All ‘Virtual Dedicated Server FAQ's’

To create a Virtual Dedicated Server (or Virtual Private Server) you take a physical server and use software or hardware  virtualization to create a number of “virtual machines” on the physical host server; these are virtual servers, each possessing its own dedicated RAM, allocation of CPU power, hard disk space - in fact, everything you would physically need to create a server.

Finally, you install on each virtual machine the operating system that you desire, Linux or Windows and then you have virtual dedicated server.

Each virtual server on the host server can run its own operating system, it is not limited in anyway by OS already being run by other virtual dedicated servers on the same physical host server.

A virtual dedicated server enables you to enjoy all the benefits of a dedicated server while reducing some of the negatives of owning a dedicated server, e.g.  you share the expense of acquiring the server hardware and network connections and to eliminate the difficulty and cost of maintaining them.

The virtual server is referred to as a dedicated server in the phrase VDS because although several VDS customers share the same hardware node, or physical host computer, they do not have access to each others hardware resources (RAM, CPU, HD). In other words the VDS has its own OS, dedicated application software and complete directory structure. You can restart the virtual dedicated server without it affecting any other VDS machines which share the same physical host server.

See our article on the benefits of a Virtual Dedicated Server

See also our article on when is a VDS better than a dedicated server

All VDS accounts are setup once verification has been completed.

Verification usually takes around 24 hours following the placement of your order.

If you make a virtual server order over a weekend, your VDS account will not be operational until the Monday.

Yes.

You can upgrade from any Intrahost virtual dedicated server (VDS) plan to any other virtual server hosting plan. Please note that we do not offer the inferior virtual private server (VPS) hosting.

If you wish to upgrade to a plan utilising the same operating system (Windows or Linux – same version), then we can perform this in a way that enables you to you keep your existing files and settings. Please call us if you need more information before making your upgrade choice.

(Intrahost provides Virtual Dedicated Servers not the inferior VPS which are less reliable and are usually provided because they cost less for the hosting company to set-up).

There is no simple answer to this as the mix of customers hosted on each physical server have different virtual dedicated server  plans i.e. value, extra or pro. Each Intrahost VDS plan promises a different level of exclusive resources to the customer.

But be assured that to ensure the maximum performance of all virtual dedicated servers at all times, our physical host servers are more than adequately equipped with resources to meet the requirements of the the VDSs hosted upon them.

Our physical servers hosting VDS accounts are the latest HP ProLiant DL360 G6 servers that each have  72GB of RAM installed and limitless HD space through the use of advanced network disk arrays.

So the important fundamental point to understand is - as each VDS is guaranteed to have its own exclusive use of physical resources (RAM, HD space etc) that are not available to any one else on the physical hosting server then the number of VDS on each server is irrelevant as they will not impact on the performance of the each individual VDS.

This is contrary to the experience of those used to shared web hosting where the number of websites hosted on each physical server can directly affect the performance of the website to the end user if the hosting company tries to put too many on each physical server. Websites hosted on “free” servers often suffer from this syndrome because the websites packed onto each server do NOT have any exclusive resources and suffer if one website on the server is very popular.