The perils of colocated servers?

[Aristotle]

Okay, I'm trying to make a decision and I thought I would come to the experts... or at least I hope some of the experts see this and can offer some insight.

I have a small site hosted by a hosting company, but the host isn't willing to run the versions of PHP and MySQL that I need for certain scripts. I understand that. It's a shared hosting solution, so other people have to be considered.

My work hosts servers for various organizations and I was basically offered to slide a machine in the racks there. They'd set me up with a connection/IP, and I wouldn't really need to worry about paying so long as I work there (so long as my server wasn't taking up absurd amounts of resources I would imagine). Of course I would have to take care of all of the administration of the server itself.

I'm not so oblivious as to think these things run themselves. I worked in the NOC at cable&wireless for a year, so I know it can get bad. But I don't know how much responsability/hassle it is from the owner's side of things. And I don't have any experience dealing with remote server administration.

Of course the free colocation/bandwidth seems too good to pass up in comparison to regular hosting fees, but I'm worried I'll be getting in over my head.

 

[Rackhir]

Of course the free colocation/bandwidth seems too good to pass up in comparison to regular hosting fees, but I'm worried I'll be getting in over my head.

It sounds like a lot of this is going to come down to how complicated your web site is and how often it breaks.

We host our own web site at my company and it is fairly static, but we also run web based surveys off of it. My experience is that most of your trouble will be front loaded. Ie getting things up and running. Once that is taken care of, I don't see why it would be any more complicated than having it hosted at your old service provider. What exactly do they do for you there?

The final question would be for me, how important is it that this website stay up and never go down. If the answer is that it's mandatory (ala ebay, amazon, google) then pay a professional to take care of it. If it's for your own uses and purposes, then don't worry about it. Just slide in that server.

 

[IronWolf]

With a colo server you will be responsible for all of the initial setup and install of the applications you want. As long as getting the version of mysql and PHP you want installed doesn't seem too daunting you may be okay.

Other things to consider is you will be responsible for the security of the box. If a new hole is found in mysql you will have to do the update, the hosting facility won't do it. Same for all other patches and updates needed on the machine. If keeping up with patches and updates seems to be too much then it may be worth to stick with a hosting provider that will take care of that for you.

When things break its probably going to be up to you to fix it short of IP connectivity issues. Anything else will probably fall upon your shoulders to take care of.

As for remote management, SSH is all you need assuming you are running a *nix box of some sorts. I have a colo server and SSH is all I need to do whatever I want on that box.

 

[Aristotle]

Thanks for the replies!

I've slept on it, and I've come up with a few reasons not to do it. Keeping up with patches/fixes is a good addition to the list. I've also priced colocation with other services and found that should I ever leave this job I wouldn't likely be able to afford setting the box up elsewhere.

It is a good deal, and the idea of free rack space is really appealing! But I'm thinking what I need instead is just a good shared hosting sollution with professional management and prices I can manage. I'm currently with html.com and I've had great uptime. They've been a great provider all around. It's just the PHP version 4.0.6 thing that's killing me. I gotta have a newer version.

I do happen to have a celeron and microATX motherboard on hand (they were going to be used to turn an old Nintendo box into a Nintendo Emulator). I may throw together a cheap box and put it in that rack space as a sandbox where I can familiarize myself more with remote administration and such. It would probably be a neat way to teach myself, and maybe prepare for a time when I do have the means to go colo.

Thanks again!

 

[IronWolf]

I've slept on it, and I've come up with a few reasons not to do it. Keeping up with patches/fixes is a good addition to the list. I've also priced colocation with other services and found that should I ever leave this job I wouldn't likely be able to afford setting the box up elsewhere.

Virtual Server hosting may be an option down the road should you change jobs. They are large servers that run numerous virtual machines on the same box. You get full root access and can add and install anything you need within your virtual machine. I used one from http://www.tektonic.net/ and had good luck with them. $15 a month got me a decent amount of disk space and bandwidth. My server was never down in the 1 year plus that I used them and aside from the occasional slowdown they were great.

In either case it sounds like you have the right idea. Take advantage of the free hosting now and you can use it as your virtual sandbox. Have fun!

 

[drose25]

Are your php and mysql requirements that unusual? Most hosts are fairly flexible and can accommodate most requirements. I run a small hosting company and we make customizations frequently for clients running particular scripts or with particular needs. Unless you need something way out in left field it shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps you current host is too big to be interested in accommodating clients.

As the previous poster suggested, consider a virtual private server which will allow you to customize many more things, or shop your php and mysql requirements around to other hosts. A good place to start is www.webhostingtalk.com.