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Colocation Advice
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Colocation Advice

Doing co-location and looking for any advice on what to look for or avoid with a data-center past marketing.

Thanks.

Comments

  • randvegetarandvegeta Member, Host Rep

    What exactly are you looking for? There are thousands of DCs, serving different purposes/requirements. What to avoid for some, may not be an issue for others.

  • If the owner looks like Joshua Prout, run.

  • Right now just doing research and learning regarding colocation as its an area I have yet to really dive into but don't want to get caught up in a bad deal or be ignorant. Looking to start at a 1U rackmount. End goal is being a provider myself long term.

    I am also trying to research bringing your own bandwidth and what needed (hardware) to contract directly with a upstream transit provider.

  • Without power usage and BW requirements a useless thread.

  • @William said:
    Without power usage and BW requirements a useless thread.

    kk, will revive then when I have more solid info :).

  • ClouviderClouvider Member, Patron Provider

    @William said:
    Without power usage and BW requirements a useless thread.

    And location

  • pcfreak30 said: Looking to start at a 1U rackmount.

    Colocation does not pay off when you buy 1U. You can put one server in this, and it's relatively expensive. Unless you have very specific demands, I think leasing a dedicated server will be lots cheaper for you.

  • trvztrvz Member

    JasperNL said: I think leasing a dedicated server will be lots cheaper for you.

    But where's the fun in that…

    Thanked by 1JasperNL
  • Location would play a huge role in price as well as advice.

  • @pcfreak30 said:
    Right now just doing research and learning regarding colocation as its an area I have yet to really dive into but don't want to get caught up in a bad deal or be ignorant. Looking to start at a 1U rackmount. End goal is being a provider myself long term.

    I am also trying to research bringing your own bandwidth and what needed (hardware) to contract directly with a upstream transit provider.

    So you need a carrier neutral Colocation company / facility which allows you to choose your own carrier and Cross Connect to them.

  • BopieBopie Member

    @JasperNL said:

    pcfreak30 said: Looking to start at a 1U rackmount.

    Colocation does not pay off when you buy 1U. You can put one server in this, and it's relatively expensive. Unless you have very specific demands, I think leasing a dedicated server will be lots cheaper for you.

    I don't agree A decent powerful dedicated server can set you back £100+ a month to lease were as you can colocate a 1u system for much less.

  • ClouviderClouvider Member, Patron Provider

    Bopie said: I don't agree A decent powerful dedicated server can set you back £100+ a month to lease were as you can colocate a 1u system for much less.

    Assuming you have the server and don't have to buy it, you know a decent new servers can set you back well over 5k.

    Thanked by 1Bopie
  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    Something to consider is location. Having a facility close to you may provide some value and peace of mind.

  • jbilohjbiloh Administrator, Veteran

    Something to consider is location. Having a facility close to you may provide some value and peace of mind.

  • @Clouvider said:

    Bopie said: I don't agree A decent powerful dedicated server can set you back £100+ a month to lease were as you can colocate a 1u system for much less.

    Assuming you have the server and don't have to buy it, you know a decent new servers can set

    you back well over 5k.

    Nah, Im looking at servers for compute for like 1.2ishk. Long term the price to colo them is cheaper than lease after a 1-2 year ROI.

    @KeKe said:

    @pcfreak30 said:
    Right now just doing research and learning regarding colocation as its an area I have yet to really dive into but don't want to get caught up in a bad deal or be ignorant. Looking to start at a 1U rackmount. End goal is being a provider myself long term.

    I am also trying to research bringing your own bandwidth and what needed (hardware) to contract directly with a upstream transit provider.

    So you need a carrier neutral Colocation company / facility which allows you to choose your own carrier and Cross Connect to them.

    Can you explain cross connect. And would that require you to maintain your own router. What would be involved in using your own networking equipment in colo?

  • randvegetarandvegeta Member, Host Rep

    pcfreak30 said: Can you explain cross connect.

    If you rent rack space from some provider, it does not give you automatic access to all the carriers that may be operating in the same DC. A cross connect is basically a physical connection between the rack you are in, and the carrier's rack. The DC normally charge a fee for this, and if you a buying rack space not directly from the DC, the company you are sub-leasing from may also charge extra.

    pcfreak30 said: And would that require you to maintain your own router. What would be involved in using your own networking equipment in colo?

    You do not necessarily NEED a router. You can connect it directly to your server if you wish.

    As for 'what would be involved', I don't even understand the question. If you do not know what's invovled in using your own network equipment, then you probably shouldn't be looking into that just yet.

    Best bet leave the networking issues to the DC / Host and forget using your own router /switch unless you both need it, and know what to do.

  • WSSWSS Member

    Choose a colocation provider based upon whether or not they pass through the W3 validator.

  • BopieBopie Member

    @Clouvider said:

    Bopie said: I don't agree A decent powerful dedicated server can set you back £100+ a month to lease were as you can colocate a 1u system for much less.

    Assuming you have the server and don't have to buy it, you know a decent new servers can set you back well over 5k.

    Yes i agree however long term it is worth Colo especially if as mentioned its a local DC as you may even get access to your servers

  • @randvegeta said:

    pcfreak30 said: Can you explain cross connect.

    If you rent rack space from some provider, it does not give you automatic access to all the carriers that may be operating in the same DC. A cross connect is basically a physical connection between the rack you are in, and the carrier's rack. The DC normally charge a fee for this, and if you a buying rack space not directly from the DC, the company you are sub-leasing from may also charge extra.

    pcfreak30 said: And would that require you to maintain your own router. What would be involved in using your own networking equipment in colo?

    You do not necessarily NEED a router. You can connect it directly to your server if you wish.

    As for 'what would be involved', I don't even understand the question. If you do not know what's invovled in using your own network equipment, then you probably shouldn't be looking into that just yet.

    Best bet leave the networking issues to the DC / Host and forget using your own router /switch unless you both need it, and know what to do.

    I understand my ignorance means I dont need it, but still trying to gather all info I can for the future.

  • BradyHBradyH Member, Host Rep

    @pcfreak30

    With starting out right now You wont need a switch or a router. You can just use the D.C for those right now.

    Once you get to where you are doing a half rack or a full rack then Yes you would want your own switch.

    Also start looking at leasing IP and have the DC announce for you.

    Next step would be get a router so you can announce your Own IP and look at getting your own bandwidth. Most providers this would not make sense until you are using a few racks as the cost for the router and bandwidth would be way more than just getting the bandwidth from the DC

    It's all a numbers game.

  • @CenTexHosting said:
    @pcfreak30

    With starting out right now You wont need a switch or a router. You can just use the D.C for those right now.

    Once you get to where you are doing a half rack or a full rack then Yes you would want your own switch.

    Also start looking at leasing IP and have the DC announce for you.

    Next step would be get a router so you can announce your Own IP and look at getting your own bandwidth. Most providers this would not make sense until you are using a few racks as the cost for the router and bandwidth would be way more than just getting the bandwidth from the DC

    It's all a numbers game.

    How does it work with having your own networking equipment. Why would you need your own switch with a half-full rack? I assume you would need to contract with a freelancer or the dc to manage the router if you don't have the skillset youself (or hire a network engineer)?

    I have already been looking at leasing ips directly and buying long term.

    Thanks for the insight so far.

  • randvegetarandvegeta Member, Host Rep

    pcfreak30 said: How does it work with having your own networking equipment. Why would you need your own switch with a half-full rack?

    When you lease rack space that can fit more than one server, you will typically need more equipment to accomodate multiple servers.

    Normally if you rent rack space, you will get 1 power outlet and 1 network port. So how do you power and connect up multiple servers if you only have 1 place to connect it all?

    Hook up a PDU and Network Switch and then all of a sudden you can now connect multiple devices. This is why you would need it.

    pcfreak30 said: I assume you would need to contract with a freelancer or the dc to manage the router if you don't have the skillset youself (or hire a network engineer)?

    Either that, or you just lease out multiple 1 or 2U colo spaces. You will end up paying more per U but it may be still be easier. But honestly.. if you don't have the skillset to hook up a PDU and simple network switch.. the hosting biz probably isnt for you, and this is not the place to learn the basics.

    pcfreak30 said: I have already been looking at leasing ips directly and buying long term.

    Leasing directly? From who?

  • @randvegeta said:

    pcfreak30 said: How does it work with having your own networking equipment. Why would you need your own switch with a half-full rack?

    When you lease rack space that can fit more than one server, you will typically need more equipment to accomodate multiple servers.

    Normally if you rent rack space, you will get 1 power outlet and 1 network port. So how do you power and connect up multiple servers if you only have 1 place to connect it all?

    Hook up a PDU and Network Switch and then all of a sudden you can now connect multiple devices. This is why you would need it.

    pcfreak30 said: I assume you would need to contract with a freelancer or the dc to manage the router if you don't have the skillset youself (or hire a network engineer)?

    Either that, or you just lease out multiple 1 or 2U colo spaces. You will end up paying more per U but it may be still be easier. But honestly.. if you don't have the skillset to hook up a PDU and simple network switch.. the hosting biz probably isnt for you, and this is not the place to learn the basics.

    pcfreak30 said: I have already been looking at leasing ips directly and buying long term.

    Leasing directly? From who?

    I dont have any experience working with "enterprise" (not my home router) network equipment outside of a cisco class as I have never had a need. Being an engineer I can obviously learn very quickly. So I would ideally get a network consultant to learn that info if I could not google it.

    As for leasing directly I believe its a RIR? I meant not leasing from the DC and being dependent on them.

    For the switch, I was not aware that renting a rack only gave you 1 Ethernet drop/hook up.

    I have a lot of experience in the "hosting biz", I just have never gotten to the stage of owning equipment and managing it wholey (resolving hardware problems etc).

    Thanks for the info so far.

  • randvegetarandvegeta Member, Host Rep
    edited April 2017

    pcfreak30 said: I dont have any experience working with "enterprise"

    Generally speaking you won't jump into the deep end. You will work your way up and so you will learn organically through experience. There is no point to go all in with no experience. Yes you could learn it first AND THEN do it, but you will face a whole bunch of other challenges that will make all this stuff seem so trivial, that the questions you are asking will be non-issues.

    Generally speaking, if when you move from a dedicated server to colocation, you will lease space for just that 1 server and get a power outlet and a single network port for that server. You normally do not even need to think about getting your own PDU or Switch until you have at least a 1/2 rack that you may actually benefit from some economies of scale.

    When you reach that stage, you can make do with any dumb PDU and switch. And by dumb, I mean unmanaged. You will learn that you can use 'consumer' grade equipment just fine for quite a while, untill you scale to the point that you need the actual functionality of an enterprise grade layer 2 or 3 switch and remote reboot switch if your servers do not have IPMI.

    And you probably won't even need your own IP space until you have more than a full rack unless you are selling VPS. And even if you have your own IP space, you can still ask the DC to advertise it for you, so you won't normally need to worry about a router.

    You generally only need to worry about a router if you want to have more control over your network, manage multiple upstreams, and have your own routing policies etc. But that is many orders of magnitude more complex than just hooking up a PDU and switch.

    So you need more than just a tech guy to hook it up for you in the DC. You will need a network guy to configure and manage the network for you.

    Just take it 1 step at a time. Don't burden yourself with unnecessary details. When you're starting off, it's generally easier, faster and cheaper to buy the service from someone else than to try and do it yourself.

    If you want to sell hosting, you need a server right? But chances are you will buy that server rather than make your own. And if you find it cheaper to ASSEMBLE your own, rather than buy a full system, you will find it cheaper to buy the components than to make your own. There is no need to get 'too deep' in the beginning. Let yourself grow into that.

    Thanked by 1WSS
  • BopieBopie Member

    @pcfreak30 Not all rack rental will include only 1 connection, Some will offer you 2 or more, however, the whole point of rent say a full rack is that you are literally just leasing the space, it is then your responsibility to have network equipment again some DC's offer free PDU or other things but all this is different for all different places also some places will actually allow you to lease from then all the networking gear etc you need and you can then concentrate on just your servers it's all dependent on your data centre so do research before going all in.

  • BradyHBradyH Member, Host Rep

    @pcfreak30

    Usually when you get to a half rack that is when DC start requesting that you get your own switch and PDU.

    At this point you are starting to work toward being your own Host. Just opens up a lot more options that you can do.

    Thanked by 1Bopie
  • Almost all datacenter if you are going to buy only 1U colocation they will give you only the possibility to connect to them.

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