Servers Deleted

#1

Post by steiza » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 1:25 PM UTC

Re: Servers Deleted

#2

Post by sramov » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 3:21 PM UTC

I can only imagine the horror of running a hosting company. If you want to do it properly, there is no end to complexity. Not to mention the money part.

I've always dreamed about running my own niche hosting business, running on dead-stripped Slackware custom boxes for actual serving/hosting and OpenBSD for routers/firewalls/spamd daemons (actually I would not deal with email at all as it is a separate business in itself) etc. All it takes is few seconds thinking about it and then realizing what a crazy talk that is.

So hats off to providers with a clue! As for the 99% of cookie-cutter companies/resellers, do a favor to everyone and close your doors.

Re: Servers Deleted

#3

Post by chuhnk » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 3:24 PM UTC

Well this is a given right? I've seen this tip given time and time again, dont scale before you have to. Some may completely object to that but if you are a startup and just trying to get going, grab a server or some resources in the cloud, write your minimum viable product and launch. If you cant handle the load, then scale. Yes you should have a "plan" but that doesnt mean you have to execute it until necessary.

I began my life at a startup 1 year after launch. 3 Servers, 1 web server, 2 app/db servers. As load increased and our needs changed we moved to a more complex structure, 2 load balancers with failover, 2 web servers and still 2 app/db servers but beefier. When life got harder we started optimizing web servers software and the database. When traffic grew past that along came another server cluster scaling us to an even greater degree.

Do we deal with hardware ourselves? No, managed hosting with dedicated servers. Why? Because we want to let someone else deal with the hardware problems. The cloud doesnt have the resources we need. We scale when we HAVE to, as in the site is going down every day because we cant handle the traffic. We run leaner than some of our competitors and we know this because some of them have gone public with their costs, number of developers and server architecture.

1. Have a plan 2. Find a hosting company you can scale with easily 3. Use the minimal resources necessary 4. When you have to scale determine the cost of optimization vs just adding more hardware. 5. Be Lean

Re: Servers Deleted

#4

Post by there » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 3:42 PM UTC

or just lease servers from a "dedicated hosting" company. you get all the benefits of a colocated server (customizability, security, performance) and you can let them deal with hardware failures, upgrades, and obsolescence.

Re: Servers Deleted

#5

Post by dpcan » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 4:02 PM UTC

there wrote: post #4

or just lease servers from a "dedicated hosting" company. you get all the benefits of a colocated server (customizability, security, performance) and you can let them deal with hardware failures, upgrades, and obsolescence.

Even this grows into a nightmare. I've been moving dedicated servers to cloud / virtual solutions for the last 4 months.

I'm in love with Rackspace Cloud stuff and their support, and will end up saving thousands while providing my clients with a state of the art email system and more redundancy. Plus, with their cloud servers I can replicate and backup easily.

Re: Servers Deleted

#6

Post by bcx » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 4:22 PM UTC

chuhnk wrote: post #3

Well this is a given right? I've seen this tip given time and time again, dont scale before you have to. Some may completely object to that but if you are a startup and just trying to get going, grab a server or some resources in the cloud, write your minimum viable product and launch. If you cant handle the load, then scale. Yes you should have a "plan" but that doesnt mean you have to execute it until necessary. I…

I guess what I was trying to say was don't worry about over scaling. But take some time to make sure you aren't over scaling for 6 months in a row :-).

So I'd argue.

for #3

3) Don't stress out about the minimal resources necessary from day one. Figure out what the minimal resources are over time, and just take advantage of the fact you can delete servers.

Re: Servers Deleted

#7

Post by bcx » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 4:26 PM UTC

sramov wrote: post #2

I can only imagine the horror of running a hosting company. If you want to do it properly, there is no end to complexity. Not to mention the money part. I've always dreamed about running my own niche hosting business, running on dead-stripped Slackware custom boxes for actual serving/hosting and OpenBSD for routers/firewalls/spamd daemons (actually I would not deal with email at all as it is a separate business in it…

Running a hosting company was actually a pretty profitable business back in the 90s. (It probably still can be if you have a really solid niche). I should write some blog posts on our experience (there were many positives).

Re: Servers Deleted

#8

Post by there » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 4:26 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #5

there wrote: post #4

or just lease servers from a "dedicated hosting" company. you get all the benefits of a colocated server (customizability, security, performance) and you can let them deal with hardware failures, upgrades, and obsolescence.

Even this grows into a nightmare. I've been moving dedicated servers to cloud / virtual solutions for the last 4 months. I'm in love with Rackspace Cloud stuff and their support, and will end up saving thousands while providing my clients with a state of the art email system and more redundancy. Plus, with their cloud servers I can replicate and backup easily.

you didn't explain how it "grows into a nightmare". just pricing or what? i just used rackspace's pricing tool to price out what a virtual server would cost with the same amount of ram and bandwidth i get from one of my dedicated servers; the cloud solution was about $40/month higher.

Re: Servers Deleted

#9

Post by bcx » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 4:27 PM UTC

there wrote: post #4

or just lease servers from a "dedicated hosting" company. you get all the benefits of a colocated server (customizability, security, performance) and you can let them deal with hardware failures, upgrades, and obsolescence.

Has anyone done the cost equations? And I'd imagine migration is a bitch on dedicated hosting.

Re: Servers Deleted

#10

Post by ErrantX » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 4:38 PM UTC

I keep meaning to blog about something like this.

After my old web host made me really mad the other month I decided to grab a load of virtual servers and be my own web host (hosting client sites, projects etc.)

So now I have DNS, database/web servers etc. all under my control on shares that I can chop/change at will.

It's turned out to be phenomenally cheaper! Than having 1 dedicated server and a shard hosting package.