Hosting service platform system and method

1. A computer cluster for providing hosting services, comprising:

a plurality of nodes, the nodes being responsive to administrative requests; and

each node including a virtual environment such that each virtual environment responds to user requests and appears to the user as having its own operating system, and each node including a single instance of a host operating system,

wherein any virtual environments running on the node share the same host operating system with other virtual environments of that node.

2. The cluster of claim 1 , further comprising a distributed file system having a common name space, wherein different virtual environments of the same node have at least some files with the same names, and wherein the distributed file system stores data for the plurality of virtual environments.

3. The cluster of claim 2 , wherein the distributed file system further comprises:

means for making files containing transactions of any file system changes in at least one of the virtual environments;

means for distributing the files containing the transactions; and

means for providing access to data from each node.

4. The cluster of claim 1 , further comprising a distributed file system having a common name space, wherein the distributed file system is used for storing data for backing up and recovery of the virtual environments.

5. The cluster of claim 1 , further comprising a control center that sends administrative requests to the nodes.

6. The cluster of claim 5 , wherein the control center is located on a remote computer.

7. The cluster of claim 1 , wherein the virtual environment further comprises:

a unique administrative root user;

a file system template and file tree; and

operating system parameter configuration.

8. A system for providing hosting services comprising;

a plurality of nodes organized into a cluster;

at least one virtual environment on each node that provides hosting services to users, wherein each virtual environment virtualizes a full service operating system and responds to user requests, and wherein each node includes a single instance of a host operating system,

wherein the virtual environments share the operating system of their corresponding node; and

a control center that coordinates functions of the cluster.

9. The cluster of claim 8 , further comprising:

a) a plurality of virtual environments running on at least one node;

b) a distributed file system having a common name space,

c) wherein different virtual environments of the same node have at least some files with the same names, and

d) wherein the distributed file system stores data for the plurality of virtual environments.

10. A method for providing a hosting services comprising:

forming a computer cluster from a plurality of nodes;

establishing a control center for managing functions of the computer cluster;

operating a plurality of virtual environments on the nodes, wherein each virtual environment virtualizes a full service operating system, wherein each node includes a single instance of an operating system, and

wherein multiple virtual environments running on the same node share the same operating system and the multiple virtual environments are running service processes;

providing hosting services to users from the virtual environments.

11. A system for providing application hosting services comprising:

a plurality of nodes organized into a computer cluster, each node having an isolated execution environment,

a plurality of processes running inside different isolated execution environments, wherein the processes are restricted when interacting with other isolated execution environments, and

wherein each user sees only his own isolated execution environment, which is managed transparently by an operating system of the node, and remains independent of any other user's isolated execution environment; and

in at least some of the isolated execution environments, at least one corresponding installed user application that runs as a process within that isolated execution environment to deliver application hosting services to remote users of the corresponding user applications that are running inside their isolated execution environments.

12. A method for providing hosting services comprising:

forming a computer cluster from a plurality of nodes;

establishing a control center for coordinating functions of the nodes; and

operating at least one virtual environment on each node, such that each virtual environment responds to user requests and appears to the user as having its own operating system, and each node including a single instance of a host operating system,

wherein the virtual environment shares the host operating system of their corresponding node.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising activating a distributed file system having a common name space, wherein different virtual environments of the same node have at least some files with the same names.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

establishing a unique administrative root user for each virtual environment;

establishing a file system template and a file tree for each virtual environment; and

configuring operating system parameters for each virtual environment corresponding to its unique administrative root user.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the step of operating the virtual environment further comprises:

making files containing transactions of any changes in the file system in the virtual environment;

providing access to files containing transactions from each node.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

establishing and configuring network connections for each node;

providing access to the distributed file system containing the file system template for each virtual environment of that node;

accessing hardware resources of the node; and

launching new virtual environments on the node.

17. A method for providing hosting services comprising:

operating a plurality of virtual environments on a plurality of nodes of a computer cluster, wherein the virtual environments respond to user requests, and each virtual environment appears to a user as running a full service operating system, wherein each node includes a single instance of a host operating system, and

wherein multiple virtual environments running on the same node share the same host operating system, and

wherein the virtual environments on multiple nodes share the same distributed file system.

18. A method for providing application hosting services comprising:

operating a plurality of nodes of a computer cluster, each node having an isolated execution environment,

wherein processes inside different isolated execution environments are restricted when interacting with other isolated execution environments, and

wherein each user sees only his own isolated execution environment, which is managed transparently by an operating system of the node, and remains independent of any other user's isolated execution environment; and

in at least some of the isolated execution environments, utilizing a corresponding installed user application that runs as a process within that isolated execution environment to deliver application hosting services to remote users of the corresponding user applications that are running inside their isolated execution environments.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein isolated execution environments running on the same node share the same host operating system with other isolated execution environments of that node.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising a distributed file system having a common name space, wherein different isolated execution environments of the same node have at least some files with the same names, and wherein the distributed file system stores data for the plurality of isolated execution environments.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein a control center sends administrative requests to the nodes.

22. The cluster of claim 21 , wherein the control center is located on a remote computer.

23. The method of claim 18 , wherein each isolated execution environment further comprises:

a unique administrative root user;

a file system template and a file tree; and

operating system parameter configuration.