Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Dedicated Server Newbie

[tahi]

Hi everyone,
I run a website which is currently serving about 130,000 page views / day and about 50GB of bw / month.
I have been suspended by my current host and have been told I need a dedicated server.
My question is:

how difficult is it to set up a single website on a dedicated server? Will I need to pay an expert to do it? I have very little knowledge about how servers are set up, but I have a decent knowledge of computers (Degree in Information Science)

Are there any companies that offer hosting solutions that are easier than others to setup, or are they all pretty much the same?

Thanks very much for any help. I hope I have given enough information for someone to be able to help me. If I've left anything out it's because I don't know anything about dedicated hosting.

Regards,
Dan

[tahi]

I've found a host that states it is "fully managed"
http://nocster.com/servers.shtml

Does this mean it will be easier to setup my website on one of their servers?

[DCM]

Dedicated typically means they manage the server OS for patches and upgrades as needed for security and stability. Some managed plans do include some other limited support for things beyond that but I don't really see people offering to help you set up your website and such as part of a managed server.

If you need more help, you can advertise for help in the requests forums or find people advertising to help you out for small dollars.

From the amout of traffic and bandwidth you are using, I cannot see why you need a dedicated server unless it is very CPU/memory intensive from calling php scripts on every page load or something.

Can you post a link to the webiste?

[tahi]

Thanks very much DCM.

The site is straight html with no php or scripts other than formmail. As my site is suspended there's probably no use posting the URL. I can't understand why I've been suspended from my previous 2 hosts due to the load on their servers.

Here's the message I received from the host that suspended my website today:

"We started receiving many complaints sites were taking 20 seconds to load on the box. We checked it out the server was beyond lagging. We looked in the logs your site was the number 1
user hitting over 30% of the servers memory"

It seems strange to me that I wasn't exceeding the bandwidth, but my html pages caused my site to be suspended for overloading the servers. It seems to me that they aren't set up to handle what they offer.

I guess what I really wanted to ask was about setting up the server. When it is setup bu the hosting company will I simply be able to login to a control panel like webhost manager and create a new account for my domain name, or is there more to it than that?

Thanks for your time,
Dan

[AmericanD]

Hey Dan,

Dedicated servers do come with control panel but i would not say they are ready. It is best to have someone with good experience find out if the server is secure with the newest security patches n stuff.

i could recommend you www.theplanet.com and they do offer managed dedicated servers and their servermatrix offers some good deals but semi managed.

what was your website about?

[IceCell]

Dan

I think your best bet would be to find a new host that CAN meet your needs... I suggest you post what your looking for in the Requests forum and see what everyone can offer you..

I don't think your 50GB /month bandwidth should be an issue and you should be able to find shared/reseller hosting at that level..

hope it works out for you.

[jason120au]

Even a reseller package with loads of bandwidth would be good for you.

[Jackula]

Originally posted by tahi
I've found a host that states it is "fully managed"
http://nocster.com/servers.shtml

Does this mean it will be easier to setup my website on one of their servers?

Yeah, until you have a problem they can't fix, which happened to me, have a ticket that's 7 days unanswered, asked a guy on AIM, he kindly 'solved' my problem, logged off, I check my server, still the same problem. Asked another AIM guy to fix it, he 'fixed' it, logged off, I checked again, and it's still not fixed