internet services

Virtual Servers

SERVICE UPGRADED — Retrosnub is proud to announce virtual servers done properly. A virtual server is just like a real one — you get full root-level control of your own Linux system, with its own IP address (or multiple), filesystem and kernel, which you can configure however you choose.

Features

Advanced technology: Retrosnub's physical servers are divided up into multiple virtual servers using the Xen hypervisor. Xen was originally devised at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, and is widely acknowledged as the fastest and most secure virtualization software in the industry, making use of paravirtualisation for significantly better performance than traditional virtualisation techniques.
Ubuntu Server Edition: As standard, your virtual machine will come preinstalled with Ubuntu Server Edition, specially adapted for virtualised use by Retrosnub. (Other Linux distributions are available: enquire for details.)
Protection against hardware failure: Retrosnub's virtualisation cluster—"Orion"—allows virtual servers to move from one physical server to another seamlessly in the unlikely event that one of our physical servers fails, or if we need to perform maintenance.
Dedicated memory: The memory allocated to your virtual server is yours and yours only.
Easy management: A management applet is provided to facilitate rebooting, monitoring and configuring your server, including access to the server's console in case of network configuration issues.
Excellent connectivity: All virtual servers come with IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity burstable to 100 Mbit/s. They are physically hosted in Stevenage, UK and have connectivity provided by BT and other providers.
No overcrowding: We monitor the performance of our cluster in order to ensure that no physical server is overloaded, and will never cram in more virtual machines than the hardware can cope with (usually 15-30). Some of our competitors try to squeeze over sixty virtual servers onto one machine; we consider this unreasonable.
Offsite services: We can provide offsite backup services hosted in another city (either file storage or a fully-fledged virtual machine); enquire for details.
Free extras: Virtual server customers can take advantage of free secondary DNS and MX hosting.

Prices

The basic chargeable unit is a slice. Each of our physical servers has its resources divided into a fixed number of equal slices, and a virtual server can consist of one or more slices.

A single slice is quite small—whilst it's perfectly suitable for running a small website, if you are intending to run multiple services or memory-intensive applications you should consider buying two or more slices.

"Orion" Virtual Server Slice

One slice gives you:

250 MB of dedicated RAM
500 MB of swap space
5 GB of usable RAID-backed disk space
(this space is for your data and any extra software you install: an extra 1.25GB per virtual server is provided free to contain the base operating system)
5 GB backup space on a separate server
50 GB of Internet traffic per month
Up to 5 IP addresses (subject to justification)
Any number of routed IPv6 /64 subnets (subject to justification)

Each slice will cost you just £7 per month, or £75 per year.

Setup cost: £30, independent of the number of slices purchased
Free setup for a limited time only!

You can add extra slices to your virtual server at any point after purchase for a one-off administration cost of £20.

Order now

Managed services

As standard, virtual servers are provided with a minimal Ubuntu Linux installation — just basic tools and an OpenSSH server — so that you get complete control over what is installed. This means that it is up to you to install and configure the server software you require; this requires a certain level of experience with Linux servers. Furthermore, importantly, it is up to you to keep your server secure and up-to-date with the latest security updates.

Retrosnub has extensive Linux administration and development experience and are always on-hand to offer free advice or to take on part or all of the management of your server for you. For just £10 per month extra, an experienced Retrosnub system administrator can take this responsibility off your hands and handle the routine management of your server for you: your server software will be kept up-to-date, and comprehensive system monitoring and status graphing will be provided to alert you of potential issues such as running out of disk space before they become a problem.

Additional setup and configuration work — for example, the configuration of a web server with PHP and MySQL — can be performed for £40 per hour, minimum charge £20 (and due to our experience in running servers, conventional configurations will not take us long!).