Dedicated Servers & Managed Dedicated Servers

How to Choose a Dedicated Server!

Now your considering moving to dedicated servers or managed dedicated servers, figuring out the options and hosting services can be  confusing. So first what is a dedicated server and why are you looking to switch to one? From hardware to virtual dedicated servers there are many specifications to think about. When it comes to looking for dedicated servers hosting it pays to know what you need and the type of support your require for yourself or your organization.

A dedicated server is a single computer connected to a network on the internet. This computer and all of it's processing power is dedicated to an individual's files or an organization. Computer resources are not shared by anyone else as it's completely dedicated to you. When people make the shift from a shared server is it's usually because they want full control of the machine freedom to run any software you want on that computer. You can manage your own server or you can have a managed service monitor it for you via a managed dedicated hosting service or even virtual private server that sits off site in cyberspace.

Dedicated servers can be divided into two groups:

• Full Web site Hosting
• Specific Service Hosting (Database, email, http...etc)

Dedicated servers hosting can be expensive as you are not sharing your files on a server with anyone else, it takes more technical support and power so you can expect to pare a lot more than a shared server hosting option.

Choosing Your Specifications.

The more RAM your server has, more requests it can handle at the same time. This is something you want if you are expecting a lot of users and browsers accessing files in any given moment. Popular web server software like APACHE can take about 7mb to 15mb of RAM per request or process and that's not accounting for any other processes already running or being spawned to compliment that each request.

Memory is without doubt the best investment you can make in your dedicated server.

Hard Drive RPM speed is another consideration. The faster the disk spins the quicker it can get to the data on disk. Faster Hard Drives will be seen by applications which access the Disk often. Some of those applications are: Database servers, File Servers and Video Streaming servers.

To RAID or not to RAID: So yes we are still stuck with the hard drives. When you see a word "RAID" being used in a server setup, that means that server has 2 or more HD's joined in an array forming one logical unit. Raid usually provides increased storage reliability through redundancy. There are different RAID setups and you've probably seen some: RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10...etc

RAID 0 provides you with some performance and increased total disk space but has no redundancy. If one drive fails, you loose your data. RAID 1 provides redundancy through mirroring and in certain cases performance increase, but you do not get increased disk space. If one drive fails you can still continue operating and be able to replace the broken drive without loss of data. This setup requires two Hard Drives.

RAID 5 provides redundancy and increased disk space. It requires minimum on 3 Hard drives. Maximum of disk space you can have is:(Size of Smallest Drive) * (Number of Drives - 1). If one HD fails you can still continue your operations.

RAID can be implemented via two common methods, via software or via hardware.

Software RAID uses Computer resources while Hardware RAID uses it's own dedicated resource on the card.

If you have a powerful machine then performance difference between Hardware and Software RAID could be negligable

Generally it is thought that if available Hardware RAID is a better choice.

If you have an option to "RAID" your server, I say go for it, at least RAID 1. Servers are 24hr nonstop workhorses and any interruption due to single Hard Drive point of failure could cause serious downtime for your web site.

Bandwidth is the term used to describe the amount of data that server will deliver over period of time. Hosting companies can choose to offer various pricing structures for cost of bandwidth.

But some of the most popular ones are:

• Metered Bandwidth
• Unmetered Bandwidth

Metered bandwidth packages usually come with certain amount of included bandwidth a month and if going over the included limit you are charged certain fee per transferred GB ( GigaByte ) of data.

Unmetered bandwidth packages allow you to to transfer as much as you can at the maximum included transfer rate. This maximum transferred rate is measured in Mbps ( megabits per second ).

Each pricing structure type offers its own advantages and disadvantages.

With metered bandwidth you usually have access to much faster connection so your speed can burst up to the hosting provider's maximum bandwidth capabilities. This enables the user to download the file quicker if capable. Since you are charged per amount of data transfer, you are only limited to the speed of your uplink port.

Managed Dedicated Servers or Not?

Things do go wrong with dedicated servers and they usually happen when you least expect or right when you need to be in high productivity mode. Servers crash, Hard drives fail, Processors can burn out and what do you do then? You are possibly thousands of miles away from the server and there is nothing you can personally do. You are in the hands of technical support.