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Please find below the answers to commonly asked questions we receive about Virtual Subhosting. We hope this helps you better understand Virtual Hosting, its benefits, and its limitations.
Q: Is Virtual hosting supported on all of the Virtual Server Systems?
Yes. Virtual Hosting will work on both the Basic Virtual Server (Server A) as well as the Fully Functional Server Virtual Servers (Servers B and C). Virtual Hosting will not work as well on a Server A because you won't be able to use "vadduser" to add an FTP account for your Virtual Host. Thus you (as the administrator) will have to upload all of the files for your clients. However, you will still be able to allow for a cgi-bin and e-mail aliasing for the Virtual Hosts on Server A. We only *recommend* that you use Virtual Hosting only on Fully Functional Virtual Servers. There is no technical limitation to doing Virtual Hosting on a Server A, only inconvenience.
Q: To use the Virtual Host for www.myclient.com, am I correct to assume that my client needs to register with InterNIC? If that is the case, will iServer provide the registration service?
Yes... you will still need to register any additional domains with InterNIC. They will charge you a $70 registration fee that is good for the first two years. iServer charges you $25/domain processing fee. If you need a new domain name for a Virtual Server you administrate, then simply use our on-line Order Processing System. (please check the domain name availability first using our Domain Check Form).
Q: If the Virtual Host package cannot offer telnet access (a shell account), how can our Virtual Hosted Clients upload their data to the server?
You will want to offer FTP access and POP accounts for your Virtual
Hosts by using the vadduser command or by using the
iManager web-based
vadduser utility. When prompted for the "home" directory for the
FTP account, you will want to specify the same value that you use
for the DocumentRoot definition. This will allow your
subhosted client to publish web content to their Virtual Host.
FTP and POP capability is only available on the Fully Functional Virtual
Server (Server B) and Enhanced Fully Functional Virtual Server (Server C).
Multiple FTP/POP/IMAP accounts are not supported on the Server A.
Q: Is there any way to restrict disk usage for the Virtual Hosting subdirectories?
Yes. When you grant FTP privileges to your clients using the vadduser command, give them FTP rights to their Virtual Host directory and an FTP quota. They will be prevented them from uploading files that would cause them to exceed the quota you gave them.
Q: In a nutshell, how is Virtual Subhosting possible in the Virtual Server environment?
Well, your virtual server includes your own individual Web Service and a complete set of web server configuration files so configuring multiple Virtual Hosts using your configuration files is certainly possible. The real trick is taking advantage of a Request Header that browsers use to identify a specific host. The Request Header, HTTP_HOST, is then used by Apache to match the request to a subhosted domain name.
Q: I assume that non "HTTP_HOST" browsers can still connect successfully to the main Server? If not what errors do they get? One potential problem area is going to be from the older AOL browsers.
If the browser does not support the HTTP_HOST variable (i.e. it is not HTTP/1.1 compliant)... the client will simply get the main home page of the Virtual Server. For example, if the primary domain name of your Virtual Server is "my-virtual-server.com" and the domain, "a-virtual-host.com", is virtual subhosted on the Server. Any non-HTTP/1.1 requests for "a-virtual-host.com" will receive the root server content, or in this example, the content for "my-virtual-server.com".
One way around this is to subhost all of the domains associated with the Virtual Server. Then create a "directory", or simply an index.html file in the main htdocs area. Then, when HTTP/1.0 clients request a virtually hosted domain name, they will see a directory of domain names and can then jump to the appropriate content. That way the people with older browsers will still be able to access the pages.
Q: Do multiple Virtual Hosts count toward my Virtual Server count and influence my Reseller discounts?
No. You can sell as many Virtual Hosts as you want on a single Virtual Server (it has been our experience that 15 is about the maximum you would want to put on a single Virtual Server). Since you are only buying the one Server from us, you only receive credit for one (1) Server toward your Reseller discount. For example, iServer will give its Resellers a 30% discount if they buy 5-19 servers. If you have one (1) Virtual Server with five (5) Virtual Hosts running on it, you still have only purchased one (1) Virtual Server.
Q: If I have a customer that wants a Virtual Host but doesn't want its own domain name, can I create a Virtual Host like "user.my-virtual-server.com"? I assume that needs DNS setup too?
Yes. It is possible to add canonical names to your domain name and have them configured to point to subdirectories of your own Server. So for example, if your web presence company is reselling servers and wanted to look real cool by appearing to have all kinds of web servers. You could in addition to your "http://www.my-virtual-server.com" URL, configure "http://support.my-virtual-server.com", "http://search.my-virtual-server.com", and "http://sales.my-virtual-server.com" as subhosted canonical names on your Virtual Server. Each canonical name would point to a different directory with different content. If you need a new canonical name for a Virtual Server you administrate, then simply use our on-line Order Processing System.
To configure the "http://support.my-virtual-server.com/" to point to a subdirectory, you would add something like the following to your httpd.conf file:
For an example, check out "http://utahjrs.berrett.org/". "utahjrs" is a canonical name in the "berrett.org" zone file.
As you can see, Virtual Hosting is a versatile tool, but it has its place and comes with several limitations. It is a very good solution for potential clients that just want to "get their feet wet" on the Internet and not spend too much money. Later, you can up-sell your Hosted clients to Virtual Servers as they recognize the power of the Internet.
For example, the iServer Webmaster has a friend who has a small one man operation specialty record store. He started on the net at a local ISP doing the Virtual Hosting for about $20/month (5 MB of space) just to really test the water. Six months later (now) he makes as much money from Internet sales as he does from walk-ins. He still spends $20/month on his Hosted site and $800/month on rent for the store. He is sold on the Internet hook, line, and sinker!
Now he has been talking to the iServer Webmaster about getting a full blown Virtual Server and e-commerce solution, including shopping carts, database interface - the whole enchilada. There are probably hundreds of small businesses around your town or neighborhood that are in a similar situation. A little apprehensive about the Internet at first, want a low start-up cost and see how it goes. Willing to pay a few hundred in some HTML/CGI consulting... you get the picture. After you provide a small site and proof of concept, you can then provide additional consulting services (web design, e-commerce, etc) and make a greater profit. Virtual Hosting allows you to get your foot in the door of many small businesses.
Q: If a Virtual Host has their own CGI-BIN, are the CGI scripts allowed to play with the directory system of the Virtual Server or do they operate safely with their own "sandbox"?
Scripts executed in a Virtual Hosted cgi-bin will run as your username with all its rights and permission. Therefore, you will have to be a little careful about security issues. For example, if your subhosted client uploads a CGI script that executes the command "rm -rf /" (which recursively deletes all files on your Virtual Server) there is nothing in place to stop them from doing such an action.
In most cases however, it is likely that not only are you providing your clients with hosting service, but you are also designing their web content and writing their CGI scripts as well. So this may be a non-issue. If you are allowing your subhosted clients to upload their own CGI scripts, then you will want to be very careful. Please see our document, Virtual Subhosting and Security Issues for more information.
Q: Are there limits to the amount of Virtual Hosts I can place on a single Virtual Server System?
No. However, in order to maintain the highest performance standards possible, you should carefully consider exactly how many subhosts you place on a single Virtual Server. Please consider the following recommendations:
Server A: around 5 subhosts
Server B: around 25 subhosts
Server C: around 60 subhosts
The exact amount of subhosts that your Virtual Server can handle depends upon the traffic each subhost generates. If the subhosts have relatively light traffic, then these recommendations would be slightly low. If the subhosts generate heavier traffic, then the recommendations above may be a little high. In many cases the traffic generated by a single site will consume the Virtual Server resources to the extent that subhosting other sites will not be possible.
We cannot guarantee the number of Virtual Hosts you will be able to host since each site uses a different amount of resources. It may be that you can only host one other Virtual Host before resources are exhausted on your Virtual Server. It is up to you to monitor Virtual Hosts and upgrade high load Virtual Hosts to their own Virtual Servers.