The definition of Virtual Private Server Hosting is a method of partitioning a server such that each partition is allowed to act as a virtual dedicated server. Each VPS runs its own operating system, has its own bandwidth and disk space, and can be individually rebooted.

Now how is this relevant to Hosting Dolphin on a VPS machine? Dolphin requires specific configuration requirements. Standard shared hosting is not sufficient to run the Dolphin Social Networking platform.

There are a few configurations that work with Dolphin 7 Hosting, that will provide for ultimate performance. FCGI with SUPHP, the SUPHP is to php what SUEXEC is to PERL:

suPHP does for PHP Scripts what SuExec does for Perl files, that is, it makes them run under your specific user account, as opposed to the Apache user account. This allows us to better monitor the resource usage of accounts, as well as track down runaway script files with greater ease. Also, it gives you the benefit of all your php scripts running 'in' your account. For some PHP applications, such as PHPWebSite, this is a great help because now when you create files/folders from inside the script, they will be owned properly by your account and not the generic Apache user account.

The installation documentation of some php scripts will state that you should set the owner of the scripts as "nobody:nobody" or "apache:apache." Because of our use of suPHP, this is not the case. All files contained within your account (including php scripts) should be left as owned by your account.

Files owned by nobody, or files owned by apache, cannot be changed (edited) when logged in as the user. so this presents a problem with dolphin, in that you would need to login as root, in order to manage those files. with Dolphin Hosting, you need to be able to edit CSS files on a regular basis if you are in the development stages of your operation.