Dedicated physical server. Dedicated servers. What to choose: dedicated or VDS

When looking for a suitable hosting for your project or a platform for business automation, sooner or later a question arises, which has probably already become a classic: which server to rent - virtual or physical? You can call this question a technical one, or it can be a matter of personal preference, but in any case, the answer will have to be found, and preferably the correct one.

To begin with, we need a machine that can satisfy both the increased requirements of a web project for resources and productivity, as well as the need for maximum control over the equipment. These tasks are solved by:

Physical server(dedicated) is an independent and self-sufficient piece of equipment that offers its owner a full range of hardware and software control.

Virtual server(vds). Created directly on physical hardware, where each virtual machine consists of a specific pool of resources. In terms of functionality, VDS emulates the work of a physical server and does it very successfully.

Difference between virtualization and hardware

When choosing any server, such characteristics as processor frequency, volume are important random access memory and disk space... But ease of use, manageability, reliability and cost are equally important. Let's compare both options within these indicators.

Configurations

• Dedicated: When ordering physical equipment, it is necessary to correctly calculate the requirements for the server so that “everything is enough” for the project to work comfortably. If you want to upgrade the piece of hardware, you can additionally order RAM or add hard drives... If the project has grown a lot, then you can migrate to a more powerful server or take an additional one.
• VDS: Virtualization is popular because of its easy and convenient scalability. You do not need to take a server "with a margin", since increasing or decreasing the capacity pool is extremely simple and fast. In addition to RAM and disk space, you can also change the processor power.

Control

• Dedicated: The physical server is located in the data center and for its administration, settings, reboots, etc. is necessary remote access to equipment by means of KVM or IPMI. The equipment is under the total control of its tenant, who is free to produce any engineering works.
• VDS: A virtual dedicated machine (not to be confused with software virtualization -VPS) allows you to install your own software and change system parameters, as well as on iron equipment. If you wish, you can install the server control panel.

Reliability

• Dedicated: Physical equipment tends to become obsolete and worn out, which, if used for a long time, can lead to the failure of its components. In such a situation, downtime is possible for the period of identifying and fixing the problem that has arisen.
• VDS: Virtual resources cannot break or become out of date. Even if any problems arise on the blade server, something crashes or breaks, it is much easier for a virtual machine to migrate to backup resources, and this does not happen noticeably to the user.

Price

• Dedicated: Consideration must be given to future potential growth in resource requirements and server performance. Jumping between physical machines is quite uncomfortable and labor-intensive, and the payment for unused power is unprofitable.
• VDS: The owner of the virtual machine can pay only for the resources consumed, scaling the server for the stages of project development. If the project is large-scale, then virtualization on cheap products (virtualization platforms) will be more budgetary than its hardware counterpart, but the quality of the service may be in doubt.

What to choose: dedicated or VDS?

Physical and virtual servers are equally well suited to reliably and lightly run complex applications and large-scale projects. Each type of hosting has its own pros and cons.

Virtual machines more reliable in operation and easier to scale, but may not be suitable for the implementation of specific projects that require special software or hardware.

Despite its disadvantages, iron equipment is like full computer is more credible with a wide range of users. But this is rather an established stereotype that is becoming a thing of the past. Physical equipment is often chosen due to considerations that a completely real server is located somewhere in the data center.

In any case, no matter what server you choose, you need to clearly understand the goals that it must solve, the time period for the implementation of these goals and the forecast for the development of the project. Based on these indicators and needs, you can choose the option that suits you specifically.

In this article, we will explain the main differences between a physical and virtual server from a client's point of view. We will also try to debunk some myths along the way. Hopefully this will help individuals and companies make smarter decisions when buying a server.

Physical server (aka dedicated server)

A physical server is, as the name suggests, a server (physical computer) that runs an operating system, like Windows, or Linux, like any other computer. Physical servers are almost everywhere, desktops, with big amount improvements that desktops lack, featuring things like redundant power supplies, RAID controllers, a few network cards etc. Physical servers are larger with much more powerful components in general. All of them require a separate space in the server rack. Most servers also have two or more physical processors, each with multiple cores.

Virtual server (VPS or otherwise virtual machine - VM)

In order for everyone to understand the concept of virtual servers, we need to explain a little about how virtualization works.

Hypervisor – Operating system or software in an operating system that mimics the computing environment in which virtual machines are created and run.

This means that a hypervisor can be either stand-alone software (type 2 hypervisor) or it can act as a hypervisor for the entire operating system (type 1 is a hypervisor known as “Bare Metal Hypervisor” or “Embedded Hypervisor”). Examples of type 2 hypervisors include Oracle VirtualBox, VMware Workstation and Microsoft VirtualPC. Examples of type 1 hypervisors include VMware ESXi (vSphere), Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM, Xen, and others. The latter - type 1 hypervisors - can all be installed in the same way as the operating system is installed on a server. When a hypervisor is installed on a server, its resources are evenly distributed between virtual machines thus, one server can serve hundreds of virtual machines.

Once created, the virtual machine behaves just like any other computer, you can turn it on and load the operating system, just like on any other computer. The operating system thinks it is running on physical computer... Each virtual machine has its own so-called virtual hardware. VM has its own processor, hard disk and network interface... This means that a virtual machine by default does not know that it is a virtual machine unless there is some software on it, which it will detect through other means.

Physical versus virtual servers, pros and cons

Now that we understand the concept of virtual servers we can make a general comparison from both the client's point of view.

Server physical flaws

• Much more expensive than a virtual server (VPS)
  simply because of the resources required to run and maintain a physical server, they are much more expensive.
• Harder to manage
  Physical servers in general are much more difficult to manage. This is especially true with disaster recovery. Just like any other machine, there will be a day when, for a variety of reasons, the server will fail. In these cases, restoring from backups is a real nightmare, as the server must be restored from scratch to another (new) server, and then the data must be restored from the backups. For mission-critical production systems, this means at least 8 or more hours of downtime. To prevent this, companies create clusters of two or more servers, but of course this will only increase costs.
• Worsescalable
  It is nearly impossible to complete a server upgrade without additional downtime. Also, it's worth noting that future upgrades for a dedicated server should be taken into account when ordering a server. Failure to do so may result in a completely new server being created. Instead of leading to unplanned service migrations and thus unplanned service outages.

Server Physical Pros

• More powerful than a virtual server
  This is the only reason why you should order a dedicated server. So let's face it, if we have a physical server with 8GB of RAM and a dual-core processor, and make an exact copy of a virtual machine with the same parameters, a physical server will provide much better results. This is because the physical server will not suffer from bottlenecks that are present in virtual machines.

Virtual servers - cons

• Lower performance compared to dedicated servers
  As explained earlier, virtual machines offer slightly lower performance than physical servers for a number of reasons. The main reason is the bottleneck that is between the VM and the hypervisor itself. In most cases, this is irrelevant, because this drawback can be easily resolved by preparing clusters of three or more virtual servers. Finally, SSD technology has added significant performance to virtual machines.

Virtual Server Pros

• Cheaper than a dedicated server
  Virtual Machines located on Physical Servers can serve hundreds of virtual machines. Resources that can then be distributed among virtual machines and therefore virtual machines consume very few resources on the parent server, which significantly reduces their cost.
• Simplified management
  Basically, this is the biggest advantage virtual machines have over physical servers. A virtual machine is much easier to manage than a physical server. For example, if you are installing a physical server, you need to perform a major inspection of the server hardware and peripheral devices and make sure they work correctly. If something doesn't work as intended, additional drivers must be installed and configured. When a virtual machine is deployed, the virtual machine receives its drivers from the parent host, so the virtual machine is ready to go immediately. And this is just one example of many.
• Simplified backup and recovery
  Each physical server needs a manifest to make its configurations, applications, and what should or should not be backup for virtual machines made backups from the entire virtual machine. When a failure occurs for any reason, these backups are ready to be restored immediately and the entire VM is restored instead. Obviously, in such cases, downtime is significantly reduced.
• Scalability and flexibility
  There is no downtime to execute upgrade resources (plans) with a lot of RAM, CPU power, disk space, etc.
• Ideal for any web service
  Is it a small blog or a big one social network with thousands of visitors a day, the VPS can be easily adjusted to suit the workload. If required, more VPSs can quickly and easily be added to the cluster serving various aspects of the web service.

So do I need a virtual or physical server for my business?

The short answer is - 99.9% of the time, VPS is the best choice.

Virtualization as a technology is getting better and better these days. Virtually every company in the world has embraced virtualization to some degree. Unless you need the real power of a dedicated server and also have a large business budget, there is no other reason why you shouldn't choose a VPS. A VPS system, especially if based on an SSD, is fast, secure and easy to manage.

• Dedicated server, or physical server, is the most productive and expensive hosting service. Renting a dedicated server will be an excellent solution for owners of commercial sites, corporate resources, game servers and complex web applications.
• Unlike shared hosting and VPS, when using which you have to share resources with other users, with Dedicated you will have at your disposal all the capacities provided within the service. Therefore, hosting a website on a server guarantees a high degree of security: you do not share the server with other sites that may be vulnerable to hacker attacks.
• Renting a dedicated web server and storage system (data storage systems) in a data center (data center) is an order of a very productive stationary computer in a data center on Windows or Linux with a special set of programs for a certain period. We will provide the server with a fast Internet connection at speeds up to 10 Gbps, permanent connection to electricity and professional technical support to help you deal with hardware and software complexities.
• Another reason for renting server equipment to the site is modern and secure data centers that host dedicated physical servers dedicated - data centers are located in Moscow and are considered one of the most reliable in Russia. Data centers use sources uninterruptible power supply, fire extinguishing and air conditioning systems. This will keep your servers and your projects running smoothly.

Dedicated servers based on Intel Xeon processor

• On the site site, you have several options for choosing the optimal server configuration:
• 1. Order a ready-made server. With the help of filters, you can choose the right car for your budget and needs.
  2. Use the configurator and choose the components for the server yourself.
  3. Send us a request and order a unique server configuration.
• The advantages of the Dedicated server rental service include the provision of complete freedom in choosing the software to be installed, as well as control over the equipment: throughput tires, memory and disk. The price of renting a dedicated server per month depends on its parameters and characteristics.
• You can rent a dedicated server in a data center (data center) on the basis of Intel processors Xeon: E, E3, E5, gold, silver, W in various configurations with SSD drives, SATA or SAS, depending on how powerful the hardware you need.
• How much does it cost to rent a server for a website? The price of such a service is usually higher in comparison with VPS and shared hosting. Pay attention to the section "Cheap servers": there you can buy (rent) dedicated Dedicated servers for a site in a data center (data center) at rates with the lowest monthly cost.
• A dedicated server for rent is a reliable, fast and secure hosting that will provide a lot of opportunities for companies whose Information Systems, sites and projects need round-the-clock uninterrupted operation, large computing resources and disk space for storing and backing up information.

Colleagues, I am glad to inform you that a meeting of the VMware community in Moscow is planned on June 26 this year.

In addition, we try to make this meeting convenient just for communication - so that there is an opportunity to discuss what and how is done with colleagues, this can be very useful. ...

The meeting is free for participants, registration is required (registration form below).

Important! - we took into account the experience and feedback of the last year, and now we have drastically reduced the number of sponsors and sponsored reports, which were the most criticized.

The program, as usual, is still in the process of settling, but first there is already an understanding of who wants to talk about what:

There will definitely be Anton Zhbankov. Last year's report "VMware ESXi 5.1 Processor Scheduler" was unambiguously recognized as "the most furious and therefore interesting" report of the last meeting (in fact, I meet a person at work, we talk, we go to informal topics and here he told me "But you know this Anton, he I also did a hell of a report that year ... ").
This time, the intensity of furiousness should increase, without sacrificing utility.

I will add more details closer to the consolidation of the agreements, in short:
-) details and experience with Virtual SAN;
-) discussion and discussion led by a person who implements "clouds" with his own hands.
-) the rest is being specified

Those who decide to create and run their own projects on the Internet sooner or later face the issue of renting disk space. The advantages of buying a hosting service are obvious: the machine works around the clock, is connected to a high-speed Internet channel, etc. But which server to choose in this situation: virtual or physical? And what is the fundamental difference between them then? Let's figure it out.

Learning concepts

The first thing to do when comparing different types of services is to figure out what they are:

• A physical (dedicated) server is a separate machine on which the files of only your resource (or resources) are located, and the owner of which receives full access both at the software and hardware level.
• Virtual (VDS) server is one of many emulators located on one computer. Functionally, it almost completely copies the physical server, but its owners have to share the machine with other co-tenants, whose number (depending on the power of the hardware) can be measured in hundreds.

Analyzing the benefits

The next step that brings us closer to answering the question "what to choose" is to compare the characteristics. After all, it will depend on them how effectively the resource will function. For clarity, let's place the comparison results in a table:

Formulating conclusions

So which server to choose in the end: physical or virtual. Even now, when we know the "pros" and "cons" of both options, there is no definite answer here. Everything is decided by the personal tastes and preferences of the future tenant.

Physical servers - the choice of those who are more comfortable to realize that somewhere "there" is real computer that there is no need to share with anyone outside. Also interested in them are those owners whose Internet resources require the installation of specific hardware / software on the server. Virtual machines will appeal to those who are not used to overpaying for services. Among their users, people predominate, which, first of all, assess the reliability of the site and the mobility of its replacement.

We now know what are the key differences between servers. different types... Which one did you choose in the end?