Dedicated server hosting? -- sanity checks

[Alvin Oga]

hi ya Michael

On Mon, 26 May 2003, Michael T. Halligan wrote:

> On Mon, 26 May 2003, Alvin Oga wrote:
> 
> = 	- i dont like other people playing with my servers
> 
> I know the feeling :)  I prefer clusters of redundant, well managed
> servers, and as much remote-hands as possible.. I'd rather bring
> a box off line and take a performance hit in a cluster, than have
> an unknown noc person touch my boxen.

yes... but suually, if something goes wrong, there's usually
a good reason for it ...
	- bad lilo installl
	- untested patches
	- flaky or bad hardware, ..
 
i "claim" colo boxes shouldnt need to be touched too often,
esp since its at some far away place ( 100s, 1000s of miles away
or even across the oceans )

> I'm envious with you on that. The only nice thing I remember
> about living in Santa Clara was cheap, reliable power bills. During

just an office w/  a good t1 ... simple stuff... w/ utilities included
:-)

> the power mismanag.. err 'energy crisis" I never lost power.. Now
> I live in an industrial section of town in sf, and pay something like
> $500 per month in power, and it's somewhat spotty :/

yep... am runnin scared... new place is NNN lease, so i pay for 
everything ... *yikes*
 	- thats why i need ot look into separate power meters for
	each colo box ...  or some kind of deal 
 
> Yeah.  The worst part about searching for colo/hosting is when
> you don't know what questions to ask.. I've worked for several
> hosting companies, and a ton of other "non-hosting" companies,
> so I know generally what I'm looking for.. But I find a lot of
> people who just go with whatever their pricerange is not knowing
> any better.

- questions, feedbacks, etc

- if the sales droid doesnt return phone calls... skip over that company
  and find one thats more customer friendly
	- if they respnd a week later ... that'd probably will a
	good indicator of their tech support too

- other sales droid questions
	- what price/perfomance and SLA ... am i signing for ...
	- what paper work do you need for me to move in
	- whan can i move in
	- what is the deposits ( if any they need )
	- what is the lease term and discounts for 1y, 2y, 3yr lease
	- what is my ip# range, mask, subnet, gateway
	- how do i get 1,2,4 full externally routable static class-C ip#
	- who is the main tech support email addy and ph#
		- can call um ... test them first ...
	-

- although 95 - 99% of all admin work can be done remotely...
  that last 5% or last 1% will kill your server for hours/days/weeks if
  you're not careful ...
	- how much $$$ did you just lose for the server being offline

	- why did it go offline and how was it preventable

- ask to talk to their tech support guy
	( pretend scenario ... we're looking at colo'ing with you,
	( here's our "interview test"

 	- my machine just crashed, it wont boot, the screen says
	"LI" .. what do you do ??

	- how many different ways can you boot a linux/freebsd box ??

	- once its back ... the machine has tons of "hd seek errors"
	what do you do ??

	- how do you know a fan died ?? or not running at full speed

	- remember, if the colo folks have to get involved, that machine
	is probably seriously hosed ...

- send um a tech support email ... see what their response time is
	- insert a floppy ...
	- insert a cdrom ..
	- swap ethernet cables for eth0 and eth1 ..
	- hit the silly reset switch

- are you the reseller of a colo facility or the "company" that owns/runs
  the facility ( most people are just resellers .. they'd add their
  charges on top of the fees they're paying )
	- some sales droids donno the answer.. not surprising

- fax me everything that i need to sign ...
	- 1/2 - 2/3 of the sales folks donno what to do..
	( email is NOT a god thing for legal documents ... too easy to
	( forge, changed, modify, excerpt to suit their needs

	=================================================
	=== get everything in writing only and signed ===
	=================================================

- give me ALL the forms i need to fill out to move in today...
	- what all do i need to do  and checks i need to send to "where"
	and to whom is it made out

- how many other people is on the same "ethernet cable"

- what happens to your network and my boxes when you're under a DDoS
  attack or some windoze/linux box got hacked ... 

- send um emails in the middle of the night..
	- see if a competent tech support replies or you get 
	a minimum wage reply .. "we'll get back to you later"

- endless ... fun stuff ...


- after all that... i decided  a t1 ... in my office .. still ..

c ya
alvin

-- just got bit by the sales droid issue over the last few weeks
-- just got bit by a cdrom install problem overseas ...
.. just stuff that gonna get ya.. sooner or later ..