What is a Virtual Server?

A Virtual Server is a semi-real server environment within a real, physical server that comes with all the tools you are used to having, a generous amount of server resources, root access and total control - all at a fraction of the price of a real server. Furthermore, we use top quality hardware and host a small number of virtual servers on each physical machine. Our Virtual Servers are based on FreeBSD, a mature Unix-like operating system.

All of High Speed Rails' accounts are Virtual Servers (except for Managed Servers).

How to Access the Virtual Server

You can access your Virtual Server via SSH. We disable direct root login as a security precaution, but you can login as a normal user and then become root. SCP and SFTP access are also included. Since you have total control of your Virtual Server, you can also setup WebDAV to your apache-served space, run an rsync server or most anything else you like. We strongly recommend against using unsecured FTP as it can lead to your account being cracked which can result in your data being stolen or deleted or even the host box experiencing service interruptions.

What Comes Pre-Installed in the Virtual Server?

More than 100 Unix tools, PHP, Python and Perl modules and other useful applications and libraries come pre-installed, including:

1. ImageMagick
2. MySQL access
3. PostgreSQL access
4. wv, xlhtml, xpdf and lynx
5. Subversion
6. apache 1.3 or better
7. mod_php5, mod_dav, mod_ssl

And with the FreeBSD ports collection, you can easily and quickly install any of more than 13,000 unix-compatible applications - or have us install them for you at no extra charge.

Using SSH and Keys

SSH is a protocal that enables you to securely login to your Virtual Server. SSH encrypts all communications between you and the server. We do not enable Telnet access to your server and in fact prohibit it as it does not encrypt your sensitive information.

SSH Keys are a pair of text files, one private and one public, that enable you to login to your server in an even more secure way than with just a password, and a way that does not (necessarily) require you to remember your password. See the SSH Key Authentication Howto for more information on implementing password-less, secure, SSH logins.

Becoming Root

Becoming root can be necessary for a lot of server administration activities. You can become root in one of two ways:

Type: 'su' and then type the root password

Type: 'sudo su' and then type the password of your normal user.

Changing your Password

Changing the password you use to SSH to your Virtual Server is easy. First, login via SSH and then type 'passwd' on the commandline. If you become root first then you will not need to type your current password, only your new one, which you need to enter twice.

Passwords need to be at least 10 characters long. 'apg', automatic password generator, is an excellent tool you can use to generate secure passwords. 'genpass' is a wrapper around apg that produces excellent passwords. We recommend you use it to produce a secure SSH password.

Adding Additional SSH Users

You have access to add additional system users who will have access to your Virtual Server via SSH. Be careful about which users you add to the wheel group, though, or what kind of access you give them. Excessive access and careless password policies can lead to your Virtual Server being cracked and subsequent loss and/or compromise of data and damage being done to the host system. Be careful.

To add a user, type 'adduser' and respond to the prompts.

Where is My Zope?

If you requested that Zope be installed then it will be in /usr/local/zope. Your zope application will be in a directory called 272, or whatever the version number might be. instance1 is where your zope instance is: your products, database, logs, extensions and import directory. The zope_zope directory is related to daemontools, which makes sure your zope always stays up, and should not be modified.

To restart your Zope:

zopectl restart

How Do I Use Qmail?

Qmail is a fast, secure and reliable mail server. Qmail is present in your virtual server only to send out email, not to receive it. We recommend you use our central mailserver to receive all your email.

Your Qmail install is tarpitted to ensure that it is not used to send large amounts of spam, as has happened in the past for example when certain insecure contact forms were exploited by third parties for this purpose.

Where are the MySQL and PostgreSQL Servers?

We run the MySQL and PostgreSQL servers on the host machine so that you can save precious RAM for your Zope or other application. You should use 127.0.0.1 as the host when connecting to the SQL servers.

If you did not request and get the SQL databases you need when you opened your account, feel free to file a support ticket anytime requesting additional ones.

You can of course install the mysql-server port in your Virtual Server to run your own MySQL server. PostgreSQL will not however run in your Virtual Server and you should not try it.

Howto Extend Your Virtual Server

FreeBSD makes it easy to install new applications with its ports collection, which includes more than 13,000 applications. You can find detailed information on using the ports collection in the FreeBSD Manual.

Jabber, An Example of Using the Ports Collection

If you wanted to run your own instant messaging server then you might want to try Jabber, an excellent open-source xml-based routing framework. Here are the very simple steps you would follow to install the Jabber server:

1. Login to your Virtual Server via ssh.
2. Become root.
3. Type: 'whereis jabber'
4. Type: 'cd /usr/ports/net/jabber'
5. Type: 'make install clean'
6. You will now see jabber being compiled and installed.

Daemon start scripts get installed in /usr/local/etc/rc.d . Configuration files usually get placed in /usr/local/etc .

The ports collection is constantly changing, new ports are added, current ones are upgraded and old, broken ones are removed. We regularly upgrade your ports collection automatically so you always have the latest version.

Installed Port Upgrades

You can upgrade applications installed via the ports collection by first deleting the application with 'pkg_delete', and then reinstalling the new version in the normal way. Be careful tho: the application may have dependancies that also need to be updated, or other applications may be dependant on it.

Using Cron

Cron is a unix application that enables you to run scripts, commands, applications etc at a precisely scheduled time. Cron is very reliable. The Getting Cron to Do Our Bidding howto is an excellent guide to using cron with FreeBSD.

Managing Multiple Domains

Since each Virtual Server has its own, unique IP address, adding domains is easy. You just need to email support to ask us to pick up the domain, and then configure it in the VHM in the root of your Zope.

For more information on using the VHM, see the VHM Howto.

Using Apache

A recent version of Apache 1.3.x is installed. The www root is at /usr/local/www/data and the apache config files are at /usr/local/etc/apache . You can add new virtual hosts to this file: /usr/local/etc/apache/conf/vhosts.conf.

To restart Apache, first check to make sure your configuration is not broken:

apachectl configtest

... then you can restart:

apachectl graceful

A useful tool for seeing what Apache is doing at anytime is 'atop'. Type 'atop' on the commandline to see requests being served, hosts and referers.

Reading Logs

Most of the system logs are in /var/log. Zope logs are in /usr/local/zope/instance1/log. 'tail' is an excellent way to watch new additions to a log file. For example to see what cron has been doing:

tail -F -n 40 /var/log/cron

Graphical Webalizer-processed logs are in /var/log/usage and Apache logs are in /var/log/httpd.

'multitail' is another useful tool that enables you to watch multiple log files at the same time.

Reading and Editing Files

'more', 'vi', 'pico' and 'cat' are tools you will find helpful when reading and/or writing files.

Working with Processes

'top' is an essential tool when working with processes. It will show you every process that is running in your Virtual Server, its RAM and CPU usage.

Managing Memory Usage

Memory, or RAM, can be a scarce resource when using Zope and Plone. Your Virtual Server has a limited amount of RAM available to it and you need to be conscious of how much you are using at any time because we do not put a hard limit on it.

'memusage' is a script that will show you in Megabytes how much RAM your Virtual Server is using. Check it early and often. If you reguarly go over the amount of RAM you have purchased, please get in touch with support so we can assist you.

Security

Your Virtual Server is not viewable via other Virtual Servers, only via the host system or SSH. We have additionally taken several steps to enhance security, including disabling direct root login.

Please be careful with your Virtual Server not to open up security holes. Do not disable any of our security measures. Do not share the root or your account's passwords with anyone. Do not run daemons as root which do not need it.

Backups

As with all our accounts, we backup your Virtual Server daily. Keep in mind that we only keep one copy at any one time. So this morning's backup overwrote yesteday's.

The Zope repozo backups (if enabled in cron) are kept in /usr/local/zope/backups.

Included Support

Coming Soon.

Billing Procedures and Policies

Please take note that we do not hard-limit your resource usage on the Virtual Server plans. We reserve the right to bill you automatically for over-use of resources. Until such time as we have an sufficient notification system in place for this, however, we will not bill for overuse.

Usage Limitations, Polcies, TOS and AUP

Please read our Policies.

Questions?

Please contact us with your questions and we will get back to you right away.