Q1. Management

I've been hosted in both shared and reseller environments for 3 years now, but when it comes to Dedicated Servers, I'm a complete newbie. I have no idea what it takes to run a server or to administrate it. I see myself outgrowing my reseller in the near future, so I've decided to go dedicated.

I want to buy a server from SM, but I want to make sure that I won't have to manage ANYTHING on the server, at all. Basically what I want is to "own" my own server, but have it set up the same way my reseller is. I don't want to have to do anything to keep the server up and running. I just want my own box with root access (so I can create reseller accounts), a CPanel and Web Host Manager.

I know that there's 4 levels of managed services, I think the highest I could manage to pay for would be Platinum Level. Would this give me the management I need?

Q2. The Server

I also need help deciding which server to get. I've pretty much crossed out Windows servers, so I guess it's between Red Hat Linux and FreeBSD.

My server's going to be used for hosting purposes. I'll probably be hosting a lot of personal sites and a few message boards. They'll more than likely be high traffic.

What OS would you recommend and what server specs?

Q3. Uptime

The site says 99.9% SLA Guarantee, I'd just like to know, does that mean that if the server goes down more than .1% a month, that I get my money back? Or, how does that work?

Also, do you guys (SM) actually MONITOR the server? Because I've been to places where they say 99.9% uptime, but then they say that if the server goes down, you have to tell them that it's down or they won't handle it. I'm really hoping this is not the case with SM.

Q4. Bandwidth

How exactly does bandwidth usage relate to CPU resources and such? What exactly is overselling bandwidth? I've set up my reseller plans like this:



Are the higher plans overselling? And if they actually did reach those limits, would they be using too much of the CPU's resources? I want to give them a lot of bandwidth, but not so much that if they actually used it all I would have to kick them off.

Er, I hope that made sense, see what I mean about my newbieness?

Q5. Payment

Does SM accept paypal? I don't think I'll need to use it, because I do plan on using a credit card, but just in case I would need to in the future, it would be a nice option.

Also, if I was late on a payment, would you shut my server down? I don't plan on being late, but sometimes there's credit card problems with numbers and such that just can't be avoided, and I don't want to have my whole server shut down because of a typo or something.

Q6. Domains

What do you recommend would be the maximum number of domains I could SAFELY put on a server? I've seen places that put 200, but they have a lot of downtime. I was thinking around 75-100, would that be OK?

Q7. Applications and Scripts

This is a list of all the different specs offered at the other host I'm looking at, I'd just like to know how much of these you offer. Not that I necessarily need all this, but just in case I do, it'd be nice to have the option.

- The Latest Cpanel (and WHM for resellers)
- Fantastico
- CGI
- PHP
- Perl
- Python
- SSI
- JSP
- Cron
- FrontPage
- Curl
- GD
- Image Magick
- Web Mail
- E-mail Alias
- Auto Responders
- Mailing Lists
- Catch All
- Spam Assassin
- Mail Forward
- IMAP
- SMTP
- Hotlink Protection
- IP Deny Manager
- Search Engine Submittal
- Custom Error Pages
- Instant PHP Nuke
- Instant Chatroom
- Instant Forum
- Instant Guestbook
- Instant Counter
- Instant Formmail
- Redirect URL
- Web Based FTP
- Password Protected Directories
- phpMyAdmin
- Urchin 5.0
- Webalizer
- Raw Log Access
- Referer Log
- Error Log
- Analog
- Private SSL Support
- Interchange Shopping Cart
- Agora Shopping Cart
- Instant osCommerce

- Thanks, Arielle

You might need to hire someone to handle the administration and management for you. Technically speaking, the titanium management plan should handle of that for you. You would however still need to configure WHM and Cpanel to meet your requirements.



Probably Redhat Enterprise since there is some level of support from SM. With FreeBSD, you are on your own.

As far as server specs, it really depends. Something in the line of a P4 2.8 or greater would fit the bill. However, the best would be to get what you can afford.



The SLA is for network uptime and not server uptime. Basically if the network is down longer than 42 minutes a month, you would get a refund for a portion of monthly fees. Server which goes down would not be covered since it could be caused by software misconfiguration, AUP violation or bad scripts.



There is no real correlates between bandwidth and CPU resources. You can be hosting things like streaming media or downloads which would be heavy on the bandwidth end but would not affect CPU loads a lot.

However if there are websites such as forums which are active, it would be heavy on the CPU resources because of the scripts and db calls.

Since you are provided with 1200gb a month. If at the aggregate you are offering more than 1200gb a month, you would be considered overselling. They bill 50cents per gb above the free allocation so if you do exceed you need to pay for the charges.

Assuming all your plans are just the R6000 which gives 18gb/mth. You could have about 66 such customers on that machine. Anymore would be overselling.

However overselling is not bad but it requires you to monitor your clients usage and make the right calls. Most of the time your customers would not be pushing all the bandwidth they are provided so you might have excess bandwidth which you can oversell to maximize your profits but of course you need to monitor and provide for a buffer to ensure you are not broke after the month.



According to the FAQ, they do not accept Paypal. But if you have a Paypal debit card you can use it.



There is no way you can be late on payment because after the first payment which would be prorated, you be billed on the first of each month based on the credit card you provide so it means you do not need to do anything apart from ensuring that you have sufficient credits on your card to allow for the charge.

Of course, if the transaction is declined, they would inform you via email and you need to contact them to make the next charge after you resolve the issue. Usually anything remaining unpaid for 5 to 7 days would cause the server to be disconnected for non-payment.

There is no hard and fast answer to this because all your plans are different and thus have different requirements. What you need to do is to perpetually monitor the CPU load, Bandwidth usage and RAM usage. If you see anything close to breaching the limit and things start to slowdown then it would be time to get a new machine and place all your new customers there.

The key is to monitor, monitor and adjust and you would do fine.



Some are pretty basic Cpanel/WHM stuffs while others are add-ons. If you do not have something installed since you have root access, you can just install it yourself.

Being a newbie, you might want to hire some people who are familiar with the OS security, optimization and configuration elements. You will need to have a support team to be able to answer your clients' queries and to resolve their problems.

Remember that web hosting is not just about offering web space and that's it, it is about providing a web presence, a platform where they can reach out to the world at large. Some people would use it for business and their livelihood would depend on the uptime of the server, so you are in that position where you can make or break your clients livelihood. You can make the difference in determining if they have the holiday in the Bahamas or having to sell their homes and living on the streets begging for food. Remember that they would look up to you for their technical needs so you would need to be more knowledgeable than them.

As long as you know you are fully equipped with the technical expertises yourself or with someone else you hire, you be set. It is a full time 24/7 business as the net never sleeps.

Thanks for the quick reply.

[quote=eddy2099][quote=eddy2099][quote]The site says 99.9% SLA Guarantee, I'd just like to know, does that mean that if the server goes down more than .1% a month, that I get my money back? Or, how does that work? [/quote]

The SLA is for network uptime and not server uptime. Basically if the network is down longer than 42 minutes a month, you would get a refund for a portion of monthly fees. Server which goes down would not be covered since it could be caused by software misconfiguration, AUP violation or bad scripts.[/quote]

What exactly does that mean? Aside from network downtime, violations, and bad scripts, my server won't ever go down?

And if there was a bad script that made the server go down, would I have to pay extra to get the server back up?

- Thanks, Arielle

Eddie, I think it's 6 R6000s he could sell (180GB x 6) not 66.

OOps shucks.. you are right.. I saw too many zeros and I got lost..

The Titanium plan gives you 3 administrative hours which you could have them handle the optimization and troubleshooting of your server but the initial set up may require more than 3 hours to begin with depending on your needs.



When you first get your server, a basic installation of WHM would be installed but would not be ready for production. You will have to go through the entire list to set up DNS servers, determining the backup settings, setting up of hosting plans, components which are required for your plans and so on. Apart from that, you would need to upgrade and update the system files, install a firewall and all that.

WHM and Cpanel only handles account creation and maintenance but nothing more than that.



Of course, there are times due to faulty hardware which could bring the server down or your server being DoS or DDoS from within and from without or your server security is weak and someone penetrate into your machine through the vulnerability and abuse your machine. There are many reasons why your server can go down.

What I mean to say is that the SLA basically only covered unscheduled network failure beyond your control and usually affects the network equipment SM controls.



You could have someone look into the server and determine what might be causing it to fail and then work towards resolving it.

If a bad scripts brings the server down, no amount of money would bring it back up until the issue is resolved. Of course, SM tech can troubleshoot for you but that would eat into your administrative hours. It be best if you know about scripts so you could work with your clients to resolve it.

Thanks Eddie, you've given me much to think about.

If you go with the Gold level management or higher our tech support will be notified if something happens to a process that is being monitored. They would then follow your escalation procedures. If work needed to be done you could have them use the administrative time, that comes with the plan, to fix the issue. If you go with Silver only you will be the only one notified if a process that is being monitored has an issue. True you can use the admin hours that the management plans come with to have things done however you may still run into issues since you are not familier with the administrative side of things. You may want to consider hiring someone to help you or going with a Certified Reseller of ours. There is a list of Certified Resellers on the main page of this forum.

Yes, I've seen that list and I actually got TO SM through HostGator. They are the other company that I'm looking at. They provide management through VisionEx, would that be as good as hiring someone else to admin the server? Cause I don't want to hire anyone extra.