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High end box?
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High end box?

(I suppose that this may not be the best forum to ask, but there's some very knowledgeable folk here.)
Am looking for suggestions for a server to host a business critical application. The obvious answer is to turn to AWS/Azure/Rackspace/Google for this, but I wanted to check if there are other options available?

Being business critical, the hosting solution needs to have mechanisms to deal with stuff like hardware failure with minimal downtime. Other crucial requirement is that it needs to be hosted in Australia.

Other requirements are quite flexible, but to give a rough idea of what I'm looking for, here's some rough specs:

  • CPU: 4 cores of a 2.7GHz Sandy Bridge
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Disk: 400GB, min 1000 IOPS
  • Network: 500GB/month over 100Mbps, very good quality network (however that's quantified)
  • Daily backups: I haven't decided how this should exactly be done, but ideally should be possible to schedule them during low traffic times, and allow quick restoration in the event of a catastrophe
  • Budget: $500/month, billed monthly (am flexible to longer term payments)
  • SLA: lots of 9's (obviously)

Reliability / minimal downtime is king here, and I don't need any fancy AWS infrastructure technologies (e.g. RDS, Route53 etc). Server will be self managed, though enterprise friendly features, as well as the ability to dynamically size the server, can be nice. A hoster with a big name brand is also useful for making management feel safe.

I've traditionally done stuff with dedicated servers, but am afraid of potential downtime caused by hardware failures. As such, I think a cloud server would be necessary to deal with this (fast migrations), and I suspect VM snapshots could be a useful backup/restore mechanism.
I suppose it may be possible to set up some reliability amongst two dedicated servers, but it sounds like it could be complicated and require a fair bit of management overhead - something I wish to avoid. I have no experience in the field of setting up an own cloud though, so am open to suggestions.


AWS seems to offer something that'd work, and I suspect the other cloud providers I mentioned would do the same. I've heard that AWS' CPU resources aren't too great though (unsure if true). Am wondering if there are better alternatives out there that anyone knows about?

Thank you in advance!

Thanked by 2rokok dediserve
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Comments

  • You won't find what you need on LowEndTalk

  • OVH cloud?

  • deployvmdeployvm Member, Host Rep
    edited January 2016

    xyz said: Other crucial requirement is that it needs to be hosted in Australia.

    >

    Since you have the budget and you require high availability, I would recommend you collaborate with major ISPs.

    Telstra utilises the VMWare platform, and should have the resources you need. I believe they have PAYG plans too.

    https://www.telstra.com.au/business-enterprise/solutions/cloud-services/public-cloud/telstra-cloud-infrastructure/virtual-server-shared

    Disclaimer: I have not tried their business services before.
    Telstra home and Telstra business services offers vary greatly. I'm sure many people can complain about slow ADSL speeds (caused by DSLAM, house wiring or other issues) or even poor support.

    There are smaller players like IBM (Softlayer) Cloud in Melbourne, Crucial Cloud AU, Zettagrid etc.

    These forums should help:
    http://www.webhostingtalk.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=44
    https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/116

    Otherwise, you can try dedicated servers and customise your configuration very effectively or even run software-based load balancing. As you have mentioned, Amazon AWS is also a good choice.

    Thanked by 1ATHK
  • Curious, what do you plan on running on such a high end box

  • xyzxyz Member

    Thanks for the suggestions so far.

    I'm sure they're great for the price, but how suitable for a HA setup?

    Nic_20TBSSD said: OVH cloud?

    OVH has no Australian DC from my knowledge.

    @deployvm: Interesting, will look at those suggestions, thank you for that!

    xaitmi said: Curious, what do you plan on running on such a high end box

    Unfortunately can't say too much, but think of it as a number of high volume web applications. Mostly I/O bound at this point, so (consistently) fast storage is quite important.

  • Sucks you have to host it here in Aus.. Price would be so much better in the US!

    @deployvm has hit it straight on the head,

    Telstra business at least support wise is quite good, ADSL yes is absolutely horrid FYI.

    Another option would be to Colo your own equipment ...

  • @Oliver may be able to help Colo wise or suggest something else..

  • for around $400/month I can give you 400mbps internet at a CBD premise.
    Can set up VMware or Hyper V virtualisation on HP servers on premise for you.

  • ClouviderClouvider Member, Patron Provider

    PetaByet said: You won't find what you need on LowEndTalk

    No ?

    @xyz we have a right solution for you, although our infrastructure is in Europe (London). What location are you looking for ?

    Thanked by 1doghouch
  • OliverOliver Member, Host Rep

    @ATHK said:
    Oliver may be able to help Colo wise or suggest something else..

    I'd probably just suggest SoftLayer for this type of thing if you don't want to manage your own hardware.

  • Softlayer

  • trewqtrewq Administrator, Patron Provider

    @seaeagle said:
    for around $400/month I can give you 400mbps internet at a CBD premise.
    Can set up VMware or Hyper V virtualisation on HP servers on premise for you.

    In Australia?

  • Softlayer cloud has auto scaling if you can afford spending a few k each month

    Thanked by 1inthecloudblog
  • Thanked by 1dediserve
  • iwStack may be able to suit your needs: http://iwstack.com/.

  • ATHKATHK Member
    edited January 2016

    @bersy said:
    dediserve

    Retracted, its late, wrong company...

  • @ATHK said:

    Are you sure you mean us? ( www.dediserve.com )

  • edited January 2016

    Inside the US or Europe, you can probably build your own HA cloud for extremely cheap, much cheaper than what cloud providers provide.

    But in AU, your probably best going with dediserve, they have pricing within your range:

    Been with them for a while now since I grabbed one of their 1G ram promos, and they are rock solid with fast support.

  • bersybersy Member
    edited January 2016

    I meant their Hybrid Server, he is looking for high end, is he? :)

  • @bersy said:
    I meant their Hybrid Server, he is looking for high end, is he? :)

    Waaaay over budget

  • ALinuxNinja said: Waaaay over budget

    Yep, that's why @dediserve has been summoned) Moreover the price starts at €500 according to their announce news.

    Thanked by 1dediserve
  • gbshousegbshouse Member, Host Rep

    Try ZettaGrid, they have > 3 AU locations and are pretty solid

  • You will be in extremely good and capable hands if you choose to go with @Clouvider

    Thanked by 1Clouvider
  • xyzxyz Member

    Appreciate the responses.

    Anyone can comment on Telstra/SoftLayer vs AWS/Azure etc?
    Finding some technical details is difficult, eg what CPUs are being used, IOPS guarantees etc. With SoftLayer, their cloud offerings only give a 2GHz vCPUs (2GHz what?), which is probably lower than I'd like for single threaded performance unfortunately.

  • @xyz said:
    Appreciate the responses.

    Anyone can comment on Telstra/SoftLayer vs AWS/Azure etc?
    Finding some technical details is difficult, eg what CPUs are being used, IOPS guarantees etc. With SoftLayer, their cloud offerings only give a 2GHz vCPUs (2GHz what?), which is probably lower than I'd like for single threaded performance unfortunately.

    Hello @xyz.

    Softlayer > Telstra

    AWS > Azure

    AWS > Softlayer > Azure

    Personally, I think you'll be better off colocating your own equipment. A nice 1U server would be better in the long run, unless you are looking for more redundancy, in which case you cannot go past AWS or similar cloud services. They are all really the same, the only difference is the number of downtimes and performance of nodes, which you have to decide for yourself :)

  • @0xdragon said:

    2 1U servers in neighboring DCs or same DC with different networks and an XC for HA

  • @TinyTunnel_Tom said:
    2 1U servers in neighboring DCs or same DC with different networks and an XC for HA

    That would get expensive very quickly here in Australia.

  • aws can also have its issues and downtimes.

    example.

    Thanked by 1Clouvider
  • xyzxyz Member

    Oops, looks like I missed a few posts. Dediserve and ZettaGrid also look interesting, thanks for the suggestions.

    Anyone have any comparisons / recommendations?

    0xdragon said: Softlayer > Telstra

    AWS > Azure

    AWS > Softlayer > Azure

    If you wouldn't mind, could you share your reasoning behind this?

    0xdragon said: Personally, I think you'll be better off colocating your own equipment. A nice 1U server would be better in the long run, unless you are looking for more redundancy

    Well, colocating sounds like zero redundancy, so that's definitely a no. Furthermore, when there's a hardware fault, you'll probably have to source new hardware and go and fix it = lots of effort and definitely a no.

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