New with dedicated, had a few questions?

[nomi]

I am currently a reseller and was thinking about moving on to a dedicated server and needed some advice before. First thing is that i need reliable, cost-effective servers, so i am going with ServerMatrix.com, as i have nothing but good things about them. Now i decided that i would go with this:
Server Configuration

Server: Super Server 2.4 GHz - Setup: $299.00 - Monthly Fee: $79.00
Primary HDD: 2 x 40GB Hard Drives (Primary and Secondary)
Secondary HDD: None
RAM: 1024 MB RAM
Number of ips: 13 IP Addresses - Monthly Fee: $8.00
Bandwidth: 1200 GB Bandwidth
Uplink Port Speed: 100 Mbps Uplink - Monthly Fee: $10.00
Web Analytics: Urchin 100 profiles
Database: None
Backup Service: None
Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Version 3 (recommended)
Server Management Plan: Silver
Floodguard: None
Control Panel: CPanel/WHM with Fantastico - Monthly Fee: $20.00
Firewall: None
Hostname:
Monthly Charge: $117

Any one have any reccomendation on the server, then please tell me so. Now i had a few questions:
1. hardware Firewall: What is it for, and is it required?
2. Floodgaurd: What is it for and is it needed?
3. What additional responsibilites would i have compared to a reseller?
4. Which is better, Celeron or Pentium for this job?
5. it asks for Shared MS SQL Databses, i said no, does this mean that there will be no MySQL or Protogre SQL databases or will i have to install them later on my own?

Thnkyou for your time and expertise in advance.
If anyone else has any advice, comments, suggestion, they would be greatly appreciated.

Thnx Again.

[Cow]

Hello,

To answer a few of your question.

1.) A hardware firewall isn't in your server, rather its a piece of 'gateway' equipment that your provider sets up to filter out any traffic. Normally, bad packets, flood mitigation and so forth.

2.) Floodguard is basically their form of DDOS protection. It keeps your server from being bogged down in case of a Denial of Service attack.

3.) Providing your server is fully managed, your responsibilities are just keeping BASIC maintenance. If you need anything, your managed provider is supposed to supply this.

4.) A Celeron is OKAY as a server. The main thing you'll be looking at is your cache and FSB of which a Pentium has more of. A Celeron has 256K of cache while a Pentium has 512K. This is a BIG difference.

5.) That depends on your operating system. You can install MySQL on Windows easily and have it work fine. PostgreSQL, I'm not so sure about as I have no direct experience with it.

And .. no problem. Need anything else, feel free to ask :)

[nomi]

3.) Providing your server is fully managed, your responsibilities are just keeping BASIC maintenance. If you need anything, your managed provider is supposed to supply this.
Well they say:
Are your servers fully managed?
If you are referring to OS and security updates, the answer is yes. All ServerMatrix servers are fully managed. This includes network IDS, OS updates, security updates, monitoring, and more. See the full description here for details.

Taking this into context, would it mean....that my responsibilities would be no more than a reseller or are there other things?

And as for MySQL, what about installation of MySQL on Lunix Enterprise, version 3 as it says above?

[Cow]

Actually, I'm not being rude. But I was wondering, have you contacted this company with these questions? I don't mind helping, but everyone has their own ideas as to what fully managed means. What one company classifies fully managed may not be what another one does.

[nomi]

Yes ofcourse i have....just wanted to get a second opinion with someone that is not worried about their sales. An unbaised help is a 1000 times better than a biased one :D. I realize i might be getting a little annoying but i dont want to plunge my existing clients.

[Cow]

Well, I can't really give you an "unbiased" opinion for obvious reasons :D, however, I can answer any technical questions. What I would suggest though, is to find out worst case scenarios. I assume that with this company, if something goes wrong they'll fix it. However, I do encourage you to try to become as independent as possible such as installing minor things like perl modules, minor upgrades, etc. On the flip note, they should have no problem doing this for you. At least, I hope not ;)

[fwwebs]

The server that your refering to only comes with basic management and nothing more.
If you are referring to OS and security updates, the answer is yes. All ServerMatrix servers are fully managed. This includes network IDS, OS updates, security updates, monitoring, and more. See the full description here for details.
They won't install or fix scripts or programs. For example, you'll have to install your own firewall. Another example, if you get WHM/cPanel with your server, it's up to you to maintain, update, install perl modules and the like. While cPanel/WHM makes some of this easy, you will still need to work in the shell using Linux commands to upgrade some software and install RPM's.

ServerMatrix does have other support options for additional fee's and I'd suggest that you look into these or other management companies.

Bottom line is that there is a tremendous difference between being a reseller and a dedicated owner, unless you hire someone to admin the server.

I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but just the initial setup and securing the server takes some experience, so keep that in mind.

[Cow]

Well said, fwwebs. Well said! :)

[nomi]

Thnx guys, ive been talked out of it. I think i should consider VPS first and then move on to Dedicated. Looking at reyox.net for VPS right now....just trying to find somewhere on their page "fully managed." Any pointers would be appreciated on a fulyl managed VPS.

[PWS]

The package you described is obviously ServerMatrix and that's not "fully managed" in terms of what you are talking about. It's monitoring that the server is "up" doing restarts if needed, and OS upgrades/security patches. And that's about it, and Floodguard as far as I can tell is their way of charging you for protection from the "over bandwidth" charges that can come with a DDoS attack. Other companies simply "pull the plug" and shut the server down to keep from eating up your bandwidth until the source of the attack can be resolved...but if I bought a SM server I would get it.

I'd tell you about some super bargains my host has right now but they are in short supply and I'm hoping they don't run out of those FULLY managed (as in total support for OS, Apache, WHM/cPanel, etc.) P-4 packages before I get a few extra $ together...:cool:

[Steve]

Reyox is 100% fully managed :)

[nomi]

im going with reyox

[neotokyo2015]

What kind of firewall would I need for one of these single Windows ServerMatrix servers? Is ZoneAlarm Pro sufficient enough to protect a forum server, or do I need an "enterprise-class" firewall?

-nt

[Imago]

I can only second what Cow said in his/her first post

1. APF or Kiss is a handy substitute for a hardware $99 solution.
2. Floodgaurd is a must for plans offering unlimited mail accounts.
3. Resellers do not have root access, you will - hence your increased responsibilities.
4. Pentium is much better.
5. You don't have to ask for Shared MS SQL Databses.

And a practical advice: Do not go for the lowest price and the highest Setup Fee as there can be always situations and your server might be prematurely cancelled if you fail to solve some spam or fraud case, and you will lose the setup fee. Things happen - you might be on vacation when a notification reaches your box requiring to solve an issue in 24 hours. Usually, the TP abuse officers are willing to collaborate, but remember they have timetables too.

[neotokyo2015]

Any suggestions for free/cheap Windows firewalls for web servers? Both APF and Kiss are Linux only?

$99/mo is just way too expensive for a HW firewall for what I'm using it for.

Thanks,
~nt