Virtual Private Servers

Summary

 

Cernio Technology Cooperative provides its members with virtual private servers while striking a good compromise between quality and resource efficiency.

 

Definitions

 

Virtualization in this context is the separation of a computer function from a physical piece of hardware.   In other words, virtualization allows you to run multiple instances of something within one physical server.

 

A virtual private server (or VPS for short) is an instance of a server that may run in parallel with other server instances on the same hardware.  Because server hardware with just one function usually sits idle most of the time, virtualization allows for greater efficiency in the use of resources - both economic and natural.

 

Xen is an open-source implementation of virtualization technology.   It's in widespread use, with support available from a broad technical community as well as a growing number of commercial providers.  We are proud to count in our membership a system architect who manages hundreds of Xen machines at a major research university, a director at a market-leading Xen commercial provider, the proprietor of a respected London-based Xen hosting provider, and others with notable Xen experience of their own. 

 

How it works

 

• You get your own Linux server, complete with root access.
  This is a blessing (you can install whatever software you want!) and a curse (you have to keep on top of security updates)
• At present, we offer only paravirtualized machines (PVMs).  Hardware virtualized machines (HVMs) will be offered soon.
  

• You get the ability to access your machine's console, on/off state, and stats via an ssh login.

• You can have the ability to wipe your entire VM and start over from scratch with just one command, upon request.

• Pricing assumes new underlying server and/or network equipment every 24 months.
  

• You don't have to purchase, maintain, or otherwise deal with hardware.

• Xen lets us do fancy things with regard to hardware redundancy and load balancing.
• We provision storage via local RAID-1 arrays on high-quality SATA hard drives, and via iSCSI over gigabit ethernet using similarly high-quality hardware.
• Whether your storage is provisioned via local RAID-1 or iSCSI, performance is essentially the same.
  Your operating system will see the storage as a SCSI or ATA hard disk.
• Our compute servers have 8 Intel Xeon CPU cores, 16GB RAM, and dual redundant power supplies.
  Whenever possible, we plug each power supply into a separate power circuit within the colo cabinet.
• Our storage arrays have dual Intel Xeon CPU cores, 2GB RAM, and triple-redundant power supplies.
  

• You can always upgrade to more RAM, more disk, more IPs, etc. at a future date, assuming capacity is available.

• You can downgrade, too, but there may be a fee for doing so due to the thin mark-up included in member pricing.
• We may be able to help move you from existing hardware to a virtual machine - we can probably simply copy your partitions over to the virtual machine, meaning that you may not have to reconfigure much.

• If at some point we sell to non-members, members will get priority for resource upgrades when capacity is in short supply.
• At this point in time, support is provided by the community of Cernio members on a best-effort basis.
  Nobody is paid for their time in providing this service.
  

 

Availability

 

At present, we provide Xen VPSes only to our members.  If you'd like to host a VPS with us but you are not yet a member, please either contact  Bitfolk Ltd. or become a Cernio member.

 

Pricing

 

All billing is done at least one month in advance, except for bandwidth overages which are billed in arrears.

Setup fees and discounts:

• $50 setup fee if you pay monthly
• $25 setup fee if you pay quarterly
• no setup fee if you pre-pay for six months or more
• 10% discount if you pre-pay for one year
  (valid only for plans costing $25/mo or more)
  
  

Standard Deployments	"Light" Deployments (limited availability)
at least 1/16th usage of 8 Intel Xeon 64bit 2GHz CPUs	at least 1/16th usage of 8 Intel Xeon 64bit 1.6GHz CPUs
2GB RAM 100GB RAID-1 disk 4 IP addresses includes 512Kbps@95% (burstable to 100Mbps) ... for $80/mo.	512MB RAM 25GB RAID-1 disk 1 IP address includes 128Kbps@95% (burstable to 100Mbps) ...for $25/mo.
1GB RAM 50GB RAID-1 disk 2 IP addresses includes 256Kbps@95% (burstable to 100Mbps) ...for $40/mo.	256MB RAM 10GB RAID-1 disk 1 IP address includes 64Kbps@95% (burstable to 100Mbps) ...for $15/mo. 12-month ($180) prepayment required (no discount, and no setup fee)

 

• Additional storage is $15/mo per 100GB of RAID-1 delivered via iSCSI over gigabit ethernet.
  Remember that this is visible to each VPS as a SCSI or ATA hard drive.

 

Getting started

 

Would you like to join us?

1. First, ensure that you are a member.
2. Then, request a VPS.
   

 

Thank you for your interest!