0

I know maybe here isn't a good place to ask, but I'm about to start a little datacenter (hosting domains) and also hosting dedicated servers. [I don't know anything about server details] (and also i know it's not a good idea to start this thing when i don't have enough knowledge).

Here are a few things that I don't know about:

  1. How can I give each server an IP address and where comes this IP Addresses from?
  2. What things do I need? [I know I need a cooling system, UPS, some internet connections, racks, servers]
Lance Roberts
  • 401
  • 3
  • 12
  • 29
Shadow Walker
  • 9
  • 1
  • 11
    Wow. You're just a wee bit out of your depth in this venture if you're needing to ask questions like this. There are way too many nuances to these sort of things to be hashed out here. Hire a professional to do it right. – EEAA Aug 11 '11 at 14:15
  • 3
    @ErickA has it right. Get professional help. – Dave M Aug 11 '11 at 14:18
  • @ErikA lol, i know :D, actually i will do that, just want to make sure if i need these things, people says different things abt price and other things, few said you should now start this business if you have less than 1M$, others said it's possible to start even with 20K$, and they said it's depends on how large it will be, now :D who's right? :D – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:19
  • 3
    Whoever was telling you that you could start a DC with $20k is smoking crack, even if you're talking about a tiny datacenter. My guess is that the $20k figure is around two orders of magnitude smaller than you'd actually need. – EEAA Aug 11 '11 at 14:22
  • 1
    backroom hosting operation from a few servers, maybe. datacenter, no. – Sirex Aug 11 '11 at 14:26
  • 1
    Also, @Shadow, this market is incredibly competitive - there are a *lot* of players currently and it would be nearly impossible for you to compete with them on either a price level *or* functionality/reliability level. – EEAA Aug 11 '11 at 14:28
  • @Sirex, yeah i think backroom hosting is what i was trying to say :D – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:28
  • 15
    The amount of money required is less important than the fact that you don't know what you're doing. – mfinni Aug 11 '11 at 14:30
  • Is this in a professional capacity ? – Sirex Aug 11 '11 at 14:31
  • @mfinni - Very true. – EEAA Aug 11 '11 at 14:31
  • This is going to be another SF classic! :) – pfo Aug 11 '11 at 14:33
  • @Sirex no, if you call handling few online games with ~1million players and websites we have developed (~300x) for professional capacity then yes :) – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:36
  • @mfinni :D sure i know what i want to do with those servers :D i don't know what i need to bring them to work ^^ – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:37
  • 1
    @Shadow Walker - that $20k *might* just pay for the installation cost of the internet link you'll need, just the one, and only the installation cost - nothing else, no actual data, no servers - just a single dead cable in your hand. – Chopper3 Aug 11 '11 at 14:41
  • @Chopper3 cool, then we how often we should pay that price? o_O – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:42
  • You'll need two links from different providers, each entering your premises from different directions. Then you'll have to pay the actual data costs too. – Chopper3 Aug 11 '11 at 14:44
  • That's to install the internet link. Monthly bills are on top of that, and will likely run to several figures. – Sirex Aug 11 '11 at 14:44
  • @Chopper3 that's wonderful!!!! i think you guys just cancelled this plan with your scary comments :) – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:48
  • 1
    That's a good outcome, in all honesty :-) – Sirex Aug 11 '11 at 14:51
  • 2
    Actually I think you cancelled the plan with your the fact that you don't know the first step of an enormously costly and complex undertaking. I'd like to build myself my own private jet but I've only got a plastic propeller off a boat, some AA batteries and $2, but it's got to be just like a 747 right... – Chopper3 Aug 11 '11 at 14:52
  • @Chopper3 lol, come on dude, i wasn't that stupid was i? – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:56
  • 3
    @Shadow walker - naive rather than stupid; If you don't ask these questions then you won't find out the answers so we don't mind you asking. I work for a college whose server room needs are a bit more modest than most small "datacentres" worthy of the name and we still managed to spend several hundred thousand UK pounds. – Rob Moir Aug 11 '11 at 15:02
  • 1
    +1 @Robert. Sometimes, you just don't know how much you don't know. Colo space will be the name of the game for this guy's business for quite some time. – mfinni Aug 11 '11 at 15:52

2 Answers2

5

You really want to hire a consultant to work with you on this. If you do it wrong, your launch can sink your business after just a couple customers (and definitely after your first "incident"...any plans in place for backups? Link redundancy? Even security among your hosted sites and your management network?)

Best advice for you; get a consultant, and start brushing up on your skills or better yet hire people to work for you who can do this for you.

Bart Silverstrim
  • 31,172
  • 9
  • 67
  • 87
  • 1
    Thank you, i'm going to hire someone 100%, but i would be happy if you give me a hint about how much do i need to spend to get (10Servers) to work? – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:21
  • 2
    @shadow I think the word "datacenter" Is what's throwing people on this question. What exactly do you mean by it ? – Sirex Aug 11 '11 at 14:27
  • @Bart :D lol, yeah, backroom hosting may be better, look, we are a small group developing websites, online games, ... and we have something around ~17 dedicated website with many many visitors and large capacity of data (something around 4TB). currently we have few dedicated servers in a datacenter, we want to have a room or something to place few servers, so we can extend it later and also give host to our customers (which order websites..) – Shadow Walker Aug 11 '11 at 14:34
  • 3
    imho, the co-lo route is the one you should continue using, at least for the time being. You are likely getting the best bang for buck already. A professional datacenter provides a lot of things you don't notice until they aren't there. The types of things that are only noticeable when a gas / road construction man digging up your road slices your power line to the building and says it'll be 48 hours to repair it. – Sirex Aug 11 '11 at 14:38
4

Easiest way for you get estimate and probably stay away from data center business is to talk to a co-location/hosting provider. They would give you estimate how much they would charge for a single rack, bandwidth, power etc.. You can also get quotes for 10 servers from some vendors and get your numbers together from these estimates.

R D
  • 203
  • 1
  • 2
  • 7