Virtual Private Server
Related articles
From Wikipedia:Virtual private server:
- Virtual private server (VPS) is a term used by Internet hosting services to refer to a virtual machine. The term is used for emphasizing that the virtual machine, although running in software on the same physical computer as other customers' virtual machines, is in many respects functionally equivalent to a separate physical computer, is dedicated to the individual customer's needs, has the privacy of a separate physical computer, and can be configured to run server software.
This article discusses the use of Arch Linux on Virtual Private Servers, and includes some fixes and installation instructions specific to VPSes.
Contents
Providers that offer Arch Linux
Provider | Arch Release | Virtualization | Locations | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A MilesWeb VPS | 2013.10.14 | OpenVZ | Europe, India, US | Latest Arch Linux available on OpenVZ platform. Quick setup, 24/7 support via Live Chat, Email and Phone. VPS starts from $20 / mo | |
123 Systems | 2010.05.xx | OpenVZ | Dallas, US-TX | Arch available as a selection upon reinstall. Very old (2.6.18-308) kernel - See OpenVZ troubleshooting. Limited information available before purchase. Cannot verify Arch Linux version without purchase. | |
AUSWEB | Latest Only (clarify?) | VMware ESXi | Sydney, AU | Latest ISO (clarify?) of Arch Available. Enterprise Service. | |
affinity.net.nz | 2013.08.01 | KVM | Auckland, New Zealand (NZ) | IRC channel is #affinity on ircs.kiwicon.org | |
Afterburst | 2012.12.01 | OpenVZ | Miami, US-FL; Nuremberg, DE | Formerly FanaticalVPS, kernel version depends on what node your VPS is on, the ones in Miami are fine (2.6.32-042stab072.10) but some of the ones in Germany require a custom glibc. | |
Atlantic.Net | 2015.05.01 | KVM | NYC/SF/Toronto/Dallas/Orlando, US & Canada | 100% SSD 1-click ArchLinux from $5/mo for 512M/20GB SSD, ready in 30 seconds | |
BuyVM | 2013.07.01 | KVM | LA, Buffalo NY | Must chose a different OS at sign up. Once accessible, choose to mount the latest Arch ISO and reboot to install manually. | |
Coinshost | 2015.04 | Xen | Zurich, Switzerland | $3/mo for 512M/20GB. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies accepted. | |
DirectVPS | 2014.01.xx | OpenVZ | Amsterdam, NL; Rotterdam, NL | Dutch language site. Version verifyable by clicking through https://www.directvps.nl/try-1.plp?p=31 | |
Edis | 2013.03.01 | vServer, KVM, OpenVZ | Multiple international locations. | Also offer dedicated server options as well as an "off-shore" location at the Isle of Man (IM). | |
Gandi | 2013.10.27 | Xen | Paris, FR; Baltimore, MD, US; Bissen, LU | Very granular scaling of system resources (e.g. RAM, disk space); IPv6-only option available; you can supply your own install image, version based on keyring package version | |
GigaTux | 2013.06.01 | Xen | Chicago, US-IL; Frankfurt, DE; London, GB; San Jose, US-CA | ||
Host Virtual | 2011.08.19 | KVM | Multiple International Locations | Appears to use KVM virtualization. Site lists "Xen based virtualization" and features lists ability to install from ISO. | |
Hostigation | 2010.05 i686 | OpenVZ, KVM | Charlotte, US-NC; Los Angeles, US-CA | You can migrate to x86_64. | |
IntoVPS | 2012.09.xx | OpenVZ | Amsterdam, NL; Bucharest, RO; Dallas, US-TX; Fremont, US-CA; London, GB | Blog has not been updated since September, 2012 which included the Arch Linux update. | |
Leapswitch Networks | [2013.10.xx] | OpenVZ/KVM | USA, India, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine, Germany | ArchLinux currently available in Control Panel for reinstall, not on order form. | |
Linode.com | 2015.02.xx | Xen, KVM | Tokyo, JP; Multiple US; London, GB | To run a custom kernel, install linux-linodeAUR. (linux will break on a 32-bit Linode.) | |
LYLIX | 2014.01.xx | OpenVZ | Multiple US; Europe | 32-bit and 64-bit available | |
Node Deploy | 2014.10.01 | OpenVZ, KVM | Germany (DE); Los Angeles, US-CA; Atlanta, US-GA; Phoenix, US-AZ | "At NodeDeploy we support virtually every linux distribution." Arch Linux is listed under their Operating Systems. No version information. | |
Netcup | 2012.11.xx | KVM | Germany (DE) | German language site. | |
OnePoundWebHosting | 2013.05.xx | Xen PV, Xen HVM | United Kingdom (UK) | They are a registrar too. Unable to verify server locations. | |
proPlay.de | 2012.12.xx | OpenVZ, KVM | Germany (DE) | German language site. | |
QuickVZ | 2013.10 | OpenVZ, Xen | Amsterdam, Netherlands (NL); Stockholm, Sweden (SE) | Provide hardened Arch Linux images along with Enterprise services (e,g. VPN, Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) and Virtual Routers. | |
Rackspace Cloud | 2013.6 | Xen | Multiple international locations | Billed per hour. Use their "next gen" VPSes (using the mycloud.rackspace.com panel); the Arch image on the first gen Rackspace VPSes is out of date. | |
RamHost.us | 2013.05.01 | OpenVZ, KVM | Los Angeles, US-CA; Great Britain (GB); Atlanta, US-GA; Germany (DE) | You can request a newer ISO on RamHost's IRC network. | |
RamNode | 2013.07.01 | SSD and SSD Cached: OpenVZ, KVM | Seattle, WA USA, Atlanta, GA USA | You can request Host/CPU passthrough with KVM service. Customer service has been prompt and professional. Regular discount codes can be found (15-35% off). Modern hardware. Competitive pricing (before discounts). | |
Tilaa | 2014.10.01 | KVM | Amsterdam, NL | English or Dutch language site. | |
TransIP | 2013.05.01 | KVM | Amsterdam, NL | English language site. Registrar. | |
XenVZ | 2009.12.07 | OpenVZ, Xen | United Kingdom (UK), United States (US) | Hardware | |
Virpus | 2014.11.07 | Xen | Kansas City, US-KS; Los Angeles, US-CA | A subcompany of Wow Technologies, Inc. 24/7 support via Live Chat, Email, Phone, and Ticket System. Service starts at $5/month. | |
Vmline | 2013.09.01 | KVM, OpenVZ | Kraków, PL | S-Net reseller. Full virtualization. Polish language site. | |
VPSBG.eu | 2013.10 | OpenVZ | Sofia, Bulgaria | Offshore VPS in Bulgaria - anonymous registrations and Bitcoin are accepted. | |
VPS6.NET | 2013.01.xx | OpenVZ, Xen, HVM-ISO | Multiple US; Frankfurt, DE; Bucharest, RO; Istanbul, TR | Registrar. | |
VPS.NET | 2014.01.xx | OpenVZ, Xen, HVM-ISO | US, Canada, UK, Brazil, Netherlands, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, India, Austrlia; Multiple | Managed & Un managed VPS service provider, multiple OS and configurations.. | |
World4You | 2015.02.17 | OpenVZ | Austria (AT) | Internet hosting provider; quick setup; 24/7 support; shared web hosting; also CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch OpenVZ servers; starts with €2.5/month |
Installation
KVM
See QEMU#Preparing an (Arch) Linux guest.
OpenVZ
Installing the latest Arch Linux on any OpenVZ provider
It is possible to directly copy an installation of Arch Linux over the top of a working OpenVZ VPS. This tutorial explains how to create a basic installation of Arch Linux with pacstrap
(as used in a standard install) and then replace the contents of a target VPS with it using rsync.
This process (with minor modification) also works to migrate existing Arch installations between various environments and has been confirmed to work in migrating from OpenVZ to Xen and from Xen to OpenVZ. For an install to Xen, other hardware-virtualized platforms, or probably even to physical hardware (unconfirmed), extra steps (basically running mkinitcpio
and installing a bootloader) are needed.
Prerequisites
- A working Arch Linux installation
- To keep things simple, it should match the architecture you want to install on your VPS (x86_64 or i686).
- To build from other distributions, arch-bootstrap.sh can be used in place of
pacstrap
.
- The arch-install-scripts, rsync, and openssh packages from the official repositories
- SSH is not strictly required, but rsync over SSH is the method used here.
- A VPS running any distribution, with
rsync
and a working SSH server- Its architecture (x86_64 or i686) does not matter as long as the OpenVZ installation can support your target architecture.
- OpenVZ's serial console feature (usually accessible via your provider's control panel)
- Without this, any network configuration for the target VPS will have to be done immediately after the "Build" step below.
Building a clean Arch Linux installation
As root, build the installation (optionally replacing build
with your preferred target directory):
# mkdir build # pacstrap -cd build
Other tweaks for the pacstrap
command:
-
-C custom-pacman-config.conf
- Use a custom pacman configuration file. By default, pacstrap builds according to your local pacman.conf. This determines the architecture (i686 or x86_64) of the build, the mirror list, etc. -
-B
- Prevent pacstrap from copying your system's pacman keyring to the new build. If you use this option, you will need to runpacman-key --init
andpacman-key --populate archlinux
in the Configuration step to set up the keyring. -
-M
- Prevent pacstrap from copying your system's pacman mirror list to the new build.
Replacing everything on the VPS with the Arch build
Replace all files, directories, etc. on your target VPS with the contents of your build
directory (replacing "YOUR.VPS.IP.ADDRESS" below):
# rsync -axH --delete-delay -e ssh --stats -P build/ YOUR.VPS.IP.ADDRESS:/
Explanation of options:
At minimum, only the -a
(preserve timestamps, permissions, etc.), -x
(do not cross filesystem boundaries), and --delete
(delete anything in the target that does not exist in the source) options are required. The --delete-delay
option is an alternate deletion mode which waits to delete anything until the synchronization is otherwise complete; this is not necessary but may reduce the risk of a slow transfer causing the target VPS to lock-up. The -H
causes hardlinks to be preserved. The -e ssh
(use rsync over SSH) option is recommended and makes things simple. The --stats
and -P
options are just to show more information.
Configuration
- Reboot the VPS externally (using your provider's control panel, for example).
- Using OpenVZ's serial console feature, configure the network and basic system settings (ignoring fstab generation and arch-chroot steps).
- If you do not have access to the serial console feature, you will need to preconfigure your network settings before synchronizing Arch to the VPS.
Xen
See Xen#Arch as Xen guest (PVHVM mode) and/or Xen#Arch as Xen guest (PV mode).