Dedicated Servers

at some point this year i hope to finally launch my site and fully understand after the lots of advice i have gained from the forums here that i will need a dedicated server, after looking around i notice that most decent startup dedicated servers come with 1000gb of storage space (2x 1000gb raid 1), now please don't think i'm living in cloud cuckoo land and that i think my site is going to be the next facebook or twitter cos i'm not and it won't be, that being said, i can see that even with a few 1000 members a dolphin site would be a very storage hungry site once members start uploading video's and music, now i am a newbie at this so please forgive me if this is a stupid question, but what happens when you fill up the 1000gb of space on the dedicated server, can you just order more storage space to be added or is it a lot more complicated (and expensive) than that?

I just sent you a message,

Would be better if you'll ask this question your server provider company, but usually yes: they can provide you as much storage as you need. Usually storage servers are separate racks which holds only harddrives.

Just to give an idea how these sexy beauties looks like:

and a part of one of the Google's server rooms 

And some server's sysadmins on the background:

Sexy! lol

You can take a look at my signature.. or even guynuked's for that matter :)

Or my sig.                                                                                                              ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

Just made my signature in tribute to the hosting at Zarconia.  Highly recommend their service

since we are talking about dedicated servers - just wondering how mine stands up against others.

@Zarcon - I know you are the go to guy for Dolphin servers. So wondering - in comparison to yours - how far off mine is.

Includes: Dual Intel® Xeon® E5-2430 2.20GHz, 15M Cache, 7.2GT/s QPI, Turbo, 6C 32GB Memory (4 x 8GB) RDIMM, 1333 MT/s, Low Volt, Dual Rank PERC H710 Integrated RAID Controller, 512MB NV Cache 3 x 600GB 15K RPM SAS 6Gbps 3.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive

Specific Info at http://www.inmotionhosting.com/dedicated-servers - I have the Comm #2 (Commercial Class 2) server. Just upgraded to it about 2 months ago. I used to have the Advanced.

Dual 6 core xeon processors, 32gig ram?

Way, way, way out of my price range. What the hell you running? Seems way over kill to me.

The ZX3000 is the closest and it's not as good as yours. But at least the price don't hurt as much.

But it is better than the advanced you had and it is the same price as that advanced. So if zarcon could get a server close to what you have now, i bet the price would be lower.

the issue with the original server was that we kept running out of space and it was getting annoying. So - comparing the cost of adding storage space vs upgrading server, it was not that much more for the upgraded server so I went with that. Additionally, I heard that SSLing the whole site can cause some slowing down, so wanted to be as fast as possible to compensate.

That is something i also need to ask zarcon about.

There are two 1 terabyte drives, or two 1.5's on the bigger servers, but they are mirrored, so there is only 1 terabyte.

I have plans for the future and 1 terabyte is not going to be enough, so i also need to know if that can be expanded.

BTW - that $570 price tag is only for new sign-ups and only for the first year or something like that. I am actually paying $650 a month for the server. So, if Zarcon comes up with a comparable option for a cheaper cost ... SWITCH!!!!!

We do set them to mirror by default so that you have some redundancy, but you can choose not mirror them if you want.

The ZX3000 has:

AMD Opteron™ (8 cores x 2.3 GHz)

32GB Memory

2 - 3TB Hard Drives

Price =  $159 /month..

I cannot imagine a Dolphin site needing more than that.. If you want to skip the mirroring, then you can have 6TB (yeah Terabytes) available if you want but keep in mind that if a HDD crashes, your site is down until its replaced.

http://www.zarconia.net/dedicated.php

Oh yea. The bigger ones have 3TB drives. I was thinking 1.5TB for some reason.

Anyhow. For the plans i have with a upcoming module. I may actually exceed 6TB, so i am still wondering if more drives can be added.

And i have never actually tried this yet. May have to do it on a test server i setup at home first. Curious if i can take the drives out of raid 1(mirroring) without taking the server down and remount it as raid 0(striping) again without taking down the server. I guess i will need to test that.

I had a issue with InMotion. They were very pleasant about it. I needed to switch because they could not provide RMS support or understand the needs of a Dolphin site. That may have changed but I prefer to deal with a host that understands and are fully knowledgable about Dolphin needs.

 EXCEED 6 TBs - WTFlip are you trying to do - all government agencies on one server. lol

No. I have a module planned that will allow the option to store off site backups which i will store. So i may need lots of space and on more than one server for redundancy(fail safe) of the backups. I am not saying it will exceed 6TB, but it could.

We don't offer servers like that on our order form, but will add some more options in a site overhaul (including Xeon severs). Closest for an Intel server we have planned would be:

• 2x Intel Xeon E5-2420 (2x 6 cores, 12 cores total)
• 32 GB RAM
• 2x 2 TB HDD with software RAID1
• 1 Gb/s dedicated switch with 50 TB bandwidth
• 2 IP addresses included

Price (planned): $304.00/month.

---

To answer the question on more space, we don't offer a means for drive expansion. You can request to have the server setup without software RAID1, and have the full amount available (e.g., 4 TB instead of 2 TB, as listed here) on the order form.

 And you better do nightly off-server backups of the site and the database.

Sounds like network attached storage NAS may be in order.

I need a server without WHM/Plesk/cPanel,  I do want Webmin but I can install that myself.

What can Zarconia do for me with a dedicated four core, 16 gig ram, 1.5 TB Raid.  Would like either an AMD Opteron , or Intel Xeon  processor.  That is what I have currently and it is not as cheap as I would like.

Professor, that is a nice piece of kit you have.  Of course you have the monthly bill that goes with it.

You can order one of our available servers without Plesk or cPanel, with a minimal setup. For more information, shoot me a PM.

I see Nathan has already addressed this but it seems that the Z900 would be exactly what you are looking for. I may be biased a bit on this but I have always believed that AMD was better at processing 'data' than Intel was. Intel was betten known for it's gaming capability however, AMD has definitely given them a run for their money :)

Thanks, I will pull the specs on what we currently have and then PM; probably sometime tomorrow.  We are getting ready for the renewal.

 I just PM

CPU Intel® Xeon®, Quad-Core, 4x 3.3 GHz
Main Memory 32 GB DIMM (DDR3) RAM
Hard Disks 2x 2,000 GB, SATA II, 7,200upm, 8 MB, Software-RAID 1
Switch Port 100 MBit/s
Bandwidth Unmetered

ULTRAPOWER Dedcated Server: $346.00/ mo (£210.82 | €253.65)

 More Information

which 1 is gud idea cluster or dedicated if you want to host from home? In cluster you can turn off extra server at off peak time more over less chances of ever going down i think. I have a question regarding clustering of servers, if any 1 of you guys have  done it. I can only get 100mbs connection maximum. Do i need multi WAN switch for multiple connections or just do reverse proxy  by giving IPs ? Sorry am not an expert :/ just wana know about it

many thanks for all the info everyone

Well - thinks just took a turn - AGAIN!!!. I just purchased a new dedicated server. As much as I would have loved to switch to Zarcon, I do not believe he has armed security guards outside of where he has his servers. My server provider contacted me today explaining that they were sorry to inform me that there are several aspects for complying with HIPAA that they do not meet. UGH!!!. The new server is not as powerful as the old one, but the security implementations for the server facility make up the difference. But, I am paying $100 more each month.

 RE:

 That's about $100 a month overpriced,  But that's what you get when you go through a reseller instead of dealing directly with data centers.

 please tell me you are not paying that?? ... that place i got from HL last year with the unmetered 1 gig port wasnting even half that!

i know for fact that for 100 euro you can get one of those german servers with like 64 gigs of ram and 3tb drives

I don't pay that myself ... that's what I get paid and includes 24/7 support, server is managed if required, and package is feature rich. It's not just a server being offered. Many additional extras that other companies charge good money for and I don't.

 oh,, if it is managed and everything then ok.. I thought you was saying that is what you was paying I was about to freak

 They are actually really good deals! The Virtual Dedicated Servers I have started offering are top stuff too with all the extras ... here's an idea of one of the starter packages:-

$38.00/ mo (£23.00 | €28.00)
400 GB Storage Space
6 vCores CPU Power
6 GB Guaranteed RAM
12 GB Burst RAM

Also, Free Domain Name

 With this deal actually it has been increased to: Hard Disks 2x 3,000 GB and includes free domain name

LOL, I got ya all beat. I got a Dell PE1800 Server with a 2.8 Ghz Xeon processor, 2 gigs of ram and  2-70gig HD's in a raid array. All supported by Windows 2003 SP2, IIS 6.0 and MsSql Server 2000....

Friggin bitchin machine and it costs me $0.00 every month!!!!

(Yes, it still runs....)

 nice ;)

When there are tons of companies offering truly crap support service and horrific packages for example 5GB Space, 50 GB Bandwidth blah blah for rates that are truly shocking, I am confident my rates are very fair and honest for what is being offered.

Anyone that deals with a reseller for dedicated or virtual servers must enjoy flushing money down the toilet.

 Unless the "reseller" manages your server for you ;)

Not everyone is an IT person that wants to build a Dolphin site.  It is important for a person that knows nothing about servers to buy a managed server with support; it is going to cost more to have a person on call to help with problems.  Let's take something as simple as installing PHP on a raw, unmanaged, server.  When you install PHP the configuration file is going to be bare minimals that might be OK for running a static html site but will cause Dolphin to choke and throw errors.  How are members going to upload a video when the base configuration is going to set file uploads at 8 Megs.  The same holds true for MySQL, after you install MySQL, you have to go and tweak the my.ini to handle Dolphin.  Yes, a bare server will be cheaper but not everyone can do a bare server set up.

With Zarconia and BoonexHosting, you are paying for an IT person to handle all the server stuff and that costs extra.  You are paying for support to handle problems when they arise; and try to hire a consultant at 3 am when your site is down; best to have that in place before something happens.

why would you install php if you only want to have static html site :P

And i don't think Zarconia is managed service but i think they help you setup and get everything running for free and happy clients ;)

We most certainly do setup the server and make sure everything works, but I agree to an extent that we aren't a managed host. We won't do everything for you, but will answer any questions and often provide on-server assistance at no charge (generally, we only charge for additional installations, upgrades, and other work that uses a lot of our time). With Plesk or cPanel, self-management is very easy, and we do provide support if something breaks.

All my servers / plans are indeed managed and the packages include much more than just hosting and servers as I stated before ...  I have not just been providing tech support but have been taking care of 99% of my webmasters issues full stop (even issues not related to my servers or hosting lol). All tickets answered within 30 mins - 1 hour and required actions taken immediately.

comparing plans here just as an example and not at all an attack;-

Zarconia's deal put forward here:-

• 2x Intel Xeon E5-2420 (2x 6 cores, 12 cores total)
• 32 GB RAM
• 2x 2 TB HDD with software RAID1
• 1 Gb/s dedicated switch with 50 TB bandwidth
• 2 IP addresses included

 Price (planned): $304.00/month.

BoonexHosting | FlatRateHost's deal put forward:-

• CPU Intel® Xeon®, Quad-Core, 4x 3.3 GHz
• Main Memory 32 GB DIMM (DDR3) RAM
• Hard Disks 2x 3,000 GB, SATA II, 7,200upm, 8 MB, Software-RAID 1
• Switch Port 100 MBit/s
• Bandwidth Unmetered / Unlimited
• Free Domain Name for Life with all annual / renewed plans.

ULTRAPOWER Dedcated Server: $346.00/ mo (£210.82 | €253.65)

Not that much difference as far as servers or cost (my package in-fact offers much more) and Nathan has stated they do not offer what I am offering in his above post  ...

You all should count your blessings you can pay so little for a dedicated server. lol.

  Well, you have 2x reliable sources here if your looking for cheaper and equal or better plans ;)

If I did not have to worry about security, then yes, finding a cheaper plan would be great. But because of the info being stored, there are certain guidelines that have to be met when dealing with server security.

 what are your guidelines ?

This is just a brief list of what our new server provides. There are a lot more that can not be publicized for obvious reasons.

• 24x7x365 manned facility
• Multiple closed circuit tv security cameras, covering all entrances and datacenter space. Such system is operated 24/7/365 by a third party Security Company.
• Site entrance controlled by electronic perimeter access card system

• High security facilities.
• Our Data Centers have been designed using reinforced poured concrete, which provides high strength, high tensile strain, good bond with thermal compatibility which results in durability in the concrete within the external walls.
• We are located in premium geographic locations, neutral to natural phenomena such as earthquakes or hurricanes.

• Dry Pipe Preaction, Double Interlock System.
• Resistant to high and low external ambient temperatures, preventing damage to the fire suppression system.
• Compliant with NFPA 13 regulation and divided into regions for effective use.
• Effective in ensuring server protection in case of accidental physical damage to the sprinkler system.
• Requires that both a “preceding” fire detection event, typically the activation of a heat or smoke detector, and an automatic sprinkler operation take place prior to the “Action” of water introduction into the system piping.
• All exterior entrances secured by mantraps with interlocking doors.
• Access to the Data Center space requires proximity badge with names and employee pictures printed on them.
• Visitors are required to provide a valid official government issued identification or driver’s license and sign in prior entering facilities. All visitors are escorted by designated employees at all times. Visitors are required to wear a visible VISITOR’s badge at all times. These badges DO NOT have access to any electronic doors.
• Only authorized personnel can access Data Center where servers are physically located.
• Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)
• Multiple N+1 MPS Generators.
• Multiple fuel contracts around the State that ensure fuel availability for generators.
• Multiple N+1 UPS Systems with 30 minute minimum runtime.
• Server Chassis with redundant power supplies in combination with A+B power configurations available (Different UPS and Generator circuit paths).
• Redundant ASCO Closed Transition Bypass Isolation Transfer Switches.
• Capability to provide Tier-4 Power
• Four 10 megawatt feeds available
• Diverse paths from substation
• 2N power available
• SSAE-16 (formerly SAS70) & Safe Harbor Compliant.
• Office space is separated from Data Center Space. Proximity badges are required to access Data Center space.
• Physical server rack enclosures are available that guarantee private server space. These racks are equipped with key locks to prevent unauthorized access.
• Component level redundancy available for hard drives including hot and cold spare onsite servers.