Exactly how private are virtual private servers?

[Jhx]

As the title says, I am wondering how private is a vps, specifically, for linux and windows vps:

1. If I change the root password and all the users passwords to one my provider does not know, can the provider still somehow access one of my accounts?

2. I expect the answer to this question to be yes, but I will ask to be sure, can the provider see what is on my hard drive?

3. Can the provider see in some way what I am doing? For example what application I install, what settings I set, what commands I use, etc.

Thanks!

Jhx Reviewed by Jhx on 6th Jul 2011. Exactly how private are virtual private servers? As the title says, I am wondering how private is a vps, specifically, for linux and windows vps: 1. If I change the root password and all the users passwords to one my provider does not know, can the provider still somehow access one of my accounts? 2. I expect the answer to this question to be yes, but I will ask to be sure, can the provider see what is on my hard drive? 3. Can the provider see in some way what I am doing? For example what application I install, what settings I set, Rating: 5

[ty180sx]

Don't quote me on this.
But I always thought it is private.
Otherwise why would they ask for your root pass to check your vps?

[snowmanrene]

1. Once you change your password, they cannot access your account unless they go to the VM panel and manually change the root password to gain access, other than that, no they cannot (as far as I know).

2. No they will not be able to see what's on your hard drive if they cannot access your VM.

3. No they cannot unless they have some kind of monitoring system in place which I doubt any host does and even I think it's impractical to have something like this.

[madaboutlinux]

As the title says, I am wondering how private is a vps, specifically, for linux and windows vps:

1. If I change the root password and all the users passwords to one my provider does not know, can the provider still somehow access one of my accounts?

2. I expect the answer to this question to be yes, but I will ask to be sure, can the provider see what is on my hard drive?

3. Can the provider see in some way what I am doing? For example what application I install, what settings I set, what commands I use, etc.

Thanks!

It depends on the Virtualization software that is installed on the hardware server.

If it is Xen, your hosting provider won't be able to view anything on your server. They will require the root password (though they can stop and mount your VPS on a directory to view the data but no one does it). So, the answer to all your 3 questions is NO.

If it is OpenVZ OR Virtuozzo, it is easy for the provider to check everything that you have on your VPS via the main node. So the answer to all your 3 questions is YES. (In this case, provider can view everything even the VPS is in running state).

BTW, it is said 'Private' because you don't share your VPS with other clients hosted on the main server. It's your own VPS with no interference of other clients.

[ty180sx]

^^ thx mate

[Krun!x]

No, it's not private. Nothing is private unless you have your own hardware at your home.

[Ak47]

... Your own ISP and ...

[Jhx]

It depends on the Virtualization software that is installed on the hardware server.

If it is Xen, your hosting provider won't be able to view anything on your server. They will require the root password (though they can stop and mount your VPS on a directory to view the data but no one does it). So, the answer to all your 3 questions is NO.

If it is OpenVZ OR Virtuozzo, it is easy for the provider to check everything that you have on your VPS via the main node. So the answer to all your 3 questions is YES. (In this case, provider can view everything even the VPS is in running state).

BTW, it is said 'Private' because you don't share your VPS with other clients hosted on the main server. It's your own VPS with no interference of other clients.

Yes I understand Xen and OpenVZ are the main ones, and what about these ones:

KVM
Hyper-V
VMware

[madaboutlinux]

KVM and VMware are same as XEN with respect to accessing a VPS from main server. Unsure of Hyper-V though.

[Jhx]

So, let me try to understand, now I don't know if a typical windows vps provider would let me do full drive encryption, but say they do, the whole drive is encrypted with say bitlocker, and all the passwords for the user/admin accounts changed, now even if I am on OpenVZ can they see anything?