Wot's the difference between real hosting and virtual hosting? Troy Wical wrote: _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

I don't understand how any software could run on anything other than a computer I can point at. How is this in any way virtual? There's gotta be a computer somewhere. Matt Browne wrote: _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

OK. Lemme see if I got this right. There are two boxes in my living room. One in Larry and one is Curly. Larry is a shared server and Curly runs some virtual servers. On the Larry shared server everybody shares all the same apache settings like memory limits and such, so Mo, Groucho, and Zeppo are kindof in lock step in some (or many) ways. I guess here that the processor itself has to manage conflicts and allocate resources On the Curly virtual servers, Harpo, W. and Bill C., can "change" the settings of their virtual server in many more ways. One can have a 500Gb memory limit for some process and another can limit his to 5K. The virtual server software manages conflicts and allocates resources. Ignoring the probably incorrect examples I've given, is that generally correct in concept? Boris Steipe wrote: _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

Here's how I look at it: SHARED SERVER (Cheapest): You buy one or more accounts from an ISP to host your domain(s). There may be 500 other user accounts on that same machine. You have no root access and have resource limits like total disk space, monthly bandwidth, number of databases, email accts, ftp accts, etc... DEDICATED SERVER (most expensive): You lease an entire machine from a service provider. For an unmanaged system (what I have), the provider puts it online with the software you order and gives you the keys. You have complete root access to the machine and no one else has access it to unless you so permit. You are completely responsible for managing the server. VIRTUAL SERVER (middle tier cost): Your website is very popular and you are either exceeding your disk or bandwidth allocation, or your ISP is going to kick you off because you are using too much CPU and hurting his other 499 users. A dedicated server is too expensive or complicated for you to manage -- or maybe more power than you need. The next viable option is a VIRTUAL SERVER. Instead of there being 500 indiv. user accounts on the machine, there may be 10 total virtual servers. To you, it appears that you have a dedicated server and have much of the control as if you owned the whole machine. You can host as many domains, or use as many resources, as your account allows. The actual root-type capabilities depends upon the virtual server software being used. I believe Virtuoso is a popular package. Find an ISP that provides virtual servers and see what system they provide and google for more info on capabilities. -----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Steve VanSlyck Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 12:18 PM To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Who do you use for Hosting? OK. Lemme see if I got this right. There are two boxes in my living room. One in Larry and one is Curly. Larry is a shared server and Curly runs some virtual servers. On the Larry shared server everybody shares all the same apache settings like memory limits and such, so Mo, Groucho, and Zeppo are kindof in lock step in some (or many) ways. I guess here that the processor itself has to manage conflicts and allocate resources On the Curly virtual servers, Harpo, W. and Bill C., can "change" the settings of their virtual server in many more ways. One can have a 500Gb memory limit for some process and another can limit his to 5K. The virtual server software manages conflicts and allocates resources. Ignoring the probably incorrect examples I've given, is that generally correct in concept? Boris Steipe wrote: _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l