May 13, 2014 at 14:15VPS Search - Now with Dedicated Server Search
Hello!
It has been exactly six months since the launch of the project by finding virtual servers . In each post in the comments, users had various ideas for improving the service that we tried to implement. I want to talk in more detail about one of these ideas and its implementation - we recently got a search on dedicated servers .
But for a start I want to be distracted and say that this is the last post on HabraHabr. The administration of habrahabr.ru extends the free blog only to those startups that do not use monetization. Not so long ago, we began to use affiliate links hosters and offer a place for backups and licenses on the control panel
, so we won’t get under the terms of the free extension. In any case, I want to say thank you to the Habr administration for such a wonderful opportunity to tell about myself, and offer users to subscribe to the newsletter about the project.
The idea to do a search on dedicated servers was born around the beginning of work on the project. Virtual servers are good and convenient, but when the project grows, then the resources of the virtual server begin to be insufficient and then you will need to look for a dedicated server.
However, in the Dediks it is not so simple. If the virtual server has a “simple” value of the disk capacity, then with a dedicated server everything is much more complicated - there may be several disks and they can be of different volumes and types. That is, it is not entirely clear how to display the server during sorting if it has two disks: summarize the volumes or assume that the user will use mirrored RAID. Similarly with the processor: “folding” megahertz is not entirely correct if the processor has several cores. Unfortunately, when developing a new section, these problems did not disappear anywhere, so the search on dedicated servers has its own characteristics, but we hope that they will not cause great inconvenience.
As I wrote above, the disk capacity on a dedicated server is slightly different than the disk capacity on a virtual server. It is logically incorrect to add SATA and SSD volumes and use the resulting value for sorting.
However, having looked at the hosters' offers, we came to the conclusion that the number of servers on which different types of disks are installed is quite small and at the first stage we decided to concentrate on “ordinary” servers. That is why now we are adding only those servers in which drives of the same type and size are installed. When sorting, we simply summarize the volume of disks in the server, however, when searching, you can always select the desired size of one disk and limit the total number of disks.
For example, if a user wants to configure RAID 10, then you just need to move the “Number of disks” slider to position 4 and all servers with 4 or more disks will be selected. Similar to virtual servers, when searching, you can select the type of disk: SATA, SAS or SSD. Another improvement is the ability to choose the type of RAID controller used: Soft or Hard.
There were no problems with the memory - it can be summed up with a clear conscience and shown to the user the final result. The only addition is that we make a note if the memory is ECC type.
There were problems with the processor when developing the partition with virtual servers - comparing megahertz is a bit wrong, since each processor can have different ones. However, there is no other value for comparison, so I had to do this.
With dedicated servers, it turned out even worse - to multiply the frequency of one processor core by the number of cores is also wrong, but for lack of another output I had to do this. There is also a small positive point - there is a site cpubenchmark.net, which shows the number of parrots of a processor, you can always evaluate the “coolness” of a processor compared to the rest.
At one point, we really wanted to sort by this parameter, but the idea failed - the site does not have some processors that hosters offer.
For virtual servers, we searched only for the amount of traffic included in the monthly fee. Information about the band is given purely for informational purposes, as different hosters have their own vision of how fast the virtual server should be connected. Someone gives 100 megabits for the entire node, while someone guarantees the same 100 megabits at any time of the day to the client.
With dedicated servers, we decided to do the following: the port speed to the server is always known, therefore you can filter the necessary positions by this value, but not all hosters indicate the guaranteed speed, therefore this information is indicated only for those servers for which it is known.
Unusual value for virtual servers - the installation cost is quite common for dedicated servers, so we decided to make a “slider” to search for this parameter. It works similarly to the rental price, so the user always has the opportunity to choose the boundaries of the installation cost in a convenient currency and everything will be automatically recounted. By the way, an undocumented feature - in the tooltip, the price in the hoster's currency is indicated in bold, so the user always has the opportunity to figure out what will happen if the exchange rate of any currency changes.
The remaining parameters are fully consistent with those used for virtual servers - country of location, payment method, availability of a free control panel, type of administration and support for IPv6. Information about possible operating systems was excluded, since dedicated servers do not have a restriction on installing one or another OS due to virtualization restrictions. If you open additional information about the server, then three more parameters will be visible there:
Unfortunately, very few dedicated servers have been added right now, since it is rather difficult to collect information about them, but those hosters who sent us information about their servers were added bypassing the general queue, for which many thanks to them!
Since this is the last post, I decided to mention in it everything that has been done over the past six months.
Contrary to our expectations, the service has been very popular and users are actively buying and filled storage backups. Storage cost: 30 rubles for 10 GB, 100 rubles for 50 Gb and then the price increases in proportion to the volume. Activation is fully automatic, it is possible to restrict access to IP addresses.
Through our service, you can quickly and conveniently buy control panels for a dedicated or virtual server through a web interface. The cost of the panel is not very large, but its presence allows you to get rid of routine operations through the console.
ISPmanager licenses are activated fully automatically immediately after payment, and the price is set at the minimum allowed by the developer, so it’s impossible to find a cheaper one. Changing the IP address and activation key also occurs automatically.
Until the end of May, the new version of the ISPmanager 5 Lite panel has good discounts: 1 month rent costs 144 rubles, 1 year - 1440 rubles, an eternal license will cost 2160 rubles .
Almost at the very beginning of the development of the project, a section with discounts and promotions appeared . There hosters publish information about their special offers. It is possible to sign up for updates section.
Not so long ago there was a section with auctions where hosters offer users to buy a server with a very good discount, sometimes reaching 95%. For users, this is a good opportunity to get a server at a discount without any inconvenience - according to the rules of the auction, the final price is valid for the entire time the server is rented.
This section for some reason is not very popular as we would like, although it contains a fairly large number of tools: the ability to check download speed from virtual hosters' servers, the ability to execute ping, tracert and mtr commands from and to the host server. At the moment, the system uses 30 virtual servers, which were provided free of charge by hosters.
Less than a month ago, we made it possible to leave feedback on hosters on the forum . Each host topic displays brief information about it. From plans for the future:
In conclusion, I want to give some statistics.
At the moment, information has been added about 1634 virtual servers, 163 dedicated servers, 210 hosters.
Russia: 645 VPS, 92
hosters USA: 400 VPS, 50 hosters
Germany: 307 VPS, 51 hosters
Netherlands: 279 VPS, 41 hosters
Ukraine: 273 VPS, 41 hosters
OpenVZ: 508 tariffs, 100 hosters
KVM: 589 tariffs, 92 hosters
XEN: 274 tariffs, 35 hosters
57 hosts provide basic administration, 14 companies provide full administration. 67 hosters have
IPv6 support .
The most popular billing - BILLmanager uses 46 hosters from the catalog, WHMCS billing - 45 hosters falls behind one hoster, RootPanel uses 12 hosters. WebMoney wins in
terms of payment methods - 172 hosts support this system. Yandex.Money and bank cards each have 135 hosters, Qiwi wallet has 91 hosters, PayPal has 71.
The minimum resources that hosters offer are: hard disk - 1 Gb, RAM - 64 Mb, processor - 200 Mhz, traffic - 50 Gb .
That's all. I will be glad to answer questions and listen to comments.
PS Thanks to andorro for editing the text.
It has been exactly six months since the launch of the project by finding virtual servers . In each post in the comments, users had various ideas for improving the service that we tried to implement. I want to talk in more detail about one of these ideas and its implementation - we recently got a search on dedicated servers .
But for a start I want to be distracted and say that this is the last post on HabraHabr. The administration of habrahabr.ru extends the free blog only to those startups that do not use monetization. Not so long ago, we began to use affiliate links hosters and offer a place for backups and licenses on the control panel
, so we won’t get under the terms of the free extension. In any case, I want to say thank you to the Habr administration for such a wonderful opportunity to tell about myself, and offer users to subscribe to the newsletter about the project.
The idea to do a search on dedicated servers was born around the beginning of work on the project. Virtual servers are good and convenient, but when the project grows, then the resources of the virtual server begin to be insufficient and then you will need to look for a dedicated server.
However, in the Dediks it is not so simple. If the virtual server has a “simple” value of the disk capacity, then with a dedicated server everything is much more complicated - there may be several disks and they can be of different volumes and types. That is, it is not entirely clear how to display the server during sorting if it has two disks: summarize the volumes or assume that the user will use mirrored RAID. Similarly with the processor: “folding” megahertz is not entirely correct if the processor has several cores. Unfortunately, when developing a new section, these problems did not disappear anywhere, so the search on dedicated servers has its own characteristics, but we hope that they will not cause great inconvenience.
Disk space
As I wrote above, the disk capacity on a dedicated server is slightly different than the disk capacity on a virtual server. It is logically incorrect to add SATA and SSD volumes and use the resulting value for sorting.
However, having looked at the hosters' offers, we came to the conclusion that the number of servers on which different types of disks are installed is quite small and at the first stage we decided to concentrate on “ordinary” servers. That is why now we are adding only those servers in which drives of the same type and size are installed. When sorting, we simply summarize the volume of disks in the server, however, when searching, you can always select the desired size of one disk and limit the total number of disks.
For example, if a user wants to configure RAID 10, then you just need to move the “Number of disks” slider to position 4 and all servers with 4 or more disks will be selected. Similar to virtual servers, when searching, you can select the type of disk: SATA, SAS or SSD. Another improvement is the ability to choose the type of RAID controller used: Soft or Hard.
RAM
There were no problems with the memory - it can be summed up with a clear conscience and shown to the user the final result. The only addition is that we make a note if the memory is ECC type.
CPU
There were problems with the processor when developing the partition with virtual servers - comparing megahertz is a bit wrong, since each processor can have different ones. However, there is no other value for comparison, so I had to do this.
With dedicated servers, it turned out even worse - to multiply the frequency of one processor core by the number of cores is also wrong, but for lack of another output I had to do this. There is also a small positive point - there is a site cpubenchmark.net, which shows the number of parrots of a processor, you can always evaluate the “coolness” of a processor compared to the rest.
At one point, we really wanted to sort by this parameter, but the idea failed - the site does not have some processors that hosters offer.
Traffic and lane
For virtual servers, we searched only for the amount of traffic included in the monthly fee. Information about the band is given purely for informational purposes, as different hosters have their own vision of how fast the virtual server should be connected. Someone gives 100 megabits for the entire node, while someone guarantees the same 100 megabits at any time of the day to the client.
With dedicated servers, we decided to do the following: the port speed to the server is always known, therefore you can filter the necessary positions by this value, but not all hosters indicate the guaranteed speed, therefore this information is indicated only for those servers for which it is known.
Installation cost
Unusual value for virtual servers - the installation cost is quite common for dedicated servers, so we decided to make a “slider” to search for this parameter. It works similarly to the rental price, so the user always has the opportunity to choose the boundaries of the installation cost in a convenient currency and everything will be automatically recounted. By the way, an undocumented feature - in the tooltip, the price in the hoster's currency is indicated in bold, so the user always has the opportunity to figure out what will happen if the exchange rate of any currency changes.
The remaining parameters are fully consistent with those used for virtual servers - country of location, payment method, availability of a free control panel, type of administration and support for IPv6. Information about possible operating systems was excluded, since dedicated servers do not have a restriction on installing one or another OS due to virtualization restrictions. If you open additional information about the server, then three more parameters will be visible there:
- Equipment owner . Possible options: reseller, their equipment in someone else's data center and their equipment in their data center.
- The name of the data center .
- Remote control . This field indicates the equipment for remote control that is constantly connected to the server.
Unfortunately, very few dedicated servers have been added right now, since it is rather difficult to collect information about them, but those hosters who sent us information about their servers were added bypassing the general queue, for which many thanks to them!
Since this is the last post, I decided to mention in it everything that has been done over the past six months.
Ability to buy backup space
Contrary to our expectations, the service has been very popular and users are actively buying and filled storage backups. Storage cost: 30 rubles for 10 GB, 100 rubles for 50 Gb and then the price increases in proportion to the volume. Activation is fully automatic, it is possible to restrict access to IP addresses.
Purchase licenses on the server control panel
Through our service, you can quickly and conveniently buy control panels for a dedicated or virtual server through a web interface. The cost of the panel is not very large, but its presence allows you to get rid of routine operations through the console.
ISPmanager licenses are activated fully automatically immediately after payment, and the price is set at the minimum allowed by the developer, so it’s impossible to find a cheaper one. Changing the IP address and activation key also occurs automatically.
Until the end of May, the new version of the ISPmanager 5 Lite panel has good discounts: 1 month rent costs 144 rubles, 1 year - 1440 rubles, an eternal license will cost 2160 rubles .
Discounts and promotions
Almost at the very beginning of the development of the project, a section with discounts and promotions appeared . There hosters publish information about their special offers. It is possible to sign up for updates section.
Auctions
Not so long ago there was a section with auctions where hosters offer users to buy a server with a very good discount, sometimes reaching 95%. For users, this is a good opportunity to get a server at a discount without any inconvenience - according to the rules of the auction, the final price is valid for the entire time the server is rented.
Looking glass
This section for some reason is not very popular as we would like, although it contains a fairly large number of tools: the ability to check download speed from virtual hosters' servers, the ability to execute ping, tracert and mtr commands from and to the host server. At the moment, the system uses 30 virtual servers, which were provided free of charge by hosters.
Forum
Less than a month ago, we made it possible to leave feedback on hosters on the forum . Each host topic displays brief information about it. From plans for the future:
- Add a lot of dedicated servers
- Create a mini-guide on server administration and using control panels
- Make it possible to apply for a server search: the user will need to specify the desired server parameters, and hosters will be able to offer their options
- Two-level list of countries when searching
- Add pricing information when paying for more than a month
- Host account
- Information about the city of server hosting
- Checking site availability from different regions
- Section for virtual and dedicated design servers
- Ability to add dedicated servers with various types of drives
- Automatic detection of tariff information updates on the hosting site
In conclusion, I want to give some statistics.
At the moment, information has been added about 1634 virtual servers, 163 dedicated servers, 210 hosters.
Most popular countries by hoster offers
Russia: 645 VPS, 92
hosters USA: 400 VPS, 50 hosters
Germany: 307 VPS, 51 hosters
Netherlands: 279 VPS, 41 hosters
Ukraine: 273 VPS, 41 hosters
Virtualization
OpenVZ: 508 tariffs, 100 hosters
KVM: 589 tariffs, 92 hosters
XEN: 274 tariffs, 35 hosters
57 hosts provide basic administration, 14 companies provide full administration. 67 hosters have
IPv6 support .
The most popular billing - BILLmanager uses 46 hosters from the catalog, WHMCS billing - 45 hosters falls behind one hoster, RootPanel uses 12 hosters. WebMoney wins in
terms of payment methods - 172 hosts support this system. Yandex.Money and bank cards each have 135 hosters, Qiwi wallet has 91 hosters, PayPal has 71.
The minimum resources that hosters offer are: hard disk - 1 Gb, RAM - 64 Mb, processor - 200 Mhz, traffic - 50 Gb .
That's all. I will be glad to answer questions and listen to comments.
PS Thanks to andorro for editing the text.