How Hard is it to Manage a Dedicated Server?

[kjmz]

Hi,

I've been thinking of getting a dedicated server for a while now and I was wondering, how hard is it to manage one? I've always been too scared to waste my money on something that I can't use.

Can someone with some experience inform me. I know how to do a bit of troubleshooting and I've had a VPS before.

Thanks!

 

[SpareDomains]

you are halfway there if you could manage a vps well, there are some things you will need to learn yet, I would suggest either getting a manged server to start with until you learn how to run and tweak the settings, then once you have a good grasp of things you could go unmanaged, you can find a lot of information in google as far as settings or questions involving a dedicated, if using it for hosting other peoples sites go managed until you learn, if just hosting your own sites and a few minutes of trial and error downtime doesnt bother you then you could take a chance and try to see how you do, I would definitely browse some forums involving web hosting in general and check out any subforums regarding dedicated servers and read common questions asked and solutions to decide if it scares you off or if you think you can manage? if you can't afford a managed server you could always buy the cheapest unmanaged server you can find to learn on but I would still recommend you read up before doing that, practice makes perfect but it is more complex than vps, good luck whichever way you go.

 

[weblord]

Hi,

I've been thinking of getting a dedicated server for a while now and I was wondering, how hard is it to manage one? I've always been too scared to waste my money on something that I can't use.

Can someone with some experience inform me. I know how to do a bit of troubleshooting and I've had a VPS before.

Thanks!

the only thing you need to add to your knowledge is knowing ssh and studying about them and various ssh commands, if you have used cpanel, then mostly of the server tasks like adding accounts is done inside cpanel, plus a little bit of php, mysql knowledge can also be very helpful. :imho:

 

[SpareDomains]

if you do go the managed route you can find a company that will do all security updates to server and help assist you with any problems you can't figure out on your own, keep in mind "managed" means different things to different companies so be sure to read the small print and any extra charges thrown in for support, some will assist and some charge per hour, another good thing to grab is remote reboot meaning you can restart the server on your own instead of waiting on the manager to reboot for you, good to have if learning on it as you may take it down. :hehe:

 

[jmweb]

Depends on what you think about downtime....

In my point of view 30 seconds of downtime is 30 seconds too long. Therefore if I was in your shoes I'd make sure I knew a lot of managing a server and was accessable to do so 24x7.

If you think an hour or 2 of downtime isn't a big deal then you'll probably be able to manage the server on your own. Might take ya a while to figoure out the problem but least you'll get it.

I always suggest hiring a server admin if your not sure what your doing.

John

 

[{insert name here}]

Just to give you a good place to get your first managed server from, they have very good managed servers for people such as yourself that want to learn, and at good prices:
layerdtech.com.
And no I am not assoctiated with them They are just a good company.

 

[kjmz]

Just to give you a good place to get your first managed server from, they have very good managed servers for people such as yourself that want to learn, and at good prices:
layerdtech.com.
And no I am not assoctiated with them They are just a good company.

Doesn't it say in their plans:

"100% Self Managed and Dedicated"

 

[{insert name here}]

Doesn't it say in their plans:

"100% Self Managed and Dedicated"

Sorry, my bad, they changed in the last 4 months, they used to be 100% managed, sorry!
In that case, a great one, but a little on the pricy side, is liquidweb.com

 

[Luc]

get a Plesk Linux box, or if you want a familiar interface Plesk Windows. Linux/Windows is the operating system. Plesk/Cpanel are control panels used to manage your domains.

With Plesk+Linux it's super simple. Add/remove domains, create e-mail accounts, manage hundreds of account & users or just a single user with a few clicks.

I recommend EV1 servers. They're one of the biggest in the world and you can get a celeron server with 1 Terabyte of bandwidth for $99/month. No contracts, no BS. Try it for a month and see if you like it.

If you want want 100% managed servers go with NationalNet, but they are about 10x more, though they do EVERYTHING for you.