VPS and reseller hosting, some advices

M

Macharius

New Member
Hi to all and sorry for my poor english,

I was basically interested in purchasing one of your reseller packages, but I'm also oriented to offer to my customers some not so common features (as Ruby on Rails, etc), so a VPS is needed.

Searching the net, I've read of some "perplexities" about using VPS for reseller hosting, mainly arguing that, of course depending from the amount of hardware purchased, switching from shared reseller packages to VPS not often bring to performance improvements.
So I'd like to ask you what are minimum VPS hardware specification (RAM, etc..) to offer a good service to my customers in this server.
I plan to have 10-35 customers, cPanel/WHM and WHMCS. I cannot say in advance what type of pages will my customers use (static or dynamic), but, from a pessimistic point of view, i suppose that pages will be mainly dynamic, with a few scripts installed like Joomla or Wordpress. What can i certainly say is that i don't expect to serve large community websites on this VPS (in that case I will buy a dedicated VPS/hybrid), so the traffic won't be so high.

So the questions are:

1) Which of your plans in your opinion best fits my needs? With this plan there will be a performance improvement from a reseller shared hosting pack?

2) There are particular issues (TOS, technical problems, etc...) about installing something like RoR, Python, or Yaws web server?

Thanks in advance
 
Macharius,

Thank you for your interest in KnownHost. Please see my comments in line:

1) Which of your plans in your opinion best fits my needs? With this plan there will be a performance improvement from a reseller shared hosting pack?
--Based on your needs I would say our VPS XL plan is a good starting point. Generally a VPS will perform better then shared/reseller hosting as with a VPS you have resources which are dedicated to you.

2) There are particular issues (TOS, technical problems, etc...) about installing something like RoR, Python, or Yaws web server?
--With a VPS you can install anything you like as long as it is legal and does not violate our TOS. The above mentioned would not be a problem.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Thanks,
Joel
 
Just my 2 cents

I'm just a regular customer (VPS) with Knownhost, keep in mind that this is just my opinion but if I have the budget, I always prefer to go with a VPS mainly for the complete control you have over the VPS and also the VPS's are isolated and act like a mini-dedicated server while a normal reseller account is basically a shared hosting account with reseller privileges and you still have other users on the same server which could inadvertently access other accounts not belonging to you. As for the best package, I'll lt the staff here answer that for you. As for installing custom programs on a VPS, as long as it doesn't have any connection to IRC or interfere with CPANEL, it is usually not a problem and Knownhost support will help you in that regard.

Also, I believe that Ruby on Rails is now installed as part of the Cpanel/WHM now. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong. :)

Jeff
 
Thank you for your quick replies, they solve my problems! My fears were prevalently about having enough RAM to avoid slowdowns in my customers' websites (cPanel itself is quite heavy), but i can easily upgrade if i need it.

Also, I believe that Ruby on Rails is now installed as part of the Cpanel/WHM now. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong
Click to expand...
This sounds interesting, can anyone confirm?
 
Another question

Another question: do you think that a clustered solution like this is useful?

-A XL VPS for my customers' websites
-A M or L VPS for my main website, ticketing system, shopping cart, etc

In this way if I have to down/restart my VPS for some reasons, my principal site and ticketing system will be up.

Will this solution cause technical problems (cPanel/WHM configuration issues, etc)?
 
Macharius,

You can have two VPS's and run then independently of each other. You don't need to have them talk together as you can simply point your nameservers as you please at your registrar to each VPS accordingly.

Thanks,
Joel
 
Macharius,

That makes sense. Personally, I would have them on two completely different networks if you're going to do it that way. Get one VPS in the CA Datacenter and one in the TX datacenter. That way, if the customers' VPS goes down or there are network problems, your ticketing/support system is still up. If you put both VPSs on the same network, if the network goes down, clients will not be able to reach either server.
 
Yes, that would be the way to do it... Two completely separate networks

You just want to be sure your site's VPS is on 'premium' bandwidth so your site responds as quickly as possible...

Who wants to order hosting from a company who's site is slower than christmas!?!?!?

Not that the CA DC would be slow or anything...
 
So I thought at the following cluster configuration:

VPS XL (for customers' websites) - Texas DC

+256MB RAM upgrade (596MB tot)
+cPanel, RVskin, fantastico

VPS L (for my website, billing system, vbullettin forum and helpdesk) - California DC

+128MB RAM upgrade (384MB tot)
+WHMCS (for creating cPanel accounts on the XL VPS)
(no control panel or DirectAdmin)

In the L VPS Cpanel is not needed (WHMCS doesn't need it, can you confirm?), in this way I can save a lot of RAM.
Another choice is to buy DirectAdmin on this VPS, that is apparently less resource consuming.
Since i'd like to install a second webserver (Yaws or Tomcat) and/or svn on the XL VPS, i prefer to buy the +256MB RAM upgrade to sleep well :)

Datacenter choice: I tend to prefer speeding up my customers' websites (Texas DC), since in my opinion the website in Ca DC won't be slow.
Another choice is to buy both VPS in Texas datacenter.

Will this configuration work well in your opinion?

Another question: can you tell me the uplink port speed of your servers in Mbps? I see only the monthly bandwidth.
 
Macharius,

Your idea sounds good. You are correct WHMCS doesn't require cPanel to be installed on the same server (VPS) so you can buy just WHMCS for that VPS with no control panel. The only drawback really is the VPS is unmanaged so we can't assist with things (if no control panel is purchased).

As for datacenters, choosing one in each is a good decision but keep in mind if you order 2 in Texas we will host them on different physical machines.

We are on Fiber lines with gigE connections. Each VPS is capped at 10mbit/s but this can be uncapped if you want. In 99% of cases this is okay with customers as this helps prevent high BW overages if you were to be hacked, DDOS'ed, etc.

Hope to see you signup.

Thanks,
Joel
 
We are on Fiber lines with gigE connections. Each VPS is capped at 10mbit/s but this can be uncapped if you want. In 99% of cases this is okay with customers as this helps prevent high BW overages if you were to be hacked, DDOS'ed, etc.
Click to expand...
That sounds good!

Thanks to all for your prompt replies!
In two months, after making business plan, etc, I will definitely sign up with you!

Thanks again,

Macharius
 
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