webmasterbeta
New Member
Hopefully this is the right forum to ask this..
I am growing tired of my large web host that puts 400+ sites on a server and is constantly having performance issues and being blacklisted. I am thinking of getting a VPS or Dedicated server that is fully managed/secured/monitored.
I have about 6 of my own sites that are low demand on resources and about 7-10 client sites, a few of which do some mass email lists as they are bands.
I am not sure we'd need all the power of a dedicated server but maybe eventually. What would be best? VPS? Dedicated?
Any suggestions for managed VPS or dedicated providers?
Or would getting a cheap dedicated server from ev1 or some $89-99 a month place and then paying for server management be better? what does contracted server management usually cost?
I know somone who had a managed dedicatedserver at liquidweb and they seemed good, but that is a ittle more expensive than I can pay right now.
I'd need a control panel such as cpanel and need daily at least weekly backups. Linux/unix server.
Thanks!For a budget of ~$100 you can definitely find a nice low-end Celeron or P4 dedicated server with a single drive and about 512MB - 1 GB of RAM. Third-party server management runs about ~$30/month (PSM comes highly recommended around here). I would highly recommend third-party management if you go with ThePlanet, as their support staff is useless (based on prior experience). Check out SoftLayer for nice dedicated servers. They just introduced a new Xpress Series line that starts at $139, but they are not 100% fully managed (they have a separate $3/ticket fee for administration time).For that same low-end dedicated server budget you can get something a bit more powerful and reliable than a low-end dedicated server. For example, most VPS providers tend to use multiple drives in a RAID configuration for the physical host node that houses all of the VE's. That type of setup is far superior than the single disk drive (and single point of failure) you would get on that low-end dedicated server. You can also get just about 1 GB of guaranteed memory as well on a VPS. For the most part try to ignore the "burst" memory limit as it cannot always be guaranteed on a VPS, and instead concentrate on the guaranteed set of resources. Besides that, note that there is a difference between SATA-II RAID arrays and SAS-SCSI based RAID arrays on the physical hardware nodes used by VPS providers. You'll find the performance much better on a machine with SAS-SCSI or U320 SCSI drives over a SATA configuration. These are just a couple of things to keep in mind when shopping around and comparing the two, there are other pros and cons as well (ie, a VPS is still a shared hosting environment that is perceptible to bottlenecks in performance at the I/O and memory level if not configured or administered properly). Good luck in your search!
I would probably recommend a VPS server to start out with, and then expand into a dedicated server if you feel the need. Although, it would help to know exactly how many mass-mails would you be sending out and how often. As far as a VPS/Dedicated server provider, I would go with Myriad Network. I have met and know many of the people there, including Tom (the owner) and they are all very competent, and very nice people. We refer all our clients wanting VPS servers to them, and add on management if it's required, and dependng on your budget, there are a variety of different management companies that will do something similar. In addition, they offer backup space on their private network that you can take advantage of.
I am growing tired of my large web host that puts 400+ sites on a server and is constantly having performance issues and being blacklisted. I am thinking of getting a VPS or Dedicated server that is fully managed/secured/monitored.
I have about 6 of my own sites that are low demand on resources and about 7-10 client sites, a few of which do some mass email lists as they are bands.
I am not sure we'd need all the power of a dedicated server but maybe eventually. What would be best? VPS? Dedicated?
Any suggestions for managed VPS or dedicated providers?
Or would getting a cheap dedicated server from ev1 or some $89-99 a month place and then paying for server management be better? what does contracted server management usually cost?
I know somone who had a managed dedicatedserver at liquidweb and they seemed good, but that is a ittle more expensive than I can pay right now.
I'd need a control panel such as cpanel and need daily at least weekly backups. Linux/unix server.
Thanks!For a budget of ~$100 you can definitely find a nice low-end Celeron or P4 dedicated server with a single drive and about 512MB - 1 GB of RAM. Third-party server management runs about ~$30/month (PSM comes highly recommended around here). I would highly recommend third-party management if you go with ThePlanet, as their support staff is useless (based on prior experience). Check out SoftLayer for nice dedicated servers. They just introduced a new Xpress Series line that starts at $139, but they are not 100% fully managed (they have a separate $3/ticket fee for administration time).For that same low-end dedicated server budget you can get something a bit more powerful and reliable than a low-end dedicated server. For example, most VPS providers tend to use multiple drives in a RAID configuration for the physical host node that houses all of the VE's. That type of setup is far superior than the single disk drive (and single point of failure) you would get on that low-end dedicated server. You can also get just about 1 GB of guaranteed memory as well on a VPS. For the most part try to ignore the "burst" memory limit as it cannot always be guaranteed on a VPS, and instead concentrate on the guaranteed set of resources. Besides that, note that there is a difference between SATA-II RAID arrays and SAS-SCSI based RAID arrays on the physical hardware nodes used by VPS providers. You'll find the performance much better on a machine with SAS-SCSI or U320 SCSI drives over a SATA configuration. These are just a couple of things to keep in mind when shopping around and comparing the two, there are other pros and cons as well (ie, a VPS is still a shared hosting environment that is perceptible to bottlenecks in performance at the I/O and memory level if not configured or administered properly). Good luck in your search!
I would probably recommend a VPS server to start out with, and then expand into a dedicated server if you feel the need. Although, it would help to know exactly how many mass-mails would you be sending out and how often. As far as a VPS/Dedicated server provider, I would go with Myriad Network. I have met and know many of the people there, including Tom (the owner) and they are all very competent, and very nice people. We refer all our clients wanting VPS servers to them, and add on management if it's required, and dependng on your budget, there are a variety of different management companies that will do something similar. In addition, they offer backup space on their private network that you can take advantage of.