I have little to no knowledge when it comes to managing servers. I was thinking of ordering a MANAGED dedicated server, my question is, what's involved in this?

I mean, what duties in general is the provider responsible for, and what are some common tasks I may need to do.

This server would be used for hosting clients, not personal use. Therefore, I will need to know what I'm doing before I get into anything.

I was looking at getting some deal that included around 40 GB disk space and 400 GB bandwidth, but what server specs should I be looking for? I'm looking for high performance and quality as well.

And... if you could recommend some places, I'd appreciate it. Though I'll still post something in the requests forum either today or tomorrow.

Thanks in advanced, and feel free to include any more information you think may be helpful for me (just starting out!). :)

Hey,

Basiclly the host would take care of:

Network/Server Monitoring
Your server would be monitored 24/7/365. You will be notified immediately of any failure of a service on your server and it will be fixed straight away. Monitored services include FTP, HTTP, MySQL, POP, SMTP and any control panel installed on the server.

Software Installation
Server software should be kept up-to-date, this includes the control panel, SSH, Perl, PHP, MySQL, Apache and other standard server software. We will also install other custom server software requested by the client, for example, Perl modules. So the host will do all of that.

Security Updates
They will ensure that your server is secure at all times, by configuring and installing any high-risk security patches, patches, fixes, etc.

That is what a managed server is like. Plus they will help with pop3 problems, webmail, ftp, installing php/perl scripts, etc.

What you are looking at spec wise is very nice (what price)?

If you have any more questions why don't you jump on aim/icq/msn/etc and we can chat?

-Alec

Thanks for posting that information. It was helpful. :)

I'm still wondering if I need to be a big techie to get into this? Or basically the host manages everything about the server, and all I need to do is manage my clients and set up accounts through the control panel.

I might get on AIM later, gotta download it first though. :D

lol, ok.

A tech support person would of course be of help. Just because you have a managed server doesn't mean they manage your clients. They manage the server.... but will help you if you need it.

-Alec

Either hire someone or learn, if you want the host to do everything for you including the simplest things it will become very expensive.