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5 Cool Things About Virtual Servers

 Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

In an earlier blog post I discussed some key concepts regarding how virtual servers work.  Now that they are currently available you are probably wondering what all the fuss is about. Obviously they are less expensive and achieve the same goals as a dedicated server, but what cool things does virtualization offer?

Virtual Server Interface

1) We can virtualize any hardware based server in minutes.

This is probably number one on my list. We can completely virtualize a hardware based server in minutes. This is not only better for the environment (e.g. less power generated = less CO2) but it means that you can replace your outdated server without having to tear-down and replace your website. Your entire configuration is left 100% intact! This is great for someone looking to upgrade or would like to test out some new software.

2) Virtual servers can be built quickly.

Unlike a dedicated server, virtual servers don’t take long to deploy. We can deploy your virtual server quickly and likewise remove it when you are done with it. Think about it like a consumable resource. As such, if you temporarily need two servers to load balance your website during peak traffic times you can do it without the expense of large setup fees and time.

3) Virtual servers can be duplicated /copied / backup exactly.

Did I mention that we can virtualize your hardware based server? Well we can also duplicate existing virtual servers in minutes too. So if you want to stash a point-in-time backup of your server in case of emergency you can. If you want to test a special version of your website without the risk to your production environment you can.  

4) Virtual servers can be extended quickly.

Need more RAM, HDD or Processor speed during peek times? Not a problem we can extend a virtual server with a few clicks and a restart. Likewise, you can downgrade it just as fast. What does that mean? Well it’s like renting a Ferrari for the day. When your date is over you get back in your more economical Prius (= less hosting fees) and cruise along.

5) Virtual servers can be moved easily.

Let’s say the host machine your virtual server is on needs maintenance. We can simply import your virtual server on to another host machine while maintenance is being performed with little or no downtime. Try that with a dedicated server. Your only choice with a dedicated server is to try to reproduce your entire environment by moving your files and configuration to another machine – it’s just not going to happen (easily).

As you can see virtual servers are a beyond cool alternative for those looking to get into a dedicated serveror to upgrade their existing hardware-based server. They really offer so many benefits over traditional hardware-based servers.

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New Website Launched

 Friday, November 6th, 2009

Well finally. It seemed like it was never going to be finished. I guess it’s a reverse lesson in web development for me. It’s a lot harder to write content and come up with offers than it is to actually build the website. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work to be done in all areas of the site.  Most especially, continuing to develop content and spruce up offers. I guess it’s going to be a work in progress for some time. Thankfully, it’s much better than before.

We are thinking to add a “community” area for customers and include a customer marketplace, and forums. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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Why choose ColdFusion?

 Monday, June 8th, 2009

If you are a professional web developer or an amateur looking to spice up their website you should know there are more options than PHP or ASP.NET to script interactive web pages. Adobe ColdFusion has been around for more than 10 years and is ideally suited to all levels of skill. I am pretty passionate about this topic because of the way ColdFusion has changed my life. I went from playing around with HTML to professionally building complex web based applications  in a short period of time. Some of the stuff anyone can do with ColdFusion is amazing and simply a standard feature of the software.

End-users are sometimes intimidated by the ominous sounding name, and naturally have some objections. To clear things up here some some facts:

  • It’s free for the end-user.
  • It’s supported by most major hosts.
  • There are many ColdFusion Web Developers.
  • The developers that use ColdFusion are passionate about it.

To clear up some things for developers:

  • It’s free for the web developer.
  • It’s VERY easy to learn and can applications can be developed fast.
  • It includes all of the tools you need now and the in the future. e.g. AJAX without having to learn Javascript!
  • It’s made by Adobe and has built-in hooks with many of their products.

To address the last item in more detail Adobe makes Flash, PDF, Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Photoshop. Almost every web developer has one, if not all, of these core web development tools. Why not use the scripting tool made by the same company?

What makes ColdFusion so special is that it’s tag based. While more advanced methods of scripting are available in ColdFusion, most developers (pro’s or not) use ColdFusion tags to accomplish most tasks. In a nutshell they have incorporated all of the behind-the-scenes scripting into an easy-to-use tag.

For example, if you want to send an email using ColdFusion you write:


< cfmail to="someone@someplace.com" from="me@somewhere.com" subject="My Email Subject" >
Hello this is an email sent from ColdFusion!
< /cfmail >

Wow! That’s easy compared to PHP or ASP.NET. Generally it’s substantially less text to write- but in most cases it’s just plain intuitive compared to other scripting languages. Note: spaces have been added after the greater-than and less-than signs so it will display in this blog post.

For those of you who are current ASP.NET or PHP developers you’ll find this is the case with almost all tasks. If you are thinking that equals less abilities or less sophistication you’ll be surprised to learn about the plethora of available tag parameters, integration of OOP techniques, and web service components that are also available.

For amateur web developers this is an excellent way to jump right in and get the job-at-hand completed without learning complicated scripting techniques.

To learn more about ColdFusion visit Adobe’s website:

http://www.adobe.com/coldfusion

* Remember that that you don’t have to buy, or even download ColdFusion to try it, it’s already enabled in your EPhost web hosting account and ready to try today.

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Virtual Server Performance Update

 Saturday, May 30th, 2009

It’s been about a month and our new virtual servers are running great. In fact, we anticipate that we can probably double the amount of virtual servers on the host system. We are very encouraged. We are begining to start performance tuning as some of the machines have slight lags while working in terminal services. However, it doesn’t seem to affect overall web server performance.  Our monitoring logs show a substantial reduction in HTTP latency as compared to their physical counterparts. Our performancing tuning plans include enabling SpanningTree fast on the switch ports (helps increase recovery time if a port fails), upgrading the virtual NIC to the newer vmxnet virtual NIC, and by reviewing the HOST NIC’s and HDD to enable/disable recommened settings. Overall, we are pleased with the rsults so far and are beining to plan additional virtualization deployments.

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First Production Virtual Server Added

 Thursday, April 30th, 2009

I am very happy to report that we’ve recently launched our first production virtual server. The server was converted from a standalone dedicated server using VMware vCenter Converter, which is software that takes an exact image of a server and creates a virtual copy on the host server.

Virtual Server technology has been around for some time. We had previously setup a virtual server a couple of years ago, but decided to scrap the project because the ratio between the number of virtual servers and the cost of the host system was off. It was actually cheaper to use hardware based servers. Now, the ratio is there because of mutli-core CPU’s and enhanced virtual technologies.

This is a big step in the right direction. It will pave the way for us to consolidate our servers and reduce our power and rack space consumption.  This is key if we are to remain competitive. In some ways we were disadvantaged because we have been in business so long. Newer startups, using virtual technology, have options that we never had. Virtually speaking, it might be possible to reproduce our core web hosting services on a handful of servers instead of 10x that many.

We hope to be able to offer customer-facing solutions using virtual technology within the next 3 months.

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Server Virtualization

 Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

You may have heard about a new web hosting option coming to EPhost soon called Virtual Servers (or server virtualization). I wanted to take a moment and explain virtual technology, and explain the differences between it and another technology called Virtual Private Servers (VPS).

VMWare Virtual Servers

VMWare Virtual Servers

You can think of virtual servers as a server within a server. A virtual server is an independent isolated operating system that lives inside another server. Multiple virtual servers can reside on the same physical server. Usually they are referred to as the Host system (physical server) and the Guest OS (virtual server). Each virtual server operates entirely independent of one another and for the practical part independent of the Host System. What makes this situation so unique is that there is literally no difference between a virtual server and physical server– not to mention that the same physical server can host many virtual servers.

(more…)

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Welcome

 Friday, April 24th, 2009

In these economic times it’s more important than ever to make myself and experience available to everyone who wants to listen. I’ve started this blog to discuss in a candid sort of way various topics including business, web design, ColdFusion, and web hosting. Whether directly or indirectly I hope that you’ll take this information and apply it to your own situation. I’ve always felt that two heads are better than one, so I invite your participation by registering and commenting on my posts.

One aspect behind our new website and this blog has been to make sure that you are aware that real-people do exist behind my company, and that we aren’t just some faceless enterprise that offers web hosting and web design. There is nothing worse to me than seeing someone get caught up in a web hosting or design situation only to find out that when times get tough, the company that was so attractive in the first place, falls short of offering any real help or advice. That’s just not how we operate.

When considering various mediums for sharing ideas with you we decided against, for now, using a forum system on the site. While a generally good idea for customers to share and exchange ideas– I’ve often seen where it becomes both a crutch and a diversion for a company. Instead of providing good customer service they become referrers of people to the forum. Instead on working on customer solutions that benefit everyone, they are fielding specifics from the handful that use the forum. Until we are able to devote the time it’s off list for now. Instead we’ll be focusing on the blog, writing helpful knowledge base articles, and producing video tutorials.

There are so many things that I have learned about the Internet and business over the last 12 years and I am excited to be able to share them with you. Please take a moment to register on the blog to get the latest posts and, most importantly, to be able to comment and share your experiences.

Best,

Joe Rebis
President
EPhost, Inc.

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