Virtual Dedicated Servers

Virtual Dedicated Servers combine the power and flexibility of a dedicated server with the cost savings of shared hosting. A Virtual Dedicated Server gives you full root access on your own Linux installation. Your server runs alongside a number of others running on the same hardware.

Virtual Dedicated Servers remove many of the security and administration problems associated with shared hosting. You can run any Linux software in any version you choose. You can safely use Apache modules such as mod_perl and mod_php and needn't worry about asking admins to restart servers or test configurations. You can create users and groups and give access to whoever you want, making a VDS perfect for hosting shared CVS or Subversion repositories. And, unlike most shell-account based hosting solutions, you can use a Virtual Dedicated Server as a cheap way to run Java servlets, Java Server Pages and other services based on Java technology.

With a Virtual Dedicated Server you avoid the hassle and expense of maintaining your own hardware. We buy high-end x86-based servers, and share each one between a number of virtual servers, balancing the load on each one as fairly as we can. Because each virtual server is likely to be busy at different times of day, at any one time your VDS can call on most of the resources of the underlying "host server"; and because we use RAID and maintain backup server capacity, your server is protected from hardware failure.

Our Virtual Dedicated Servers come with our unique admin console. This allows you reboot and "power cycle" your server, boot into single user mode, connect to your server's console for off-line maintenance, and change your server's kernel - just about everything you could do by sitting in front of your server.

Although our Virtual Dedicated Servers run on shared host servers, we do not overcommit the RAM in those servers. Every byte of Virtual Dedicated Server RAM you pay for is backed by real RAM in our machines.

What you get

Your Virtual Dedicated Server acts just like a real dedicated server. It starts off with a default install of software and services including a mail transport agent, a web server, and an SSH server. You can log in to your server as root (through our admin console or by SSH) and configure whatever services and users you need. You take full control of (and responsibility for) setting up the machine, though we can offer some advice; if you need a server preconfigured with specific installed packages, please email us for a quote.

This service is most suitable for customers with existing Linux or UNIX knowledge; if you don't want to do your own system administration, we recommend you take a look at our shell accounts; we can help you migrate to a Virtual Dedicated Server later on if you need to.

What's behind it?

We're using User Mode Linux (UML) to provide our virtual servers. User Mode Linux is a version of the famous Linux kernel which has been modified to run as a process under Linux. Each User Mode Linux instance runs a standard Linux distribution and standard Linux applications (nothing needs to be recompiled) and each instance is completely separated from every other, guaranteeing your privacy and security from other users.

The "host servers" on which we run User Mode Linux are located in our facilities at Redbus Interhouse facilities in London's Docklands, ensuring excellent connectivity and very extensive UPS coverage.

Distributions

Your Virtual Dedicated Server comes with your choice of Linux distributions pre-installed. We currently have the following images available:

Debian Etch (4.0)
Debian Sarge (3.1)
Debian Woody (3.0)
Fedora Core 1
Fedora Core 2
White Box Linux v3.0

If you would like a different distribution we will arrange for an installation, though unusual requests may take a little longer to fulfill. All of our installations are backed by a local mirroring service, provided over our internal gigabit network.

Services

We offer four server packages:

	VDS64	VDS128	VDS256	VDS512
RAM	~~64MB~~ 128MB	~~128MB~~ 256MB	~~256MB~~ 512MB	~~512MB~~ 1024MB
Diskspace	3GB	6GB	12GB	20GB
Monthly bandwidth allowance	5GB	15GB	40GB	100GB
Excess bandwidth	£0.50/GB
Monthly price	£15	£26	£40	£75
Quarterly price	£41	£72	£110	£206
Yearly price	£150	£260	£400	£750

Bandwidth allowances apply to the larger of incoming and outgoing bandwidth used in each month, not the total as with some of our competitors. We only bill for traffic the enters or leaves our network, all internal traffic is free.

IP addresses

By default, your server will be allocated one external IP address although you can have as many as you can justify under RIPE guidelines. There will be a £40 administrative fee for allocations of more than five IP addresses.

We can provide reverse DNS of your choice for all IP addresses allocated to your server.

Paid support

Setting up software, firewalls, user accounts or anything else you want on your VDS is completely up to you (though we can usually offer helpful advice if you need it). But we can also offer to perform any of these systems administration tasks you need, at a cost of £40/hour (minimum charge £15). Drop an email to support@mythic-beasts.com telling us what you need, and one of our team will get in touch with you right away to discuss your requirements.

Interested?

If you're interested in getting a VDS, please review the Terms and Conditions and drop us an email at sales@mythic-beasts.com, or for some more information please feel free to browse our support pages. We also have a UML Wiki with information about configuration of Virtual Dedicated Servers, and a patches page listing some of the patches that we have developed for UML.

Once you've decided to go ahead with ordering a server, please fill out our order form.

Real Dedicated Servers

If you would prefer to run your services on dedicated hardware, or if your needs outgrow a Virtual Dedicated Server, then we can provide your own fully dedicated server. We provide the hardware, and install any standard Linux distribution or (by arrangement) any other suitable operating system. We take responsibility for keeping the hardware in service, just as with Virtual Dedicated Servers. You handle administration and everything else; as with our co-location service, we provide remote power control for unattended reboots and a serial console for disaster recovery. We can even migrate your existing Virtual Dedicated Server setup. If you're interested, email us at sales@mythic-beasts.com for a quote.

And if you'd rather take care of your own hardware, then take a look at our co-location deals.