Dedicated server monitoring and backups

Hello,

I am a prospect about to go for a dedicated server, but need some questions answered to help me plan the move:

1) Server monitoring: in the package description you promise server monitoring, yet in this forum (http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?t=98, from 01/2003) you suggest a third-party service to do the monitoring. Which one applies?

2) Server backup: on thread http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?t=3485 (02/2005) you say your shared servers are backed up weekly. On thread http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?t=1504 (10/2004) you say dedicated servers are not backed up. And on thread http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?t=4347 (07/2005) you suggest getting an additional 80 Mb drive in RAID configuration for this purpose. Isn't RAID meant for redundancy? Is there any available backup solution, even if at an additional monthly cost?

3) Why are Pentium 4 servers more expensive than Super Celerons, if the configuration is the same?

Hope to hear from you soon, so I can finish planning and order my server.

Cheers

[MachineDog]

GB* and the same reasons a Pentium 4 computer costs alot more then a celeron, alot more power. And as for the backups I don't know anything about that. RAID is for having multiple disks that are exact copies of the other disks in the RAID so that if one drive goes down another drive takes over, least from what I've read.

[David]

Things change over time, and I have read a few contradictory statements at different times too, so the best thing to do is either email sales@hostgator.com or call to see what is what these days.

In terms of RAID, there are quite a few different levels and configurations. You can look here for more info:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/R/RAID.html
http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/neuffe...t_is_raid.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redunda...ependent_disks

David

Thanks for the replies, guys! I posted here because I thought this might interest others and save Hostgator from replying to several e-mails with similar questions.

Well, I'm left with having to write them an e-mail. I will post their answer here.

Hi,

Me again, five minutes later... got an anwser this fast! Isn't this great?! Here is what Ben wrote:

"[Re: server monitoring]: We monitor the server, that thread we were just giving people recomendations for them to use if they wanted one.

[Re: server backups]: Dedicated servers are up to you to backup. You can buy an additional 80GB hard drive for $ [price] one time or $ [price]/monthly and we can setup backups to it."