New Server
9 April 2005 @ 12:43
I have just ordered a new server for hosting my web site. The current server, Tarquin, is starting to feel the pressure of running a couple of quickly growing databases and quite a few active web sites that are also expanding rapidly. The plan is to slowly move everything from Tarquin to the new server, which has yet to be found a name. Please comment if you have suggestions!
The new machine is a Dell PowerEdge SC1425 with the following specs:
- 1 × 2.80GHz Intel Xeon Processor (1MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB)
- 1.5 GiB of RAM (DDR2 PC2-3200)
- 2 × 80GB Hard Disks (in a RAID-1 configuration: 80GB of storage)
- 1U form factor, for cheap colocation when I get round to that
As with all of my Linux machines, it will run Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (Sarge), which isn’t yet the stable branch, but is on its way to becoming that.
Once the server has had a good long period of testing at home, and once the web sites hosted on it outgrow the home broadband connection I have, the plan is to go into colocation, which means that the server will be kept at a company’s data centre on their much larger Internet connections. These days such a thing can be quite cheap, and one quote I got a few months back was £35/month for 10Mbps bandwidth. Very nice.
To help cover the costs, I might start selling hosting to people, which would help me pay for both the new server and for colocation, and would be a very interesting exercise. My intention is to offer hosting with a difference, i.e. you can do practically what you want with it, but you need to know what you are doing. The level of support will be minimal, and a “control panel” will not be provided except for things that can’t be done by oneself.
I may offer a few hosting “plans”, but I was also thinking about creating an à la carte system where people pick what parts they want and only pay for what they actually need. Many a time I’ve found a hosting company provided what I wanted, but only on a much more expensive plan that I couldn’t afford, and hopefully this would attract those in such a position.
What do people think? Any suggestions?
Sounds like a good idea to me, why make people chose from set plans? I would perhaps have a sample plan so that people had an idea of your pricing, details etc.
I would like to host a few people on my reseller account, it would help a little with the costs involved. I have a couple of people interested, will see if it goes anywhere!
What sites are you currently hosting? Is the sever new?