servers Build a rack with me!

[PyroSyndicate]

Hey people! I am fairly new to the forums, yet I have a few years of experience with building PCs. Yet on the other hand, when it comes to servers I'm a big noob when it comes to selecting the correct products. I really don't know as much as I would need to in order to feel comfortable spending the amount of money I'm about to without some help designing/picking this rack. So my end goal will be to host my client's websites (currently I rent a server). The servers I will be looking to purchase are as follows: 

1. Gigabit Switch 
2. Storage/Raid Server
3. Main server for control of the storage servers
4. Secondary server for 'LAMPS' to host the client sites and my site.

Furthermore, In the future, I will be looking into a storage server for backups, as currently, I use 2 external hard drives and valuable space on my server which is stupid as that's what I'm backing up! So I would be aiming for an A high-speed storage system that we can work off of and have mass storage on.

 

Limitations: Funding at the moment is our largest limitation so I am looking for suggestions of environment taken servers (pre-used) and lower end equipment without much of a sacrifice on performance. The only places I would really be purchasing servers from are eBay, amazon, people rather than larger companies due to cost.

 

Additionally, I need a server rack to hold all this in I am thinking between 14-20U due to the space in which I can store this rack, yet I can only really afford a rack of between 100-150 GBP.

 

Any suggestions, tips, and tricks would be amazing;

Thank you!

[Aelita Sophie]

For your purposes you are way better off renting. It's cheaper, more reliable and saves you a lot of time. A decent server for this task you are looking at roughly 200GBP each (For like a HP ML350 G6). This is without any storage for even the server it self. Depending on your needs and quality you want to serve you need to choose between NEW S-ATA drives or better, SAS drives. Then for your backup server, you'll be needing a server with loads of 3.5inch or 2.5 inch bays. DL380 could work for you, but those are again roughly 200GBP without drives.

For a gigabit switch, it depends on how many servers you are planning to hook up, but second hand they are roughly 100GBP each for a 18 port.

Then you still have buy a server rack. Where the ML350 wont fit as they are not rackmountable, but you can buy rack kits for them. They are 90GBP each roughly.

When having all the equipment u are needing to have a very dependable high speed connection (a consumer connection WONT DO even if its a Gbit, this is due possible DDoS attacks etc.)

As far I know, last time I checked, getting a business fibre line costs roughly 2000 GBP + 100 GBP per meter, if it's not already available to you. Then you still need to rent the line which will be 200 GBP per month and then you even need the bandwidth to support your hosting, which.. I don't even know the price of, because the first 2 already scared me away.

 

Really if you want a reliable hosting solution, rent a baremetal server from ex. Scaleway or even from OVH if you fancy. (Do not take kimsufi if you want to be even a little bit serious) Scaleway is fairly cheap, delivers the promised speeds + overhead and have reliable servers you can deploy on demand. Payed hourly.

OVH is a bit slow on deploying a new server for you, but for the past 4-5 years I haven't had any problems yet caused by them.

 

For backups, honestly you can do a home-hosted backup server. This case it would be cheaper in the long run to host it yourself. But then again, OVH/SoYouStart have great storage servers for not much money.

[PyroSyndicate]

I already have a Business line for personal use and a Virgin Media Business Broadband 200 Package being setup within the next week. When I started funding as a limitation It's not a limitation in the sense of lack of yet we want to focus on setting this up on a smaller budget (most for the money) instead of high price high performance. Secondly, this is less of price projects, we've always been interested in networking and want this as a personal learning experience at the moment, as I most likely didn't state clear enough, the migration of our client sites will be later on in a year/ year and a half. 

[Aelita Sophie]

13 minutes ago, PyroSyndicate said:

I already have a Business line for personal use and a Virgin Media Business Broadband 200 Package being setup within the next week. When I started funding as a limitation It's not a limitation in the sense of lack of yet we want to focus on setting this up on a smaller budget (most for the money) instead of high price high performance. Secondly, this is less of price projects, we've always been interested in networking and want this as a personal learning experience at the moment, as I most likely didn't state clear enough, the migration of our client sites will be later on in a year/ year and a half. 

The 200mbit package will not be sufficient. As the upload speed is just 15 mbit. You'll be needing a lot more than that. With a business line I don't mean a business internet package on a consumer line (what the product is what you specified). A business line is a dedicated fibre line towards your location. Considering what most datacenters and/or webhosting companies deliver, you'll be needing at least a dedicated fibre line with a Gbit up and down link. This also needs to be protected for any hazards that the outside world might and will throw at you. DDoS protection of a few TB/s is NOT a luxury. But as stated in my previous comment, I gave you a few options regarding servers. ML350 G6 or newer are great entry-line servers at this moment. They are, like I said about 200 GBP each and are reliable. Supporting up to 12 cores and 24 threads (more on newer than G6) it should be plenty for a good handful of clients. Since they use DDR3 ECC memory they are still very well usable today. Anything older is a waste of energy, time, money and space. The DL380 G6 or newer is great for a storage solution. Also supporting 12 cores (or even more on newer models) and again DDR3 ECC memory. It has a nice SAS backplane with hardware raid.

 

Regarding personal learning experience, I don't know. But to set one up you said in your starting post, these are still minimums if you want to have a decent idea. 

[samiscool51]

you mean his type:

this type:

ot the other type that i can't put onto the forums?

[Aelita Sophie]

33 minutes ago, samiscool51 said:

--SNIP--

Definitely the latter one!

[samiscool51]

Just now, Aelita Sophie said:

Definitely the latter one!

the third one?

[Nobert]

just an idea, something to think of.

 

if you're running them as a business, is it a REGISTERED BUSINESS? if so, I assumed you have an established cash flow.

find parts and bits on ebay/amazon/local used market might be fun and rewarding, but If it's my business, I would rather pay to have support from manufacture.

I primarily deal with HP server line myself, i have a mix product line of DL160/360/390 G9, give or take 20 units total.

HP offers something called HPFS, as a financial services, i do 36 terms leasing with a dollar buyout in the end. not much of a saving really, but more of a flexible way to manage the cash flow.

 

Good luck.

 

 

[PyroSyndicate]

On 13/03/2017 at 10:44 PM, Nobert said:

just an idea, something to think of.

 

if you're running them as a business, is it a REGISTERED BUSINESS? if so, I assumed you have an established cash flow.

find parts and bits on ebay/amazon/local used market might be fun and rewarding, but If it's my business, I would rather pay to have support from manufacture.

I primarily deal with HP server line myself, i have a mix product line of DL160/360/390 G9, give or take 20 units total.

HP offers something called HPFS, as a financial services, i do 36 terms leasing with a dollar buyout in the end. not much of a saving really, but more of a flexible way to manage the cash flow.

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

Currently, my homelab is just a hobby, I have a cash flow (whilst its pretty poor atm due to the fact I shut down my company) but yes I am looking into turning this into a business and I will most certainly look into the HPFS!

 

[PyroSyndicate]

When they reply if it helps I can state your name as the sender (that may get you some sort of merit for bringing them business?)