete copy of a virtual server can be done from the scheduler (crown) using a special utility. Restoring the state of the server from such a backup takes several minutes, after which the server is immediately ready to work in the state in which it was at the time of the backup. In addition to such a full backup, it is always necessary to create a backup copy of the web server root directory (all scripts, documents, etc.) and a database dump (you can stop the DBMS for a couple of minutes at night and make a copy of the table files, or without stopping the DBMS dump all databases). Such a backup should be archived and automatically uploaded to another server. The meaning of this dump is that if something happens to your VPS and backups, or the hoster for some reason closes your access to the virtual machine and control panel, then the site will not be lost and it can be restored on another hosting for reasonable time (hence the need to never register domain names with a hoster or do it from a separate account).

Summarizing. VPS hosting, perhaps, will be the most optimal solution both for projects with a fairly large traffic (individually for each project, at higher rates without using any exotic engines, 20-30 thousand unique visitors per day will not be a problem for VPS), and for projects with low traffic, but who want their sites to always work very quickly. Or almost always ;)

Dedicated (dedik, rent)- renting a physical server from a hoster, already installed in a rack and connected to the network. At the request of the customer, the hoster will install either Windows on the server (already licensed, most likely the Web version, but some hosters offer to choose the OS version, which, of course, affects the rental price), or Linux. You get a separate car at your complete disposal. If the rented server is branded, then it may have ILO (HP) on board - a built-in KVM. This allows you to receive a picture, control the keyboard and mouse through the network, bypassing the operating system, i.e., KVM will send you a picture from the screen, starting from the moment the server passes the POST. Using KVM, you can enter the BIOS through the network and configure it, which cannot be done with any other method of remote connection to the server. If the provision of KVM is not included in the tariff, then check if the hoster provides KVM at all. Some do it on demand through the control panel.

Renting a server has several unconditional advantages.

You get a physical server at your disposal and can configure the OS and software on it the way you want. You can place on it not a website, but, for example, an organization's mail server or any other services. You can include this server in your VPN local network and for users, it will look like servers physically located on the local network.

The second plus is that all problems with the server hardware are solved by the hoster. Components will be replaced within the agreed period conditionally free of charge.

The downside of this solution is the price. Russian hosters offer rental prices in such a way that for a hoster the price of a server will be returned in six months or a year, and a client, as a rule, rents one server for several years. Before deciding to rent a server, do not be too lazy to take a calculator and compare the rates of one hoster for a dedicated server and colocation, taking into account placement, for example, for 3 years.

Another disadvantage of renting is associated with a rather poor offer to upgrade the server. You can replace hard drives with faster or more capacious ones, you can install additional hard drives, add memory, but still you won’t get the configuration flexibility that you have when placing your server.

When renting, the same restrictions on traffic ratios apply as when renting a VPS. If your project has an audience mainly in the west, then it makes sense to rent a server in Europe. For the same amount you will get several times faster server, or if you rent servers of equal capacity, you will save a lot of money. If the audience of the project is mainly Russian, then it is better to rent a server from our hosters that have direct links to traffic exchange points in large cities. When renting in the west, you need to prepare a rental payment channel (Visa) in advance and be ready to communicate with support in English (at a minimum: name the client number, describe the problem and ask WTF?).

Renting a server implies taking care of backups on your own, taking into account the possible failure of the server disk subsystem. That is, such a complete backup must be created and stored not on a rented server, which will allow the fallen server to be returned to work in a reasonable time. Please note that RAID-1 (mirror) will not protect data in case of a controller error that immediately goes to the entire mirror or in case of an unexpected power outage (yes, yes, this is a Russian hosting, the power may suddenly turn off in the data center, the second input will be under repair, the diesel engine is rusty, and the ups will last for 2 minutes) in the absence of a battery on the raid controller. Many hosts offer special rates for storing backups.

Server administration, of course, must be performed either by the tenant himself, or some hosters offer tariffs for the services of their administrators.

Renting a dedicated server is the best solution for very large projects that are not ready or do not want to buy their own servers for any reason. In addition, the lease removes dependence on the "neighbors" in the VPS and the tenant receives a physical server at his full disposal.

Colocation (colocation, colo, accommodation)- renting a rack space, a port and an electrical outlet from a hoster. The tenant buys the server himself, brings it to the data center (data processing center, data center) and the hoster's employee installs the server in the rack. The hoster does not have any access to the server, at most it can restart the server with a reset by a ticket (request through the control panel). In case of any problems with the server (hardware burned out, OS does not boot), the tenant must first sign up to work with the server and drive to the data center at the specified time. There, the hoster's employee will bring the server to a separate room with a monitor, keyboard and mouse, after which the tenant solves the problem with the server on the spot or takes away (replaces) the server.

The colocation hoster provides the server with redundant power (in normal data centers, these are two (at least) independent inputs from different substations, powerful UPS and a diesel generator) and a "100 megabit full duplex port".

"Port 100 megabits fullduplex" - means exactly what between the server and the hoster's switch is a 100 megabit link. The channel to the Internet at the server on the tariff "subject to the ratios, the traffic is free" (see the description of the ratios above), will be of any width, but definitely less than 100 megabits. If the server will download a lot (terabytes per month), then the speed will be forcibly reduced (shaper) and you will be asked to purchase "bandwidth". The cost of the strip today is in the region of 500-700 rubles per megabit. Accordingly, if the tenant wants to have a guaranteed symmetrical speed to and from the server of 100 megabits, then it will cost him 50,000-70,000 rubles per month. For this money, the problems with the hoster setting up huge bills for traffic during DDoS and with the volume of traffic given by the server are completely removed.

When choosing a colocation, you need to pay special attention to the ability to use the hoster's IP-KVM (see above) in case of problems with the server. If the hoster does not provide such an opportunity, then any problem will lead to the need to go to the data center. If there is a problem with the server during non-working hours, then access to the data center may either not be available at all, or at a separate rate.

The hoster can accommodate two types of cases: unit-based (installation in a 19" rack) and tower (installation on shelves). Unfortunately, there are not many data centers that accept towers. As a rule, the cost of placing a low tower and 1 unit approximately equal, but the usable volume of a tower-type case is much larger.This allows you to place a more powerful server for one money, with a raid on several hard drives and any expansion cards.

Some hosters provide for little money the possibility of organizing a local network between several servers of one tenant. This is very convenient, because it allows you to make cross backups (from one server to another) and even in the event of a complete failure of one server, quickly move traffic to another server.

Normal hosters provide several IP addresses when hosting one server. This allows you to build a flexible infrastructure using virtualization systems.

If only one server is installed in the rack, then you will have to solve the problem of unloading large backups from the server. You should always keep a copy of the backup (at least the root directory of the webserver and databases) outside of the hosted server. To do this, you can purchase space on the hoster's disks at a special rate ("archival") or, if possible, upload the backup to your other external servers.

The price of a collocation is slightly more or equal to the price of a dedik. But the flexibility in choosing a server configuration and easy upgrades, especially when accommodating a tower type, is worth the money. On the other hand, you should always be ready to go to the data center and quickly change, for example, a hard drive. The issue of OS licensing will also have to be solved independently.

Colocation is great for large developing projects. Rack Mountable additional equipment, servers, combining them into a local network through their own gigabit switch, makes it easy to distribute the load (caching frontends, web servers and database servers), create fault-tolerant solutions. The ability to install not only servers, but also active network equipment in a hoster rack, allows you to organize "iron" velans, vpns, use your own solutions for DDoS protection, etc.

Hosting ids- I propose once and for all to deal with the classification of hosting by the type of services provided by the hosting company and I hope that after reading this article, none of us will get confused in the terminology when entering the hosting site. Today we will find out what are types of hosting.

Hosting types

Let's start by refreshing the definition of hosting.

Wikipedia tells us that

Hosting is a service for providing computing power for the physical placement of information on a server that is constantly on the network (usually the Internet). Hosting is also called a service for placing client equipment on the provider's territory, ensuring its connection to high-bandwidth communication channels (collocation, from English collocation).

Shared hosting

Despite the tricky name, shared hosting is a simple and common service. Means that several sites are located on the hard drive of one web server. Depending on the selected tariff plan, you are allocated a certain number of gigabytes and some limitation on the use of resources. And if you can’t get to someone else’s sector of the hard disk, just like your neighbors, then here are the resources - memory, processor, software - common to everyone.

I P-address on a shared hosting can be both common for all and separate for each website hosted on a web server. My site, for example, has a common one for everyone. I can even see what kind of neighbors I have.

P plus virtual hosting - low cost. Therefore, most sites choose this type of hosting.

M inus - in possible failures in the translation of your site on the Internet. This can happen if one of the neighbors on the server experiences a sharp overrun of resources, and the system cannot quickly respond to the peak load. Something similar happens during a DDos attack on a server.

Virtual Private Server

One step higher in the gradation of hosting types is a virtual dedicated server - this is when a group of websites is located on one physical web server, but each of them has its own virtual server. With all the consequences - your own IP address, full control and management of machine resources and its configuration.

VPS (Virtual Private Server) or VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) - you can see such abbreviations of a virtual dedicated server on hosting websites, they are in sufficient demand among users, as they allow you to combine the advantages of virtual and physical servers.
Prices for VPS fluctuate in a fairly wide range, since the range of connected services and configurations is wide. As a rule, for VPS with minimal prices, you will have to deal with the administration of the operating system yourself without the support of a hosting company.

Dedicated server

A dedicated server is a type of hosting in which one website is allocated one physical server. The advantage of such hosting is that the performance of your server does not depend on the workload of other web resources, you can change the server configuration at your discretion, or even stop the computer for technical work. Minus VS is a high price corresponding to the level of service. But, if you are going to promote a video or a gaming portal or another resource-intensive project, it looks like you cannot avoid buying a dedicated server.

Collocation

And, finally, the last type of hosting for today is collocation.
Suppose you are the owner of physical equipment for creating a full-fledged web server, but do not have access to high-speed output channels in global network. Then you negotiate with the hosting company and install your equipment on the hosting site with the condition of connecting to the network. This service is called collocation. Another option - you rent from the provider and equipment and channel. What is the meaning of collocation? Yes, in that you do not pay for the segment: the end user is the provider's server, the so-called "last mile". And if you have huge traffic from many entry points, then colocation is what you need.

Well. Today there is a lot of information about the types of hosting. Let's discuss?