It's been suggested to me many times that unless I have very good sysadmin skills (including a full understanding of Unix commands), that I should not consider getting my own dedicated server. There's just too much that can go wrong. Not to mention needing to know how to properly protect against hackers, DDoS attacks, etc. Seems like sound advice. So for now, I stay with a reseller plan.

But every day, it seems, someone here at WHT who just decided to get into the biz has gone and ordered a server at Rackshack, or wherever. Is everyone but me equipped to effectively run their own server?? Can someone give me the lowdown on this?

So was I given sound advice, or am I missing the boat?

Vito

Well managing a server is definetely not an easy task. I suggest you go and get yourself a copy of Linux , install it on your home PC and get some first hand experience administering Unix/Linux systems.

I think you got sound advice.

I'd hazard a guess that the majority of the people running hosting businesses on rackshack servers lack ANY real sysadmin skills. Take a look at the jobs section and look at what some people are looking for help with. Even more so, take a look at the quasi-sysadmins asking for a job with one year experience playing with Plesk. </rant>

Let's say you put all your money and effort into starting a business. You get some customers and everything is going great. A couple months roll by and something happends to the box. What now?

Yes, that's precisely my point.

I've actually gone to the point of getting a used computer to set up as a practice server (don't want to screw up my main computer). And I have a Linux, and I even spent 75 bucks on a pretty comprehensive manual on Linux. Unfortunately, I just haven't found the time to devote to playing around with it.

Still, what gets me is how many people, big and small, seem to be managing their own servers. Have all of them gone through the steps of properly educating themselves to do it effectively? As you suggest, likely not.

So once you get a basic understanding of how to get around with commands, do you go out and get a real dedicated server, throw on a couple of your own sites that perhaps are not so uptime-critical, and experiment until you build some experience?

You learn to the level off sysadmin or get a sysadmin who knows exectly what he is doing so nothing does happen. Not impossible, just depends on how YOU obtain staff or how YOU learn.

It is not essential that you know all Unix commands to administer a server, however it is smart. :) If you do not know unix well, you WILL run into problems. When you do encounter a problem with your server (and trust me, it will happen), you will have to get help. If you have customers on the server when this problem occurs, there may be downtime, which your customers will not like.

Something to think about... A true unix admin will be able to fix most problems very quickly. This means minimal downtime for your customers. If you try to do this yourself, a simple problem that could be fixed in 5 minutes could take you 5 hours.

The best way to learn is to do it. So, I would suggest (if you can afford it) get a dedicated server and mess around on it for a few months. Use all features that clients will use, and try to break things. During the meantime, setup some people with non-critical web sites with free hosting. Tell them you are learning and that there may be some downtimes. I am sure there are a few people on this forum that would take you up on such an offer. After a couple of months, you can "open" and start accepting paid clients. However, when you do this, be sure to keep an experienced UNIX admin's phone number handy. I would also suggest maybe having an experienced admin taking a look at your server monthly. You should be able to find a unix admin in your area that will check things out for you at an hourly rate ($60+ per hour).

Really great advice. Thanks. :)

Vito

Originally posted by vito
But every day, it seems, someone here at WHT who just decided to get into the biz has gone and ordered a server at Rackshack, or wherever. Is everyone but me equipped to effectively run their own server?? Can someone give me the lowdown on this?

So was I given sound advice, or am I missing the boat?

Vito

Those that decide to get into the hosting business by ordering a server at RackShack and relying totally on the control panel software because they don't have a clue what they're doing and didn't hire an admin are very stupid, especially since RackShack is totally unmanaged, but sadly, that's what many people are doing, so no, not everyone is equipped to effectively run their own server. You were given sound advice. You don't have to know everything to run your own server, but you should at least know enough to get around as well as troubleshoot problems.

Well, I'm glad I started this thread. All the comments made here have reinforced my decision to wait until I am in fact ready to fly solo.

Thanks for all the candid and sage advice. :)

Vito

Just my anecdotal experience

I have a server at rackshack- plain RH 7.2, no control panel, and i've replaced nearly every daemon on that box w/ my own servers, etc. I hang out in the irc room quite a bit, and watch as people wrestle just to add a name based account to ensim, or try to run bind w/o the first understanding of dns resolution. They are typically refered to How-To's and Google by the support staff at rackshack. That's got to be a hard road to take for thier customers. It's a horrible idea to endeavour to run a server strictly through a control panel. It's even worse to endeavour to run a server through a control panel that you don't understand.

Jake
L2Host.com

Originally posted by vito
Is everyone but me equipped to effectively run their own server??

Nope. Running a server != equipped to run a server.

Are you that dense?
NOT AT ALL!

If you have got the time,

Learn ALL about NMap, Snort, Satan, and how to abuse your own networks. The floppy distros can be handy checking or running your own network and are quick to setup.

Learn as much command line stuff as possible, get a book like Sams Linux in 24hrs, do the sections about admin, scheduling, shell, reading and nav, xwindows and searching. You will in a week be able to get around your box, in a kind of crawling fasion, but it is the key to traversing the system and putting yourself into the starting postion.

When you read documentation about anything, activly seek out that extra info regarding Linux, often security info is listed, updates, sites, crc signatures for the files etc.

Then you will start noticing things like the little command lines some folk use as signatures in WHT, along with a smile of course, are capable of ripping a systems brain out given the right circumstances.

Be prepaired to cope with random anything, be prepaired to cope with someone with muddy boots walking in your root dir, make sure they only "think" they are where they are.

Understand that if you own your own systems and want to keep them up to good spec and properly configured there may be times you are infact putting yourself into the position of an RTO (Real Time Operator), an RTO SysAdmin of Linux. Thats not a part time job if you get my drift! look at some of the basic fields and you begin to understand why some of the bigger companies need multiple staff when there pages are so basic looking. To leave time for your customers and yourself you will have to be a good sysadmin, its your job to make sure you do, no one elses.

I myself am trying to learn, at the moment it's a hobby:)