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  1. #1
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    Question Is ECC Ram Required for a Hosting Dedicated Server?

    Hi, I run a small web hosting server with Plesk with about 110 domains, I'm currently changing servers to lower my business expenses...I'd like to save as much as I can because business is slow and every dollar counts for us now...having ECC ram on my server would cost me 20$ more each month on my current provider because they don't offer ECC on their budget servers.... do you think a budget server without ECC is fine for a Plesk Hosting Server with low traffic sites? or is it really A MUST?

    my clients are mostly low traffic websites and email...i think about 50% of my websites use mySQL databases for their websites and only 2 clients use PostgreSQL databases... all sites are mostly low traffic corporate sites...

    I googled and some posts said that ECC ram was a MUST if you run databases...some others said that it's not really required unless you run mission critical server.

    thanks in advance for your feedback

    -Andres

  2. #2
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    Is ECC Ram Required for a Hosting Dedicated Server?

    I would recommend it, but then again if you're already on a budget server I wouldn't expect you have much as far as redundancy anyway.

    If the $20 gets you ECC and also possibly hardware raid, or redundant power, or any other benefits it is probably worth the extra $20.

    If you already have just software raid, or worse yet no raid, single power, etc. and none of that bothers you then I probably wouldn't worry about the memory either.

  3. #3
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    It's rare you find server grade hardware that does not require ECC RAM.

    The server must be old or not server grade hardware.
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  4. #4
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    It's not really required, your provider is trying to charge you extra for ECC Ram? that's a first!!
    Respectfully,
    Mr. Terrence

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Terrence View Post
    It's not really required, your provider is trying to charge you extra for ECC Ram? that's a first!!
    No, he said his provider didn't offer ECC memory as an option on their budget server line (likely because they're not server grade hardware).

    To jump up to a "non-budget" server would cost a minimum of $20/more.

  6. #6
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    Perhaps you're on a Core i7 (some other Core) type server vs a Xeon server. ECC is not required for hosting. It really makes little difference to have ECC RAM. In fact, you probably would be hard pressed to notice it.

    Unless you're running banking applications, I would say not to worry about that. You're better off spending in better backups or better drive I/O.
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  7. #7
    Can you get away without ECC ram? Sure I suppose. It's not a good idea. You reduce a lot of server crashes and corrupted data by using ECC ram. I absolutely recommend it for any kind of server use. We have quite a lot of servers with over a year of uptime. You're not going to see that on a heavily loaded server without ECC ram. A server without ECC ram is probably also skimping on the motherboard. There's a lot of things you can cut corners on with a motherboard that also impact stability but you "won't notice" aside from the server crashing more often (once a week or month instead of once every couple years).
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  8. #8
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    here are some tech specs:

    the server it's a budget server WITHOUT ECC from 1and1. ordered yesterday....so I have it running now... price its 49.99 for the 1st 6 months then 59.99$ a month + 49$ setup fee, they were supposed to give me a server for that price with ECC with less hard disk space and a slower processor, but they ran out of that model and they gave me this one without ECC for that price, I requested the one with ECC that I ordered from their website but they don't seem to have it available anymore, so they are offering me a "discount" on a more expensive server that supports ECC.

    current server:
    AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 910e Processor - 2600 MHz 4 cores
    Motherboard is a FUJITSU D2981-A1
    8 GB DDR3 Ram
    2 x 1 TB hard disks Raid-1 Soft (drives are brand new), drive IO is at 130 MB/s
    Plesk 12 Web Host license Unlimited domains

    the server upgrade with ECC they are offering is a:

    Intel®Atom™ C2750 8 Cores x 2.4 GHz (2.6 GHz Turbo Boost)
    8 GB DDR3 ECC
    1,000 GB (2 x 1,000 GB SATA) Software Raid
    Plesk 12 Web Host license Unlimited domains
    Price $ 59.99 for the 1st 6 months then $79.99
    for the server upgrade they are throwing in no setup fee (50$) + 2 free months @ 59.99 each)

    the provider is 1and1, both deals seem pretty good deals, I am well aware these are cheap servers....again I'm on a budget and the server won't be heavily loaded, i only have 110 domains at the moment with low traffic, no banking or ecommerce sites....

    any of you guys familiar with the FUJITSU D2981-A1 Motherboard? do you think there is a real risk of the server crashing often?....I really don't wish to have a server that crashes once a month.

    thanks again for the feedback and advice
    Last edited by atinoco; 03-11-2015 at 02:52 AM.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by atinoco View Post
    here are some tech specs:

    the server it's a budget server WITHOUT ECC from 1and1. ordered yesterday....so I have it running now... price its 49.99 for the 1st 6 months then 59.99$ a month + 49$ setup fee, they were supposed to give me a server for that price with ECC with less hard disk space and a slower processor, but they ran out of that model and they gave me this one without ECC for that price, I requested the one with ECC that I ordered from their website but they don't seem to have it available anymore, so they are offering me a "discount" on a more expensive server that supports ECC.

    current server:
    AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 910e Processor - 2600 MHz 4 cores
    Motherboard is a FUJITSU D2981-A1
    8 GB DDR3 Ram
    2 x 1 TB hard disks Raid-1 Soft (drives are brand new), drive IO is at 130 MB/s
    Plesk 12 Web Host license Unlimited domains

    the server upgrade with ECC they are offering is a:

    Intel®Atom™ C2750 8 Cores x 2.4 GHz (2.6 GHz Turbo Boost)
    8 GB DDR3 ECC
    1,000 GB (2 x 1,000 GB SATA) Software Raid
    Plesk 12 Web Host license Unlimited domains
    Price $ 59.99 for the 1st 6 months then $79.99
    for the server upgrade they are throwing in no setup fee (50$) + 2 free months @ 59.99 each)

    the provider is 1and1, both deals seem pretty good deals, I am well aware these are cheap servers....again I'm on a budget and the server won't be heavily loaded, i only have 110 domains at the moment with low traffic, no banking or ecommerce sites....

    any of you guys familiar with the FUJITSU D2981-A1 Motherboard? do you think there is a real risk of the server crashing often?....I really don't wish to have a server that crashes once a month.

    thanks again for the feedback and advice
    I've had servers that were horrendously unreliable under heavy load would stay online for a long time if they were under very little load. I doubt your current server is "horrendously unreliable", so it probably will stay online fine even without ECC ram because you are running it without much load. For a heavily loaded server, or anyone who can afford it, ECC is a must.

    As to crashing every month, it really depends on the server. Under light load, even a "crappy" server will stay online for a while. And even under heavy load, a "reliable" server (ECC ram, server grade motherboard, server grade disks) can stay up for a couple years straight. Most likely the server you're thinking about buying falls somewhere in the middle. An increased chance of having crashes and problems, but likely will work fine for the most part under light duty work. You might get lucky and it's super reliable, you might get unlucky and it gives you frequent problems. No real way to know for sure without trying it, but I will say that for my own usage, switching to server grade components, I've never looked back. The time and hassle it's saved me is well worth the extra money.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by funkywizard View Post
    I've had servers that were horrendously unreliable under heavy load would stay online for a long time if they were under very little load. I doubt your current server is "horrendously unreliable", so it probably will stay online fine even without ECC ram because you are running it without much load. For a heavily loaded server, or anyone who can afford it, ECC is a must.

    As to crashing every month, it really depends on the server. Under light load, even a "crappy" server will stay online for a while. And even under heavy load, a "reliable" server (ECC ram, server grade motherboard, server grade disks) can stay up for a couple years straight. Most likely the server you're thinking about buying falls somewhere in the middle. An increased chance of having crashes and problems, but likely will work fine for the most part under light duty work. You might get lucky and it's super reliable, you might get unlucky and it gives you frequent problems. No real way to know for sure without trying it, but I will say that for my own usage, switching to server grade components, I've never looked back. The time and hassle it's saved me is well worth the extra money.
    thanks for that feedback, do you know anything about the Fujitsu D2981-A1 motherboard in my current server?

    going to ask 1and1 about the motherboard model included in the upgraded server that supports ECC, not sure if a server with a Intel®Atom™ C2750 procesor will have a server grade motherboard... will post if they give me the motherboard model.

  11. #11
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    Not at all.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by atinoco View Post
    thanks for that feedback, do you know anything about the Fujitsu D2981-A1 motherboard in my current server?

    going to ask 1and1 about the motherboard model included in the upgraded server that supports ECC, not sure if a server with a Intel®Atom™ C2750 procesor will have a server grade motherboard... will post if they give me the motherboard model.
    I have no specific experience with the Fujitsu motherboard, sorry.
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  13. #13
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    got a reply from 1and1 right away about the upgraded server motherboard

    the board that is in the A8i is a Supermicro A1SAi-2750F.
    are the Supermicro A1SAi-2750F Motherboard + Intel® Atom™ Processor C2750 considered server grade components?

    thanks again for the feedback.

  14. #14
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    It's as server grade motherboard as your going to get with that CPU. Lowend but better than something you would pickup from your local PC Shop. The Atom CPU also has a slightly higher benchmark score/newer technology.

  15. #15
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    If you are on a really tight budget why not opt for a decent VPS?
    Respectfully,
    Mr. Terrence

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Terrence View Post
    If you are on a really tight budget why not opt for a decent VPS?
    I decided against VPS mostly because plesk doesn't offer any support on VPS licenses, I've had plesk errors from time that only the plesk support team has been able to fix.... I have a lot of experience with linux, but I don't consider myself a linux guru.... so this plesk support has been important for me over the years, also the plesk dedicated bundle included in the 1and1 dedicated server has many features that would be considered extra in other providers, I think this budget dedicated was just a far better deal for us...

  17. #17
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    Seems like the Supermicro A1SAi-2750F is a very new and popular platform lots of very positive reviews for the Supermicro A1SAi-2750F Motherboard + Intel® Atom C2750 Platform

    There's not a single review for the FUJITSU D2981-A1 motherboard out there... is that a bad sign?

    i just went into my oldest windows server that I'm about to retire, this server used to run what i consider heavy MSSQL Server loads for many years and it comes out it didn't have any ECC ram on it... I guess if I've lived for all these years without ECC on my main database server, I might live without it for some more years. this server had a supermicro X7SB4/E motherboard + Intel core 2 duo E8400 Desktop processor + 4 gb ram, server ran on the slow side but it served me well over the years...I think I got a few crashes/restarts over the years, but none of my clients complained about any lost data...

    the only thing that worries me now is the software RAID array that I will be running on my new server now, none of my old servers used RAID before, I just had weekly plesk backups and a lot of good luck, only had 1 hard disk failure in 10 years for this 2 servers.

    so I'm debating on the software RAID now...since it's the 1st time I will be using a soft raid array on our server... read some posts about people saying ECC was A MUST for Software Raid on servers with soft RAID, do you think ECC Ram is a must to avoid Software Raid corruption?

    would a software RAID array get corrupted in any way if the server crashes under load?

    I can live with a server crash and reboot, but a corrupted raid array would be a big problem for me since I still don't have much experience with them.... what do you think?

    thanks again for the feedback
    Last edited by atinoco; 03-11-2015 at 10:01 AM.

  18. #18
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    You're trying to convince yourself that being cheap is OK. Skipping on ECC RAM is not OK for business applications. The biggest problem with not using ECC might not be server crashes, but silent data corruption, 0s becomes 1s, etc. Where your invoices to your clients previously said $500 they now say $0. Etc.

    Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECC_mem...lem_background
    https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...bit%20flipping
    etc

    If you're OK driving around without a seatbelt, sure use non-ecc RAM, the rest of us are going to keep using ECC RAM.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by gordonrp View Post
    You're trying to convince yourself that being cheap is OK. Skipping on ECC RAM is not OK for business applications. The biggest problem with not using ECC might not be server crashes, but silent data corruption, 0s becomes 1s, etc. Where your invoices to your clients previously said $500 they now say $0. Etc.

    Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECC_mem...lem_background
    https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...bit%20flipping
    etc

    If you're OK driving around without a seatbelt, sure use non-ecc RAM, the rest of us are going to keep using ECC RAM.
    yes my friend, you are totally right I'm trying to convince myself that being cheap is OK....very good point

    I think I found an option to lower that monthly a bit and get the Intel Atom C2750 Platform with ECC, 1and1 seems to offer discounts for 1 year to 2 year contracts, I usually keep my servers for 3+ years so I'm going to talk to them to see what they can offer me.

    thanks again for your opinion.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by atinoco View Post
    yes my friend, you are totally right I'm trying to convince myself that being cheap is OK....very good point

    I think I found an option to lower that monthly a bit and get the Intel Atom C2750 Platform with ECC, 1and1 seems to offer discounts for 1 year to 2 year contracts, I usually keep my servers for 3+ years so I'm going to talk to them to see what they can offer me.

    thanks again for your opinion.
    Atom with ECC sounds much better

    Avoid prepaying several years with any host until you've tried them for a few months. You should haggle with your host until they give you the annual payment rate on a monthly or quarterly basis. From a server sales perspective a quarterly payment mitigates a LOT of the risk to the datacenter in terms of buying new hardware, and for the customer it is much safer than a yearly prepayment.

  21. #21
    I would say increase your budget to $100-200 per month for less headache and long run businesses is a better option, However you will found some decent deals below than $100 if you able to pay upfront.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by gordonrp View Post
    Atom with ECC sounds much better

    Avoid prepaying several years with any host until you've tried them for a few months. You should haggle with your host until they give you the annual payment rate on a monthly or quarterly basis. From a server sales perspective a quarterly payment mitigates a LOT of the risk to the datacenter in terms of buying new hardware, and for the customer it is much safer than a yearly prepayment.
    the best I could get out of 1and1 yesterday on the atom A8i server was free setup and 2 free months, he told that was the best he could offer he said he could offer that deal on any server also....I insisted about lowering the monthly free in some way, and the person said he wasn't able to do that.

    advertised price A8i Server is $ 59.99 for the 1st 6 months then $79.99 with $49.00 setup fee, the same server with a 12 month contract for 64.99 a month for 12 month, then $79.99 with $49.00 setup fee.

    going to try to haggle him again today to see if he offer something better, but the only thing that I was going to suggest was a longer term contract, which you advise against...

    saw a post from a guy that got the a8i (atom) server for 60$ a month but with a 2 year contract + setup but he didn't mention in his post if they would raise the monthly to 79.99 after the 2 years....

  23. #23
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    just got the new server A8i server

    Memory array info in DMI says Single Bit ECC, but not sure if it means that the memory array is capable of ECC or if is Enabled.

    according to this post I should see some extra banks on the modules, that i don't see on my server:
    Data width = 64 (8 banks * 8 bits)

    Total width = 72 (9 banks * 8 bits)

    The extra bank indicates that ECC is active.
    Can you guys help me verify that I got ECC Ram installed?

    My Server Output

    Code:
    [root@u18254827 ~]# dmidecode -t memory
    # dmidecode 2.12
    SMBIOS 2.8 present.
    
    Handle 0x002B, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
    Physical Memory Array
            Location: System Board Or Motherboard
            Use: System Memory
            Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC
            Maximum Capacity: 64 GB
            Error Information Handle: Not Provided
            Number Of Devices: 4
    
    Handle 0x002C, DMI type 17, 34 bytes
    Memory Device
            Array Handle: 0x002B
            Error Information Handle: Not Provided
            Total Width: 64 bits
            Data Width: 64 bits
            Size: 4096 MB
            Form Factor: SODIMM
            Set: None
            Locator: DIMMA1
            Bank Locator: BANK 0
            Type: DDR3
            Type Detail: Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered)
            Speed: 1600 MHz
            Manufacturer: <BAD INDEX>
            Serial Number: <BAD INDEX>
            Asset Tag: <BAD INDEX>
            Part Number: <BAD INDEX>
            Rank: 1
            Configured Clock Speed: 1600 MHz
    
    Handle 0x002E, DMI type 17, 34 bytes
    Memory Device
            Array Handle: 0x002B
            Error Information Handle: Not Provided
            Total Width: Unknown
            Data Width: Unknown
            Size: No Module Installed
            Form Factor: SODIMM
            Set: None
            Locator: DIMMA2
            Bank Locator: BANK 0
            Type: DDR3
            Type Detail: Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered)
            Speed: Unknown
            Manufacturer: NO DIMM
            Serial Number: Unknown
            Asset Tag: Unknown
            Part Number: Unknown
            Rank: 2
            Configured Clock Speed: Unknown
    
    Handle 0x002F, DMI type 17, 34 bytes
    Memory Device
            Array Handle: 0x002B
            Error Information Handle: Not Provided
            Total Width: 64 bits
            Data Width: 64 bits
            Size: 4096 MB
            Form Factor: SODIMM
            Set: None
            Locator: DIMMB1
            Bank Locator: BANK 0
            Type: DDR3
            Type Detail: Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered)
            Speed: 1600 MHz
            Manufacturer: <BAD INDEX>
            Serial Number: <BAD INDEX>
            Asset Tag: <BAD INDEX>
            Part Number: <BAD INDEX>
            Rank: 1
            Configured Clock Speed: 1600 MHz
    
    Handle 0x0031, DMI type 17, 34 bytes
    Memory Device
            Array Handle: 0x002B
            Error Information Handle: Not Provided
            Total Width: Unknown
            Data Width: Unknown
            Size: No Module Installed
            Form Factor: SODIMM
            Set: None
            Locator: DIMMB2
            Bank Locator: BANK 0
            Type: DDR3
            Type Detail: Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered)
            Speed: Unknown
            Manufacturer: NO DIMM
            Serial Number: Unknown
            Asset Tag: Unknown
            Part Number: Unknown
            Rank: 2
            Configured Clock Speed: Unknown

  24. #24
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    It's very unlikely you'll suffer from having bad ram

  25. #25
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    Thanks to all for the suggestions, after all these suggestions I decided to play it safe and go for the cheapest ECC Server than 1&1 had available Intel Atom C2750 + Supermicro A1SAi-2750F, 8 GB Ram and 2 1 tb drives, it's going to cost me about 80$ a month after the 1st year and 65$ on the 1st year, wish me luck

    created a separate post for the ECC verification Issue. want to be 100% sure I got the ECC modules installed after all this research

    thanks again

    -Andres

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