Looking to get a server, need some (lots) of advice

mrwooster

mrwooster

mrwooster

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11 Feb 2008
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Currently, I use Amazon EC2 and S3 as my server but I am finding that cloud hosting is not really as cheap as it makes out to be (especially when it comes to storage), and there are quite a few limitations.

What I need from my server is fairly simple. It has 3 functions:

1) As a webhost for my blog and some small wikis I host, as well as a few private web apps that I use.

2) As an online storage (kinda NAS) where I would like to store around 50GB+ of media which I will be able to access from my iPhone/iPad and generally any PC, and also for various backups etc, totalling around 100GB.

3) As a dev box (I do a lot of web development / programming and I need a server that I can use as a test box)

4) Ok, I said 3, but I also use it as a game server for a few private games :)

At the moment, AWS fails mainly on point 2 because a) it is quite expensive to store a couple of hundred GB with them, and b) because I dont want to run into potential problems as, although about 95% of my media is truly legit and taken off dvds that I actually own, there is always that other 5%.

So, I have been looking into getting some hardware and getting it hosted. I have had a dig around on the internet, but I really have no idea where to start.

Firstly, I want to be hosted at a data center. Having the server at home is not an option for me, I need a deticated and fast connection and my current address is just not suited for a server setup. (I guess this could change in the future tho, but not for at least the next year)

I would like to be hosted in london, and have found several coloc services offering a 1U rack for around £35 per month, and this seems very reasonable to me, are there any that come recommended? What I am more stuck with is the hardware.

Ideally, I am looking for something under £200 (otherwise it would probably be cheaper for me to stay with a cloud service). It does not need to be a very fast server, and 500MB of ram is probably enough. What I really need is 200GB+ of storage. I am guessing I have 2 choices... 1) buy a 2nd hand system or 2) try to build my own. Option 2 sounds more fun, but I have no idea how complex this would be and if it would end up being any cheaper.

Sorry about the ramble, I hope it makes some sense.

G
 
I would still like to explore my options.... there are a couple of other advantages having a physical server that I forgot to mentions, e.g. physical access to my server to add files etc will save on bandwidth. Also, I am not 100% happy with the way amazon does things and would like to move away from them. If it ends up being waaay over my budget then I wont have any choice, but I would like to have some options to consider...

G


EDIT: According to overclockers forums I am a thug :(
 
Is that £200 monthly or one-off?

If you're using EC2 and S3 you should have exact numbers on your current usage given in the billing. Knowing exactly what you need is the best way to finding it!
 
£200 is a one off, and around £30 / month hosting.

I have done a bit more research and I think the way forward might be to get a used mac mini. I can get a G4 for around £150 or an intel for around £250 with around 1GB ram and 120GB hard drive (would probs need to upgrade the HD) and I have found a coloc hosting in London for £20 / month...

Has anyone had any experience with mac minis? I would be installing ubuntu in it, but I am guessing that a G4 would cause a load of issues because of the architecture.

@Yamahahahahaha: currently my AWS costs are around £40/month. Assuming the above, I would need to have the mac mini for at least 12 months for it to be the cheaper option.... I think that is pretty reasonable?
 
I'm not sure this belongs in the servers and enterprise solutions sub forum! I can't believe you have found a company who are willing to host a MAC mini in a data centre, what are you going to do for backups etc

You are doing all this to save roughly £10 a month in the second year and thats assuming the MAC mini doesn't blow up, I really don't think this is reasonable or viable.
 
Apologies if this is in the wrong forum.

It is actually quite common to host mac minis in data centres, there are even places willing to host and apple tv!!. The advantages of using a mac mini as a small server are quite significant. They are easy to setup, reliable, use next to zero power (a big factor in data centres) and are generally fairly cheap.

A backup solution is not a problem, the amount of data on the server that will actually need to be backed up will be minimal (<100MB), and daily snapshots to S3 will suffice.
 
£40pcm is reasonable, not to mention more flexible and scalable if your Wikis / file transfer needs become more intensive.

Given your needs, the only exceptional points are:
1) The amount of storage you need.
2) Gaming servers tend to be resource intensive.
Budget hosts like OVH, fasthosts and poundhost may have dedicated servers to suit you and your needs.

I'll reserve my comments on using a Mac Mini to a simple "No", but it's your money.
 
Something like an Atom based server, or Core2 based with a couple of 2TB hard drives is going to be the cheapest per GB.

Edit: just realised you're hosting games on it... depending on what games and how many players you'll need a decent amount of RAM and CPU for this.
 
It seems there are some strong views against mac minis here, ok, advice taken on board. I will not rule it out completely, but will continue to look at other options. @Fluff, the servers at kimsufi.co.uk are insanely cheap, an unlimited bandwidth??? is there are catch?

I would still like to have my own hardware tho, I think that the long term costs would be significantly lower, especially if I have the opportunity in a year to move my hardware into my own house.

Edit: @daz, the game hosting is really just a thing I have done a couple of times recently and not something that I intend to do a lot. I do not want to get more CPU and RAM so that I can host games, the way I see it, I am not going to factor gaming into it at all, and when I do end up with a server, if it will host a game then great... if not then no biggy.
 
mrwooster said:
@fluff, the servers at kimsufi.co.uk are insanely cheap, an unlimited bandwidth??? is there are catch
Click to expand...

Over subscribed network, poor support, no SLA.

If you want the absolute cheapest server you can get, they are perfect. That's not to say I wouldn't use them - my uploader (in my sig) is hosted there!
 
Ok, so I am slowly moving away from the idea of a mac mini server, and going instead for a rack mounted server....

Where is a good place to find 2nd hand rack servers? Ebay seems to have very few. And also what should I be looking for? I think I need approx 1GB ram and 200GB HDD, but I have never purchased a rack server before and so am not 100% what I am doing :confused:
 
Basic server package from rapidswitch will get you 500gig HDD space, 5TB a month bandwidth @ £45/m (£15 setup for the HDD change from default) and speaking from experience I've never seen less than full throughput on their network whenever I've tested. Obviously will need to setup the webserver software, etc. yourself, I've always found their customer service decent and uptime good as well.
 
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mrwooster said:
Ok, so I am slowly moving away from the idea of a mac mini server, and going instead for a rack mounted server....

Where is a good place to find 2nd hand rack servers? Ebay seems to have very few. And also what should I be looking for? I think I need approx 1GB ram and 200GB HDD, but I have never purchased a rack server before and so am not 100% what I am doing :confused:
Click to expand...

there are thousands on ebay...and quite a few threads on here regarding servers. Server hardware can be very expensive...
 
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