Hello. I currently have a reseller hosting business and it's time to upgrade to a dedicated solution, as I'm about to exceed the bandwidth and disk space of the reseller plan.

Some questions:

1). Is there a guide or tutorial somewhere regarding the technical issues behind operating/managing a dedicated server (things like setting up name servers, etc)

2). What features should I be looking for at a minimum for a dedicated server? I have found one that offers 160GB of space, 3,000MB of bandwith per month, and 5 IP addresses... does that seem reasonable? What other things do I need?

Thanks!

Couple points....

- With a dedicated server, not only are you making a jump to your own server, your making a huge jump in cost. A reliable dedicated server isn't going to cost you a small monthly fee below $100 a month. It'll be above $100 a month for just the server.

- If your unfamiliar with running a server, your also going to need an admin. None of your clients are going to want to wait for their website to come back up while your learning how Apache works or how DNS works. Therefore your going to need a 24x7 admin to do the work for you which will cost you another ~$100 a month.

So your base price is going to be around $200 a month for the server and admin. If your currently only paying less then $50 a month for the reseller account, I'd suggest you upgrade the reseller account, or take on another reseller plan. Having multiple reseller accounts with multiple providers is a good idea.

- You should always try and get at least 2 hard drives. One to create backups on and one to use for normal server operations, then as you grow, you should look into offsite backups.

- Don't be fooled by the term "managed". Now a days you have everyone throwing the word managed around very lightly. I've seen a couple providers advertise that their servers are managed simply because they alert you when something fails. Thats all. By alerting you, they are considering it managed. Which in my mind, isn't managed at all.

Either way, good luck with your venture.

Thanks for the advice. With the number of clients I have, paying $150+ a month for the server is not a problem.

I would like to learn how to manage the server myself... I might still hire an admin, but the buck eventually stops with me, and I should know what I'm doing on the server... so to my original question, are there any good guides (that are hosting oriented) on managing a server?

Thanks

Hello There,
Google is your friend! You may also want to have a look @:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=69
Regards,

Ariel74,

I think it's great you want to learn how to manage a server. The more you know the more control you will have over your business and the service you can provide your clients.

As far as guides on system administration from a hosting provider standpoint, there aren't many books or official guides on this topic due to the all the variations that exist in managing servers used for hosting. General system administration background is good, but administering a standard Windows or Linux server is very different than managing a server running a modern control panel. Most control panels, on the Linux platform especially, practically take over the system and many general admin practices become irrelevant due to the way the control panel has altered/configured the underlying software.

For your first server, I recommend using Web Host Manager/Cpanel as the control panel. If you read through all the WHM documentation you will find that most common day to day admin tasks can be completed directly from within the WHM interface if you know what you're doing. It's also good to find a quality provider that can help you quickly solve any issues that fall beyond your expertise.

Here is another helpful resource to look over:
http://www.webhostgear.com/cid_1.html

are there any companies out there that act as a server admin? Or how would you recommend finding a server admin? and do you recommend having a server admin even if you are hosted with a company like ev1servers.net?

linux-tech.net is a company that we work close with. They provide excellent service however don't expect some admin company to teach you how to be a server admin...

A way to learn though, is for you to simply install linux onto your pc and use it primarly :)

Thanks for all of the advice.. I've been researching and studying, but I still have questions:

1). Metered vs. Unmetered..... which to choose? Unmetered is attractive to me because I wouldn't have to worry about bandwidth overages. However, how many sites could realistically be hosted on a server like this before it started to become too slow? I am looking at a 20MB "constant" bandwidth connection from jhservers, or a 2000MB/month metered from Sago.

2). How are some shared hosting companies able to sell packages with so much darn bandwidth for so little money? For example, there is one I found that is offering 100 GB a month for $6.95 to their hosting clients. On a 2000MB/month connection, I could have a max of 20 people with this level of bandwidth... at $139 (6.95 times 20), this wouldn't even cover my server costs. How are these hosts able to offer that much bandwidth for so little?!

3). IP addresses... do I need to assign individual IP addresses for each hosting client? The guy at DirectAdmin told me that in order for clients to have their own secure certificate on their site they would need to have an assigned IP.

Thanks for any help..!

2. Overselling, the host assumes that they won't use anywhere near that much, so even though you offer them 100gb, if they only use 1gb, then its only taken 1 gb of bandwidth off your server, not the 100gb

3. I recommend not, and allow them to purchase ips off you at an extra cost. the vast majority of websites do not have a need for a SSL certificate, and therefore there is no need to give them to each account. But you should make them available for purchase because some will need it

Ariel, my advice is:

Try not to get too starry-eyed with the idea of having your own dedicated server - the novelty will soon wear off. Firstly you need to decide if you *need* a dedicated server - have you got so many customers (150-200) that it's really warranted? Secondly, can you really afford it? You personally may be able to afford it, but will the business pay for it itself, without your own personal financial investment?

If you can say yes to the above, then carefully recruit an admin and good luck ;)

Hope that helps,
Matt :)