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What Is A Virtual Server And What Should I Pay Attention To When Preparing It?

Herbert Huffner
What Is A Virtual Server And What Should I Pay Attention To When Preparing It?

Server Is One Of The Most Important Requirements In The World Of Networking And The Backbone Of Large Networks. Servers Help Businesses In The Process Of Entering The Online World And Provide Easy Access To Data By Providing Simple Solutions For Storing Information. 

The servers are so powerful and efficient that even home users like to use servers instead of personal computers that offer capabilities beyond their needs. However, servers are expensive network equipment, and some businesses can not afford them. In such cases, the best option for businesses is a virtual server that offers capabilities tailored to the needs of companies. In this article, we will get acquainted with virtual servers and the stuff they offer.

Physical and virtual servers

The server can refer to a physical or virtual device (software) that runs services or applications. In general, the way a server works varies depending on what application is defined for it. Physical servers are computers that run application software or host databases.

A virtual server is a reflection of a physical server. Virtual servers, like physical servers, are made up of an operating system and applications and can run on a single physical server and be differentiated by virtualization technology, but what an end-user sees is a server that, like physical examples, has efficient capabilities. Presents.

Building a virtual server involves installing a software component called a hyper server on the physical server. The hypervisor task is to allow the physical server to act as a virtualization host.

The software provides physical server hardware resources such as CPU time, memory, storage space, network bandwidth to one or more virtual servers, and a management console to the network administrator to allocate specific hardware resources to each virtual server.

This approach significantly reduces the operating costs of the companies that provide the virtual servers while at the same time bringing good profitability to the companies that provide these services. VMware ESXi is one of the essential hyperlinks available to service providers for this purpose.

What is a virtual server?

From an end-user perspective, a virtual server has the same functionality as a physical server, allowing access to system resources such as main memory, CPU, and hard disks or solid-state memory. In this mechanism, the virtualization software is responsible for managing and properly allocating the physical server’s resources to use the resources in the same way.

Based on this definition, we see that a physical server is transformed into independent virtual servers by virtualization software, each of which has its resources and operating system. It is as if a company has prepared dozens of physical servers in an instant. It is provided to third parties.

What should we pay attention to when choosing a virtual server?

Virtual servers have attracted the attention of companies because of the significant benefits they offer. The essential advantages of virtual servers are:

Based on the definitions we have given, we see that virtual servers are not less potent than physical servers, so it is not a bad idea to use a virtual server instead of buying a physical server.

The virtual server plays an essential role in the loading quality of a website or web-based project. So if you are not careful in choosing a virtual server, you may have to incur various costs in the long run. Therefore, before buying a virtual server, you should specify the purpose and provide a service tailored to your needs. The most important points that you should pay attention to when choosing a virtual server are the following:

1. Server location

The most critical parameter to consider is the location of the virtual server. Typically, companies can provide virtual servers hosted in Iran or European data centers. Most Iranian virtual servers give you high-speed access because access is done directly from inside Iran. Still, sometimes you need resources that some foreign servers have made impossible to access due to Iran’s IP address.

For example, you would like access to financial markets or foreign exchange banking panels on your virtual server, and connecting to an Iranian IP might block your account. You have customers outside of Iran. You use international banking portals such as Paypal. . In such cases, the preferred option is to provide an external virtual server.

2. Virtual server hard disk type

If we look at the processing operations of the servers, we find that the CPU, main memory, and hard disks form the driving force of the server. In servers, like personal computers, hard disk data is sent to the main memory. The main memory is responsible for transferring data from the hard disk to the CPU for processing and transferring the information processed by the CPU to the hard disk.

Because the data transfer speed from the main memory to the CPU and from the CPU to the main memory is faster than the data transfer speed from the main memory to the hard disk, the higher the input and output speed, the higher the processing speed and the server with Fewer slag is encountered. Today, servers can use different storage media such as hard disks, solid-state memory (SSD), and NVMe memory.

NVMe-based solid-state memories offer the highest I / O speeds per second (IOPS) and have less latency than SATA. In general, NVMe offers high-speed throughput of up to 16 Gbps. While these memories provide the highest speeds, their most significant drawback is their high price.

After NVMe, solid-state memories are produced in 2.5-inch dimensions and have a lower read and write speed than NVMe and more than hard disks.

Finally, hard drives are slower than previous models but are less expensive and offer more storage space.

Typically, an NVMe memory is up to 30 times faster than SATA hard drives and six times faster than solid-state memory.

Typically, suppose your project on a virtual server involves many transactions on databases. In that case, there are many daily site visits simultaneously (online store), or you need a virtual server to host the web, and you may want to consider creating virtual servers. Be sure to use NVMe memory.

If you need a server to back up and host files or set up a virtual server to access some Internet services, virtual servers based on SATA hard disks or solid-state memories are a good option.

In virtual servers, solid-state memory speeds up data access incredibly fast, allowing data to be processed in less time. This approach enables the CPU to find more time to process processes and handle more requests.

Using solid-state memory is more of an advantage to the service provider than a benefit to consumers. In complex disk-based servers, the processor has to wait for data to be processed, and in practice, there is a long queue of processes that must handle in turn. In most cases, the slow loading of processes, applications, and operating systems is due to hard disks that are slower than solid-state memories.

3. Main memory and CPU

Another critical factor that affects the performance and speed of the virtual server is the main memory. Suppose the server you will use does not have enough memory and does not have a powerful CPU. In that case, the operating system will encounter a queue of processes that put a lot of workload on the server, and eventually, the project you want to run on the virtual server will slow down…

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a virtual server is resource specificity. Some companies prefer to use a dedicated server to do business to have sufficient system resources.

For example, suppose the dedicated server you intend to use has 100 GB of main memory and a CPU with 20 processing cores. The virtual server service provider has built virtual servers by installing virtualization software such as ESXI on the hardware.

In this case, the virtual server gives you access to up to 70% of the primary memory resources and the hardware CPU on the dedicated server.

To be more precise, as a consumer, you will have access to 70 GB of main memory and 14 cores of CPU because part of the processing power and memory is used by the software installed on the physical server.

The cost you pay for dedicated resources on the virtual server means that you have to access the resources reliably, and the resources are not shared between other servers. Only then do the quality and stability of the virtual server remain the same.

However, most virtual server providers provide virtual servers to 10 to 14 users instead of providing seven virtual servers with specific resources to seven service providers. All customers have access to the main memory. , Will have access to processing power and storage memory. Now, if these consumers use resources simultaneously, the speed of all of them will seriously decrease.

Why is resource sharing on virtual servers a problem?

When server resources are used in a shared way, they cause instability and instability of the virtual server. For example, suppose a virtual server consumes all the resources at once and is heavily processed, such as intelligent model training or graphic processing, at the same time as other clients want to do something with their virtual servers in such a case. Due to the lack of sufficient resources of the server, there is a severe disruption and slowdown in response and response, which creates severe instability.

In most cases, companies that provide virtual server services jointly set a maximum allowable limit to solve the deadlock problem. Suppose a physical server has 100 GB of main memory and twelve 2.4 GHz processing cores, the server uses a half, one, or one-third resource approach, and you may have access to 50, 25, or 12 GB of main memory and 6, 3, or 1 virtual core. Find that is precisely half of the existing server resources.

Naturally, in such cases, access to the desired speed will not provide, and when working with a virtual server, you will experience a slowdown in process processing. In general, virtual servers that share resources with users have poorer performance than dedicated virtual servers, which you should be aware of when preparing servers.

4. Virtual server port and network application

The virtual server accesses the main hardware network card through a virtual network card. A dedicated server main network card is shared between virtual servers. Therefore, the higher the number of virtual servers, the slower or more network uplink you will face during peak usage. However, the stronger the hardware application port, the faster the virtual server Internet.

Typically, virtual server companies set a specific value for network speed that virtual servers can use. This speed is calculated based on the number of virtual servers and the hardware server uplink port. One of the most important things to keep in mind when setting up a virtual server is to ensure a network port, especially concerning applications such as video streams or launching file-hosting sites, and uploading and downloading.

5. Security mechanisms

Given that all of these processes are web-based and Internet-based, it is only natural that security should be your red line. When choosing and purchasing a virtual server, pay attention to what security mechanisms the virtual server provider uses, such as firewalls, intrusion detection, and detection mechanisms at the data center and dedicated network level, and which of these services the virtual server provides.

For example, Hardware Firewall (UTM) is a managed service that allows servers to connect to a dedicated port on a shared firewall. In this case, each user can manage their port, which is completely isolated from each other.

6. Managed virtual server

When you get a virtual server, you get an operating system or a control panel installed on the operating system from the virtual server provider. More specifically, you get a raw virtual server where you can configure tasks such as installing the required software, security mechanisms, and other settings yourself. You must have sufficient knowledge of the operating system and software you intend to use to do this.

Because some companies do not have enough knowledge in this field, some companies providing virtual servers, in the form of server management services, enter into a contract with the customer. If the server has a problem or needs changes, the company’s technical experts can help them. Based on this definition, a managed server is a service with the exceptional support that helps you set up your website or software on the server without any technical knowledge.

Typically, all web-based, cloud-centric, and virtual-centric companies provide backup services as an essential option in the list of services they offer. Still, in connection with virtual servers, its service companies perform in-server backup operations.

They leave it to the customer, and they have no choice in this regard. However, third-party tools and solutions for backing up the virtual server are available to consumers in the virtualization layer so that they can restore the status quo. So it’s not a bad idea to ask for backup solutions from your service provider.

8. Performance monitoring

Any problem or malfunction of the virtual server will cause severe issues in running the software or websites hosted on the server. Accordingly, most virtual server service providers provide server monitoring, services, and server health monitoring to identify and resolve any issues quickly.

9. Support services

One of the most important things to consider when setting up a virtual server is technical support. In this regard, you should pay attention to the response time to each request, the methods of communication with the support unit, and the period of service delivery. Next, you need to make sure that the company’s employees have technical knowledge in this area and are ready to solve problems full time.

10. Price

Finally, it specifies the price of the type of server you intend to provide. Given that companies are turning to virtual servers to reduce costs, they should have the cost of using services commensurate with the performance you expect. Therefore, before choosing the final option, it is better to compare service providers’ prices and provide the opportunity with better quality and offers services following the mentioned items.

As a general rule, keep in mind that if a company offers higher prices than other competitors, it does not mean that it is better, and you should not go to the company based on this criterion.

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