Colocation Requirements
These days, just about any computer in the market can be a server as long
as it has a network card and the necessary software. However, they need to
be prepared for the environment they will be at and must be ready for the work
they will do.
Because of this, we make the following recommendations so that you can take
your server and make it more robust and longer lasting. There are also certain requirements
that must be met in order to host your server with us.
These requirements are in place to ensure efficient management, security and uptime.
- Make sure your server's size fits within the size requirements described
in our colocation services page. You can send us rack mounted equipment,
as well as towers. Refer to our colocation price rates for more information.
Tips: rack mounted equipment usually takes up less space, however, there are
disadvantages to this:
- The heat: due to its small size, the lack of air flow might cause the server to crash
under heavy usage due to overheating.
- Higher upfront cost of buying/building a rack mounted server.
- Difficult to take apart and replace hardware, thus, it will take more
time to fix in the event of hardware failure, thus, costing more in
remote technical service.
- All types of power supplies are accepted, from 100 watts to over 500. If your
power supply is redundant and has two power cords, there will be an extra
monthly charge, as your server will take up two power connectors in the
remote reboot device. If you don't want such redundancy, then we will only connect one.
Requirement: your computer must be able to automatically power on after
power failure. You can configure this via the motherboard's BIOS setup.
Ask us if you need any help.
- Make sure the components you use to build your server are of high quality.
Some brands we use and recommend are:
Be aware that we are not related to these companies and we are not responsible for any damage
that arises from using their products.
- It is strongly suggested that you build your server with a RAID storage
device. With today's declining prices, IDE hard drives and IDE RAID
controllers are quite affordable. At least, put a 2 drive RAID card
in your server with two hard drives, configured in a RAID1 configuration.
In a RAID1 configuration, one hard drive is a mirror of the other. If
one fails, the other one takes over.
This will greatly reduce your downtime. Remember that a hard drive is
a mechanical device, and thus, it will fail sooner or later. A RAID system
is a small price to pay to prevent the downtime a failed hard drive
can cause, and to prevent the support costs involved when having us
replace a damaged hard drive and installing its operating system.
We use IDE RAID cards from 3ware and SCSI RAID cards from Tekram.
- Always include a boot disk for your server. Make sure the boot disk is
up-to-date at the time of shipping.
- If possible (and won't go against the software's license), send a copy of the
operating system you installed on the server.
- Write down the model numbers of all hardware you used to build your server, and make
sure you don't lose that list. It will be easier for you this way than paying us to open
the server and taking a look at its hardware.
- Put as many cooling devices in the server as possible. Install a few slot fans,
80mm fans, etc. The cooler your server runs, the longer it will last. You can find
them at your local computer stores, or online (we buy them from
MWave.com).
- We strongly suggest that you use a journaling file system in your server, such
as ext3 and ReiserFS for Linux. Installation procedures from distributions like
RedHat and Mandrake allow you to choose these file systems during setup.
Journaling file systems are faster than a standard file system (such as ext2
for Linux) and they boot up quickly (even after a crash), thus, reducing your
downtime. They also do not require manual maintenance after a crash.
- Your computer must have a 10/100mbit network card.
It can also be a 10/100/1000mbit network card, however, we will connect it to a 10/100mbit
port, unless you truly need more than 100mbits.
- If you are sending a rack mounted server, be sure that the rack brackets on the
sides have space for two screws each, not just one. This will insure that your server
will be safer when installed in a rack. It is not necessary to have two though.
|
|
|