Linux VPS Frequently Asked Questions
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The following is a collection of some of the more common questions about the Linux VPS platform. For details on using your Linux VPS, see our User's Guide.

Why can't I log in to my account as the root user?

For security purposes, direct root logins using the username root and the root password are not permitted in any VPS service. Many administrative tasks can be accomplished by logging into the VPS account as the administrative user.

What is the difference between the Admin user, Root, and standard users?

The main differences between the different classes of users is based on what permissions that user has. A normal user can only affect his or her own files, where the Admin user can affect some system files. The root user has the ability to control anything, including files owned by other users. Because of the power the root user has, the root user can only access the server using SSH, and does not have FTP or Email access.

Is Java installed on my VPS?

The Java Developer's Kit 1.5.x and Java Runtime Engine 1.5.x are available for Linux VPS Pro Plus plans through vinstall_jdk and vinstall_jre, respectively. The vinstall gives instructions for downloading the Java code and the directory in which to place the code.

Is Tomcat available for my VPS?

Yes. Tomcat is available on VPS Pro Plus plans through vinstall tomcat and requires the Java Developer's Kit or Java Runtime Engine be installed already. Tomcat provides a web framework for Java and will allow you to process and serve JSP pages.

Why can’t I use the vnewaliases command to rebuild the data base for the mail aliases file (etc/aliases)?

For FreeBSD VPS platforms, vnewaliases is a command you can use to rebuild databases for your server’s sendmail aliases file. The vnewaliases command is unavailable on your Linux VPS. Instead, use the Linux/Unix newaliases command to rebuild the database for the /etc/aliases file.

Although newaliases is identical to the Linux/Unix sendmail –bi command supported by other Linux/Unix systems, be aware that the makemap command is not equivalent to the newaliasescommand. The newaliases command places an important, sendmail–required token into the database.

Can a Linux VPS have more than one IP address?

Yes, additional IP addresses are optional for a small extra fee.

Can I change the IP address?

If you have purchased additional, multiple IP addresses for your account, you must exercise great care when you change an IP address. In all cases, if you specify an IP address other than one which is assigned to you, your VPS will not function. This is true of any other IP address than the those your VPS was assigned at the time of provisioning. Even the address you might see displayed as unused IP address for the subnet of your private server might cause your private server to cease functioning.

You will also be unable to see information about any aspect of the data traffic associated with any other IP address or VPS account. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system supports a standard, UNIX/Linux command which enables you to see the status of network interfaces for your VPS. Use the command for diagnostic and configuration tasks only. For example, if you issue the ifconfig command without any additional argument, all of the currently active interfaces are displayed. If you issue the command with the additional argument of –a, all of the interfaces, including inactive ones, are displayed. Beyond the simple display of interfaces, the command includes additional arguments which enable you to specify an IP address for each network interface. If you do specify another address in error, the remedy is to log into your private server as root and use the ifconfig command to specify the correct IP address. For more details about theifconfigcommand, refer to the RHEL operating system man pages.

Can a VPS handle multiple SSL certificates?

For each IP address, you can only access one SSL certificate using the standard SSL port (443). You can, however, configure your server to use the Apache Listen directive to monitor other ports for SSL requests, and associate different certificates for these different ports. Doing this would require you to indicate the port number in the URL, or alternatively, the mod_rewrite apache module could be used to force domain-specific requests to a different port. If you choose to provide multiple certificate on your VPS using only one IP address, please be aware that this configuration is not supported by our Technical Support representatives.

If you have purchased additional IP addresses for your VPS, you can set up SSL certificates for each IP in your Apache web server configuration.

What do the commands shutdown -r and reboot do?

The shutdown and reboot commands have been designed to behave on a virtual level as close as possible to the same way they would on a dedicated UNIX server. Because you do not have access to the physical system to manually start up the system, you can not completely halt your VPS v2 (the -h option for shutdown is disabled), but you can restart all the services on your server.

The shutdown command will attempt to cleanly halt and restart services on your VPS2, including running the /etc/rc.shutdown commands. Any processes that do not exit cleanly are then killed, and the init process is restarted (init will then read your rc files and start up other services).

the reboot command is different from shutdown because it does not attempt a clean shutdown of your system. Instead, reboot simply kills all your running processes and then runs init (which will run the rc scripts).

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