Hyper-V questions

[justinm]

Hi,

Finally reaching the end of developing a new site and will need to upgrade from your basic shared hosting to VPS. A couple of questions re: your Hyper-V plans:

1. Do you actively ping the server and carry out a re-boot if necessary? (e.g. if it falls over). If so, how long does this usually take and do I receive notification?

2. Would my account be restricted to the number of processor cores it's allowed to use?

3. Is there any security in place (e.g. hardware firewall) other than that contained in Windows Sever? i.e. any security difference between your Hyper-V plan and a basic unmanaged dedicated server with no hardware firewall protection?

Thanks in advance,

Justin

[Scott]

Hi Justin,

1) All our Virtuozzo and Hyper-V VPS nodes are pro-actively monitored. However, individual processes running on the VPS are not monitored. But if you would like to have monitoring setup for the services running on your vps, our developers can do it for you. In-case if services goes down, we will get a notification on our help desk as well as the copy of same email will be forwarded to you.

2) Yes. There will be a restriction for the number of processor cores allowed. It will be assigned at the time of VPS creation.

3) We do not provide hardware firewall protection for any VPS, however we can configure windows firewall and ip-sec firewall rules on your vps, as per your requirement.

We hope this information has been helpful. However, if you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact our VPS support department.

[justinm]

Thanks Scott, how many processor cores would your Hyper-V plan be restricted to?

Also, does the version of MailEnable installed allow IMAP email?

Justin

[Scott]

Hi,

Your Hyper-V VPS will be having 1 dedicated processor core. By default Plesk uses MailEnable standard edition as a primary mail server, which does not support IMAP protocol. IMAP service is supported by the following email servers that can be used with Plesk:

1. MailEnable Professional Edition.
2. MailEnable Enterprise Edition.

[justinm]

Thanks again for the replies. Just a couple more questions before I sign up:

1. Can I install dotnetpanel rather than use Plesk?

2. Can I also use smartermail rather than mailenable as my mailserver software? (this supports IMAP on the free version).

Justin

[Ryan]

Hi Justin,

At the moment we do not offer Dotnetpanel control panel option with our Windows VPS Hosting and Hyper-V VPS. Also it cannot be installed separately on a single virtual server as it's installation requires an active directory environment to be created on the main physical server.

You can opt for Plesk control panel with a VPS plan of your choice. You will get Mailenable standard version with Plesk control panel. If you wish to use IMAP, you will need to choose Mailenable professional or enterprise version and pay the applicable license fees.

You can also use smartermail with Plesk on your VPS instead of mailenable however you will need to buy the license for smartermail directly from the vendor. We will install it on your VPS and also provide support for the same.

[justinm]

Thanks Ryan, signed up to Hyper-V VPS02 yesterday, just waiting for an email with login details so I can start using it.

However, I'm a bit confused re: server monitoring. Your earlier reply suggests your technicians will monitor my node to keep it running, e.g. reboot if it hangs for some reason (excellent, cos that's want I want).

On looking through the forum it seems I need to activate this myself at Support Department - Server Monitor rather than it being an automatically included feature?

And there are other posts from users suggesting their nodes have been down for several hours without being spotted by your technicians (although I accept they might have been isolated events, e.g. a process that isn't monitored etc.)

Could you just confirm what the position is? I'm looking forward to a long period of hassle-free hosting with you and just want to make sure I get everything setup correctly day 1 to facilitate this.

Also, in the event my node doesn't respond, what's the typical respnse time for re-booting?

Many thanks,

Justin

[Ryan]

Hi Justin,

The default server monitoring system which we use monitors the complete node and not individual VPSs. In case of a problem with the node, our technical team is instantly notified about the same. For individual VPS monitoring and monitoring of the services running on it, we recommend our advanced Server Monitoring system for which you can sign up at Support Department - Server Monitor

In case a service goes down, we will get an immediate notification regarding the same on our help desk and a copy of the same notification email will be forwarded to you as well.

In the event of the node not responding, the typical response time for re-booting is 5-10 minutes.

[justinm]

Thanks again Ryan, all makes sense now!

[Ryan]

You are most welcome

Feel free to contact us if you need any assistance.