Home / server / Questions / 500308
Accepted
blueberryfields
Asked: 2013-04-18 09:50:52 +0800 CST

I'm looking for a Debian VPS service. I'm unfamiliar with Debian - what questions should I ask?

  • 772

I'm looking to find a VPS service, providing me with a low cost, hosted, Debian package.

I'm unfamiliar with the OS, and, after looking at several offerings, I'm not entirely sure how I can best compare them.

What kinds of questions should I ask from a hosting provider, in order to know which one is providing me the most bang for my buck?

(I'm looking at providers which allow root access/complete control over the hosted image)

debian

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I'm looking to find a VPS service, providing me with a low cost, hosted, Debian package.

    Debian itself doesn't cost money. An entry level VPS is likely going to set you back about $20-40 per month.

    There are many providers that can do this. I suggest you have a look at some of the more well known providers such as AWS, Linode, Rackspace, VPS.net etc

    • AWS has per hour pricing, so a "Small" VPS in the US = $0.06*24*30 = $43.2
    • Linode has VPS plans from $20 per month.

    I'm unfamiliar with the OS, and, after looking at several offerings, I'm not entirely sure how I can best compare them.

    Each Operating System has it's own set of advantages and disadvantages, it's really hard to compare them for you as it depends on a number of factors (what you're familiar with, support, what you want to use the OS for, security implications, ease of use etc).

    I'm assuming you want to run a web server (or mail server or similar). Debian is a good fit for that and it's widely used. It's a stable OS that has a lot of care taken to make sure packages are stable and secure.

    If you want more information about Debian check this out: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/12/why-ubuntu-users-should-care-about-debian/

    That article also introduces another OS, Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian (so they're very similar). Ubuntu it quite popular and you may find it to be advantageous to you as it generally has more up to date packages and a really welcoming community (particularly to new comers).

    What kinds of questions should I ask from a hosting provider, in order to know which one is providing me the most bang for my buck?

    • What sort of backups to they provide (Do they do snapshots, are those hosted off-site, how many can you do, how much does it cost, can it be automated)
    • What other services to they provide (managed database, DNS, whatever else you might want)
    • What support do you get free or day to day (can you get priority support when you need it)
    • Can you contact them 24/7, what are their response times for support
    • Check for specs of CPU, RAM, HARD DISK (size and disk read speed), Bandwidth
    • What sort of SLA/Uptime do they have (and what is it for, the network, the OS, services on the OS)
    • What is their disaster recovery plan (ie if the data is stored in Sydney and Sydney gets blown up or there is fire or a tsunami or whatever, is your OS lost? How long would it take to recover in the event that something like this happens.

    It's worthwhile doing research online, to see what others are saying. A great resource (if you're in Australia) is http://www.webhostingtalk.com.au/

    • 2