Retrosnub internet services

NEW — 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.

We believe that our customers have the right to know exactly what they are getting for their money, so unlike many other providers of virtual servers we will tell you exactly how our resources are shared. An overcrowded machine is very frustrating to manage and little use for many applications, so we never overcrowd our servers. Some of our competitors try to cram over sixty virtual servers onto one machine; we consider this unreasonable.

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.

Retrosnub combines Xen with a selection of tools to offer customers easy management of their virtual servers. A SSH management shell is provided to facilitate rebooting, monitoring and configuring your server, including access to the server's console in case of network configuration issues.

All virtual servers come with IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity burstable to 100 Mbit/s, free secondary DNS and MX hosting, and a preinstalled copy of Ubuntu Linux Server Edition. (Other Linux distributions may be available: enquire for details.)

Prices

Maxi virtual server (London)

The basic chargeable unit is a slice. Each of our physical servers has its resources divided into a fixed number of slices. Currently the host machine specification comprises four 2.13GHz Xeon X3210 CPU cores and two SATA drives in a RAID1 (mirrored) setup; such a server is divided into 14 virtual server slices (leaving some spare capacity for our own use). The CPU cores are divided amongst customers dynamically and fairly according to demand; if four or fewer virtual servers are actively using the CPU at any time, each will effectively get full use of a 2.13GHz Xeon CPU core.

One slice gives you:

0.5 GB of dedicated RAM
1 GB of swap space
10 GB of RAID1-backed disk space (NB: must contain your Linux distribution as well as your data)
10 GB backup space on a separate server
100 GB of Internet traffic per month
Up to 5 IP addresses (subject to justification)
A /64 of IPv6 address space (i.e. up to 2⁶⁴ addresses)

Each slice will cost you just £14 per month, or £150 per year.

Setup cost: £30, independent of the number of slices purchased.

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

Mini virtual server (Manchester)

An ideal starting point for running your own server on a tight budget — or perfect as an off-site backup system. Currently the host machine specification comprises two 2.8GHz Intel Pentium D cores and two SATA drives in a RAID1 (mirrored) setup; such a server is divided into 15 mini virtual servers and a larger virtual server for our own use (we run our offsite SMTP and DNS services on this platform).

128 MB of dedicated RAM
0.5 GB of swap space
5 GB of RAID1-backed disk space (NB: must contain your Linux distribution as well as your data)
5 GB off-site backup space
25 GB of Internet traffic per month
1 IP address
A /64 of IPv6 address space (i.e. up to 2⁶⁴ addresses)

A mini virtual server will cost you just £6 per month, or £65 per year (introductory low price — order before it's too late!). Setup: £30.

Twin server offer

Get both a maxi and a mini virtual server, hosted entirely separately (different cities, and a completely distinct network) — ideal if 100% reliability is needed. For each maxi virtual server slice you purchase, you can get £2.50 off the monthly price of a mini virtual server — so if you buy three or more maxi slices, you can get a mini virtual server at no monthly cost!

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!).