MANAGED SERVERS

On each managed server, we install an operating system and all the necessary server software, so you don't have to. Then our skilled and experienced technicians continuously take care of security updates, hardware problems, backups, and the server's general administration. You do not have root access to the server, but you can work with normal Linux users and conveniently create domains, databases, SSL certificates, websites, mailboxes and much more via our konsoleH administration interface. Managed servers on konsoleH are great if you don't feel confident doing the server administration yourself, or if you would prefer to use your time on other things. Managed server can help you save a lot of manhours and stress. If you have less IT experience, managed servers may be a better option since they include built-in security measures to keep your websites/systems up and running.

Hetzner's own team of experts monitor the managed servers on konsoleH around the clock for possible problems. This team carries out all the maintenance work, either during our business hours or at night, depending on the type and difficulty of the maintenance work.

Dedicated root servers on Robot, however, are unmanaged; customers are completely responsible for all of the server's administration. This means customers spend more time and effort doing administration work on their own. They install their own updates, configure the server itself, make their own backups, and are responsible for their server's security, amongst other things. But they can choose the operating system and other software they use for their server's administration.

Both types of products are managed and include technical support. Our team of skilled technicians administer and do maintenance on both types of products, so the customers don't have to. And both products use the same in-house software for the administration interface, konsoleH.

The difference is with how resources are shared, or not shared. With a web hosting package one physical server will have several web hosting packages on it. Customers share the physical hardware and network connection. Hetzner technicians make sure that the resources are shared fairly. The benefit of web hosting packages is that they are much smaller and less expensive than a managed server.

If you have higher requirements, we recommend you use a managed server. With a managed server, each customer gets their own server completely to themselves. They have their own storage drives, CPU, network connection, and so on, and they do not share any of that with other customers. Because you will not be sharing resources with anyone else, you can profit from the full performance of the server's hardware and connection. In addition, with managed servers, we can customize your configuration to better suit your needs and apply the configuration to your whole system.

Each managed server comes with a pre-installed LAMP environment. LAMP consists of Linux (in our case Debian), the Apache web server, the MariaDB database server (formerly MySQL) and the PHP programming language. We also install additional programs such as the database server Postgresql, the programming language Python, the email stack from Exim, Dovecot and Horde, and much more. You can configure your managed servers using Hetzner's own management interface, konsoleH.

This way we can guarantee that your server will be well-maintained, stable, and secure in the long term. With the managed servers, you as the customer do not get administrative root access to the system. Nevertheless, you can install many programs yourself at the user level. You can find instructions for many common programs here.

For our MC models, we install our managed server operating system on a virtual server in our cloud. So with the MC models, you get some flexibility that comes with cloud computing.

With the MA servers, you have a full physical server completely to yourself. Your data is stored directly on that physical server, you have a full CPU to yourself, and you don't share a network connection. So you have a performance advantage. Your server's not virtualized, so there's not a virtualization layer that slightly slows its speeds.

We admit, this can be a bit confusing. It can mean two different things depending on the context.

1. Hetzner customer account - Your individual account which you use to access our customer administration interfaces, like konsoleH and Robot.
2. A (Linux) user account on a managed server. This account is the foundation that enables people to use managed servers and/or web hosting accounts. Via the user account, users add files to their servers, or add scripts for their websites, or run other programs. The user account makes it possible — via the assigned domain name — for people to have special and limited login access to konsoleH. Using this special login, agencies can give their end-customers access to settings that are important for operating a website.

The MC models are a low-cost way to start using managed servers. They are a entry-level product. Because they are so inexpensive, the server's resources are shared virtually. That offers more flexibility to change individual configuration options, but the power is not enough for multiple or high demand operations. That's why we limit the number of accounts. If you need more accounts, our support team can help you switch over to a dedicated managed server, where you can have an unlimited number of accounts.

Yes. Our support team can help you move accounts between all types of managed servers. It is also possible to move webhosting accounts to a Managed Server. Just send us a quick support request using your konsoleH account.

Yes, you can easily change to a different managed server and take your data, configuration, and IP address to the new server. We call this a "hardware exchange." It's possible to do a hardware exchange between the virtual managed servers, the MC line. (In this line, it is only possible to do upgrades for technical reasons.) And you can do a hardware exchange from dedicated managed servers including our older lines (MX, MA, MS, MQ lines) to one of the current models. Just send us a quick support request using your konsoleH account.

Managed servers are designed for web hosting, email, and databases. You can run an elaborate online store on one and the associated database on a second managed server, host many small online sites on the same system, or use the managed server as an email server for your company.

There are hardly any limits to what you can do, even when it comes to programming languages and content management systems. We ensure that the server and all the services running on it will remain online, allowing you to completely concentrate on your core business.