Managed VPS and Linux server management

Short answer

A managed VPS is a virtual server whose host does the management: updating the operating system, setting up security, renewing certificates, checking backups and stepping in when something fails. Jevana manages Linux servers on its own hardware and, as server management, also servers at another host or in a public cloud. You keep the say over what runs on it.

What server management covers

Updating

Security updates for the operating system
New versions of the web server, database and PHP, planned in
Restarts at a moment that suits you

Securing

Only the ports that are needed are open
Logging in with keys, not with passwords
Repeated login attempts blocked automatically

Monitoring

Whether the site can be reached, measured from outside
Disk, memory and processor, with a limit at which we step in
Certificates that are about to expire

Restoring

Daily backup, with a restore test
A description of how the server is built
A new server built from that same description, if the old one cannot be saved

Monitoring is only worth something if someone looks

A service that checks whether your site is up and sends an email when it is not comes in a hundred varieties. The email is rarely the problem. The problem is who reads it, and what that person can then do.

With us the alert goes to the person who can also log in to the server. During office hours that means action straight away. Outside them it depends on what was agreed: on-call cover is a paid extra, not a default.

When you might need this

The developer who set up the server has gone
The site was down overnight because the disk filled up with log files
The certificate expired on a Saturday
Nobody dares restart the server, because nobody knows whether it will come back

Questions

What do you do on a managed VPS and what do I do?

We manage everything under your application: the operating system, web server, database, firewall, certificates, backups and monitoring. You manage the application itself: the code, the content and who gets in as a user. If a server update touches your application, we talk first. We put that boundary in writing, so it is clear who picks up what.

Who gets woken up when the server goes down?

That depends on your agreement. By default we are available on working days from 09:00 to 17:00, and an outage outside those hours is picked up the next working day. For servers that revenue depends on, you can agree on-call cover: then one of us also gets the alert in the evening and at weekends. That is a paid extra in the contract.

Can you manage a server that is at another host?

Yes. Server management does not depend on where the server stands. We also manage Linux servers at other hosting companies and in public clouds, as long as we get admin rights. You keep your contract with that provider for the hardware, and we do the management. You can move to our hardware later, but it is not a condition.

What is uptime monitoring?

Uptime monitoring means automatically and continuously checking whether a website or server can be reached, from a place outside your own network. If the check fails several times in a row, an alert goes out. We measure our own services this way every minute, from a server outside our network, and the result is public on our status page.

Goes well with

From the knowledge base

VPS or shared hosting: when do you switch?

Shared hosting is fine until it is not. The signs your site is outgrowing it, and what a VPS does and does not solve.

Tell us what you run.

An introduction costs nothing. You talk straight away to one of the two people who will actually do the work.

Get in touch

or email info@jevana.systems

A managed VPS: you run the application, we run the server.