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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    346

    Question What sort of problems commonly occur with a Dedicated server

    Hi,

    We have been looking for over 8 months now for a dedicated server but are caught up between Managed and unmanaged servers.

    We have held a reselling account for about 18 months and have obviously not had to deal with any major hardware/software faults. Bearing this in mind we don't fell 100% confident about buying an unmanged server. On the other hand the price difference is off putting.

    What sort of problems commonly occur with a dedicated server and how hard are they to fix?.

    Any help is gratefully received.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    New York City
    Posts
    330
    Anything and everything. And always at the ****ty times like 3am on friday night when your so wasted you try and get online to fix it using your tv remote as a keyboard.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Kelowna B.C.
    Posts
    1,686
    Originally posted by zerphyte
    Anything and everything. And always at the ****ty times like 3am on friday night when your so wasted you try and get online to fix it using your tv remote as a keyboard.
    Many sleepless nights....You never know what will break. Its always something different everytime.
    Hosting.Express | Affordable Web and Email Hosting
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    346
    Hi,

    Thanks for your comments. Once these problems occur how do you rectify them, If there is a Hardware fault I can't see how you as the client is expected to fix it from possibly 500 Miles away++. Are hardware faults fixed by the company you buy from?.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    New York City
    Posts
    330
    Totally depends upon where you go. The more upscale worthwhile hosts (non sub 250+) offer a pretty speedy hardware replacement policy. Most of the cheaper hosts offer you prompt excuses and may or may not replace it after a little while.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2001
    Posts
    520
    Learning to run a web server IS doable however it needs some effort, time and nerves. You should not intend to go into production with your new unmanaged servers immediately but plan a learning by doing phase of at least a couple days or a few weeks after you got the server. The good thing is everything you need is available on the net. It might be a good idea to get a below $100 server and really plan to just play around with it for a whole month.


    You'll first need to install a ssh client such as SecureCRT on your desktop to connect to the server (unless you want to use the less secure telnet which works with a standard browser)

    After you logged in I'd recommend that you install webmin (webmin.com) and work from there

  7. #7
    Id recommend you get a cpanel server, itll make things a lot easier for you as a beginner.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    online - s'where between home & datacenter
    Posts
    163
    one thing good about CPanel is u get going very easily...
    bad thing... u never learn

    my learning started with Ensim3.1 on other servers

  9. #9
    The worst thing, which was already touched on.. is waking up by a page telling you such and such services have failed.. or that your CPU load is 6.85..

    Not to mention what happened to me on friday night, I'm within 15 minutes of heading out for a relaxing night with the old lady at the pub, and suddenly I recieve about 10 AIM messages and my pager goes off alerting me of various problems. Tried to reboot the server in cPanel.. it failed, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it since I don't have physical access to the server.

    So.. I just put in a urgent support ticket, and went to the pub and had lots of

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Posts
    287
    CPU load only 6.85 <G>

    I think the max I ever made it too was 385 and at that it took over an hour to even log into the box locally with the keyboard

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    United kingdom
    Posts
    1,003
    It's not realistic to list every problem that could occur with a dedicated server... as mentioned by another member, anything and everything could happen. You've just got to make sure that there is someone available to fix a problem when it arises. Sometimes you'll be lucky and a server can run continously for 100's of days without a problem , but then you get some servers that have several problems each week .

    Alan
    Alan Ho
    Former Systems Administrator

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    346

    Thanks everyone

    Hi,

    Thanks everyone for all your replies. I totally understand that it is impossible to list all problems that occur.

    When we do finally purchase a server it will deffinatley be with cPanel. How much easier is it to run a server well with cpanel rather than without?.

    Thanks

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Europe
    Posts
    122
    You`re all praising the CPanel. What about Ensim Webpliance? I was going to get dedicated server at Rackshack, running Ensim. Is CPanel that much better for "dedicated server newbies", or is Ensim good as well? It would be also my first one, so I would like to make sure that occur as little probles as possible.
    For Sale: MainHosting.com | StableHosting.com | CuteHosting.com - PM if interested.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    United kingdom
    Posts
    1,003
    Originally posted by rackyou
    You`re all praising the CPanel. What about Ensim Webpliance? I was going to get dedicated server at Rackshack, running Ensim. Is CPanel that much better for "dedicated server newbies", or is Ensim good as well? It would be also my first one, so I would like to make sure that occur as little probles as possible.
    I would say that CPanel is far better than Ensim WEBppliance in terms of the ease-of-use and also the features contained within the control panel. Ensim is still a good control panel, but I think that it can be easier to use if it had more features for the site administrator.

    Alan
    Alan Ho
    Former Systems Administrator

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    North Kansas City, MO
    Posts
    2,694
    Originally posted by zerphyte
    Anything and everything. And always at the ****ty times like 3am on friday night when your so wasted you try and get online to fix it using your tv remote as a keyboard.
    Hey! I that happed to me once. Actually I had a server go down hard and was to drunk to drive. I had to have my wife drive me down to the datacenter and make sure I got in to fix it.

    Aaron
    Aaron Wendel
    Wholesale Internet, Inc. - http://www.wholesaleinternet.net
    Kansas City Internet eXchange - http://www.kcix.net

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Posts
    677
    The server may burst into flames and destroy all your data j/k but this semi-serious statement means anything can happen and may or would happen.

    ps. Aaron.. you sure you didn't go to the wrong rack by mistake?

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    1,239
    Originally posted by silversurfer
    The server may burst into flames and destroy all your data j/k but this semi-serious statement means anything can happen and may or would happen.

    ps. Aaron.. you sure you didn't go to the wrong rack by mistake?

    I had that happen to me in September. The CPU fried and there was a lot of smoke in the case. Apparently, the heatsink came OFF the board during shipment. Well, I've got a nice insurance claim with the shipping company because of it.
    TradeViceroy

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    1,239
    They also dented the case and broke a few other things. This server was DOUBLE boxed with a lot of packing material.
    TradeViceroy

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Posts
    677
    which courier company is that? so that when I got a box I want to junk....

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