How to colocate your first server at a datacenter • Hacker News Board

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#51

Post by WettowelReactor » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

While the article stress the importance of understanding your power requirements on the server side you also need to be very cognizant of the power restrictions in your colo contract. Often times power draws will be your biggest limiting factor and it is very easy to buy a rack and fill it with equipment that surpasses your max allotted power draw. Depending on your host your only solution may be to buy additional racks to spread out your load even though you don't need the physical space.

Another power gotcha comes with the redundant circuits provided. For example if you are allocated 15Amps total that usually means total across both circuits not 15Amps per circuit.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#52

Post by yellowapple » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 5:09 PM UTC

maaarghk wrote: post #46

IgorPartola wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my limited experience, the cloud is always more expensive if you know your exact usage requirements. If, for example, you know that six octo-core 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD-in-RAID1 servers would fit your needs from now until 10 years from now, you will do better to just rent them from SoftLayer, Hetzner, etc. However, if you anticipate growth, or need to be able to spin up a test server, then shut it down a day late…

You can get damn close! http://www.kimsufi.com/uk/ I found OVH's dedicated server offerings to be so cheap that there was no point in using shared hardware for the flexibility. Then again, I'm not running my entire business on these boxes... but I don't think I'd have a major issue if I wanted to!

Huh; that's actually a better deal in many cases than my existing virtual servers. Thanks for that recommendation; I'll keep my eye on that.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#53

Post by maaarghk » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 5:10 PM UTC

yellowapple wrote: post #52

maaarghk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get damn close! http://www.kimsufi.com/uk/ I found OVH's dedicated server offerings to be so cheap that there was no point in using shared hardware for the flexibility. Then again, I'm not running my entire business on these boxes... but I don't think I'd have a major issue if I wanted to!

Huh; that's actually a better deal in many cases than my existing virtual servers. Thanks for that recommendation; I'll keep my eye on that.

The day I got my first ovh recommendation was a good day for my inner accountant.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#54

Post by lawncheer » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 5:32 PM UTC

Another tip, be cognizant of the difference between sustained drawing amperage, and spikes; when a server starts up, it can spike to 1.5+ amps. I've seen many circuits trip because, while the draw should have been in an acceptable range, spinning up a number of servers at the same time was too much.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#55

Post by jbattle » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 5:36 PM UTC

xeroxmalf wrote: post #22

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.

How does the cost work out vs. colo when you consider capitalization?

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#56

Post by larrys » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 5:39 PM UTC

Alupis wrote: post #48

detournement wrote: post #19

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 actually find colo'ing a new server quite fun and enjoyable... even after doing it a half dozen times... as a techy... something is just so cool about putting a server in the same racks as some monster equipment. ;-P However, I disagree about colo'ing not being economical. If you setup a physical box in a colo with a hypervisor (kvm, xen), then the density you can get out of 1U is amazing, and makes the entire thin…

"I actually find colo'ing a new server quite fun and enjoyable... even after doing it a half dozen times... as a techy... something is just so cool about putting a server in the same racks as some monster equipment."

Agree. If there was a question on some test that said "I find colo'ing a new server quite fun and enjoyable" I would give that a 9 or 10 for sure. Have always loved the sound of the machine room. (This dates back to the days of the computer center at school with the tape drives and Dec terminals.)

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#57

Post by larrys » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 5:46 PM UTC

jbattle wrote: post #55

xeroxmalf wrote: post #22

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.

How does the cost work out vs. colo when you consider capitalization?

This is a generality but anytime I've looked at that what I see is a bunch of low loss leader prices (that lure you in) that when you add on extra features you get nickel and dimed up to a point where you are overpaying.

I've seen cases where there are charges (as only one example) of $10 per month to be able to do a remote reboot which of course can be done on any box with an IPMI at no charge if it's your box and that's the way you bought it. So if you don't know what you are doing my point is you can easily be lured into thinking you are paying a reasonable price but then paying more simply because you aren't doing a true comparison of features and benefits.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#58

Post by larrys » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 5:49 PM UTC

jlawer wrote: 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…

"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)."

Why is this "vital for email"?

I agree that obviously if you can you want your own space.

But if you are planning your move you can handle the new ip space by dns ttl. Which is what we have done since the 90's with moves where we didn't have our own IP block. And yes it is a huge pain to be avoided so I'm not disagreeing just wondering about the "vital for email".

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#59

Post by Alupis » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 5:50 PM UTC

druiid wrote: post #39

detournement wrote: post #19

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.…

In good 'ol California bay area, you can get a full cabinet with un-metered 100Mbps port + 20A power for $600 a month.

Hurricane Electric data center in Fremont, CA, always has specials running.

Re: How to colocate your first server at a datacenter

#60

Post by justincormack » Wed, Jun 11, 2014, 6:00 PM UTC

devicenull wrote: post #31

jlawer wrote: 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.

Indeed. See http://fish2.com/ipmi/river.pdf