Dear Group,
Does someone who is looking for a managed or dedicated server really need root access? What do you do with it if you have it?
Bradley

Dear Group,
Does someone who is looking for a managed or dedicated server really need root access? What do you do with it if you have it?
Bradley
I could come over to your house and setup a parental lock on your cable box and ask what you needed the password for.

I do not get your reply. I do see that some dedicated servers offer root access and some do not. I am not clear what you can do with root access.
Bradley

Root access allows you to do whatever you want on the server, like you were at the physically at a computer and install any software on it as you wish, you can delete everything, you can shutdown the server down etc. If you're not given root access, then you may be using a control panel such as Web Host Manager, and you'll most likely have restricted SSH access, which will not allow you to install the more advanced server software/modules. The reason some managed companies may not give root access is that they don't want you to mess anything up and probably expect you to e-mail them or submit a support ticket to get something installed or to get something done, which isn't bad, but it's not a good feeling knowing that you can't do anythinng you want when it's your dedicated server.

I think sbrad was just expressing what I explained above, that without root access you're basically locked out and you're just a normal user like your other customers on the server (if you're offering web hosting services).

In my opinion, if the hosting company is providing fully Managed services, then root access is not really needed. But sometimes you need to get to those server configurations to make changes yourself, which is quicker than asking your host to do it.

Alan

I assume you are familiar with Windows 2000 or XP.

Root access is the same as administrator access. As I am sure you know in Windows 2000 or XP if you are not an admin user you can not install most programs and are somewhat limited as to where you can go on the server and what you can do or change.

The basic idea is the same on a linux machine. If you are not root you are limited to a few places you can go and somethings you can change or alter.

I hope that helps.

Regards,
Michael