ZanyHost Blog
Company news, tips and general chat!
C2 removed from cluster.
May 8th
As our previous post suggested there were some issues with one of our clustered servers at Chicago (C2)
These clients have now been moved to a new more powerful C6, and will remain here for the foreseeable future.
We would like to apologise for any minimal down time caused in the migration.
Migration C2
May 6th
VPS’s on C2 are currently been migrated to C6, to fix a hard drive issue on C2 and upgrade the host.
You should notice no, or minimal downtime.
Kind Regards
VPS Packages upgraded.
Apr 8th
As some of you may have noticed we are now allocating your VPS’s with Burst RAM. This is not a flaw in our system 
We enjoy been the leader in Linux low cost VPS servers, and so we decided to give everyone an upgrade!
This is a new shared resource allowing you to go over your RAM limit with no issues or charges.
In most cases this means you have nearly twice the amount of usable RAM, at no extra cost.
These upgrades apply to all current and new clients.
If you have not had the upgrade please create a support ticket.
Kind Regards,
SolusVM Online
Apr 8th
Hi everyone,
Our SolusVM is back on-line and functioning as normal, should you still have any problems with it please make a support ticket.
Many thanks to the SolusVM support team which assisted with some unforeseen issues during this migration.
Kind Regards,
Tom
Maintenance – SolusVM CP
Apr 7th
Hi,
Maintenance has commenced on moving our SolusVM Master to a more powerful server.
This should take 10-30min and have no effects on VPS servers.
Kind Regards,
Tom
VPS Plan Changes/Specials
Apr 3rd
We are best known for our VPS servers at ZanyHost, so we spend a lot of time making the best service and packages around.
Recently we have been looking over our packages, and we feel some of the might be getting out of date, and well others we just want to make better 
.
Over next week or two you should see these changes taking place, at the moment we aren’t ready to release the specifics but we can give you a few clues:
- Changes will apply to both Xen and OpenVZ
- Prices on some packages will be changed
- More payment methods will be integrated for ALL services.
- All VPS plans will be getting upgraded, This includes all new and current customers
- You might also see some new plans and services
- Deals will be released on our Blog/Twitter before anywhere else, so be sure to follow!
SolusVM UP
Mar 31st
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note your SolusVM control panel should be back online.
If you have any problems, please create a ticket
Kind Regards,
SolusVM down (Service Disruption)
Mar 30th
Hi everyone,
Just a quick update about a service disruptions. We have noticed that our SolusVM web service isn’t responding.
The problem appears to be related to SolusVM.com been down, we are under the belief that their site been down affects the built in licensing system.
For the moment if you have any problems please create a support ticket, we will manually perform opperations such as reboots.
This downed web service will not effect the running of your VPS’s in anyway.
Kind Regards,
Tom
OpenVZ or XEN VPS?
Mar 29th
Most Linux VPS hosting providers will offer two solutions for your VPS needs.
There is OpenVZ and XEN, these are simply the hyper-visor that will power and control your VPS environment.
OpenVZ is probably dare I say it the most common, this offers high performance hosting for Linux VPS servers by using a shared kernel with the main server.
XEN uses a more dedicated environment using its own kernel, this therefore allows clients to customize kernels and even in some situations install operating systems such as Windows on a Linux host.
However the main difference from one to the other for a client will be the cost, typically OpenVZ are cheaper, this is for a few reasons:
- Overselling – This is where a provider can allocate more resources than they have, so they could sell a total of 10GB RAM, even if they only had 8GB on the server, this is because most clients will not use 100% or even 80% of their purchased amount. XEN doesn’t allow this overselling, therefore profit margins are smaller. When done too much this can effect the performance of a VPS.
- Performance – OpenVZ typically is a higher performance system as it shares resources from the main server, as XEN uses a completely separate OS it can require more resources, however commonly people say XEN is more powerful, why? because your host can’t oversell there will be less VPS’s on the main host server.
Both of these technologies are supported by control panels such as SolusVM.
As a rule we always say to customers, do you need a custom kernel? No? well then get OpenVZ, its cheaper for the same service.
OpenVPN on a OpenVZ VPS.
Mar 28th
We get a lot of clients trying to install VPN services on our VPS services, so I decided to write a guide on what your host needs to do.
If you are a ZanyHost client, please create a support ticket asking for TUN/TAP
If you are on a Xen service, just follow with the installation as normal, due to the way kernels and the host is setup on all Xen servers, it should operate just like a dedicated server would do.
However OpenVZ is different, the kernel is shared with the other VPS’s and the main host , with some other changes to the general service.
Basically when you’re setting up your Linux VPN you need to remember to ask you web host to setup the TUN/TAP.
Most control panels like SolusVM will automate some of this; if you don’t have this your host will need to do the following.
Check the TUN kernel module is installed:
lsmod | grep tun
If not install it:
modprobe tun
Now run these commands:
vzctl set 101 --devices c:10:200:rw --save
vzctl set 101 --capability net_admin:on --save
vzctl exec 101 mkdir -p /dev/net
vzctl exec 101 mknod /dev/net/tun c 10 200
vzctl exec 101 chmod 600 /dev/net/tun
Replace the number 101 with your client’s VPS ID.
That should be everything done, your client can keep on installing OpenVZ as normal.