Hi, I am starting a web-hosting business, I already have 2 reseller accounts, and I have almost filled them up. I am looking to go for at least one dedicated server for now. But, I would like to know what I should look for. Or should I go with a VPS/VDS??? Thanks in advance for the help!

Alcaglar,

It depends on your current load (web space + bandwidth usage), your competency level in managing your own server and the cost issue (whether it is cheaper overall if you have gone dedicated). The other thing is would it provide you with the extra flexibility to come out with new plans, expand your business.

The switch-over between a shared account and a dedicated server can be quite drastic, it is sort of overnight you go from managed supported service to one which is almost competely unmanaged.

Of course, the first thing probably is to get good book on the topic of linux and apache administration so that when you actually need to go one-on-one with the server, you can.

Of course, with today's server, a control panel is usually an option and it sure is an added benefit in doing the most common tasks.

As for specifications, it would depend on your current and foreseeable needs. I would believe that almost any currently available hardware setup would outbeat the shared server performance. You will be the only one on the server and you can plan how many sites going into each machine.

Moreover, with the vast resources, you could probably resell more and come out with more innovative plans by virtue that the entire server is yours for the taking.

All said and done. It really boils down to whether you are confident enough to manage a dedicated server.

Could've said it better myself but why waste the time. Eddy nice one.

Oh yes, if you are curious to know if I have gone dedicated ? Well, Yes but it is really no bed of roses. Problems seem to struck at the most unexpected time.

Years ago, when my sites were growing to huge for comfort and after being chased out by sites who either claims unlimited bandwidth and subsequently changed their mind or saw my contents and decided to limit the bandwidth down. I am not doing anything illegal just hosting my own programs which I sell as sharewares. Then there were some other related or unrelated sites that I have, a lot of which are still work-in-progress ;) .

Anyways, I decided to go dedicated and the only system which has a workable control panel and easy to use was a RaQ 3i. Nice machine and worked really great. Expensive as anything and very low powered in today's context but I was just running 2 active sites so it was good. Never had I had 51gb of bandwidth for me to consume. Took 2 months trying to learn the ropes of getting things done and when I was certain then placed the server live.

Thought everything was smooth sailing until someone decided to break into my server and start causing chaos. I mean I got a rude awakening when I got a warning from my host that I was sending out spam. I say what spam ? I was sleeping throughout the night and I was selling software and not some intimate apparels.

After a long discussion, the discussion was to reformat the harddisk and start over. It was easier than trying to fix the problems which was caused. Yeah, anyway, we found some illegal stuffs which were stored on the server and installed by someone. Until now, we still do not know who.

Then after 6 months of no incident, I decided to take a vacation and at that time, the harddisk began to go crazy. All the file downloads or anything above 15kb got messed up. JPEG images I place online of the product screenshot went corrupted. And I was losing sales and could not do anything about it because I was away for a month long vacation and never expected that to happened.

After 2 years of dedicated hosting, I decided I had enough of it. So I spilt my web site and mirror them on 4 different virtual share hosting on 4 different web host. Thinking that this would help resolve the problem of data corruption, like if one goes down, at least there are 3 more backup.

Then the economy began to go a little sour and sales went skydiving down by about 90%. The trouble about the software industry is that there is no real thing as recurring customer. No matter how satisfied, they pay you once and that's probably would be a few more years before you see a few more dollars coming in.

So we scaled down and decided to go back to dedicated. Saw a good deal for a Cobalt RaQ 4i , jumped on it because I do not know how to manage any other system. Learnt my lesson and did all the patches, well at least now there were patches for all those pesky security bugs and holes. At least the transition from RaQ 3 to RaQ 4 was relatively painless, it took us about 2 weeks to get things right.

Now things are picking up a little, we took the challenge and move to a faster machine but this time with Cpanel/WHM and was totally clueless as to what to do. The manuals were outdated and had very brief description of things but somehow we scrape through. Not sure if we did the right things or things which were totally unnecessary but the server is up and running after about 1 week of messing around with the server. Now I am going really cautious and monitor the server a couple of times a day and had the server checked for patches every day. Got another harddisk to do backups and things are doing fine now.

Things are working now. Happy as a bumble bee but if you ask me to set up another machine, I am not sure if I remember how.

But if you asked me if I will go back to shared, well, no at least not now. Well, it is a lot cheaper for me and I know I would not be encoaching into anyone's space and entitlement if I were to stay virtual.

I am not trying to scare you or anything but just trying to share my experience. Okay, I am still a clueless guy.

My order for Linux Apache Web Server Administration just arrive and I will be digging in, that should give me a better insight of what to do and how to do things. Well, if at the end, I do not understand anything (still clueless about linux), I could say that I own the book :)

Have fun and May the force by with you when you decide.

Couldnt have said it myself.

When we started, we started on a dedicated by dialtone for $100/month and then went to colo.