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How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

blog.definedcode.com

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Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#31
post #17

Couple of bits of advice to anyone doing this: Firstly get your own IPs from your local RIR. Have your co-lo provider publish your routes, but they will be YOUR IPs. if you co-lo provider sucks, you can move and keep your IP space. (This is vital for email, but I recommend it for everyone). Secondly buy a Out of Band Management card with your server (iDrac for Dell, iLO for HP, etc) these cost fairly little and will…

Do not put your IPMI controller on a public IP without any sort of access controls in place. These controllers are pretty terrible security wise, and it's not a good move.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#32
post #21
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me also say that comments about vm size on EC2 almost never consider that bare metal performance can be magnitudes better. If you can build a redundant system, and don't need the extra 99.999999s of hardware resilience, but can have 99.995 network uptime, dedicated is great.

I would argue that dedicated servers are MORE resilient then any cloud provider. And it really isn't that hard, 2 enterprise class servers + VMWare or similar and you have a HA cluster. The hardware support is largely done by the hardware vendor under their support contract (4 hour mission critical) and having redundancy means a single hardware failure isn't critical. I have had 4x 1 minute dropouts in the past 18 mo…

This is exactly what we do and it has worked out well for years. You can also defer the upfront capital expenses by finding an IT vendor that is willing lease or rent the equipment for a fairly fixed monthly cost.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#33

Also don't forget to check out the rented dedicated server market too. It provides a good middle ground in cost/power/performance to the extremes of cloud providers and colocation.

Yes, always compare with rented dedicated, and only go with colo if it makes sense. I did this analysis last year and rented won big time. Never looked back since. Main points in favor of rented dedicated servers: - Much cheaper in my business case (5-10 TB/month by server, only a few high CPU requirements) most dedicated come with bandwidth included - No need to take care of the hardware in case of failure (opening a ticket versus managing the whole process) - Easier to switch machine if needs changes - Scales faster (as quickly then 2-3 hours with decent automation tools, and virtualization) - No switch, firewall, etc (IPMI should always be behind a firewall, never opened on the Internet) - The upfront cost to buy a server was high, and monthly cost of dedicated was actually lower, due to the lack of competition in the colo sector in my area (Montreal, Canada), prices were (and still are) rising quickly, it was hard to predict the long-term costs

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#34
post #17

Couple of bits of advice to anyone doing this: Firstly get your own IPs from your local RIR. Have your co-lo provider publish your routes, but they will be YOUR IPs. if you co-lo provider sucks, you can move and keep your IP space. (This is vital for email, but I recommend it for everyone). Secondly buy a Out of Band Management card with your server (iDrac for Dell, iLO for HP, etc) these cost fairly little and will…

Yes a million times, console-over-IP and virtualization are must-haves

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#35

I colocate my little cluster of servers with Opus:Interactive in Portland, OR. It's neat to look at the homebrew artists with their motley crew of machines all colocated together in racks in the corner followed by many homogenous racks filled with boxes from big name companies. I don't prefer building powerful hardware. I prefer reliable and cheap to build and maxing out the 4U of my rack. I like to think of my serve…

I'd like to know more about how you do that. I just looked at Opus' site and the 4U they advertise in Hillsboro is pretty good when compared to what I pay for 1U of hobbyist colo in Seattle. Do you put multiple machines inside the 4U with a switch in the same space? Can I be so bold as to ask for pictures? What kind of physical access do you get? I have a 1U server-grade machine but moving to a more flexible space wo…

I've been interested in hobbyist colo for a while but the cheapest I've found is over $100 a month. Is this in the ballpark of what you are paying or are there better deals to be had?

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#36
post #6

What are the advantages of doing this over just paying for computing power on AWS or some other cloud service? Feels like it would be a very small niche at this point.

cost! Cost!! COST!!! I collocate 5x 4u servers with 24 and 36 drive bays, 128GB ram, SSD drives squished in for OS, for a total (multiple raid 5 volumes for each 6 disks) usable space for my project of 375 TB Power and 2-3gbit of bandwidth is included, as well as remote hands to check up on server (for example IPMI sometimes does not work) or replace drives (pay extra for enterprise grade drives would save you alot o…

I absolutely agree in the long term, but can you say a little about how much those servers cost initially?

I tend to favour dedicated servers which I own over VPS but for small businesses with extremely constrained budgets ("prove we can make money before we invest in hardware") and startups, flexible virtual servers can be a great way to ramp up in the beginning.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#37

I am so glad I live in a world where I will never have to do this again for anything but large infrastructure projects. I've colocated servers at major POPs like 111 8th Avenue in Manhattan, Equinix in Seacaucus, One Wilshire in LA. For smaller projects, the convenience of the cloud is absolutely worth the price. For a larger build - like over 10k a month in infrastructure cost the cloud starts to make less sense eco…

I like to keep control of my data and manage my own systems, instead of using some black box where I'm at the mercy of a cloud provider.

You're not going to be able to troubleshoot or optimize down to the hardware level in the cloud. If some cloud service doesn't work or is not available, all you can really do is wait and hope they get it working again, while if you manage your own systems you might have a chance of fixing it or at least finding out what happened and work to prevent it from happening again. Some applications just won't work on the cloud or exhibit mysterious bugs, failures, or bizarre behavior.

Security and data ownership is pretty much out of your hands when your servers are in the cloud. You can only hope and pray your cloud provider is doing a good at securing your data and isn't stealing or selling it themselves. You generally have zero visibility in to how security is handled by your cloud provider or whether a security compromise has taken place.

And then there's the issue of vendor lock-in, which becomes more and more likely the more unique cloud features you use.

Of course, for maximum control, you wouldn't rely on a colo either, and just host your servers in your own server room(s).

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#38

Also don't forget to check out the rented dedicated server market too. It provides a good middle ground in cost/power/performance to the extremes of cloud providers and colocation.

Yes, always compare with rented dedicated, and only go with colo if it makes sense. I did this analysis last year and rented won big time. Never looked back since. Main points in favor of rented dedicated servers: - Much cheaper in my business case (5-10 TB/month by server, only a few high CPU requirements) most dedicated come with bandwidth included - No need to take care of the hardware in case of failure (opening…

Maybe it is a Canada thing. I looked at some colos in the Toronto area a few back and found rental prices were about the same as bringing your own hardware. Didn't make sense. I was just looking for a home for some server hardware I have in my garage. Oh well.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#39

I am so glad I live in a world where I will never have to do this again for anything but large infrastructure projects. I've colocated servers at major POPs like 111 8th Avenue in Manhattan, Equinix in Seacaucus, One Wilshire in LA. For smaller projects, the convenience of the cloud is absolutely worth the price. For a larger build - like over 10k a month in infrastructure cost the cloud starts to make less sense eco…

Mostly agree, although in this case I say mostly because the colo facilities where you can easily rent a single unit of space are far and few between these days. If we were still in an environment where there were tons of hosts like Verio still around, I'd say there's nothing wrong with coloing a single box.

For sure once you reach above the $10k/month level there's a very good chance that it will make sense to colo. You can fit a LOT of hardware in a single full rack, and they're like $750/month plus bandwidth and power costs (so around $1200-1700 all said and done per month).

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#40
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cost! Cost!! COST!!! I collocate 5x 4u servers with 24 and 36 drive bays, 128GB ram, SSD drives squished in for OS, for a total (multiple raid 5 volumes for each 6 disks) usable space for my project of 375 TB Power and 2-3gbit of bandwidth is included, as well as remote hands to check up on server (for example IPMI sometimes does not work) or replace drives (pay extra for enterprise grade drives would save you alot o…

I absolutely agree in the long term , but can you say a little about how much those servers cost initially? I tend to favour dedicated servers which I own over VPS but for small businesses with extremely constrained budgets ("prove we can make money before we invest in hardware") and startups, flexible virtual servers can be a great way to ramp up in the beginning.

that long term can be pretty quick though... in the UK at least you get 100% tax relief for plant (hardware) expenditure up to a limit (currently half a million a year)

you get no tax relief for opex.

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