Elastic VPS in the Cloud: CentOS, Ubuntu and Windows

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is known for its strong security, reliable hosting resources and expanded flexibility, which makes it a popular choice for developers. However, VPS also requires a manual configuration of the application from scratch, which could be a difficult task for the average developer. Facing the necessity of scaling (e.g. due to hosted application success), makes it even harder to maintain a service operable and sufficiently supplied with resources to handle the load without overpaying extra capacities.

Jelastic PaaS maximally solves such elasticity problem of the VPS servers through the implementation of the so-called Elastic VPS stacks. They are offered on top the three different OS types - CentOS, Ubuntu, and Windows - allowing to choose the one, which suits your specific requirements the most.



The distinctive features of the Elastic VPS stacks are:

insulation - each given VPS represents an entirely independent instance, which is accessible only via the dedicated public IP , so any other account on the hardware cannot influence it

full control - it is possible to manage your virtual server in any preferred way due to the provided root permissions

scalability - the server can be automatically scaled vertically and horizontally by setting the resource limits and specific triggers

cost-effectiveness - VPS is a relatively cheap solution (comparing to the cost of purchase and maintenance of a real dedicated physical server) and due to Jelastic PaaS usage-based pricing model

management tools - access to the platform inbuilt tools for simplified configuration via the GUI dashboard

managed stack - Elastic VPS software solution is maintained by Jelastic team, ensuring regular updates and full compatibility with the platform

Below, we’ll overview the difference between Elastic VPS stack types, check the installation, scaling and accessing flows, and provide some real case examples.

Virtual Private Servers Overview

CentOS (Community ENTerprise Operating System) is a free community-driven project, with open source code delivered from RHEL Linux distribution.



Due to continuous community contribution, CentOS offers enterprise-level stability strengthened by robust performance and represents a reliable, low-maintenance, secure option for running virtual private servers.



Ubuntu appears to be one of the most popular operating systems for running virtual private servers inside the Cloud. Being built over the Debian Linux distribution, Ubuntu shares its commitment to principles of open-source software and offers continually developing solutions with flexible, secure, and versatile performance capabilities.



The Windows Server OS (2012 and optionally 2008 R2 versions are provided) allows you to run any Windows-based software on your virtual machine with the support of popular tools and technologies: ASP.NET, PHP, SQL, Visual Studio, Active Directory, etc.



Since Windows OS is proprietary software and can’t be distributed freely (i.e. requires the license to be applied to the platform), you can be charged for using such containers (regardless of whether it's running or stopped). The availability and the price of Windows hosting services depend on your hosting provider settings.

Installation

Now, we will show you how easy it is to install your own VPS in the Jelastic PaaS.

1. Firstly, log in to your Jelastic account and access environment topology wizard.

2. Herein, click on the VPS section at the bottom left corner and choose the needed VPS (CentOS 7.2 in our example) from the expandable options list.

Specify cloudlet limits for this node, scale it out (if required), select the preferred region (if several of them are available), type the name of the environment and click on Create.

3. In a couple of minutes, your new environment with the chosen virtual server will appear at the dashboard. You’ll also receive an email notification with its administration data (i.e. login/password credentials, attached Public IP and access URL).

Voila! Now, your virtual private server is up and running!

Elastic VPS Scaling

The flexibility of VPS hosting in Jelastic PaaS is achieved due to automatic scaling, both vertical and horizontal, that is easily tuned during environment topology creation and configuration.

Automatic vertical scaling is ensured by systems ability to provide the required resources due to load. Herewith, you can choose the scalability limits for your server, which prevents outages during unexpected load spikes and at the same time makes your hosting costs meet the budget.

To scale your environment, you need to increase/decrease the maximum number of available resources (cloudlets) by adjusting the cloudlet sliders in the Vertical Scaling per Node section.

Jelastic horizontal scaling functionality allows to easily adjust the number of servers in your environment using the appropriate “-” and “+” buttons. Herewith, you can select the preferred scaling mode:

Stateless - simultaneously creates all new nodes from the base image template

Stateful - sequentially copies file system of the master container into the new nodes

Also, the possibility to configure several same-type nodes in confines of a single environment simultaneously highly increases management capacities.

Make sure to Apply changes you’ve made.

Access Your VPS

You can apply some basic settings to your VPS instance right via dashboard UI with a set of inbuilt tools, provided by Jelastic.

In case you want to implement more complicated configurations, access your VPS using:

for CentOS and Ubuntu

for Windows VPS



Use Cases

To see how you can use your VPS in practice and make some widely-used configurations, review the following tutorials:

Java Console Application with CentOS VPS . Installing a sample of Java console application to your СentOS virtual private server and checking its operability.



Setting Mail Server Inside CentOS VPS . Integration of mail server to your virtual private machine, accessing the required container over SSH protocol and using the preferable connection flow.

Setting Windows VPS Roles and Features via Server Manager. The basic functionality of inbuilt Server Manager for configuring Windows VPS.

Conclusion

Elastic VPS provides developers with the advanced solution to run large scaled applications and ensures their simple administration at the same time. That’s why VPS hosting becomes the preferred choice of both inexperienced and advanced users within Jelastic PaaS.



Now, when you've learned about Elastic VPS, try to install, scale and access one of them within the cloud.

