Windows Server Question

[Caleb]

Me neither, unless I had the money burning a hole in my wallet for the pipelines, equipment, v10 backup generator, etc...

How cool would it be to have a datacenter in your house?

 

[waynehartwig]

search for some other posts by him, he thinks he can do a better job...

I never said that... I said that this way I will be responsible for it, not someone else. Other people apparently care less about me or my business and like to dick around. If you are going to do something, do it. If you did somethign and f'ed it up, admit it. Don't give me excuses. Etc.

 

[waynehartwig]

Oh. Wayne, the fact that you're asking about CAL's tells me otherwise.

I've written drivers included in the Linux kernel, managed more *nix and windows servers than I care to remember, and I still have someone else do my hosting. I'd highly recommend looking into it.

By the way, I like the new stickers on your J**p. Saw you out washing your rig yesterday.

I'm asking about the CAL's to make sure I understand it correctly before I buy Win 2003 Server and run into trouble later becuase I bought the wrong one, or whatever.

Thanks! The stickers were done wrong, and they need to come off and be replaced. The company that's doing them hasn't called yet to tell me they are done and come get them. I wasn't washing my junk though, I was cleaning another 8.8 that I'm doing and spraying off the mud in my driveway wile I had the pressure washer out.

 

[scoutabout]

I never said that... I said that this way I will be responsible for it, not someone else. Other people apparently care less about me or my business and like to dick around. If you are going to do something, do it. If you did somethign and f'ed it up, admit it. Don't give me excuses. Etc.

I can certainly respect and understand that position. There are a lot of fly-by-night, shady web hosts out there. Really, you get what you pay for. A $5/month plan is not the best option for an online business. Find someone reputable and pay for it.

I could go through a multitude of scenarios where your home business server will fail (unless you are putting in an enterprise class datacenter). I usually charge people a lot of money for my professional opinion. Here it is for free:

Find a reliable, reputable host with a good hosting agreement (backups, guaranteed uptime, 24x7 phone support). If they fail to meet expectations, then find another.

Go with one of the big boys. It costs more, but it's worth it.

 

[waynehartwig]

I can certainly respect and understand that position. There are a lot of fly-by-night, shady web hosts out there. Really, you get what you pay for. A $5/month plan is not the best option for an online business. Find someone reputable and pay for it.

I could go through a multitude of scenarios where your home business server will fail (unless you are putting in an enterprise class datacenter). I usually charge people a lot of money for my professional opinion. Here it is for free:

Find a reliable, reputable host with a good hosting agreement (backups, guaranteed uptime, 24x7 phone support). If they fail to meet expectations, then find another.

Go with one of the big boys. It costs more, but it's worth it.

Right now I'm with InfoRelay. One of the big dogs I think. My server is sitting next to much larger companies than mine. I'm not paying $5 a month for a shady webhost. Granted, I'm not paying $100 a month either. They do have a 99.7% uptime garuntee and no contracts. I can come and go as I please. When the site is up and functional, everything is great. When it goes down, everything goes to sh*t. I also have issues with blocked emails because of spam problems (I do *NOT* send out SPAM!). They spend the time to get them unblocked, and then it happens again down the road. I also know several people that have done just that, go somewhere else...And then somewhere else...And then somewhere else....Each time paying a setup fee. I'm not going to jump around like that and waste my money.

I already have a server with redundant power supplies, CPU's and memory with a 7x24 - 4 hour onsite agreement through Dell. I have battery backups that will keep the server and everything up in case of a power failure. I have a PIX that I can VPN in through and do anything I need to do - including reboot the machine. I already have a dedicted loop DSL line. Everything is in place and ready to go.

We've already gone over why I should and shouldn't do this at home. To do it again is a waste of time. This will happen and that's that. Then I have absolutely nobody else to blame but myself when something goes wrong.

 

[mbryson]

Right now I'm with InfoRelay. One of the big dogs I think. My server is sitting next to much larger companies than mine. I'm not paying $5 a month for a shady webhost. Granted, I'm not paying $100 a month either. They do have a 99.7% uptime garuntee and no contracts. I can come and go as I please. When the site is up and functional, everything is great. When it goes down, everything goes to sh*t. I also have issues with blocked emails because of spam problems (I do *NOT* send out SPAM!). They spend the time to get them unblocked, and then it happens again down the road. I also know several people that have done just that, go somewhere else...And then somewhere else...And then somewhere else....Each time paying a setup fee. I'm not going to jump around like that and waste my money.

We run our hosting and ISP through Xmission. They are local and somewhat small, but pretty d@mn impressive. We've had almost NO issues and only one they didn't tell us about before hand in the 18 months I've been at my current job.

..............We've already gone over why I should and shouldn't do this at home. To do it again is a waste of time. This will happen and that's that. Then I have absolutely nobody else to blame but myself when something goes wrong.

true

 

[scoutabout]

I'd say that's a pretty good setup for a home server. However, you won't be able to hard boot it remotely no matter what you have. I'd recommend leaving a key with a neighbor, just in case of such a rare emergency. I'm sure you're already thinking of backups, but I can't stress enough how important it is to get on a schedule and stick to it. I have a safe deposit box where I store offsite backups also. The bank might burn down and my house might burn down, but I'm pretty sure they won't both burn down on the same day. Usually people learn about the importance of backups after losing something (ask EZ and the U4WDA magazine that almost wasn't), so I thought I'd mention it even though you've probably already thought about it.

 

[scoutabout]

We run our hosting and ISP through Xmission. They are local and somewhat small, but pretty d@mn impressive. We've had almost NO issues and only one they didn't tell us about before hand in the 18 months I've been at my current job.

true

Xmission supports SUWA.

 

[mbryson]

Xmission supports SUWA.

Honestly, that's my only beef about them. Agreement was in place LONG before I got here and they've been EXCELLENT. It might help if someone was looking for a local ISP, that they gave Xmission a chance and then let them know that was a bad thing. If they hear that from more than me, that might actually make a difference (probably not, but it can't hurt)

I'd say that's a pretty good setup for a home server. However, you won't be able to hard boot it remotely no matter what you have. I'd recommend leaving a key with a neighbor, just in case of such a rare emergency. I'm sure you're already thinking of backups, but I can't stress enough how important it is to get on a schedule and stick to it. I have a safe deposit box where I store offsite backups also. The bank might burn down and my house might burn down, but I'm pretty sure they won't both burn down on the same day. Usually people learn about the importance of backups after losing something (ask EZ and the U4WDA magazine that almost wasn't), so I thought I'd mention it even though you've probably already thought about it.

BACKUPS are pretty d@mn critical. I make it a practice to try to restore from backup at least quarterly to check your tape integrity and your process. Make sure you have a rotating set of tapes and one set off site somewhere (I just take my latest home with me every Monday and bring back the last weeks)

 

[waynehartwig]

However, you won't be able to hard boot it remotely no matter what you have.

I beg to differ.

Between PIX and the remote desktop feature built into Windows Server 2003 I can do everything in a secure environment - even transfers.

The only thing I won't be able to do is reboot a failed router or some other network appliance. The PIX I can...

 

[waynehartwig]

...as for backups, I intend on having a mirror of my server off site. Just in case my server is ever unreachable, there will be another already online.

A friend of mine is going to host it and his, and I'll have the same for him if his ever goes down. His hardware and connection speed is slower and older than mine. However, a slow site is still better than a dead one!

 

[scoutabout]

Terminal services isn't going to work if the machine is hung. That's when you'll need the hard boot.

 

[waynehartwig]

Terminal services isn't going to work if the machine is hung. That's when you'll need the hard boot.

True....but 2003 is very stable nowadays. If this was NT I would be more worried....

 

[Brad J]

Terminal services isn't going to work if the machine is hung. That's when you'll need the hard boot.

I'm Web-Server stupid but isn't that the perk of having it at home? No leaving in the middle of the night to run to the server farm. During the day a lot of us have wives at home Never mind that could be scary asking my wife to do anything computer related

 

[scoutabout]

If you co-locate, there's usually a tech who can do manual tasks like hard booting or rotating tapes. If you're web hosting then you never worry about it. If you're running it from home, then you can do whatever you want to it.

 

[78mitsu]

It really boils down to a availability statement, how long can it be down before it costs you money. or keeps you from it, you can't tell until it is actually up. Depending on what you are doing a *nix server may be better (BSD is best) or windows may be better. I host a webserver from my house. I have simple battery backup for my fw/modem and the boxes, it stays up for the most part, isn't a big deal. You're going to run into some issues if you are trying to mirror a site, Verisign SSL certs are IP dependent, so you will have to buy 2 one for you and one for him or get him to pop for the cost. As far as COLO and hosting, hosting is cheaper, but if you already have a fat upstream pipe to your house use it until it doesn't work, and monitor the bandwidth,

 

[waynehartwig]

It really boils down to a availability statement, how long can it be down before it costs you money. or keeps you from it, you can't tell until it is actually up. Depending on what you are doing a *nix server may be better (BSD is best) or windows may be better. I host a webserver from my house. I have simple battery backup for my fw/modem and the boxes, it stays up for the most part, isn't a big deal. You're going to run into some issues if you are trying to mirror a site, Verisign SSL certs are IP dependent, so you will have to buy 2 one for you and one for him or get him to pop for the cost. As far as COLO and hosting, hosting is cheaper, but if you already have a fat upstream pipe to your house use it until it doesn't work, and monitor the bandwidth,

This is my theory..... Right now I'm b*tching about a host that says they are doing their job and performance is high. So if I host it myself, then it put's me in their shoes. Right now I think I can do it better than they can. I had the same opinion 1.5 years ago when AllJeep.com was born, and I proved that right. You can have low prices, make a living, treat people with respect and have fun doing it.

I've monitored my logs and bandwidth, and I think I can host my site with a 512k upload speed without any speed issues or even utilizing the full amount. I currently have 768k, with the option of making it 1.5 or even 3 down the road. I've had this connection for about a year now, and it's only been down once for a few seconds. Maybe as a new piece of equipment rotated in place because of a failed one? Who knows. It's basically a large LAN cable from my house to Covad's center in Denver. There is nothing else on the pipe, no ring tone, etc. Dedicated loop...

Anyway... Hopefully soon I'll have this up and won't have to deal anymore...