How are the Dedicated Servers managed?
Jul0
If we speak about the management of Dedicated Servers, there is no standard set that can clearly define Dedicated Server Providers’ role about managing the servers. It differs from provider to provider and on their Standard Terms, how they defnie it. Each provider can define the management role differently. Few hosting providers define Fully Managed Dedicated Server as owning a web based control panel while few of them define it as to have System Engineers available 24/7 round the clock to handle all server and network related functions.
Which services are included in Server Management?
It can include the following services:-
OS updates
Application/Program updates
Regular Server Monitoring
Application/Program Monitoring
Antivirus Updates
Firewall Services
DDoS Protection
DNS Services
Intrusion Detection
Load Balancing
Security Audits
Restoration and Backup
Database Administration
User Management
Software/Application Installation and Configuration
Note: – All the above-mentioned services are Server side. In other words, all of them are accessible to the Dedicated Server Providers only. A server owner gets many other services, for e.g., root or remote access to the server.
With most of the providers, they do keep Administrative maintenance. This includes upgrades, daemon updates and sometimes its configuration, adding, creating and managing user accounts, email accounts, domains etc.
Different terminologies in Server Management:-
Hosting providers use few terminologies depending on the level of service they offer. Let us see what they are.
Fully Managed – Monitoring, software updates, reboots, security patches and operating system upgrades are included in this. Customers are free from any kind of “headache”, if server goes down.
Managed - This includes medium level of management, monitoring, updates, and a limited amount of support. Customers can perform limited tasks.
Self-Managed – Only regular monitoring and some maintenance are included in this. Customers provide most operations and tasks on dedicated server.
Unmanaged – The server/hosting provider is not at all responsible. The only responsibility is to offer Network connection and the resources depending on the plans. It is all customers’ responsibility to provide all maintenance, upgrades, patches, and security.
Do I need a Dedicated Server?
Jun6
Dedicated Server gives high flexibility and more options for your website. Shared hosting plans do not supported many features. Thus, it becomes necessary for you to move to either VPS or Dedicated Servers. Usually you have root SSH /admin RDP access to the server on VPS as well as Dedicated Servers. You can manage and modify various aspects of the server behavior – software running, configuration etc. Therefore, if your site needs more than what any shared hosting plan can offer or if you need to install any specific application then VPS and dedicated server are the options for you. In addition, if you have a VPS or dedicated server, you are free to host unlimited number of domains and can have unlimited email accounts, FTP accounts etc, irrespective of the server-side OS.
A question may come to your mind that if you get root SSH /admin RDP access on VPS as well then why to go for Dedicated Server? The answer is that if you consider Dedicated Server then the whole CPU and memory is on your disposal. Your site is the only one that uses the server resources. The resources are only leased to you, thus, unlike VPS; there is no one to share them. Memory and CPU allocations for a VPS are far lesser as compared to a physical dedicate server. In addition, you can install whatever programs and software you wish. Many applications need more resources than they are offered on VPS. In this case, it becomes necessary for us to consider Dedicated Server only.
Most companies rent dedicated servers for a monthly fee providing certain amount of bandwidth, disk space and one or more dedicated IP addresses. Unlike any other plans, we can even have additional RAM, disk space, bandwidth etc.
The greatest disadvantage of a dedicated server is its price. It costs much higher than a shared hosting plan. Next, if you are on Shared hosting plan, the web-hosting provider takes care of the server upgrades, security, hacker attacks, etc. However, if you are on a dedicated server, these tasks in most of the cases are your own responsibility. Thus, making it necessary for you to be familiar with system administration before going for a dedicated or at least hire a system admin to take care of your server.
Many companies offer the so-called “Managed dedicated” servers. These server are completely opposite of Unmanaged servers. The provider will take care of every thing you require on your server, from installation to configuration. They will also monitor the server for you, maintain it regularly, carry out the System Administration tasks and will also login into the server in case the services gets crashed. Most probably, providers of Fully Managed Servers do not provide direct root access or Administrator access to their client to keep the servers safe or to make sure that the client does break them all the time.
Dedicated Server Hosting
Some dedicated servers, also known as High End Dedicated Servers, come along with a lot of software installed. This includes regular features as email, database server, web server etc. and the management software or Control Panel eg. cPanel, Plesk etc. with web interface to manage different aspects of the server such as configuring websites, creating mailboxes, ftp user etc.
When do I need a dedicated server?
There is no simple answer to that. In general, you may need a dedicated server in any of the following cases:
Security – Being on a dedicated server, you are on your own. The server is not shared amongst any other users. Nobody can have access to the server. Therefore, you can be sure that your data is safe. For example, on a shared host, in case of wrong configuration of server, any other users on the server might be able to read your data. If you own VPS, there is System Admin to read your data. However, if you own a dedicated server, there is nobody who can access the server, except you.
CPU power – If you own a shared hosting plan or you have a VPS then CPU, RAM and I/O resources are shared with other users on same server. If, in case, any user exceeds the use of CPU and/or RAM, the server performance can suffer greatly, sometimes enforcing it to go down. In this case, you do not have any option other than waiting for hosting provider to take necessary action. This is not the case with dedicated server; the CPU works only for your site. It does not mean that the server can never go down, however, sometimes, you have control on the situation to work on it and get it up as soon as possible.
Performance – Every thing that we have discussed in this article, directly or indirectly relates to performance. As there is no one to share the server, indeed, you get best performance.
Indeed, the Managed Dedicated Server is the best service offered in Hosting Industry.