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A lot of questions regarding LeaseWeb and RAID10.
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A lot of questions regarding LeaseWeb and RAID10.

Hello,

I recently have 2 servers (VPS) from LeaseWeb and I was really satisfied. The first one was located in US and the other one in SG. I use the US server as my personal VPN server and the other one to host some of my websites. I took advantage of the Server Pack "S" which mainly costs around $4.99 and SGD 5-6. They were both fast!

After a few weeks, I received an email from the sales department of LeaseWeb informing me that they are going to be having a sale between Nov. 27-Nov. 30, 2015 25% off selected items except the ones that are in red. Which means, those that are already on sale will not be "discounted" again.

I checked out the VPS pricing of the Server Pack "M" if they are cheaper. I figured 25% off will somewhat help out to lower down the regular $9 and SGD 15 per month pricing. However, their contract now states a minimum of 6 months instead of the usual 1 month. So, I find it expensive.

I decided that I wanted something that is completely secluded from other customers. That is why I decided to get myself a dedicated server. I got 2 of them. The first one is located in the US, I'll be installing CentOS WebPanel and OpenVPN (using Nyr's script). Although, the original plan was to do something like what I had with OVH. Install Proxmox, create KVMs with their own IPs. However, that would be more expensive in LeaseWeb plus they don't have a built-in Proxmox installer. I would also be charged for the IPs every month. Which means, I'll be needing 3 IPs. The IP address of Proxmox, IP address for my CentOS WebPanel installation and finally the IP address for the VPN service.

Finally, I just got a single IP, installed CentOS WebPanel and OpenVPN (Nyr's script). Everything worked as planned. The problem is, I have 4x1TB of drives for the dedicated server. And I think I was just using 1 TB of it. Oh wait, there's no RAID10 activated. It seemed that what I have is a RAID10 (software). I have no idea how to configure it. Their customer portal (control panel) does not have the option to activate it there. According to their support team, I would need to get a KVM card thing which is 10 dollars per month. I hope it can be cheaper, though. Do you think it is worth it? I have also confirmed that I can install any operating system and I can configure RAID10 through a GUI. But I don't know how to access and use the KVM card thing. I have both OS X and Windows. I don't know how can I access KVM.

For my second server, almost the same configuration and same thing, but it is located in NL. RAID10 was not activated too. I will be using it as a seedbox and planning to use Kerwood's script. As usual, Debian can only detect the 1 TB hard drive.

The temporary solution is just to talk to their support team, request reinstallation of the operating system, tell them the type of RAID that you want as well as the partition layout. That is so much of a hassle for me and for them since I would need to wait for everything to be finish. I prefer to do things on my own so that I'll have full control of everything.

So, what to do? Should I grab KVM cards for both servers?

Here are the specs:

HP ProLiant DL120
1x Intel Dual-Core G6950
4x1TB SATA2
4GB DDR3

By the way, I was supposed to get the original set of servers that I ordered by next week. But I told them that I was really excited to have dedicated servers, etc. They got me those that are in stock. They said they upgraded my server at no extra cost.

What do you guys think?

Thanks.

Comments

  • ru_tldru_tld Member, Host Rep

    LeaseWeb want to bring price up for their virtual servers after black friday promo will end. Also monthly contracts may return. So I don't think that price for your Small pack is bad thing.

    Regarding KVM and software raid configuration. You really don't need KVM to configure RAID10 on your Linux box, but you'll require to reinstall OS.
    With some bootloader (grub) magic you can reboot your server directly into network installer and connect to it via VNC (CentOS) or SSH (Debian) and continue installation as regular OS install.

    some manuals:

    CentOS - http://www.houseoflinux.com/installation/how-to-remote-install-centos-6-via-vnc/

    Debian based - https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Remote

    Follow the instructions and you'll surely succeed with OS RAID10 reinstall.

    Also you can use their PXE API to initiate OS reinstallation by yourself.

    In case you find this complicated just contact LeaseWeb's tech guys. I think they might reinstall your server with software raid option for free.

    I really don't know why LeaseWeb is not using premade kickstart/preseed configs for linux RAID installation via their automated installation service.

    We as LeaseWeb reseller configure Linux servers for our customers with RAID setups by default in a fully automatic way.

    Thanked by 1AdventureTime
  • Hello,

    Thanks for replying. I was hoping the "M" VPS package will be a bit cheaper though.

    Thank you for providing the manuals. My question is do I need an actual operating system first before entering such commands? So, what if I am planning to use CentOS 6 or CentOS 7 both x64? As for Debian, I prefer to use either Debian 7 x64 or Debian 8 x64.

    By the way, I didn't quite understand all of the references that you sent. I also have no idea what PXE API is and how can it help me achieve the RAID10 thing.

    A few hours ago, I was talking to their support team via tickets and phone calls. They were fast. Now, after the second shirt, they said they are busy and they might be able to entertain me by tomorrow because my SLA is just basic, etc.. I'm guessing the nice guys who prioritize me a lot are the ones who belongs to an earlier shift?

    Yeah, OVH uses automatic configuration of the installation and provides you a switch to turn on RAID support through their control panel.

    And yes, they do offer reinstallations and the configuration of RAID10 stuff but definitely takes time.

    Thanks.

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