In the past year I've gone from reselling webspace from a shared server, to a dedicated server and now considering switching to co-location set-up.
I must admit it's been a rather enlightening experience thus far with having it semi-managed in terms of security and support. I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but have had good sucess so far with operating a webserver.

My question has to do with security issues and completely managing a server myself.
Is it considered a great step to do this with (admittedly) limited knowledge? or are there options available to still have it semi-managed and yet have the flexibility to set your own system up.

I'm looking for some feedback on any of the precautions one might look into, mainly with security issues or avaliable software one might install.

Thanx,
Rsbug

I am in the same boat! As you. I am wanting to Co-Locate. I am very leary of it incase i HAVE A HARDWARE FAILURE, IT COULD BE QUITE EXPENSIVE FOR THE co-location source to provide service to your system. Although a temporary solution, I am having a T-1 installed in two weeks sooner if the line is provisioned faster. That can be quite expensive though.
Another temp solution you may look into is a SDSL line that runs lets say 1.1 or 1.5 up and down. They are considerably cheaper, you can get assigned static ip's and can have your servers on site. Just a few Ideas.

t-1's are pretty expensive with SLA's. sdsl line goes out for a week? Very possible.

Ds3 down for more than an hour, not likely.

In every city there's a spot for your price/needs just gotta hussle and find it!

Greetings:

You may wish to look for a managed co-location provider.

Typically you still have to provide all of the equipment including any spare parts.

However, they will do all of the hands-on for repair and upgrades as well as day-to-day management of the server(s).

Thank you.

If any of you are willing to get together as a group and sign contracts to get a minimum of 1/2 cabinet between us then I'd actually be willing to do the hardware support for servers in our cabinet for VERY cheap. You'd still have to buy the replacement parts of course. (I say VERY cheap because while I'd like to offer it for free.. I don't want to leave myself open to bad hardware that needs fixing every hour.. even if there are remote power switches.)

I'm only willing to do this because I want to move into a cabinet at this colo that's 10 minutes from my house and in order to do that I need to fill up more rack space.

If you are interested.. email me and let me know what kind've price point you're looking for. I'm terrific at negotiating the pricing but I know I need to do this in order to save myself some money. (Buy in bulk.. save money)

Kevin Lynn, CISSP

BTW - Let me know if you're interested in my credibility. I have no problem giving you details on my previous work history so you're comfortable with the fact that I can easily do this.