Dedicated Server Questions

[Anonymous]

Q1. Management

I've been hosted in both shared and reseller environments for 3 years now, but when it comes to Dedicated Servers, I'm a complete newbie. I have no idea what it takes to run a server or to administrate it. I see myself outgrowing my reseller in the near future, so I've decided to go dedicated.

I want to buy a server from HG, but I want to make sure that I won't have to manage ANYTHING on the server, at all. Basically what I want is to "own" my own server, but have it set up the same way my reseller is. I don't want to have to do anything to keep the server up and running. I just want my own box with root access (so I can create reseller accounts), a CPanel and Web Host Manager.

Would the management offered by HG give me the management I need?

Q2. The Server

I also need help deciding which server to get. I've pretty much crossed out Windows servers, so I guess it's between Red Hat Linux and FreeBSD.

My server's going to be used for hosting purposes. I'll probably be hosting a lot of personal sites and a few message boards. They'll more than likely be high traffic.

What OS would you recommend and what server specs?

Q3. Uptime

The site says 99.9% Network Uptime Guarantee, I'd just like to know, does that mean that if the network goes down more than .1% a month, that I get my money back? Or, how does that work? And if my server should go down because of a bad script or something, would I have to pay extra to get it back up?

Also, do you guys (HG) actually MONITOR the server? I don't want to have to monitor it and then tell YOU when it goes down.

- Thanks, Arielle

[Arielle]

Oh, I didn't realize that I wasn't logged in. ^ That post was made by me.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone going to answer this? Gator_Support?

edit// Aw, it's me again, Arielle, didn't realize I wasn't logged in.

[GatorJustin]

Hello, Guest... err... Arielle.

First, I'll address the uptime guarantee. We do advertise and honor a 99.9% NETWORK uptime guarantee for dedicated servers. This means that if the network fails to provide connectivity at least 99.% of the time during a given month, you will receive a pro-rated refund for your downtime. This uptime guarantee does not cover any downtime associated with failing services such as Apache, MySQL, etc, since you will be able to control those yourself.

As for management, we do provide full 24/7 monitoring and management *to a degree*. We will monitor your server and reboot when necessary, perform hardware upgrades, software upgrades (on software we originally installed), etc. We cannot, however, provide management for anything that you add yourself. If you add your own shopping cart, for example, and it fails to function or crashes the server, that would be your responsibility. Of course if you required help in such a case, we would be able to offer it for an hourly service rate.

Dedicated servers come with root access, and you will have total control over every aspect of your server, so if you plan on digging around, you really should have some level of knowledge of server management, security, and configuration for the Operating System you choose. If you get a dedicated server and really dont mess with anything and basicaly treat it as if its just a really large reseller server, then you basically can relax and let us handle things for you.

Which OS would I recommend? I have no personal experience with FreeBSD, so I would have to go with Linux. Perhaps some of our other members may be able to help you decide.

Let me know if you need any additional info.

-Justin

[Anonymous]

How is VisionEX involved in ther server management? They seem to offer a full-service dedicated server management, uh, service that comes with HostGator's dedicated packages...

Can someone from HG please explain how that works, and/or if anyone has experience working with VisionEX, or a dedicated server with HG, chime in as well.

The dedicated servers are an interesting option, but I, too don't want to worry about what's under the hood. I want my own car, and I want it to run with the buttons I can push from the dashboard. If something breaks, I want to bring it in to the experts, and, of course, I'll want it fixed yesterday.

What are HG's hourly rates to undo something that I have broken on my own server?

Jeff

[GatorJustin]

VisionEX Communications was selected by HG to provide management for our dedicated servers. They do a top-notch job. There really isn't a whole lot to say about their involvement other than they monitor and maintain each of our dedicated servers 24/7, but if you were to ever require support, you would still contact HG directly.

Our hourly rate for repair would be $75.

-Justin