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Recommandations Starting a Hosting Company

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Ccucu

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Hi guys.

I came here first because I know there are a lot of smart guys here on WJunction and it's the right place to get this kind of help.

So, we have talked about the future of our company and the need to extend our services online and we decided to start a "real" hosting business. We currently have off-site servers but we want to build a facility here and start our own business.

We have the space, we have the racks, we have the Internet Connections, we need Servers and software.

So I want your opinion in what to buy.
Starting with the hardware.
We have some clients now and the existing ones can fit well on one dedicated server, like they do now.
We are thinking to buy 4-5 servers to start with.
One to use as shared to put our existing customers and some future ones.
One to set up for Resellers, one for VPS and one to keep for semi-dedi or dedi.
I don't think we'll get dedi clients at start and we can easily buy new hardware if we need (delivery from our suppliers 24-48 hrs max).

From your experience please tell me should I go with branded servers or should I build custom machines?
I talked with my supplier today and he suggested i should go for non-rackable server with a solid Motherboard, Intel i5 or i7 processor and a bunch of DDR3-1333 RAM.
What do you think?

And regarding software I was thinking of buying
5 x Cpanel 3-years licences ($4000 with the discount applied)
5 x Softaculos ($750)
1 x WHMCS: $324.95
2 x WHMSonic $300
3 x WHMreseller $300
With CentOS

Did I make my calculations right?
Please advise.

Thanks
 
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My Advice as a web hoster I would not to buy " i " core CPUs, I'd invest in XEONs with some sort of RAID setup. For the HDDs you should buy SAS 15K Drives for bigger shared nodes and VPS Nodes. Also remember to check the datacenter's ISP's etc.

Good Luck :)
 
Carbon said:
Are you going to start Offshore or Onshore hosting?
Click to expand...
Offshore.
Datacenter located in Romania

Domenic said:
My Advice as a web hoster I would not to buy " i " core CPUs, I'd invest in XEONs with some sort of RAID setup. For the HDDs you should buy SAS 15K Drives for bigger shared nodes and VPS Nodes. Also remember to check the datacenter's ISP's etc.

Good Luck :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice.
I'll look into prices for XEONs and HDDs.
As for the datacenter, it is located in our own facility and we already have the Internet connections set up.
We have 5 x 2 Gbps metropolitan Interconnections.
And for International link we have a 500 Mbps (Telia Sonera) and if we get international customers I'll get another one.

I think we are set up for starting regarding the Internet connections, what do you say?

And regarding the software, are my calculations correct above?
I know some basics but it's the first time I'm doing this and that's why I'm asking for help from more experienced people.

Thanks again
 
Where is your facility located exactly? Do you have enough power? Do you have UPS? How about your internal cooling systems, fire detection/prevention systems, security systems(camera monitoring, access cards)? Can you ensure a fully redundant network? You will need at least 2 uplinks, fully redundant Cisco routers and Juniper switches. You will also need to allocate IP space from RIPE, setup alone is 4k euros.

If you have money to invest(you probably have when you plan to build your own datacenter, or you have no idea how it works and what it takes). Let's assume first option is correct. You don't want crappy hardware such as Q6600, X3220 etc.

I believe E3-1230 has the same price as X3440 and uses less power, so it'd be a good choice. Drives are most important when it comes to VPS Nodes, you will surely want at least 4 SAS 15k RPM drives in h/w RAID10(with BBU). Adaptec and Areca are very nice h/w RAID controllers. SAS drives are expensive, though. Above hardware will cost around 3k euros.
 
Domenic said:
Romania isnt good for offshore hosting buddy :) , Try Germany , NL or Russia.
Click to expand...

p2p4ever said:
for offshore hosting i recommend russia or NL
Click to expand...
My facility is located in Romania, you are telling me to move :D

I don't really care for offshore / onshore policies regarding warez as this will be a legitimate business and I won't allow warez probably.

Krun!x said:
Where is your facility located exactly? Do you have enough power? Do you have UPS? How about your internal cooling systems, fire detection/prevention systems, security systems(camera monitoring, access cards)? Can you ensure a fully redundant network? You will need at least 2 uplinks, fully redundant Cisco routers and Juniper switches. You will also need to allocate IP space from RIPE, setup alone is 4k euros.

If you have money to invest(you probably have when you plan to build your own datacenter, or you have no idea how it works and what it takes). Let's assume first option is correct. You don't want crappy hardware such as Q6600, X3220 etc.

I believe E3-1230 has the same price as X3440 and uses less power, so it'd be a good choice. Drives are most important when it comes to VPS Nodes, you will surely want at least 4 SAS 15k RPM drives in h/w RAID10(with BBU). Adaptec and Areca are very nice h/w RAID controllers. SAS drives are expensive, though. Above hardware will cost around 3k euros.
Click to expand...
I'll try to answer all your questions in order.

Facility is located in Romania, it's a new construction (finalized in 2009, not used yet). Power isn't a problem, all circuits are new and we have a backup Diesel generator.
As for UPS we have Double-Conversion 2000 VA. We can upgrade to 3000 if needed. We have 3 already here and will buy 2 more if needed.
For cooling system we have a 30000 BTU AC.
For security we have a perimeter security system, video monitoring system (inside and outside), a smoke detection system, anti-efraction system. We don't have access cards.
For network we have requested 100% uptime and we pay extra for it. If it goes down the ISP will pay, so I guess it is fully redundant.
We have one Juniper switch but it's kinda old and we are thinking to buy new ones. We'll buy professional Routers.
I don't know about alocation from RIPE, we already have our IPs and a whois check on RIPE shows our company. We didn't pay anything, our ISP took care of the setup.

Money it's a factor, but we are receiving European funds for upgrading our business and I don't think the costs will be a problem.

Regarding hardware, I am looking at those processors and also looking at the HDDs and I don't think a branded solution will work. So a custom built server is the answer, problem is our suppliers don't have rackable empty cases for us to build our servers.

We are looking overall at a pretty high priced solution.
Software is very expensive also.
How do you reduce the costs?
 
Well, it looks ok from what you said. However, what happens if your router or switch fails? Here comes FULLY redundant network.

Your ISP allocated you PA or PI space. I thought you'd want RIPE LIR for total control over your IP range(s).

How do you reduce the costs? Easily, you just get racks, or private suite in the Netherlands or USA. Why? Datacenters are MUCH better, network is MUCH better, bandwidth is MUCH cheaper etc
 
Don't go with i5 and i7 for Servers - Xeons are being produced for a purpose.
The desktop Intel CPU's like i5 or i7 are not designed to work 24/7, they ussualy have a shorter lifespan and lower tolerance when working under full load due to that fact. Other important thing is RAID-10, or at least RAID-1.
Also remember about some backup servers, just in case to rsync to-from.
 
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