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Virtual Server

MacTuxLinMacTuxLin Posts: 821
edited 2012-09-18 22:26 in General Discussion
I've moved my workplace back to my home 2 months ago & the server relocation was only completed just yesterday. The relocation by the ISP requires me to sign up another 24 months contract (bummer). The package comes with 16-fixed IP, of which, only 13 are available. After allocating my servers, I'm left with 7 extra fixed IPs. So, I'm thinking to offer virtual server with fixed IP at a reasonable rate, mainly to share the monthly burden. I'm not doing this for business as I'll be focusing on other things. That's why I'd rather lease to people in communities I'm familiar with. But I guess a minimal contract would be required so as no one will abuse it.

System wise, I have a AMD 6-core server with 8GB RAM so I can offer a single virtual box with 1-Core, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD & 1 fixed IP (24x7).

So, since this my first time doing this, any suggestion & advice will be appreciated.

Thanks.

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Comments

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2012-09-18 11:13
    A friend of mine did that once. The resulting headaches did not come close to being compensated by the money he saved. He ultimately moved everything over to FutureQuest. I'm not saying that you will suffer the same degree of migraines, but consider everything that being a webhost administrator entails. Up-time and reliability are paramount. Do you have backup power, RAID disks? Who takes over when you're not at home? Will you be providing clients your phone number for tech support? What if something goes wrong at 3 a.m. Will you be answering your calls at that hour?

    -Phil
  • MacTuxLinMacTuxLin Posts: 821
    edited 2012-09-18 15:18
    Thanks Phil.

    I've started setting up servers since 1991 & in 2002, I started hosting my own servers for my own business. I had 1 rack of servers in my office which were primary servers & 1 rack of servers at home acting as off-site stand-by. There's 3KVA UPS as power backup & employing RAID 5. On some occasions, I employed RAID 1 on my blade servers but it really depends on the actual requirement. All these years, I was actually providing such support but for internal requirements. However, I definitely agrees with you, providing such services to outside clients does require a higher service level types of agreement.

    As for this, my initial thought was to offer a Linux box (Ubuntu Server 12.04) with webmin, an open source gui server management tool with no control on amount of bandwidth and, frankly, the user can do anything with it. So, I wasn't thinking of providing any on-call service other than if there's a hardware-related failure. For that, there's a simple process to ensure the servers are up & running. I have a notebook that's constantly powered on & sends a post to a small virtual server that get's replied in less than a 1 second. If it did not receive such reply, it will send an email to my specific gmail account which will sound an alert on my smartphone.

    So, not sure if I'll ever get anyone to take up this offer but again, I'd rather support a familiar acquaintance than anyone along the street.

    Cheers
    Kenichi
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2012-09-18 18:40
    Aren't you worried about someone using your bandwidth lol? That speed test shows a local server. Try running your speed test here http://speakeasy.net/speedtest and select something in the USA.

    http://youtu.be/1u12iu98wko <- See the difference between Seattle and everywhere else? It is almost double the speed.
  • MacTuxLinMacTuxLin Posts: 821
    edited 2012-09-18 19:20
    xanadu wrote: »
    Aren't you worried about someone using your bandwidth lol? That speed test shows a local server. Try running your speed test here http://speakeasy.net/speedtest and select something in the USA.

    http://youtu.be/1u12iu98wko <- See the difference between Seattle and everywhere else? It is almost double the speed.


    Gzee ... mine's already on fibre which is the best there is over here :depressed: & its nothing close. I'd would guess that anyone who wants to host with me would want better connection in this region but thanks for the link. For the fun of it, I tried all the locations & to say its a "crawl" would be an understatement ...

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    546 x 468 - 91K
    Chicago.png
    538 x 460 - 87K
    Dallas.png
    540 x 459 - 58K
    Los Angeles.png
    540 x 466 - 87K
    New York.png
    542 x 456 - 80K
    San Francisco.png
    541 x 454 - 90K
    Seattle.png
    542 x 456 - 36K
    Washington.png
    546 x 463 - 83K
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2012-09-18 20:44
    Looks like you'd better advertise close to home. I ran into this problem starting an online backup in another country. Some of your speeds are way better than what I had seen. I miss all my server equipment here though. That must be cool to have that block of IPs too.
  • MacTuxLinMacTuxLin Posts: 821
    edited 2012-09-18 22:26
    xanadu wrote: »
    Looks like you'd better advertise close to home. I ran into this problem starting an online backup in another country. Some of your speeds are way better than what I had seen. I miss all my server equipment here though. That must be cool to have that block of IPs too.

    Thanks xanadu. You're right, I'm already spreading the words to my friends. Sometimes, when I need to de-stress, I'll just enter the server room (back when I had my office). The humming from the servers seems to comfort me & puts me back to my zen state of mind ... Now, I'm hearing it day in day out ... :tongue:
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