Essential Elements
A server to host your website is just like a physical personal computer, which is supported by CPU, RAM, hard drive, etc. Today, we talk about several important hardware or service related with a web hosting server.
- CPU
- Being the brain of the server, CPU refers to the "Central Processing Unit", which is the hardware to interprets and executes instructions, run database query, executes programming commands, etc.
A processor with more cores offers more powerful ability to process data or execute more commands. The more processors your have, the more powerful ability the server offers, the more instructions can be executed, and the faster speed your website can be visited.
By the way, if you use static website on server, then the website do not have high request on CPU, because it does not need programming or executing before showing the page.
- RAM
- Being abbreviation of random access memory, RAM is used to temporarily store data of applications and process on server. RAM makes the server run faster than accessing the data from hard drives.
The more RAM the server has, the faster processing or visiting speed you can have. But it is not a good idea to add too much RAM, because the server do not have the capacity to use them all.
- Space
- The space refers to the storage you have on a server to hold your files and data. The more space you have on a server, the more files and data can be uploaded to the server.
Bandwidth of Web Hosting Server:
Bandwidth of Web hosting refers to the amount of data that a website can be delivered to its visitors in a certain period of time.
Calculated by G (Gigabytes), bandwidth determines how quickly your website can deliver the page to your users. In another words, it decides the visiting speed of your website.
- Cpanel
- Cpanel is a site-management interface or platform to help users to control their website. It help users to access all kinds of functions provided by the web hosting providers.
- Operating System
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The current web hosting server mainly covers the following operating system:
Unix / Linux : Unix, Linux, Ubuntu, Open SUSE, Fedora, Debian, Mandriva, Slackware, Gentoo, Cent OS, Free BSD, Web Hosting, Apache
macOS : operating system by Apple.
Window: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft IIS Server Software.
- Database
- Database is one of the most important technology in web hosting. It help users to store all kinds of web related data in a tidy way, and makes the date can be easily accessed, processed and backup.
There are many kinds of database available, such as Mysql, MariaDB, MS Access, PostgreSQL, SQLite and MSSQL.
- Programming Languages
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There are many programming languages available in web hosting. They are mainly runs on two operating system.
PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, CGI, Perl, Java, SSI, Python, C, C++ can be runs on Unix or Linux System.
ASP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP.NET, .NET Framework, Perl, CGI, PHP, SSI and ColdFusion works well on Windows operating system.
PHP with MYSQL database is a popular server-side web programming language, which is widely used for web developing.
Classification
Based on different request of users, web hosting providers mainly offers several web hosting plan to cater to the different needs of RAM, CPU, storage space, band width, email accountants or dedicated IP address.
- Shared Hosting
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Profile: Multi-users shares CPU, RAM and bandwidth of one web server, which leads to a low price of each users. Being an less expensive way to host your website, Shared web hosting is the best choice for beginners or small website with limited visitors.
Disadvantage: The store space, performance of CPU and bandwidth are limited.
Advantage: Web hosting providers offers isolate control panel for each user. This means user can access their own file, FTP, database, email and add-on, which makes the management of website easy and convenient.
- VPS Hosting
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Profile: VPS hosting is the abbreviation of Virtual Private Server hosting. This hosting plan simulates a dedicated server on a sharing hosting. This is a good choice when the request of user exceeded the volume of sharing hosting.
Disadvantage: It looks like a dedicated physical server, but it just simulates a dedicated server environment.
Advantage: User may get root access, which make it possible to install application or change environment when necessary. At the same time, it offers better performance, reliability and security.
- Semi-dedicated Hosting
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Profile: Some web hosting providers offers Semi-dedicated hosting, which offers more processing power than a normal shared hosting package. Each server hosts a maximum of only 15 semi-dedicated hosting users. Usually, a dedicated IP and SSL certificate are included in the Semi-dedicated hosting plan.
Disadvantage: It is not available to complete control over the server as a dedicated server. Scalability problems and migration issues should be considered.
Advantage: Semi Dedicated hosting offers better performance than sharing and VPS hosting because this plan offers better resources in RAM, CPU, etc. Few users on a server offers more resources.
- Dedicated Hosting
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Profile: Dedicated hosting is hosting plan based on single user use one or more physical servers. The user may occupy the complete CPU, RAM and bandwidth of one or several servers. This web hosting place works for a big website with higher traffic.
Disadvantage: Dedicated hosting is expensive. Needs software to run the server. More technical knowledge of server is needed.
Advantage: Occupy the complete resource of the server. Root accessing makes user completely control the server. For example to configure the server according to needs. Fast loading. Enhanced scrurity. Dedicated IP address. Improved uptime stability
- Cloud Hosting
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Cloud Hosting
Profile: Different from hosting a website on physical server, cloud hosting works based on a network composed of more than one virtual machines in different locations. A physical server may contains multi virtual machines. When one virtual machine down, other virtual machines may keep the website running well.
Disadvantage: Relies on the bandwidth of Internet, Limited control on server,
Advantage:
- Cost-effective : you can only pay the resources you used.
- Flexibility : It is convenient to expand or shrink the resources in the cloud hosting package.
- Data security : Cloud hosting backup you data and files automatically.