How to check whether you're hosted on vps or dedicated server?

Discussion in 'Site & Server Administration' started by richierich1m, Aug 17, 2009.

  1. #1
    Hi, what is the easiest way to check whether an account is hosted on vps or dedicated server?

    Thanks
     
    richierich1m, Aug 17, 2009 IP
  2. PhotonVPS-Jim

    PhotonVPS-Jim Active Member

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    #2
    What are the specs to it?
     
    PhotonVPS-Jim, Aug 17, 2009 IP
  3. richierich1m

    richierich1m Peon

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    #3
    I am tranferring a client from his old server to new and he was on a dedicated server there as per billing, but he feels the company fooled him and gave him a vps as he was not knowledgeable. its was 500GB HDD and 2000 GB Bandwdith, I mean is that possible to fool someone like that? :)
     
    richierich1m, Aug 17, 2009 IP
  4. InFloW

    InFloW Peon

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    #4
    If it's a VPS running OpenVZ they'd have a file called /proc/user_beancounters . If it's not there then it's not OpenVZ at least. I'm not familiar with Xen or some of the other virtualization technologies and what they may have in /proc/ to tell you it's a virtual machine.
     
    InFloW, Aug 17, 2009 IP
  5. PhotonVPS-Jim

    PhotonVPS-Jim Active Member

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    #5
    You can generally tell if its VPS or dedicated server by seeing how much free space/RAM it has. In this case, that will be a VPS.
     
    PhotonVPS-Jim, Aug 17, 2009 IP
  6. InFloW

    InFloW Peon

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    #6
    I prefer a method that is guaranteed to tell the truth. There are VPS plans that have 2GB or more of memory and probably 70GB of disk (could be a 73GB sas drive). On your site alone some of the high end plans people could sell those as dedicated's if the user does not know any better. Checking /proc/ for files only there when it's a VPS I think is just a sure fire way rather than guessing based off of allocations of memory and disk.
     
    InFloW, Aug 18, 2009 IP
  7. premiumscripts

    premiumscripts Peon

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    #7
    You could do a reverse IP check to see if any other websites are hosted on the same IP. Also, dedicated servers usually get at least 5 IPs, don't know if that's the same for VPS.
     
    premiumscripts, Aug 18, 2009 IP
  8. richierich1m

    richierich1m Peon

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    #8
    How to check /proc/? Do you mean checking the procesor from whm? coz it shows a valid processor.

    Thanks

    Ip's wont work, coz Ip's could be allocated for each shared hosting account too. :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2009
    richierich1m, Aug 18, 2009 IP
  9. premiumscripts

    premiumscripts Peon

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    #9
    Yeah well, if you don't trust the hosting company, why are you even hosting there? They could be doing much worse things than that (steal your code, etc).
     
    premiumscripts, Aug 18, 2009 IP
  10. richierich1m

    richierich1m Peon

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    #10
    I am not hosting there, one of my client is. And the company IS IN TOP 5 :eek: today, hence I feel they would not be doing something like that, or it would be really pathetic.
     
    richierich1m, Aug 18, 2009 IP
  11. DesignWeb

    DesignWeb Active Member

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    #11
    Could you tell us this "hosting company". You can PM me. At last we can protect ourselves and avoid their "services" in the future. Thanks
     
    DesignWeb, Aug 18, 2009 IP
  12. richierich1m

    richierich1m Peon

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    #12
    Actually, its not checked by me so It would be wrong to give a bad name to someone with just a hunch or assumption, let the above guy reply me how to check a /proc/ and I'll confirm it first.
     
    richierich1m, Aug 18, 2009 IP
  13. InFloW

    InFloW Peon

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    #13
    I'm talking about using SSH to do this. OpenVZ has a file called /proc/user_beancounters . If it's a big provider though it's highly unlikely they'd be giving a VPS instead of a dedicated.

    The only other way I could think of would be doing a traceroute and seeing what the hop before the server is. Some VPS providers do something like vswitch.theirdomain.com which is virtual switch. Although others it'll look like standard networking equipment names so you wouldn't know.

    It's really down to trusting your provider as there are various virtualization technologies some making the vps OS seem like a standard OS.
     
    InFloW, Aug 18, 2009 IP
  14. 45kollman

    45kollman Peon

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    #14
    Tell them you need to install a usb key that will interface with your site for encryption. If it is a dedi they wont care if you have them install that on your site. It they wont let you odds are they cant because it is virtualized.
     
    45kollman, Aug 20, 2009 IP