VPS

DreamHost VPS, Dreamhost Shared, and DreamHost Dedicated are the three ways DreamHost can host a website. (See "Compare major features across our Shared Web Hosting, VPS, and Dedicated Server products.").

DreamHost VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a premium hosting solution. Available as an add-on to an existing DreamHost plan, VPS’s use Linux-VServer to create a "virtual machine" that protects a user's CPU and RAM resources from other users on the same physical machine.

Features

 * Protected CPU and RAM
 * Persistent processes are allowed (and will never be killed)
 * Ability to alter the memory on the fly, without the need to reboot
 * Ability to reboot the server from the Control Panel
 * Historical memory and load graphs can be viewed on the Control Panel

Important Note: If you order a VPS you have the option to move your entire shared hosting account to your new VPS OR you can leave it empty and just create new users on the VPS service and move specific domains over as you like. See the section below for details and instructions.

Persistent Processes
Unlike the regular shared hosting setups, the VPS’s allows for persistent processes to run. Regardless of how long it takes to run these processes (web invoked, console invoked, cron, or otherwise), the processes will never be killed by the server.

Dynamic Server Settings Adjustment
Many of the key configuration options for your VPS server are configured on the fly by our automation system to best take advantage of your available server resources. For instance, if you have a 300MB VPS server, Apache will be configured to use a smaller amount of memory than if you had a 1000MB server. The Apache configuration is proportional to the memory allocation.

Wildcard DNS
See this article for more information.

Moving Specific Domains From Shared to VPS
If you have selected the option to have the VPS added to your account but want to move domains over to it yourself one at a time (rather than all at once) follow this procedure (to move a domain over to the VPS).


 * 1) Go to (Domain > Manage Domains) and click the Edit button under Web Hosting for the domain you would like to move.
 * 2) In the Fully Hosting section under Users, Files, and Paths change the option for Run this domain under the user: to a user on your PS. If you do not have a user on your VPS you can choose Create a New User. Make sure the new user is created on your Private Server.
 * 3) Verify Move files to the new user? is checked, otherwise the files will not get transferred.
 * 4) Click on the "Change settings" button to push the new configuration in place (which will take a few minutes to a few hours depending on the amount of data that needs to be transferred).

NOTE: As with all changes that require DNS updates (like this will) it could take between 4-72 hours for the DNS updates to fully propagate throughout the entire Internet. However, we'll keep the old hosting option enabled (on the old server) for 5 days so service will not go down during the transition.

Accessing your server before you move a domain
If you want to access the server to perform configuration before you move your domain over, you can use the following form of a hostname in ftp (NOT in http):

psXXXXX.dreamhostps.com

where psXXXXX is the hostname of your VPS

So, in a web browser, ftp://psXXXXX.dreamhostps.com would work, but http://psXXXXX.dreamhostps.com would not (since for http requests, the server shares ip addresses among domains, whereas for ftp requests, the server only needs the ftp username/password to know what content is in scope for its response.)

In an ftp application, the server name, psXXXXX.dreamhostps.com, is adequate as a hostname for the same reasons.

httpd.conf
'''Only edit this file if you're sure you know what you're doing. Always Backup first.'''

You will need an admin user to modify this file. Changes to this file will automatically get reverted if the Web Server service is set to DreamHost Managed under (VPS > Configure Server)

Location /dh/apache2/apache2-psXXXXX/etc/httpd.conf

Open and edit the file with your favorite text editor via sudo, e.g. sudo vi.

Rebooting Apache
Warning: This act will disconnect any active connections (i.e. users, downloads, etc) and may result in angry users 

Create a VPS Admin user through the DreamHost Panel by going to (VPS > Create Admin User)

Log in using the new admin user.

Restart Apache

sudo /etc/init.d/httpd2 restart

External link

 * VPS