Bodhost’s Linux dedicated servers are offered with the choice of cPanel/WHM and Plesk if you require a web-based control panel through which you can manage your dedicated server and any hosting related services, for example clients and web hosting plans. As the only other method of management available to you as a Linux dedicated server administrator is through SSH, a web hosting control panel is strongly recommended as an addition to your hosting package so that you are able to fully utilize the features and power that a dedicated server can offer.

The most popular control panel for Linux servers in any case is cPanel; not only is cPanel a low cost control panel suite, but it is also uses system resources efficiently to ensure that your server remains stable, even when under load. Some of the core features of cPanel include:

• cPanel comes in two parts: the cPanel control panel is designed for end-users to manage their own shared hosting accounts and websites, whilst the WHM control panel is slightly more complicated in its features and GUI with the main aim of allowing system administrators and resellers to manage their part of the deal effectively
• Along with the previous benefit, cPanel is also available in two different packages depending on whether you are using a VPS server or a dedicated server; this is at the core of the control panel’s ability to effectively use the resources that it has available
• Full support for the management of MySQL databases is also possible through Plesk, specifically with the aid of the PHPMyAdmin database management system.

cPanel is often seen as being the most complete solution available to Linux system administrators and is the ideal platform for anyone with a Linux Dedicated Server who is looking to start their own web hosting business. Like any other web hosting control panel, cPanel offers the facilities necessary to create and maintain your own web hosting clients, based around your own web hosting plans.

We here at Bodhost can also offer you the Plesk control panel for your Linux dedicated server, but we don’t feel that this can offer you the same benefits and features as cPanel. Along with Plesk, we can provide installation services for any control panel that you wish to use on your Linux Server.

Windows Control Panels

With our Windows dedicated hosting plans, you will find that you are more limited with the choice of control panel offered by Bodhost as we only support Plesk on our Windows servers. However, you shouldn’t let this change your mind about choosing Bodhost as your Windows dedicated hosting provider because Plesk is one of the most feature-rich web hosting control panels available for the Windows platform. Some of the features offered by Plesk that you will find useful include:

• Full support is offered for the ASP.NET 4.0, the latest version of the framework, so that you and your hosting clients are able to retain full control of how the framework impacts on your hosting environment and any applications that have been developed using it
• Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL Server (for Windows) can both be integrated into Plesk so that you are able to manage the databases hosted by both applications from the control panel
• Support for various other third-party applications is also included with Plesk to aid the security of the web hosting environment through virus detection on the server and performing backups of the data hosted on a regular basis.

If there is another web hosting control panel that you would like to use with your Windows dedicated server then you should contact Bodhost’s 24×7 support team as they can offer assistance with the installation of a number of different applications; however, it should be noted that you will need to purchase and supply your own license in the case of commercial applications.

Cloud web hosting can be used for the hosting of powerful virtual machines that can mimic the performance of a dedicated server to some extent and the cloud is being seen as a more affordable option to dedicated server hosting by businesses of all sizes. The eNlight platform used by Bodhost for enterprise cloud hosting allows you to specify the precise units of resources that you would like to form the heart of your VM; this is designed as a method that can provide good value for money because you will only ever be paying for the resources that you want and are using, whilst if a virtual machine is going to be replacing a physical server then you can configure the resources of the VM to match those of the original dedicated server.

Bodhost offers ones of the most reliable cloud platforms available, with our eNlight hosting services being accompanied by a 99.95% uptime guarantee so you can be assured that your servers and website will always be accessible when you need them to be. Our cloud clusters are designed with the following architecture to maximize the availability of resources and uptime:

• The storage of content on your virtual machines is delegated to central SANs (Storage Area Networks) that are designed to provide a more secure data hosting service
• Your virtual machine will pull resources from a central pool that is formed of resources from multiple servers, therefore meaning that even if one server in the cloud crashes, the uptime and availability of your virtual machine(s) won’t be compromised
• We offer auto-scaling for times when your virtual machines may be running low on resources due to excessive loads, this means that resources will be automatically allocated so that the load can be managed properly and the stability of your VM isn’t compromised.

Bodhost offers eNlight hosting in two different forms: you can choose enterprise cloud hosting, which will enable you to make use of the shared cloud for affordable cloud hosting and is the ideal solution if you aren’t looking to use many virtual machines; we can also offer larger businesses an eNlight-based private cloud hosting solution that will offer you the same benefits as the shared cloud, albeit with full control over the entire cloud and greater room to create powerful virtual machines.

If you are concerned about your demands from cloud hosting being too much for a shared cloud environment, as may be the case if you are wanting to migrate multiple dedicated servers to the cloud, then you should contact the Bod sales team who can provide you with advice on how to go about moving from dedicated hosting to the cloud.

Web Hosting Migration

Once you have selected the most appropriate cloud service for your needs from Bodhost, you will need to begin the process of planning the migration of the data from your dedicated and on-site servers to identical cloud virtual machines. By choosing the cloud over physical servers, you will be able to introduce cost savings into your business, as the cloud will be cheaper to run. The following methods are seen as best practice when migrating servers of any kind:

• Capturing an image of the hard drive of the server at the beginning of the process ensures that this can be used to image a new virtual machine so that all settings and files are transferred over and are available once the new virtual machine has been provisioned professionally
• If you are going to be using a web hosting control panel such as cPanel at both ends of the migration process then these applications generally have their own migration facilities built-in that will transfer data between servers for you automatically and will complete the account setup process automatically
• It is important for you to take a full back up of the original data before you begin the migration process because if an issue occurs during the data migration then you could be faced with an issue where the data and servers at both ends becomes corrupted, the result of which could be mass data loss.

If you are unsure of how to pursue the migration of your physical servers into the cloud then Bodhost’s 24×7 support team are here to assist you in any way they can.

Bodhost provides dedicated server hosting from our Tier 3 data center, which is located in Chicago, USA. As one of the leading data centers in the USA, our data center provides facilities that allow us to offer an uptime guarantee of 99.9% with all of our dedicated servers; furthermore, with staff monitoring the network infrastructure as well as server hardware 24×7, you can be assured that the chances of downtime because of server or network issues are minimal.

We offer a range of professional server configurations that you can take advantage of to improve your business’s IT infrastructure and introduce a range of new IT applications that can help to streamline certain functions and business acitivities so that you can improve the productivity of your employees. Other server configurations available from Bodhost in the USA include:

• Load balancing is available for high demand websites and web applications for which a single server or a separate web and database server isn’t going to be suitable; the process of load balancing will cluster several servers together, each of which will share the load of a website to make sure all requests are served quickly and efficiently.
• We offer a range of different hard drive configurations thanks to RAID that customers can use to improve the performance of their server (boosting read/write speeds with RAID 0), or to add an extra level of data security by mirroring one hard drive with the data of another (RAID 1).

We recognize the importance of offering a secure data center environment for server hosting alongside secure servers and a secure network. Our data center has been designed to implement security features such as:

• Access to the data floor where the servers are hosted is restricted to authorized individuals only and this is guaranteed with the use of biometric access and CCTV surveillance cameras monitoring every route to the data floor.
• Staff are on site 24×7 to monitor security as well as the performance of the network so that a consistent level of service is provided to enforce our policy of offering a stable environment for all customers.

US dedicated server hosting from Bodhost provides an affordable dedicated hosting choice for US-based businesses and consumers that require their own isolated hosting environment.

cPanel Dedicated Server

cPanel is one of the most popular Linux web hosting control panels available and when coupled with a Bodhost dedicated server provides a powerful and reliable environment that businesses can use to develop their own web hosting service further. If you don’t wish to start your own web hosting business then cPanel can simply be used as a web-based management tool for your dedicated server; a simplified interface will improve the speed at which certain maintenance tasks can be achieved, i.e. software updates and certain system modifications.

Although cPanel is only available for Linux dedicated servers, this has allows the developers of the software to create an application that offers a much more targeted user experience that allows you to control many aspects of your Linux dedicated server from a single web interface. Features of cPanel include:

• WHM accompanies cPanel and this is a separate control panel designed for use by resellers and server administrators to control their respective accounts; a more advanced interface is provided, with the cPanel side of the control panel being a simplified version that is intuitive for the beginners that often choose Linux shared hosting.
• Full control of the services that power the cPanel control panel such as Apache, MySQL Server, your chosen FTP server and mail server applications allows you to restart them on the fly if there is an issue that is preventing you from accessing these particular services.

Plesk Dedicated Server

As a Windows dedicated server user you will have full access to your server via Remote Desktop, but for some this may not be enough and there are certainly benefits to choosing a web-based control panel such as Plesk. Choosing Plesk will provide you with a simplified way in which you can manage multiple domain names on your dedicated server as the management of all major services such as your email server and web server applications are taken care of by Plesk; in order to setup a domain with all of the relevant services, you will only need to fill in one form in Plesk and the rest is taken care of by the control panel.

Bod recommends that our Windows dedicated server customers configure Plesk as the control panel for their needs; Plesk can provide you with the following benefits:

• If you wish to setup your own web hosting business using your dedicated server then you can setup web hosting plans and web hosting accounts using the control panel; they will be managed in a professional manner and you can allow your clients access to their own hosting accounts.
• Advanced support is offered for Microsoft technologies such as ASP.NET 4.0 and MSSQL Server so that you can alter these to function in line with your policies or web applications.

Bodhost offers Windows Server 2008 servers that are fully managed so that you can call on our support team for assistance whenever you need it.

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What is Virtual Private Server?

A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a virtual machine that is hosted on a physical machine with other VPS servers and provides a dedicated hosting environment similar to that of a dedicated server, but VPS servers are available at a much more affordable cost. Bodhost offers a range of Linux VPS servers and Windows VPS servers so that there is variety available to suit the requirements of all users. With root access provided with all VPS hosting plans, you will have full control of your hosting environment so that you can adapt the functionality and performance to reflect what you would like to see. All Bodhost web hosting services are hosted out of our Tier 3 data center, located in Chicago, Illinois; our data center is one of the most secure facilities in the USA and uses the most up-to-date technologies so that we can offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee with our VPS hosting plans.

Bodhost’s VPS server hosting plans are aimed at offering small businesses a dedicated platform that allows them to take a step up by increasing their web presence to a point where they can sells their goods and services online. A VPS server can help meet these aims in the following ways:

• The dedicated hosting environment provided by a VPS server is going to be one of the requirements you will need to fulfill if you wish to process the personal information, including credit cards, of your customers because they will want to be assured of the security of your website prior to entering their personal information.
• A VPS server is supplied with generous resource assignments so that you can host a website that receives high volumes of traffic without having to worry about the availability of your website or the performance of your VPS server.
• You can use the two dedicated IP addresses provided with your VPS server to setup dedicated SSL certificates for your websites to provide an extra layer of security and to purvey your dedication to security to your visitors.

VPS Root Access

As a VPS server provides you with your own dedicated hosting environment, root or administrator access to your virtual machine is a necessity so that you are able to seize upon the opportunity to install the applications and services of your choice and generally creating a custom web hosting environment. Bodhost provides SSH access for all Linux VPS server customers; SSH is direct access to your server’s command line so that you have an interface that you can use to direct commands at your hosting environment – it is from the console that you will install applications and perform server maintenance. As a Windows VPS server customer, Bodhost can offer you Remote Desktop access to your virtual server so that you are able to view the Windows Server 2008 GUI and perform maintenance from here.

Root access to your virtual private server can be gained in the following manners, depending on the platform that you are using:

• As a Linux VPS server client you will require a desktop SSH client if you are using Windows on your computer, but if you are using Mac OSX or another Linux distribution then you will already have the Terminal application available as an accompaniment to your operating system – you will then need to enter your login details in order to access your VPS server, on a Windows client this will be fairly easy, but with Terminal you will need to do this by enter the following command: “ssh user@server or IP address (-p server port)”
• Remote Desktop Access is possible using the client that is included with all versions of the Windows operating system, all you need to do is navigate to ‘Start > All Programs > Accessories’ and it should be available there, it is simply a case of entering your server details to establish the connection; Remote Desktop isn’t available if you are running Linux on the desktop, but there is an OSX version of the application available.

If a VPS server can’t provide you with the resource allocations that you have calculated as being the minimum required to run your website, Bodhost offers a range of enterprise cloud hosting plans and dedicated servers that also offer root access and a similar feature set.

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