Choosing a Dedicated Server Host

The process of choosing a new dedicated server hosts can be difficult for both a professional and beginners alike and so should be down sloly otherwise you may regret it. Some planning steps need to be followed and written down to start. UK Dedicated servers

How are you using it?

You should already know this but not everyone fully thinks it through. Is it webhosting and e-commerce, game servers, download mirror, disaster recovery? As will need to know what your going to run on this server from both what operating system to the software and the services. To ensure you don’t buy something completely overkill that will cost you a fortune but also doesn’t want to buy something that is under powered and will not run reliably.

Specification

Now you have the software, you can move on to actually drafting the specification needed. We are going to ignore money at this point as thats not needed until your ready to choose a host, each specification will be different depending on what you want it for. The CPU is something to look at alot as many providers may offer multiple physical CPU’s as well as having dual or quad core CPU’s as well. RAM depending on use is possibly more important than the actual CPU’s but again don’t scrimp it’s better to have a little more than less as it will allow for expansion and for sudden peaks in usage without affecting the end user. Hard disk storage space will be determined by how your using the server don’t go small as you will have no space for your programs data,how is your backups going to be stored if its the same server then a separate disk would be highly recommended. RAID is also a great way to increase redundancy or create more usable space easily you have 0, 1, 10 or 5 as the common options.

Network

Now you know what your server is running hardware wise you will then need to think about the bandwidth or data transfer allowance. Bandwidth is shown in gigabytes, and can be difficult to know how much you need.Good hosts sutch as Melbourne will always be willing to help you calculate the bandwidth you need for your server as you will get a fee levied if you go over.Next we have to find a good host with our specification in mind. I was told once the best way to find a good host is to obtain a computing mazazine and remove all the glossy adds for server hosting and then see what you have left as it won’t be companies who tend to offer great prices but the customer services tend to be lacking some what. You are far better off searching on the internet for hosting forums and posting up what your server is for and the spec in mind and ask for companies to give a price and ask other forum users for recommendation for those companies and you cannot go too far wrong .