Ins & outs of putting server in a datacentre?

Zenith74

Hey,

I'm just wondering if anybody here has any experience with putting a server into a datacentre in Dublin? I haven't done anything like this so was just wondering what is involved? Such as can we put our own server in and just get 2U of space? Do they provide UPSed power? VERY roughly what are costs like? The server would be downloading about 4-6Gb of data a day (overnight) and uploading making 500Mb. Just curious how these things work so any opinions appreciated. Any datacentres you'd recommend?

Thanks!

kenco

Zenith74

I have some experience of this. Key thing is the nature of the data you plan to hold/transmit on the server in question. If it is in anyway confidential then you are talking high costs as you will need a dedicated rack (possibly in a caged area).

The cheapest way of doing this is on a shared server (usually virtualised) where the company selling the service is giving you a server but without any security, availability, etc options.

There are a number of suppliers out there and they all vary in their offering (e.g. some will provide a UPS but not a generator). Others will expect you to provide the UPS.

Others things to be aware of are items such as access, if a disk fails can you get on site whenever you want to repair it? Can you send in a third party to repair it?

Costs are very variable and depends on how good of a negotiator you have and also how much the datacenter wants your business.

All in all it depends a great deal on the nature of the data

Zenith74

Thanks for the reply kenco!

The data is semi-sensitive but is encrypted so I'd have no problem with shared cabinet or even virtualised server. I guess some more info would be useful -

We're running an offsite backup service for some of our customers. I already have a server so if I can just put this in and that'll save cost then great, if not I guess I could sell it and go virtualised as the processing power needed is tiny, it's all about storage. However I prefer the idea of my own server, but am interested in opinions on this!
Data will be 750Gb initially but increasing over time, maybe 200Gb per annum.
As I say I'll need to upload about 6Gb per day to the server and download about 500Mb.

We're an IT support company so I'll go on-site to the datacentre (assuming they allow this?) myself to fix any issues, though the server has been running in our office for over a year now and I've yet to need physical access to it. Generator power wouldn't be necessary, basic UPSed would do fine. Uptime isn't really crucial as clients will retry connection if it fails.


Any ideas roughly on prices we're talking? I mean if we were looking at €2000 per month or something crazy like that I'd be better off renting an appartment and sticking in a DSL connection etc.. So just trying to guage what would be suitable, but I know nothing about datacentres or how it all works.


Thanks!

Anti

Hey,

I have used colocation hosting in the uk before, and found it amazing. It was in redbus in canary warf. I was allowed in to install my first server no problems at all. The second time i just dhl'd the other server and let the host install it. Unfourtanatly i have never used hosting in ireland, but the principle is the same.

The good news is there are a few companys out there that do this. Blackknight do coloaction and managed, and can do everything for you. You can have a look at their prices and info here:

http://www.blacknight.ie/colocation-ireland.0.html

Package Features

1U Rack Space for Server
500GB monthly transfer
Free DNS/Customer portal
€99/month €99 Setup!

Digiweb.ie also offer Colocation too:

http://hosting.digiweb.ie/hosting/colocation/

Hope some of that info helps ya.

Zenith74

Excellent thanks, just got a call straight back from Blacknight! Those prices are a lot better then I was expecting, looks liee the route to go down. 100mb/s connection, 500Gb transfer each way per month. €99 is cheaper then the ADSL Enhanced line we have now for it anyway!

muckwarrior

Check out serve centric as well. The company I used to work for used them for colocation and we found their support excellent.

Zenith74

Is it realistic to connect to the datacentre's SAN for storing this amount of data or will it be crazy money does anybody know?

Anti

Would probably cost a bit. IT might be better to get a few 750gb hdds, and stick them in raid, raid 5 i think it is. or it could be raid 3. Im not to sure. But its the redundant one.

Zenith74

We already have x4 300Gb hot swap SCSI drives in the server, but we can only go as far as 6 drives in this chassis, then we're on to bigger servers or a SAN...

server_girl

Also try hosting365.ie

Heard good things about them, excellent support service and good value.

mneylon

Any commercial data centre will offer some level of redundancy on both power and connectivity (or at least they should)

The connection speed you get will vary. Some will offer you a fully burstable connection, whereas others will have rate limited it to 10 megs or less (read the fine print - ask the questions)

(and yes I obviously have a vested interest )

Kali

Zenith74 wrote:

We already have x4 300Gb hot swap SCSI drives in the server, but we can only go as far as 6 drives in this chassis, then we're on to bigger servers or a SAN...

I'd reccomend simple SCSI-attached storage... annually you'll pay for another 2U & power. HP's MSA30 or Fujitsu's Primergy SX30 should do the trick for adding on a couple more TB.

No datacentre that I've heard of has a shared SAN for miscellaneous client use... logisitically it'd probably be a nightmare.

mneylon

Kali wrote:

No datacentre that I've heard of has a shared SAN for miscellaneous client use... logisitically it'd probably be a nightmare.

Actually a lot of them do.

They aren't cheap, but they are there

Kali

blacknight wrote:

Actually a lot of them do.

They aren't cheap, but they are there

I could just imagine clients ringing every third day "can I've a new LUN, here's my WWNs, I can't see it, can I've a new LUN, can I've a new LUN" ... would drive me mad