Category Archives: Linux Servers

You’ll require a dedicated server, either when your shared or VPS hosting account is no longer capable to meet current hosting needs, or you’re planning to launch a brand new project which demands higher server resources. In either cases, you don’t want to compromise with the server performance, right?

Choosing a dedicated server with the best performance is actually difficult, when there are significant options available in the market. It’s indeed an important decision so you just can’t head to any other web host and order a generic dedicated server. So this guide will explain some basic principles how you can choose a dedicated server with the best performance without spending a fortune.

Processors

The desktop-grade processors like Intel’s Core i5 or i7 are adequate for many small businesses with just basic requirements. However, to deploy a huge CPU processing, definitely you’ll need business-grade processors like Intel’s Xeon series CPUs.

These processors produce great processing power due to their Hyper-Threading architecture, multiple cores, bigger L3 caches and ability to handle intensive loads, which make them more suitable for server environment.

Also, Xeon series CPUs support ECC (Error-Correcting Code) memory, which can detect and correct most common data-corruption even before it takes place, ensuring the data integrity and stability of the system.

To get the best out of your high performance dedicated server, we’d suggest you to go with the Xeon E7 v6 family – the latest generation of high-end processors with improved performance and efficiency. Though you may still find v5 and v4 Xeon servers available in the market, and they are quite capable to deliver decent performance till date. You can also get the latest generation of low-end Xeon chips like E3 and E5, typically used in entry-level servers.

If you are an AMD fan, then you can go with its business-grade processors launched under

Opteron family, ranging from the entry-level 3000 series to powerful 6000 series.

Memory

For the entry-level servers, RAM typically ranges from 8GB to 64GB, which can be further expanded from 128 to 512 GB for high-end servers. These memory modules come in different types and speeds, which are dependent upon the processor and motherboard. For example, 2,400MHz ECC DDR4 memory is the standard for most entry-level Xeon-based servers.

However, RAM speed has far less impact on overall performance of a dedicated server, so it’s okay if you go with lower MHz memory modules. Also, your server must have capability to upgrade the RAM for the future expansion, so you don’t have to migrate to another server.

Storage Type

While configuring the server, you can choose between solid state drives (SSD) or a traditional option of hard disk drives (HDD). HDDs feature a spinning platter and a read/write arm that uses magnetism to store data. SSDs don’t have moving parts and keep information in flash microchips. For these characteristics, SSDs are much faster and more expensive.

For the best performance, we’d suggest mounting all SSDs on the server or go at least with the hybrid option for better performance. With the hybrid option, operating system is installed on SSDs, and standard HDDs are used to store files.

The hybrid option does not deliver the performance like all SSD setup, but it can be considered as a good compromise between performance and price.

RAID

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is vital for any multi-disk dedicated server as it increases the performance and reliability of data storage. The most common types of RAID are:

1. RAID 0: It stripes data across multiple drives to improve the performance, though one of the drives fail all the data will be lost.
2. RAID 1: It mirrors/copies the same data on 2 drives, so if one of the drives fail there’s  still a complete and usable copy of the data on the other drive.
3. RAID 5: It requires at least 3 drives. It stripes the data and adds “parity data” so that any one of the drives fails, it can be replaced with the new drive promptly without losing the data.
4. RAID 10: It’s the combination of the striping and mirroring.
5. RAID 50: It’s the combination of the striping and parity.

Many entry-level servers come with RAID 0 or 1 with limited options, but it’s better to go at least with the RAID 5 or RAID 10. For the Windows-based dedicated servers, hardware RAID is more common, wherein its advantages are better realized. In contrast, software RAID is more popular in open-source systems, wherein its low-cost makes it an attractive option.

Traffic & Bandwidth

Traffic or “data transfer”, is the volume of data transmitted between your server and the web over a certain period of time (monthly in most cases). It is measured usually in gigabytes (GB) and terabytes (TB). So if you buy a server with 100TB traffic limit, that means there’s a limit of 100TB of data that can be passed between your server and web during the month.

Bandwidth is described as a data transfer rate of a dedicated server, or the amount of data network is capable to transmit over a given period of time. It is measured in Megabits per second (Mbps) and sometimes Gigabits per second (Gbps). Dedicated server bandwidth typically ranges between 100 Mbps and 10Gbps, with 1 Gbps a common bandwidth for high performance dedicated servers.

Some providers offer dedicated server with unmetered traffic, but unmetered does not mean unlimited. In fact unmetered plans often restrict the amount of data you can send-receive because data is transferred at a very low speed.

Conclusion

We hope going through this post you’d have a better idea as how to choose the best dedicated server without compromising on performance. Since, there are plenty of good options available in the market, we recommend to do your own research before purchase. In case, you still have questions or would like to get a professional advice, you can always contact our expert sales team.

With a wide variety of hosting options available today, such as shared, VPS and dedicated servers, choosing the right hosting option for your business can be both crucial and confusing.

If you are planning to build an enterprise application boosting the revenue and profits to your online business, a dedicated server could be a good choice. In some circumstances, dedicated hosting may even be an obvious option, like if you are about to launch some busy site anticipating millions of hits per day.

But choosing the right dedicated option may not be as simple as you thought. There are two basic types of dedicated servers differentiated by how servers are managed, namely managed and self-managed/unmanaged dedicated hosting services.

What Is Fully Managed Dedicated Server?

With fully managed dedicated servers, your hosting provider takes care of all your server related issues so you don’t have to worry about the technicalities behind running the server.

Your web host is also responsible for the complex and time-consuming server management process. Server experts monitor your equipment 24/7/365 ensuring it is running smoothly. In addition, hosting companies may also offer various other services like backups, scanning, and removal of malware, performance monitoring and more.

Benefits Of Fully Managed Dedicated Server

Performance Monitoring

Performance monitoring allows you take precautionary actions before disaster strikes. For example, your host will notify you when your site is about to having used all of its available resources, like disk, RAM or bandwidth. Thus, you’ll have enough time to contact your web host and resolve an issue before it’s too late.

Software Updates

Software updates are very important for the server as they keep your system healthy and secure. Many web hosts will take care all of this for you so you won’t have to update any of it on your own.

Server Security & Scanning

Server security is the pioneer priority for any online business. Security scanning exposes the multitude of possible issues with your server and enables you to clean them up. Fully managed servers are constantly checked by the web host for loopholes on the site as well as malware, spyware, and suspicious traffic patterns.

Data Protection

Your host takes backup of your data on a regular basis ensuring that after a crash or some other error, no data will be completely lost and could be restored quickly.

Managed Technical Support

With the managed dedicated hosting option you get 24/7/365 technical assistance. You can enjoy the peace of mind knowing that you’ll get a helping hand whenever you are in need.

When You Should Opt For Fully Managed Dedicated Hosting Services?

• If you are not a technical person and you don’t know anything about hosting, managed dedicated hosting would be the perfect choice for you.
• You are a tech savvy and know how to manage a dedicated server, but you don’t have at such time or you want to focus on your core business. In that case, fully managed dedicated servers would be an ideal option.
• You know the technical know how of web hosting but you want the web hosting experts to handle everything for you to avoid mistakes and to ensure that everything is getting handled the proper way.
• Business critical websites like an online eCommerce store must function with the maximum efficiency. You’ll need expert assistance right away in case of any issue with your website/server, otherwise, your business will be affected.
• You rather often require server customizations like complex service and software setup, integrations, etc.

What Is Self-Managed (Unmanaged) Dedicated Hosting?

Dedicated server hosting with a little or no management assistance is known as unmanaged or self-managed dedicated hosting. With unmanaged dedicated hosting, you get a server with only an operating system installed.

This means that you’ll have to install any necessary software on your own like LAMP stack. Your web host is only responsible for the availability of a functional physical server.

When Should You Choose Self-Managed Dedicated Hosting Services?

• If you are tech savvy and you hold the good experience in managing servers then you can consider self-managed dedicated servers.
• If you prefer the higher levels of freedom managing your server or you want to control every aspect of a server then you can go with self-managed dedicated hosting.
• The cost of an unmanaged server is always less than that of a fully managed server, so if you are short of funds then self-managed dedicated hosting can be the most deliberate choice.
• If you don’t want to rely on anyone else to make changes to your server or your website then choosing unmanaged dedicated hosting is the best thing to do.

Conclusion

For hosting newbies, managing a server is not only time-consuming, but also a complex thing. With a managed dedicated hosting, you can use your valuable time on more productive business tasks.

SSD Or HDD Powered Servers – What Technology Do I Require?

Till quite recently it was mostly only possible to buy servers with a hard drive for storage. A few very ultraportable devices came with an SSD or Solid State Drive. The traditional HDD (hard disk drive) is a non-volatile storage on which information remains present even after power to the unit has been switched off. A hard drive is made up of a platter (made out of metal), which has a magnetic coating on which data can be stored.

The SSD on the other hand can do everything that a HDD can do but data is stored on flash memory chips (interconnected) that continue to store data even when power to them is switched off. Here is a brief look at the difference between SSD and HDD powered servers and what technology do you require for your specific needs.

Price

Essentially, an SSD and a HDD perform similar functions, which are to boot up your system and store information. However, each differs in many ways. For example, SSDs are more expensive than HDDs. The former costs about five times as much per GB. Typically, a HDD costs between four and five cents per GB as compared to 25 cents per GB for an SSD.

Storage

Secondly, whereas a modern HDD has a base storage capacity of about 500 GB the SSD only has about 128 GB of storage space. However, this lack of storage capacity is offset when one considers the speed at which the SSD works. A computer with an SSD will boot in under 60 seconds and often in a matter of seconds. A HDD server on the other hand could boot much slower.

Speed

HDDs are good at storing vast amounts of information. SSDs on the other hand are quicker but they generally do not have the same amount of storage capacity as HDDs. However, the good news is that SSDs do not have moving parts – unlike a HDD. This means that if you use your server roughly you could end up facing issues if you are using a HDD powered server. There are no such problems with SSD powered dedicated servers.

Availability

HDDs are easy to buy. They are readily available though in recent times SSDs have started to prevail over HDDs. Even so, most people prefer HDD powered servers over SSD powered ones. The good news is that more and more SSD lines are being offered now.

Size

HDDs can’t be extremely small because they have to use spinning platters. There are no such limitations in the case of SSDs, which means that in the coming years they may become even smaller than they already are.

Noise

HDDs emit some noise when in operation. SSDs on the other hand make no noise since they do not use any mechanical parts. Also, an SSD does not have to use electricity to spin any platter, as is the case with HDDs. This means that SSD powered servers are less costly to run.

The bottom line is that when it comes to deciding on a particular technology you need to keep in mind that HDD dedicated servers are more budget friendly options. They are also widely available. SSD powered servers on the other hand are great if you need ultimate speed that no other HDD will provide you with.