Hi guys,

We'll be setting up a search engine soon, so we need a good dedicated server(s). Our initial monthly budget for hosting is US $1,500.
We are looking for a managed dedicated server with 100%uptime. Can anyone recommend any?

So far we are thinking of getting a server from the planet, with titanium server management plan. What do you think about that?


Thank you,
Val, Andy, Gil

have you considered he.net and also what are your server requirments?

I would suggest a custom made server, with full management. TMS (Jose) could hook you up server wise, and I know many people who offer full management services.

With that budget, it won't be hard to locate any of your needs really.

I would not reccomend the planet at all for this. Try somewhere like www.rackspace.com or www.servint.com - both can provide great fully (real full management) for pretty good pricing and are willing to work and customize with you.

Rackspace may be one of the best providers but they have high pricing if he requires a dedicated server with high specs. then rackspace might cost him much more than he thinks.

It depends upon what you want - dedicated vs. fully managed. For Windows, I would suggest looking at Xiolink or Rackspace Intensive. For other OSes (like Linux), look at people like Contegix and Neo Spire.

If you have a usage in mind (specific product), try asking the company who makes it. They may be able to recommend someone.


Disclaimer: A friend of mine started Contegix!

you can also check host quote for your needs

Servint has started working in 100% uptime products into their product line. I believe they consist of redundant everything from power supplies to load balancers. Send them an email and they will take care of you.

With that budget I would have gone to Rackspace as well, if you really value the performance.

Hi,

With a budget like that I'd go for a load balanced solution, possibly 2x Dual Opterons. You're probably best going with a smaller company who can offer you a custom solution and set it all up for you.

You might want to leave some contact details as im sure quite a few people on this forum will be able to offer you a competitive deal.

Dan

Hello,

I support razorblue opinion regarding a load balanced solution, for that budget you can have a really good cluster solution.

Regards,

I know that this is a bit off topic but I'm sure everyone else is wondering the same thing. Does the web really need another search engine...especially one that is starting from scratch. Google is practically perfect in my estimation so you will need to offer something really special to make a substantial dent in their market.

You will also need huge amounts of bandwith and storage if you intend to crawl the web like all the good seach engines do. If you plan to rely solely on submissions then that won't be a problem. If you don't want to discuss this I fully understand.

If the palin is creating a search engine like google i think 15.000 is not even enough imo.

Crawling alone would take up alot of bandwidth. You have to consider the budget requirement to build a Server cluster instead of outsourcing it. There are still alot of improvement that can be made in search field, particularly in providing answers instead of just relevant links.

I have encountered difficulty performing research on the Internet and that the most relevant link is not necessarily the information that you need. Sometimes the words that you think represents what you want is not the words that exists on the most relevant pages.

Look into one backend machine and multiple front ends in a cluster solution. You should be able to get it for $1500 monthly.

How much bandwidth do you require?

I'm starting to doubt RackSpace's credibility since there were few threads saying they were slacking off.

...multiple front ends in a cluster solution.

Exactly. I would definitly suggest a cluster solution with load balancers & front end servers. You can get something good fitting your budget!

Hi guys,

thank you a lot for the replies.

We would prefer a linux server(s).
RAM - 2GB +
bandwidth- 100GB+ (we won't be crawling the web )

Would a cluster solution be good for a start up? We won't be serving more than 200k searches a day anytime soon.

Hello,

you should try host quote on top of the page

Originally posted by UltraUnixNET
How much bandwidth do you require?

I'm starting to doubt RackSpace's credibility since there were few threads saying they were slacking off.

I believe rackspace only slacks off a little bit to certain customers. (Not randomly). A while ago, RackSpace offered some cheap pricing servers to people who were too cheap (which generally targets some of the WHT users). Hence, rackspace didn't put them into "priority". This caused them to basically put their support off until time was available. I could be wrong, just going by a logical explanation.

Would a cluster solution be good for a start up?


It's the best option, if you want 100% availability and have the needed budget.


We would prefer a linux server(s).
RAM - 2GB +
bandwidth- 100GB+ (we won't be crawling the web )
Would a cluster solution be good for a start up? We won't be serving more than 200k searches a day anytime soon.


A single Dual Xeon server with 2GB RAM & a lot more bandwidth than what you need will cost less than 1/3 of your budget. As I stated before, if 100% availability is important for you go for the cluster. If you want to save money and a single server is enough, go for a single Dual Xeon server with 2GB RAM, managed and depending if you want RAID, etc. it will probably be 1/3 of your budget.

If your budget is $1,500 a month, then I'd recommend you buy a good server (http://rackmountsetc.com) ($600-2500) and colocate it (http://colo4dallas.com) ($80-200/month). Repeat that setup at another data center. Mirror (http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Replication.html) the server contents (http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/) and use a 3rd party dns server (http://zoneedit.com) with failover capability.

You'll save a lot in the long run. And have more control over your hardware.