Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Colocation - who, where & how much?

[build-a-host]

Hello all,

I just bought 10 servers, and this is my first time owning my own equipment, so I'm not sure what's next really. I thought coming here with a couple of questions would be my best bet in getting started off on the right foot.

1. I bought a few Dell PowerEdge 2650's. I'm not sure if those are 1U, 2U, or wht they are classified as. Can someone please let me know about that?

2. I'm looking for a place to colocate these servers. Can you please give you recommendations on a good place to colo them that's inexpensive, and that will manage the servers if something goes wrong?

3. What price range should I be looking at for a good colo provider? I assume the colo market is the same as any shared hosting market with dramatic pricing differences.

For now, thats all I can think of. I'm sure I'll come up with more questions as time goes on though. So, thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me!

[net]

colo4.com maybe?

[Instavps]

Originally Posted by build-a-host

Hello all,

I just bought 10 servers, and this is my first time owning my own equipment, so I'm not sure what's next really. I thought coming here with a couple of questions would be my best bet in getting started off on the right foot.

1. I bought a few Dell PowerEdge 2650's. I'm not sure if those are 1U, 2U, or wht they are classified as. Can someone please let me know about that?

2. I'm looking for a place to colocate these servers. Can you please give you recommendations on a good place to colo them that's inexpensive, and that will manage the servers if something goes wrong?

3. What price range should I be looking at for a good colo provider? I assume the colo market is the same as any shared hosting market with dramatic pricing differences.

For now, thats all I can think of. I'm sure I'll come up with more questions as time goes on though. So, thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me!

1. I believe your servers are 2U.

2. What type of management are you looking for? Do you want the datacenter to be local or remote? If you choose a remote datacenter you will want to make sure they provide you all the tools you need to manage your server or provide seller management service.

3. How many total u's are you going to need? How many power plugs. (do you have 2 power supply s per server?) Are you going to want remote reboot, do you need IPkvm? Do your servers require another network drop for DRAC? How much power do you estimate your going to be using?

Take a look around for hosts, you have a wonderful resource here at WHT.

I hope my questions point you in the right direction.

[Instavps]

I forgot to ask!

1. Did the servers you ordered come with rails for a rack?
2. What do you intend to use your new collection of hardware for?

[AWalrus]

Originally Posted by build-a-host

3. What price range should I be looking at for a good colo provider?

You need to figure whether you can run your 10 servers (and whatever other equipment you will need in the rack like a switch or firewall) on 20As of power. Remember that even though the datacenter sells you a 20A circuit, you can only load it to 80% or 16As for safety. You don't want to burn down your datacenter!

You also need to know how much rack space you will need. If those 10 servers are 2U each, you might be able to squeeze into a half rack, but you will probably need a full rack.

Next, you need to figure your bandwidth needs as that can vary in price greatly.

Figure at least $750 for a full rack, 20A, and some bandwidth. Probably, $1000 for this rack is average these days.

If you need an extra 20As to your rack, figure at least $300 to $400 more.

I'd also consider whether you need 24/7 unescorted access, KVMs for the servers, remote hands (at a fee probably averaging $150/hour during business hours and $250/hour off hours), etc.

You probably don't want a shared cabinet but a private lockable cabinet and you will pay a little more for that (if you can get by with a half rack). Half racks cost more per U than full racks though.

[MikeTrike]

AWalrus pretty much nailed it on the head.

Those Dell PE's eat up the juice though. I have one and I pulled it, now it sits lonely on its side.

Full Cab if you plan to rack all of those, along with any other devices. They will pretty much take up the full depth of a cabinet also.

Not sure if you have a meter, I'll throw mine on my kill-a-watt meter tomorrow just because I'm curious again.

[ayksolutions]

Contact Ryan at WireSix.com. He can set you up.

[ObjectZone]

I use GoRACK in Jacksonville, FL for colo. Their people are really nice and very easy to work with. Prices are good and they even include a little remote hands support free with most plans so you don't have to go on-site for hardware swaps.

They aren't a managed provider though -- if you don't know how to manage your own operating systems, install patches, or maintain firewalls and whatnot then they may not be the right fit. You could always hire a secondary management company to help you with those sorts of needs though.

--Chris

[MikeTrike]

On another note, if you fancy the Colo4 facility. Check out CPC Technologies, all of our gear is located with them. It has been smooth sailing since last August, no regrets at least.

[skullbox]

I've got a few 2650s still in production. With all the drives loaded in those figure 2.5 amps each. You'll need at least 30 amps to cover that since most breakers will only hold up to 80%.

With a switch and a firewall you may consider going 40 amps. You didn't indicate where you are located, so that we may provide better insight on a data center.

If you're going to 10 servers I'm going to guess you will probably need at least 10 Mbps. If you are doing shared hosting, there are tons of smart people on here that would be able to help.

[WoodiE55]

Originally Posted by MikeTrike

On another note, if you fancy the Colo4 facility. Check out CPC Technologies, all of our gear is located with them. It has been smooth sailing since last August, no regrets at least.

I agree completely, I've been with James for the last 2-3 months and have been very pleased with the service.

[skullbox]

I've heard good things about CPC and GoRack.

[Hesser]

Originally Posted by build-a-host

Hello all,

I just bought 10 servers, and this is my first time owning my own equipment, so I'm not sure what's next really. I thought coming here with a couple of questions would be my best bet in getting started off on the right foot.

1. I bought a few Dell PowerEdge 2650's. I'm not sure if those are 1U, 2U, or wht they are classified as. Can someone please let me know about that?

2. I'm looking for a place to colocate these servers. Can you please give you recommendations on a good place to colo them that's inexpensive, and that will manage the servers if something goes wrong?

3. What price range should I be looking at for a good colo provider? I assume the colo market is the same as any shared hosting market with dramatic pricing differences.

For now, thats all I can think of. I'm sure I'll come up with more questions as time goes on though. So, thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me!

What part of the country are you looking to colo in? Are you looking for a full cabinet or half?

[MikeTrike]

Just threw a 2650 on a kill-a-watt meter.

1.5-1.6A during power up and boot.
Has 2 x 2.8GHz xeons, 4GB RAM and 3 x 10K SCSI's

You "might" be able to sneak by on a 20A@110V circuit, but that would be riding the line at about 16A. That does not count anything else, KVM/Switch/etc...

Definitely a 30A@110V circuit for sure if you want to run all 10 of them.

Alternatively 20A@110V with just 9 of them and you have a couple U left over on a half cabinet without pushing more than 16A@110V on your 20A circuit, including your switch/kvm/etc.

This is of course assuming that you're not using 5 x 10K SCSI's and something like 3.8GHz Xeons, etc... i.e. not maxxed out.

Play around with the #'s and see what works for your situation. They are generally unique to each individual/business.

[build-a-host]

Thanks for all the great info guys, helps a lot!

On a side not, please note that I am NOT looking for quotes, so please do not PM me or open tickets in my help desk trying to sell me colo services like Dinix from dinixhost.com and Brett from constellate.com have done. Dinix sent me PM's, and constellate.com actually opened a ticket in my help desk!

These 2 people have proven themselves to be very hard up for business. I do not want to go with ANY company that chases me down to try and sell to me. If you need my business that bad, you can't be reliable!