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What is VPS / VDS and how to buy it. The most intelligible instruction

The choice of VPS in the modern technology market resembles the choice of non-fiction books in the modern book: there are a lot of interesting covers, the prices for any run of the wallet, and the names of some authors are well-known, but finding what you really need and is not essentially delirium of the author, extremely difficult. Similarly, providers offer different capacities, configurations, and even free VPS (a good offer, but accepting it, of course, is dangerous). Let's decide what to look for when choosing a provider.

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How to choose the VPS that is right for you?


To understand how to buy the VPS that you need, we’ll figure out what VPS hosting is and how to choose a reliable VPS provider. Please note that this is not general information, but important milestones in the analysis that should not be missed.

â–Ť Define your requirements and needs


VPS can be used for private and corporate tasks: for hosting project sites and corporate portals, for deploying a VPN, for placing test stands for a software developer, for storing backups (not ideal, but quite applicable for rule 3-2-1), for storage files, game server and placement of trading robots for operations in the stock market. And for all these tasks, VPS is suitable, but with a different configuration.

  • Determine the amount of data that you have to store - this is the minimum that you have to order (in fact, you need more, since the server will also host utilities and applications, and you will not stop at one task).
  • Bandwidth - it is important that the data access speed is stable and high. There is nothing worse than a failed test or inaccessible to colleagues FTP.
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â–Ť


The Russian proverb “expensive and sweet, cheap and rotten” more than ever works when choosing technical solutions and especially hosting provider services. Look, you choose a working laptop for yourself: look at memory, RAM, processor, video card, etc. You do not have the principle of “saving on everything, just to print,” because you know very well that good technology is well worth it. But for some reason, how it comes to hosting, users are trying to save on everything. This is extremely illogical, because first of all you buy a “piece” of a powerful iron server that will serve your tasks.

If you decide on something very inexpensive, then you should understand that your project will be limited in capacity and will require additional expenses when scaling. Well, free cheese is still in the trap: choosing a free VPS, you risk everything from backups to no technical support and low uptime.

Therefore, soberly assess your real needs and rent the configuration that you really need, and not which is 250 rubles. cheaper.

By the way, RUVDS has cheap VPS - from 130 r. with the included ISP panel and very cheap from 30 r. , but they will have to stand in line, it hurts a lot of people who want to get a tiny virtual virtual machine at the price of white IPv4.


The sites of large providers have convenient visual configurators for the servers you need.

â–ŤLearn more about the provider


Provider reputation is an important factor in choosing a VPS. Check out a few points before contacting the company legally.


Reviews


Each hosting provider has negative reviews, this is normal (someone didn’t figure it out and was angry with himself, somewhere the human factor worked, someone didn’t like the price, etc.), but if you see all the negative and not find the positive ones or see only the positive ones (because the negative ones are thoroughly cleaned up), beware: this company is not all right.

Location


It is ideal for Russian reality that the hosting provider is located in Russia, and that it has data centers both in Russia and abroad. This ensures stability, a flexible policy regarding the storage of personal data and the availability of your service and website in other countries, if necessary.

Legal aspect


All contact information should be available on the site of the hosting provider, the site should have SSL, there should be technical support phones, open tariffs and prices, designers of the configurator or detailed descriptions of tariffs, etc. This indicates the honesty and openness of the provider.

All legal documents, from a public offer and privacy policy to a contract, must be clear and unambiguous without vague wordings, dummies, asterisks with small print, etc.

Important details


It’s cool if on the provider's website you can find information about uptime, money back guarantees, SLA agreement, test data on configurations under load, capacity insurance, etc. Often, some of this information can be found on the company’s blog (which, for example, RUVDS “lives” on HabrĂ©, because we are interested in dialogue with the audience). 

â–Ť Security decides


Check company security. If you follow the IT industry and read the Habr, you probably noticed periodic problems with individual hosting providers. And if few people care about their corporate showdowns, then the fall of hundreds and thousands of sites, services and online stores will bring millions of losses. Therefore, the issue of security and reputation of the provider is of particular importance. Conduct a real investigation:

  • check the latest company news and entries on social networks: whether there were any facts of capture, news of blackouts for a long period, conflicts between shareholders;
  • look for arbitration proceedings of companies (in services such as Kontur.Fokus, VLSI, rusprofile.ru or on the websites of courts);
  • check the participation of the provider company in the ratings - one-day ones do not get there;
  • check the availability of FSTEC and FSB licenses, even if they do not matter to you - getting such licenses is long and expensive, therefore only serious companies bother with this issue;
  • check the number of the company's own data centers - there should be several of them and it should not be rented racks in public data centers.

â–Ť Provider Infrastructure


If you have a VPS, this does not mean that you should not worry about the infrastructure on which this VPS is located. So try to find out:

  • Geographical location of servers and their availability;
  • Is there a system of protection against attacks, in particular DDoS;
  • allowable uptime time;
  • in what mode is the technical work carried out;
  • server protection level;
  • implementation of the process of creating and storing backups (backups). 

So, we have dealt with Wishlist and the provider, now let's deal with VPS.

VPS - selection rules


â–ŤWhat is a VPS?


In simple terms, VPS (virtual private server) is a virtual machine that a provider company leases to its customers. VPS are hosted on powerful physical servers in various data centers. If you still have a question why VPS can be used, we will answer briefly: this is the same computer as any other, only you access it remotely. So, he will help you with everything that the computer helps.


â–ŤWhat are the differences between Shared Hosting, VPS and VDS?


Shared Hosting - multiple users use the same resource. If someone has problems, everyone suffers: that is, apart from resources, all risks and problems are shared. This solution is completely unsuitable for the corporate sector, maximum for test and pet projects. When working with Shared Hosting, you cannot install additional software, you have limited RAM, your site will face spam problems from other sites, there may also be restrictions on sending emails, etc. That is, this is a completely amateurish, even Nubian level.

VPS hosting- users also use one resource, but at the same time are independent of each other and are only responsible for their server. VPS is reliable, flexible and manageable. VPS is suitable for both private and corporate tasks: test projects, popular blogs with a large number of users, corporate services, etc. Moreover, companies can offer their SaaS products hosted on VPS hosting. This is a confident hosting business class, a real geek level.

Vdsin some countries, providers are equated with VPS, but there is a difference: if VPS is virtualized at the operating system level (the server has a specific OS + manager program, virtual machines run on copies of the operating system), and in VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) - hardware virtualization (each virtual server has its own OS, its own kernel). In general, VDS is more expensive and more reliable, but it is already a completely corporate, enterprise solution.


â–Ť Why might you need to switch to VPS?


As long as the site’s traffic is small, you don’t need to increase the budget - it will feel quite well on shared hosting. However, with increasing traffic, most shared hosting servers will no longer be able to provide the desired performance. One of the signs may be the increased page loading time. Overloading can also lead to frequent inaccessibility of the site from the outside (it regularly “crashes”). If such symptoms appear, then shared hosting is not enough for your site to work well.

Sometimes hosters notify customers that their site has run out of resources for the current month. In this case, it's time to switch to VPS hosting. If your site has a lot of multimedia content, then it will also require a more powerful VPS hosting.

So how to choose a VPS


In addition to the parameters that we have considered for choosing a provider, it is important to consider several factors for the VPS itself. The more factors are taken into account, the better solution you will be able to find.

â–Ť Factor 1: managed or unmanaged


In the case of shared hosting, you do not have access to the server with root privileges, so the question of managing the server is not worth it. But in the case of VPS, the entire virtual server is yours and you manage it as root. Therefore, it is necessary for someone to look after him, to control performance. If these functions are taken over by the VPS provider, then this is managed VPS, and in the case of unmanaged VPS, you are responsible for your virtual server. 

Unmanaged VPSs are prepared only for root access, and users will need to independently install and configure software, a control panel, provide server protection and its maintenance / maintenance. Unmanaged hosting will require you to monitor the performance of the virtual server and maintain its health.

If the server "crashed", or some security problems appeared, then you are the only one to solve them - you are the only administrator of your VPS. This option is more suitable for specialists with professional server management skills. So if you are an experienced geek and are familiar with such things as the correct shutdown of the system, its recovery, restart, server reboot, then unmanaged hosting may be a suitable option.

As for the "normal" users and business owners, they should pay a little more and use a managed VPS: a professional system administrator will monitor the server in 24x7 mode. And users can do more familiar business. 

Again, the degree of this management may be different and depends on the host and hosting plans. This should be borne in mind when comparing different VPS plans or hosters.

â–Ť Factor 2: Windows or Linux 


Another important point is the server operating system. Most hosters offer popular Windows and Linux. Linux as Open Source costs less than Windows. Linux hosting is user friendly and supports a wide range of applications. In many cases, this is a good (maybe even better) choice. However, there are applications that are either not supported on Linux at all, or are better supported on Windows. If you need to use software such as ASP or ASP.NET, then your choice is Windows-based VPS. A server for Windows is often required for developing on .NET or for deploying Microsoft applications and other applications for this platform. Therefore RUVDS has a Windows license enabled to all tariffs (starting from the tariff for 130 rubles), and not like most providers, where for Windows you will need to pay a couple more thousand according to the footnote at the bottom of the tariff.

â–Ť Factor 3: server configuration


Server configuration plays an important role in site speed and performance. How much processor power, RAM and disk memory you get - all this matters. In addition, as we noted above, it makes sense to ask which physical server your VPS will host on. It is better if it is a sufficiently powerful equipment of a famous brand. And if the foundation is weak, it is difficult to expect the stability of the entire structure.

â–Ť Factor 4: reliability


Many VPS hosters guarantee 99.9% reliability. However, the claimed indicator may differ from the real one, and it is always useful to get acquainted with the reviews on the Internet. For reliable and relatively uninterrupted operation of the site, this indicator should not be lower than 99.95%.

â–Ť Factor 5: redundancy and scalability


Redundancy usually involves reserving resources, especially in the data center. For example, in the event of a main power failure, UPS and diesel generators start to work. If the ISP has problems, then there should be alternative communication channels. If one physical server is overloaded, a backup one should be provided, etc. Scalability, in turn, means the ability to cope with a sharp increase in server load, usually due to backup resources. All this means increased uptime and consistent high performance. 

â–Ť Factor 6: bandwidth quota


Most VPS providers limit the bandwidth for a virtual server and may incur additional charges. When choosing a VPS hoster, you should make sure that you don’t have to pay too much for enough network bandwidth.

â–ŤFactor 7: customer support


Regardless of the efficiency of your hosting provider and the proposed functionality, there are always some problems. In this case, convenient and effective support is needed. If the hoster is not able to provide support 24/7, it is simply not worth your money. When your site is idle for a long time, this can lead to an outflow of visitors, and possibly serious financial losses. It is useful to first test the support service of the hosting provider, and then decide whether it makes sense to contact him.

â–Ť Factor 8: price


Of course, in order to choose a hoster, you need to know the cost of its services. The price depends on the type of service (managed or not) and allocated resources. Which hosting plan best suits your needs is up to you.

A very important point, not all hosting providers have a money back guarantee if the customer does not like the hosting.

On the issue of price, there is one caveat. For example, the price of VPS for some providers (including RUVDS, as mentioned above) may be 30 rubles, but you may not always be able to take advantage of the offer, because ... you will queue for the server. Which is logical: the capacity of the data center is finite and not always ready to provide resources for the entire marketing creative of the hosting provider.

â–Ť Factor 9: VPS Location


The closer the server is to your audience, the more effective the access of users to it will be and the higher the chances of rising in the rankings of search engines. Web analytics tools will help you understand where the target audience is concentrated, and find the VPS closer. You can also create a copy of the VPS, but you should take into account the distances when transferring data and the responsibilities for ensuring communication between remote servers.

RUVDS has 10 data centers in Russia and Europe. Information about each of them can be found on the site. 

To understand exactly where you need a server, analyze two things: where you are required to store user data that is essential for your company, and what is the proportion of the site / service audience in a particular geographical area (any one is suitable web analytics tool). 

â–Ť Factor 10: additional IP addresses


They may be required in several situations:

  • SSL certificate installation;
  • assigning a dedicated IP to each site on your virtual server (otherwise they will automatically receive the IP address of the VPS server);
  • different IPs for different channels (website, mobile applications, etc.);
  • different IPs for different services (CMS, database, etc.);
  • assigning multiple IPs to one site, for example, having domains in different languages ​​(mysite.co.uk, mysite.ru, mysite.it, mysite.ca, etc.).

Also, keep in mind that your provider may not support IPv6. 

â–ŤFactor 11: additional chips and features


Large hosting providers are constantly developing services to meet the needs of their customers and expand partnerships, which is why they can find interesting chips and collaborations that will make business life not only simpler, but also less expensive. We list some of them.


Such features significantly speed up the start of work with VPS.

Choosing a VPS is a complex and thoughtful process, as a result of which you will receive an important resource for solving corporate and private tasks. Do not save on trifles and choose a provider with whom you will be calm and safe. Based on your requirements and real needs, plan and calculate options. VPS is an advanced technology that makes it possible to quickly and relatively inexpensively deploy computing power for any task, it saves time, effort and nerves. Work technologically!

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