Hosting glossary:
the words on the plan tables, explained.
Every term a hosting site throws at you — KVM, IPMI, Tier IV, 2N, scrubbing, BYOL — in two or three plain sentences, with a link to the page where it actually matters. Written for buyers, not engineers.
✓ 30 terms✓ Alphabetical✓ Linked to the relevant page✓ No jargon in the definitions
KVM node · NVMeLive
CPUAMD EPYC / Xeondedicated vCPU
RAM4–64 GBDDR4 ECC
DiskNVMe SSDRAID-10
Port1 Gbpsup to 10 Gbps
AccessRoot · SSHany OS
$ ssh root@vpsserver ready in 47s
01Terms
A to Z.
Click a term to jump to it. Each definition links to the page where the term matters.
- 2N power
- Two complete, independent power paths — generators, UPS and distribution — each able to carry the whole load alone. If one path fails or is under maintenance, the other keeps every server running without a blip. It is the power design behind a Tier IV rating. Our datacenter →
- Bandwidth (fair-use unmetered)
- The data your server may transfer in a month. “Unmetered” on our plans means no bill for usage, with a fair-use line: above 20 TB in a cycle the port is slowed to 100 Mbps until the next cycle, never charged. Terms →
- Bare metal
- A physical server used by one customer with no virtualisation layer. You get every core, all the RAM and the disks, plus IPMI access to the hardware. Our dedicated servers are bare metal. Dedicated servers →
- BYOL (bring your own licence)
- Using a software licence you already own — Windows Server or Tally, for example — on a server we host. Windows VPS includes a licence or accepts yours; Tally on Cloud always uses yours. Windows VPS →
- Colocation
- You own the server; we provide the rack space, power, cooling, network and hands in our datacenter. Quoted per rack option, 1U to a full 42U cabinet, with metered power up to 10 kW per rack. Colocation →
- Control panel
- Software that manages websites, email and databases through a browser instead of the command line. cPanel, Plesk and DirectAdmin are the common ones; each is an optional paid add-on on our servers. Price calculator →
- Cross-connect
- A physical cable inside the datacenter linking your cabinet to another party — a carrier, a partner or another cage — without going out to the internet. Available to colocation customers on request. Colocation →
- Data residency
- Where your data physically lives. Ours lives in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, which matters for Indian regulations, GST records and customers who require in-country storage. Privacy policy →
- DDoS attack
- A flood of junk traffic aimed at taking a server offline by exhausting its bandwidth or connections. Comes in volumetric (sheer size), protocol (SYN floods) and application (HTTP floods) forms. DDoS protection →
- DDoS scrubbing
- Filtering attack traffic out of the stream before it reaches your server, at the network edge, so legitimate visitors still get through. Included on every URLStart plan at no extra cost. DDoS protection →
- Dedicated vCPU
- A virtual CPU reserved for one virtual machine rather than shared across several. Our Cloud VPS reserves vCPU; a VDS goes further and pins it on single-tenant hardware. VDS vs VPS →
- IPMI
- Intelligent Platform Management Interface: a small management computer inside a server that lets you power-cycle it, watch the console and mount an ISO over the network even when the operating system is down. Standard on our dedicated servers. Dedicated servers →
- IPv4 and IPv6
- The two internet address systems. IPv4 addresses are scarce; IPv6 is plentiful. Every URLStart server gets a dedicated IPv4 and IPv6 address from our own address space. Cloud VPS →
- KVM
- Kernel-based Virtual Machine, the Linux virtualisation technology our Cloud VPS runs on. Each VPS is a full virtual machine with its own kernel, so you can run any Linux or Windows and load custom ISOs. Cloud VPS →
- Latency
- The round-trip time for a packet between you and the server, in milliseconds. From Delhi NCR to our datacenter it is single digits; from Mumbai 25–40 ms. It is what makes remote desktops and trading platforms feel fast or slow. Latency check →
- Managed vs unmanaged
- Unmanaged: we keep the hardware and network running, you administer the operating system. Managed: our engineers handle the OS, patches and software too. Most VPS plans are unmanaged; managed support is available. Contact →
- Migration
- Moving your sites, data and configuration from another provider to us. Our engineers do it free: copy, test against the live site, then switch DNS at a time you choose. Free migration →
- NVMe
- A fast SSD interface that talks to the CPU directly over PCIe instead of the older SATA path. Several times the throughput of a SATA SSD, which is what makes database and chunk-loading workloads snappy on our Cloud VPS. Cloud VPS →
- Port speed
- The maximum rate your server’s network connection can push data, separate from the monthly bandwidth allowance. Our servers ship with a 1 Gbps port; up to 10 Gbps is available on request. Dedicated servers →
- RAID
- Combining several disks so that one failing does not lose data (RAID-1, RAID-10) or to gain speed (RAID-0). Our VPS nodes use NVMe in RAID-10: mirrored and striped. Cloud VPS →
- RDP
- Remote Desktop Protocol, the way you use a Windows server as if sitting at it — full desktop, mouse and keyboard, from any device. The standard access method for Windows VPS and Tally on Cloud. Windows VPS →
- Remote hands
- Datacenter staff who physically act on your hardware at your request — reboot, swap a disk, check a cable — when you are not there. Included 24/7 with colocation and dedicated servers. Our datacenter →
- Root access
- Full administrative control of a Linux server, with no restrictions on what you can install or change. Every URLStart VPS, VDS and dedicated server comes with it; the Windows equivalent is Administrator. Cloud VPS →
- Single-tenant
- Hardware used by one customer only. A VDS runs on single-tenant hardware; a dedicated server is single-tenant by definition; a Cloud VPS shares a node with other customers while reserving its own resources. VDS vs VPS →
- SLA (uptime)
- Service-level agreement: the uptime we commit to. 99.5% on Cloud, Windows, Gaming, Minecraft and n8n VPS; 99.95% on Forex VPS, Tally, VDS, dedicated and colocation. Written in the Terms, with the effective date. Terms →
- Tier IV datacenter
- The top Uptime Institute classification: fault-tolerant, with 2N power and cooling so that a single failure never reaches a server. Expected availability 99.995%. Our facility in Noida is Tier IV; most Indian hosting sells Tier III. Our datacenters →
- vCPU
- A virtual CPU core presented to a virtual machine. On most providers a vCPU is a share of a physical thread; on our Cloud VPS it is reserved, and on a VDS it is pinned. Cloud VPS →
- VDS (virtual dedicated server)
- A virtual machine whose vCPU and RAM are pinned to you on single-tenant hardware — the performance of dedicated hardware with the 90-minute deployment of a cloud server. Also sold as a “dedicated cloud server”. VDS →
- VPS (virtual private server)
- A virtual machine on a shared physical server, with its own operating system, root access and reserved resources. The most common way to rent a server; ours start at ₹584 a month on annual billing. Cloud VPS →
- Yotta D1
- The Tier IV building in Greater Noida where URLStart’s cage, servers and network live. Yotta operates the building, power, cooling and physical security; URLStart operates everything inside the cage. Who runs what →