Shared Hosting Servers (SHS) - Overview

Shared Hosting Servers (SHS) are servers that are setup for multiple independent users and sites to "share" a server. This makes Shared Hosting very cost effective and the most common form of Web Hosting, because the expense of the server and related elements are spread across up to several hundred customers.

Split-Shared
Benefits
Performance
Stability
Security
Reliability

To improve performance and stability over conventional Shared Hosting, ViUX™ utilizes a special deployment for our Shared Hosting Servers that we refer to as "Split-Shared", in an effort to make our Shared Hosting more stable, secure, and reliable, than what can often be expected of Shared Hosting with most providers.

So you ask... what exactly is "Split" Shared?

Our Shared Servers have Parallels™ Virtuozzo Containers installed, which allows the server to be "split" into Virtual Servers... with each setup to host approximately (up to) 150 sites. Instead of Virtual "Private" Servers (VPS), this creates Virtual "Shared" Servers (VSS).

There are several benefits to making use of Virtuozzo to create Virtual Shared Servers (VSS)...

Performance: Each VSS will host only (up to) approximately 150 sites, versus your typical shared server from most hosting providers, that has been overloaded with several hundred sites (or more).
Stability: We never place more than (2) VSS containers on each Hardware Node; therefore the physical server will not host more than approximately (up to) 300 shared sites. Thus we avoid problems created when a server is forced to host a thousand (or more) sites, as some providers do.
Security: With each VSS container limited to a maximum of approximately (up to) 150 sites, we limit the possible exposure from a given site becoming compromised by a hacker to 1/2 (or less) of the total number of Shard Hosting sites present on the Hardware Node.
Reliability: Should a physical server (or a VSS therein) begin to experience problems, Virtuozzo will allow us to "push" a VSS to another Hardware Node, with little or no downtime.

While it may sound like a lot to host approximately (up to) 300 sites per Hardware Node (150 sites each on 2 VSS instances), and thus you may think poor performance would result... consider how Virtuozzo works.

Provided that the Hardware Node has enough power / resources (i.e. CPU, Memory, Disk Space, etc.), our usage of Virtuozzo to create (2) separate VSS instances per physical server means that, instead of performing like one (1) server hosting approximately (up to) 300 sites... it will instead perform like two (2) servers hosting approximately (up to) 150 sites each.

In the event of a performance issue occurring, we can simply turn-up a new server and "push" (i.e. migrate) one or more VSS instances to the new server as needed to spread the load. This can be done with less than (60) seconds of downtime for the VSS(s) being migrated and the sites hosted therein, and is as simple as clicking a few buttons within the Virtuozzo Management Console (VZMC).

Also worth consideration in regard to our hosting approximately (up to) 300 sites per Hardware Node, is the common practice by many Shared Hosting Providers to host as many as one-thousand (or more) sites on a single (non-virtualized / non-clustered) server. The problem with doing this even on servers with enough "horse-power" to handle the load, is that an issue with any given site can bring down the entire server, and with so many sites present, tracking down the exact source of the issue can be difficult.

However with a "Split" Shared setup of only approximately (up to) 150 sites per VSS, nothing can happen (excluding hardware failure) that can effect more than the sites present within the given VSS itself. If the Hardware Node is hosting approximately (up to) 300 sites in (2) 150 site VSS's and an issue takes place with a given site within one of the VSS's, the issue cannot effect any of the sites in the other VSS.

In a Virtuozzo VSS deployment the Hardware Node (as the physical server is called) does not have any software installed other than the OS (i.e. Windows / Linux), Virtuozzo, and maybe Disk De-fragmentation, and Anti-Virus software... and is completely "locked down" to prevent access.

All of the actual software used to provide hosting services are installed on each isolated VSS instance. Because the VSS instances are isolated from the hardware node, and each other... if a site present within a VSS were to be hacked, access would likely be isolated to that one (1) site, and certainly only to the VSS that contains it, since root access to the hardware node is prevented. However even if the entire VSS were to be compromised, the other VSS / VPS's on the node would be protected from the compromised VSS.

While the owners of the approximately (up to) 150 sites present within the compromised VSS would not be happy, the owners of the approximately (up to) 150 sites hosted on the same Hardware Node within the other VSS are protected. In a conventional Shared Hosting deployment the entire Shared Server (and all sites within) would have been compromised by such an unfortunate event.

The best part of our using Virtuozzo to create Virtual Shared Servers (VSS) is that we maintain ultimate flexibility in the deployment of our servers! As briefly mentioned on the other tabs, should a performance or stability issue occur, we can "push" a VSS instance to another Hardware Node (i.e. physical server) on our network with very little effort, and almost no downtime. Just as easily we can backup an entire VSS, which can later be restored in its entirety or by selecting specific files and folders.

Guaranteed backup and ease of server migration are just two (of many) features made available by our use of Virtuozzo to provide a high performance, stable, secure, and reliable Shared Hosting experience.