Upgrading Our HyperV Servers to the Latest and the Fastest Hardware

At AccuWebHosting, we make sure that our customers’ websites are running on the latest and the fastest hardware available in the market. Following this tradition, we are planning a major upgrade to our core HyperVisor infrastructure. In the coming year, we are getting ready to migrate all of our Windows HyperVisors’ nodes to new supercharged monster servers. This will not only upgrade the hardware, but also the core infrastructure of our HyperVisor hosting platform.

During this upgrade, all Windows VPS customers will be switched to a brand new platform, which will significantly improve the performance and stability of VMs. We will be sending upgrade notice a few days before the migration is scheduled so that you can be prepared. Let’s explore what’s new with this upgrade.

1. All our HyperVisor nodes will be upgraded to Windows Server 2012 R2 Operating System
2. Latest Control Panel – WebsitePanel 2.1
3. Upgrading your Hard drives to SAN Storage
4. Lightning fast 10 Gbps Ethernet network connectivity with SAN storage
5. The latest and the fastest Server Hardware

• HyperVisors with Windows Server 2012 R2 and WebsitePanel 2.1

The new infrastructure will see all HyperVisors switched to Windows Server 2012 R2 Operating system, controlled by the latest version of WebsitePanel 2.1. During this upgrade, all new and existing Windows VMs’ virtual disk space will be converted to VHDX format.

VHDX files are designed to work with today’s modern hardware, with a 4 KB logical sector size that improves performance compared to traditional VHD files.

The VHDX format also provides protection against file corruption related to power failures by continuously keeping track of updates in the metadata.

With the legacy VHD format, shutting down the VM was essential while changing the size of the VM’s virtual hard disk, whereas re-sizing virtual hard disks is lot easier with the VHDX file format.

• Latest version of WebsitePanel – WebsitePanel 2.1

The upgraded infrastructure will allow us to offer our Windows VPS customers the latest version of WebsitePanel (2.1), with the complete bundle of exciting features and excellent user experience.

• Lightning Fast 10 Gigabit Ethernet Network Connectivity

To complement the major hardware drift, we will also upgrade our core networking infrastructure, moving it from a 1 Gigabit to a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port connectivity. This move makes the AccuWebHosting one of only a few web hosts to utilize such a connection. These new connections offer larger and more robust connectivity that deliver low latency, jitter-free connections and increased network reliability.

• Storage Area Networks (SAN) Solution for Faster IOPS and Highest Availability

Rather than using traditional direct-attached storage (DAS), all new HyperVisors will be switched to an enterprise-level storage infrastructure, SAN Storage Area Networks (SAN). SAN is a dedicated, high-performance storage system that provides shared access to central storage devices from multiple servers. SAN offers faster IOPS, flexibility and reliability to end users. Storage Area Network benefits include the following:

• Promotes highest availability
• Enables efficient hardware deployment and utilization
• Lightning fast Storage read/write IOPS
• Significant performance gains to VM customers

All things considered, the new storage solution turns out to be much faster than the current one.

• Powerful Server Hardware

We will migrate all Windows VPS customers to HyperVisor with the following specification.

• 2x Intel E5-2670v3 12 core CPUs (24 physical cores per server)
• 480GB SSD Boot Drive + SAN Storage
• 2×10 Gbps NIC for SAN connectivity

How would this upgrade affect you?

1. 30 to 60 minutes of downtime is expected during migration.
2. No change in your IP address.
3. No change in your Operating System.
4. No change in your Logins / Passwords. All your logins and passwords will remain same.

The actual expected downtime is 30 to 60 minutes and will occur in the least busy hours of the server. This downtime is approximate and may vary based on the size of the data reside in your VPS. To oversee the whole upgrade work, our higher technicians, along with a full time Network Architect, will be available.

So, be on the lookout for the migration email and for much better performance of your websites. We hope that you are as excited as we are about this upgrade, and we thank you for your patience and understanding for any inconvenience that may occur during the upgrade process.