Thinking about VPS?

[ellion]

Hi,

i am thinking about getting a VPS to host my forum.

i have only ever used shared hosting before so i am a little bemused by vps. it does seem to make sense to me to have my own virutal server rather than having to share a server with other users.

from what i have gathered if i purchase a VPS package i will choose a certain hardware configuration and can then apply some software to that configuration.

i am familiar with all the hardware options. and i have good idea of my system requirements.

i also have some limited experience of installing and using linux and other open source software. however..

there are things i really am not sure about.

i am only used to using cpanel, mysql and phpmyadmin for managing my websites. what kind of options are available to me for server side management of my sites. i dont want to have to pay. for licenses or hire software i would like to use open source or free programs.


does the O/S use ram etc from the vps and how do i calculate how much resources to allocate to my O/S?

is there any way i can test out how a VPS would work. maybe in virtualbox or vmware image something like that, or an online demo?

i think i will have more questions but enough there for now.

thanks all