# Looking to Colo



## NodeBytes (Jun 7, 2013)

I was wondering if anyone has extra space in their racks for colo. I'm looking to pay less than $60/month for 1u with 100mbit and 3TB transfer and 5 ip addresses. 

Thanks ahead of time.


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## drmike (Jun 7, 2013)

Datashack in Kansas City has 1U colo for $45/month.  10TB and I think they'll bump to gigabit connect if you ask, at least use to.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 7, 2013)

I'm already at WSI for my dedi, I like them but I would rather look for a better DC if I can.


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## vanarp (Jun 7, 2013)

bcarlsonmedia said:


> I'm already at WSI for my dedi, I like them but I would rather look for a better DC if I can.


 
What do you mean by _better DC_?


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## NodeBytes (Jun 7, 2013)

Not Wholesale - They aren't bad, but the customer service when needed is not the best. Although for the prices I'm looking for I shouldn't expect much.


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## KuJoe (Jun 7, 2013)

GoRACK had some cheap single server colocation specials a week or 2 ago on WHT.


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## Jack (Jun 7, 2013)

KuJoe said:


> GoRACK had some cheap single server colocation specials a week or 2 ago on WHT.


They posted a $2 cheaper deal yesterday;



*Limited Time Offers:*


*1U Shared Colocation *

*(One Device)*

*1A *


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## drmike (Jun 7, 2013)

GoRack isn't per se cheap, but ala carte sort of.  I like that approach though 

Dacentec in North Carolina has a low price for colo:

*1U Colo $30.00/month*
1U 
1 Amp / 120V
2TB Bandwidth on Gigabit Port
1 IPv4 adress
Remote Reboot
Automated OS Installs
Bandwidth Graph
Free IP KVM loan on request 
Free basic hands and eyes including reboots and hot-swap drive changes.
Free racking and installation.
NO LOCK IN - Month-to-Month Contract - Cancel anytime
*BUY NOW*


*Extras:*
IPv4 IP (w/ justification) - $1/IP
115V Power - $10/amp
208V Power - $20/amp
Redundant power 115V - - $20/month
Extra U of space - $25/month
*BUY NOW*


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## KuJoe (Jun 7, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> 115V Power - $10/amp


 

I would kill for $10/amp.


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## drmike (Jun 7, 2013)

KuJoe said:


> I would kill for $10/amp.


$10/A isn't too bad   Perhaps low these days actually.  Let's see:

1A = 120 watts

120 watts x 720 hours in a month = 86400

86400 / 1000 (1000 watts in 1KwH) = 86.4 KwH

So 87 KwH per Amp @ 120v power.

$10 / 87 KwH = 0.1149

or 11.49 cents per KwH

Long informal number is electric has corresponding cooling load and other electric uses --- 

11.49  / 2 (to halve it) = 5.74 cents per KwH

EIA shows average end customer for Industrial use in North Carolina at 6.11 cents per KwH (March 2013).

Ummm, what else, usually facilities don't allow you to use 100% of the power right?   Buy one 120V Amp and they want not 120 watt constant draw but more like 100 watts, right?

Dacentec also runs a "green" datacenter, so imagine that means cooling costs are the major reduction in use.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

Hmm, I'll have to consider these.

Thanks.

Btw still looking around if anyone has a good offer.


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## drmike (Jun 8, 2013)

Houston, Texas:





Oplink.net 1u Colocation $39.95/month, 100M Port Unmetered




*1U Colocation **Device/Server*
1AMP 120V Power
Dedicated 100M Port* Unmetered
PRICE: $39.95/month *
*ORDER NOW*


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Houston, Texas:     Oplink.net 1u Colocation $39.95/month, 100M Port Unmetered 1U Colocation Device/Server 1AMP 120V Power Dedicated 100M Port Unmetered PRICE: $39.95/month


Ouch, $30/month for an extra .5 amps.


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## drmike (Jun 8, 2013)

Yeah, that is hefty on the power side.  Good price if you have low power demands though.


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## concerto49 (Jun 8, 2013)

What are your exact requirements? Might be able to do this in LA.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

@concerto49 - 1u with 1-1.5amps, 3TB on 100mbps port, and 5 ip addresses.


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## KuJoe (Jun 8, 2013)

Why not rent a server? You can find some nice dedicated servers for under $50 that includes power, IPs, and 100Mbps unmetered.


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## drmike (Jun 8, 2013)

KuJoe said:


> Why not rent a server?


OP can say why not, but I often colo gear and have in the past because of specific gear I can't get from a facility.  Use to be stacks of SSDs    Still not affordable to get them in a server.    I like to own my gear, so one time cost to acquire and have things right is golden.

Do I colo what I've cobbled or do I get a $200+ server rental?  Cause you know the SSDs tack on monthly pretty good.  Colo usually wins out.  Plus I keep my gear out and deployed until failures become too costly then we just bring it back in house and repair it and use it elsewhere (usually internally).


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

I would like to own my hardware. Specifically I would like to install a server with tons of hard drive space.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Do I colo what I've cobbled or do I get a $200+ server rental?  Cause you know the SSDs tack on monthly pretty good.


This is mainly why, I would like to build out a custom ssd cached server.


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## KuJoe (Jun 8, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> OP can say why not, but I often colo gear and have in the past because of specific gear I can't get from a facility.  Use to be stacks of SSDs    Still not affordable to get them in a server.    I like to own my gear, so one time cost to acquire and have things right is golden.
> 
> Do I colo what I've cobbled or do I get a $200+ server rental?  Cause you know the SSDs tack on monthly pretty good.  Colo usually wins out.  Plus I keep my gear out and deployed until failures become too costly then we just bring it back in house and repair it and use it elsewhere (usually internally).


So far every dedicated server provider I've worked with allows you to ship drives to them, some charge a one-time remote hands fees while some will install it for free. I'm currently renting a server and I bought some nice drives on Newegg while they were on sale, I just shipped the drives and they installed them for free.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

WSI will not. 

Quadranet (Who I am looking at right now for Colo) does not have the prices I would like for a dedi. Colocation would be better for me in the end.


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## drmike (Jun 8, 2013)

It's nice where/when a facility allows your own drives.  It is random who does and doesn't support this.

Know years ago, when things were much more expensive, I'd ship drives in removable sleds from time to time.  Sometimes new data, sometimes just drive upgrades.   Had to work with some folks about such, so stuck with companies who were down to earth and billing me for receipt, unpackaging and swapping them was fine.

I know Dacentec handles drives you ship on their Rent-To-Own servers.


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## KuJoe (Jun 8, 2013)

CommercialMedia let me ship my own drives to them for 30 minutes of remote hands. I had 2 1TB drives and 1 SSD ready to ship before I moved to Colorado where the latency wasn't as good (I kept the server and use it for playing around with and @mikho has a VM on it for his own use also).

So I could have 2x Intel Xeon L5420s, 16GB RAM, 2x 256GB SSDs, 2x 1TB SATAs, 5 IPv4, and an unmetered 100Mbps port for $35/month. Of course the downside is that I don't have anything for remote management so I rely on tickets for reboots but luckily I've only experienced one outage in 4 months and it was resolved before I woke up. Might be worth looking into.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

Where did you order that? I'm interested.


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## drmike (Jun 8, 2013)

Yeah CommercialMedia isn't a company I'd be going near.   Lots of issues with offer on LEB not so far in the past and issues in the past prior to that.

Single homed --- or were.

Same company owns Megacolo I believe, so buyers beware.


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## drmike (Jun 8, 2013)

Here's the thread on LEB about CommercialMedia and a really botched offer.

Case/legal/public records at the end of the posts...

http://www.lowendbox.com/blog/commercialmedia-35-00month-16gb-ram-intel-dual-xeon-l5420-in-ashburn-virginia/


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

Okay then, Quadranet it is.


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## KuJoe (Jun 8, 2013)

Looks like they are out of stock. 

https://support.commercialmedia.com/cart.php


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## drmike (Jun 8, 2013)

Quadranet ---- people cling to them like other common places.  I haven't been impressed with services or the network there.  Although if you are in Asia, it might be best spot for you on the low cost colo side.

Haven't seen pricing lately on their colo.  Have to be slews of folks offering resold/in their rack colo there.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

With the fact that I run some fairly important mirrors on my dedis I want somewhere I can really trust. I have a failover, but I want to have a reliable main machine.


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## KuJoe (Jun 8, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Yeah CommercialMedia isn't a company I'd be going near.   Lots of issues with offer on LEB not so far in the past and issues in the past prior to that.
> 
> Single homed --- or were.
> 
> Same company owns Megacolo I believe, so buyers beware.


Yeah, they've had a lot of negative reviews but for $35/month I consider it a disposable server. Sure it takes ~12 hours for some tickets now but for a personal server it's been awesome with only 34 minutes of downtime since I got it.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Quadranet ---- people cling to them like other common places.  I haven't been impressed with services or the network there.  Although if you are in Asia, it might be best spot for you on the low cost colo side.
> 
> Haven't seen pricing lately on their colo.  Have to be slews of folks offering resold/in their rack colo there.


There's a reason. They're reliable and just work.


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## drmike (Jun 8, 2013)

KuJoe said:


> r it's been awesome with only 34 minutes of downtime since I got it.


 

Glad they are delivering to one customer 

@jarland has had a good experience with them also. 

Sadly, many have not for all sorts of real issues.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

Not worth even risking the issues for me. It's just kind of annoying to have to deal with it.


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## qps (Jun 8, 2013)

We have Dual Xeon L5420 servers in Atlanta for $49 available from our LEB special, if that will work.


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## Zach (Jun 8, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> $10/A isn't too bad   Perhaps low these days actually.  Let's see:
> 
> 1A = 120 watts
> 
> 120 watts x 720 hours in a month = 86400


1A != 120 watts.  Depends on the voltage of the drop.  Some offer 208V, some offer 240V (Colostore does this).  So:

1A @ 120V = 120W

1A @ 208V = 208W

1A @ 240V = 240W

And so on.

Also, 120V is pretty inefficient comparatively.  Look for providers that offer 208 or 240.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

@qps not allowing outside hardware is the killer for me.


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## earl (Jun 8, 2013)

bcarlsonmedia said:


> WSI will not.


When I spoke to them they will accept SSD's..


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## Francisco (Jun 8, 2013)

FDC allows it but you lose ownership of the equipment.

Fiberhub might? QPS might if you forgo ownership of said shipment.

Francisco


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## KuJoe (Jun 8, 2013)

Francisco said:


> FDC allows it but you lose ownership of the equipment.
> 
> 
> Fiberhub might? QPS might if you forgo ownership of said shipment.
> ...


That's usually the catch, but for $60 hard drives I'll gladly let them keep them after a year of use if it saves me an extra $60/month.


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## qps (Jun 8, 2013)

We can do one-time fees on the hardware upgrades instead of a monthly fee.  The prices on the one-time fees typically aren't too far off of the actual hardware cost.

Depending on what you are wanting to install, we may be willing to work with hardware that is shipped in.  We typically don't allow it, simply because we aren't setup to send/receive equipment from customers.  If we agree to it, it would definitely involve forfeiting ownership.


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## Mike (Jun 8, 2013)

Is there a specific location you're looking for?  I don't think this has been asked, yet.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 8, 2013)

Los Angeles or Texas are preffered.


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## SilverKnightTech (Jun 8, 2013)

Silver Knight Technologies offers Colocation Services in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Our racks our inside of the Fiberhub Datacenter facility which has:


Backup power systems utilizing high-efficiency Mitsubishi UPS and Caterpillar diesel generators
Multiple lit fiber providers in the facility, building is located just 200 yards from a major fiber route
Multiple provider POP


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## NodeBytes (Jun 9, 2013)

@silverknighttech - I don't know why but the tests were super slow from my location.


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## drmike (Jun 9, 2013)

Ahhh @bcarlsonmedia, it just isn't you with slowness on the test files.

Unsure if @SilverKnightTech has other competing traffic on that mirrors domain or not.

VegasNap is hit or miss for me.  Definitely high latency from my location.  I like a lot of the providers there, but network blend needs improved.  Backhauling to California creates some long routes.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 9, 2013)

I'm in Los Angeles so the backhauling shouldn't have as many issues. Just high latency.


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## drmike (Jun 9, 2013)

From Los Angeles shouldn't be much latency at all.

Try this to see if speed throughput is just a provider issue or your upstream or something else.

BuyVM is in the same facility and has speed test files:

http://speedtest.lv.buyvm.net/

See what you get from those speed wise.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 9, 2013)

1MB/s average.

And I get the same on a Ramnode VPS in Seattle.


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## drmike (Jun 9, 2013)

I find the Vegas Fiberhub network plain slow.

Try another provider's test, @24khost 

http://lv.24khost.com/100MBtest.zip


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## drmike (Jun 9, 2013)

BTW: You said RamNode in Seattle --- having tons of throughput and routing long ways from RamNode in Atlanta.  Unsure if their is something going on there at RamNode with upstreams or what.


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## SilverKnightTech (Jun 9, 2013)

Evening,

 Hmm very odd, I just tested from Dallas, LA, and NJ and pulled over 900Mbps.  Seattle out was slower at 700Mbps. 

For my own personal knowledge and to help better our services, can you guys please post your speedtest results for me?

http://mirrors.silverknighttech.com/100meg.zip

Thanks,

Anthony


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## drmike (Jun 9, 2013)

Did standard wget -O /dev/null for the file... Single threaded request.

*From Ramnode, Atlanta, GA:*

1.3MB/s then goes down to 500KB/s then bursts to about 1.2MB/s then yo-yos downward and to about 1MB/s... then bursts to 2.5MB/s.  Ends at 755KB/s in 94s.

2:  ae1-222.atl11.ip4.tinet.net                           0.273ms asymm  4 

 3:  xe-11-1-2.mia10.ip4.tinet.net                        14.277ms asymm  5 

 4:  no reply

 5:  te0-5-0-6.ccr21.mia01.atlas.cogentco.com             14.806ms asymm  6 

 6:  te0-3-0-5.mpd21.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com             32.415ms asymm  7 

 7:  te0-2-0-3.mpd21.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com             75.120ms asymm  8 

 8:  no reply

 9:  no reply

10:  38.88.14.2                                           69.847ms asymm  9 

11:  199.47.208.50                                        70.175ms asymm 10 

12:  199.47.208.50                                        70.123ms asymm 10 

13:  208-64-25.static.versaweb.net                        70.204ms asymm 11 

 

*From Buffalo, NY (BuyVM):*

3MB/s+ then falls to under 1MB/s then 1.2-1.3MB/s burst to 2.86MB/s then collapses downward to 900KB/s.  Ends at 1.66MB/s in 57 seconds.

4:  nyk-bb1-link.telia.net                                9.930ms asymm  6 

 5:  las-bb1-link.telia.net                               95.869ms asymm  7 

 6:  154.54.89.89                                         25.504ms asymm 11 

 7:  hurricane-ic-138557-las-b3.c.telia.net               91.813ms asymm 10 

 8:  184.105.222.154                                      54.236ms 

 9:  te0-2-0-1.mpd22.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com             49.643ms 

10:  vegasnap-llc.10gigabitethernet5-1.core1.lax2.he.net  64.718ms asymm 12 

11:  208-64-25.static.versaweb.net                        87.612ms asymm 14 

12:  208-64-25.static.versaweb.net                        65.678ms asymm 14 

13:  38.122.78.10                                         78.199ms asymm 12 

14:  199.47.208.50                                        79.205ms asymm 13 

15:  208-64-25.static.versaweb.net                        78.425ms asymm 14 

16:  208-64-25.static.versaweb.net                        81.733ms asymm 14 

 

*From Kansas City, MO:*

10MB/s and quickly drops ends up at 900KB/s for a while.  Gets up to about 2MB/s falls to 500KB/s.  Yo-yos a bit on the low end.  Ends up at 788KB/s in 65s.

3:  69.30.209.221                                         5.115ms 

 4:  10gigabitethernet1-3.core1.mci2.he.net                1.994ms 

 5:  10gigabitethernet5-1.core1.mci3.he.net               10.515ms 

 6:  10gigabitethernet5-1.core1.den1.he.net               16.830ms 

 7:  10gigabitethernet1-2.core1.slc1.he.net               24.526ms 

 8:  10gigabitethernet1-1.core1.las1.he.net               33.635ms 

 9:  vegasnap-llc.10gigabitethernet5-1.core1.lax2.he.net  34.161ms 

10:  199.47.208.66                                        33.592ms 

11:  208-64-25.static.versaweb.net                        34.470ms 

 

So, I've seen this sort of thing before.   Seems like we have issue both across Cogent as well as HE.  Both upstreams in Vegas, right?

I think it's a single thread limit.  UNsure if upsteam or end server.

*Trying this from Buffalo:*

axel -n 4  http://mirrors.silverknighttech.com/100meg.zip

Downloaded 100.0 megabytes in 25 seconds. (3992.06 KB/s)

 

Noticeably faster, still not where it should be though.


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## SilverKnightTech (Jun 9, 2013)

Morning,

 Thank you for the info, I am passing this along to our DC engineer, as this morning for me things are all over the place as well.

*Offsite DNS Server: 100Mbps New Jersey.*

[email protected] [~]# curl -O http://mirrors.silverknighttech.com/100meg.zip

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current

                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed

100  100M  100  100M    0     0  1300k      0  0:01:18  0:01:18 --:--:-- 1409k

[email protected] [~]#

*Offsite DNS Server: 100Mbps LA*

[email protected] [~]# curl -O http://mirrors.silverknighttech.com/100meg.zip

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current

                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed

100  100M  100  100M    0     0  10.8M      0  0:00:09  0:00:09 --:--:-- 10.9M

[email protected] [~]#

*Offsite DNS Server: 100Mbps Dallas*

[email protected] [~]# curl -O http://mirrors.silverknighttech.com/100meg.zip

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current

                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed

100  100M  100  100M    0     0  8414k      0  0:00:12  0:00:12 --:--:-- 8894k

[email protected] [~]#

*Windows Remote Desktop 1000Mbps Las Vegas*

*




*

Thanks for the help!

Anthony


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## drmike (Jun 9, 2013)

SilverKnightTech said:


> Morning,
> 
> Thank you for the info, I am passing this along to our DC engineer, as this morning for me things are all over the place as well.


Feel free to PM me at any time about this.

These odd speeds aren't just you.  I see it from 2-3 other provider in same facility and has been going on for quite a while.


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## earl (Jun 9, 2013)

you should look into this deal from server complete, I really think it's a good buy! you can send them your own drives which they will install for for free and each server can take up to 3 x 3.5" drives, you can send them SSD but they have to be sent complete with the 2.5"to 3.5" bracket.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1272499

*Dual Intel Xeon L5520y*
24GB DDR3 ECC RAM
1000GB SATA-II Hard Disk
*100 Mbps UNMETERED!* *(Upgradable!)*
1 IP Address (4 more can be ordered for free)
Jacksonville Datacenter
Automated Provisioning of Servers
*FREE Setup -- $55.00/month*

ipv6/IPMI is free but is in the works..

I don't really see the point of doing colo unless you have a new server with big specs where collocating the machine would be cheaper than renting one on a monthly basis..


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## drmike (Jun 9, 2013)

Yeah that is a crazy cool offer @earl.

OP wants something US West Coast or low enough latency to there.


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## earl (Jun 9, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Yeah that is a crazy cool offer @earl.
> 
> OP wants something US West Coast or low enough latency to there.


yeah unfortunately this server is only available in their Florida DC.. I've had this server for almost a month now it's been great and support is awesome, but have not need to use it after the first few days of setting up the server.. They are in the process of setting up a VPN for IPMI access so it's something to look forward to..

WII also has a similar offer with the same specs but it's $59/mo, was thing about buying that instead cause they pretty much give you a 1Gbit port even thought it states 100 Mbit port and free DA, but it's a hard call cause I'm pretty happy with SC. Their server management panel is similar to OVH so it's pretty convenient for automated OS reload, graphs etc..


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## NodeBytes (Jun 9, 2013)

I don't need to reload often if at all once I get things stable. 

I wish Quadranet or a DC in Los Angeles or a reseller had similar pricing.


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## drmike (Jun 9, 2013)

bcarlsonmedia said:


> I wish Quadranet or a DC in Los Angeles or a reseller had similar pricing.


Oh Colocrossing probably does  Just tell them you don't like me.

Quadranet has a boatload of resellers and surely a bunch of companies to consider.  If your heart is set on Quadranet, then post a new thread looking for companies with space in Quadranet.


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## earl (Jun 9, 2013)

bcarlsonmedia said:


> I don't need to reload often if at all once I get things stable.
> 
> I wish Quadranet or a DC in Los Angeles or a reseller had similar pricing.


same with me, I normally install proxmox so when I do move servers I just back up my container and restore in the new server, but it's always nice to know that you can do this yourself from the CP instead of waiting for someone at the DC..

I was really contemplating on doing colo last year but after figuring out the prices it just was not worth it to colo the older hardware considering you are responsible for the hardware and also if you need to add ram etc most DC will charge remote hands which gets kinda expensive.. I'm thinking about sending SC some Hard drives when the IPMI is available maybe I can setup RAID on it


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## NodeBytes (Jun 9, 2013)

F



earl said:


> it just was not worth it to colo the older hardware considering you are responsible for the hardware



This is really what is keeping me away from colo. I wouldn't have access to the hardware very frequently if at all so I would have to rely on remote hands (read paying money) to have small services done.


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## drmike (Jun 10, 2013)

bcarlsonmedia said:


> This is really what is keeping me away from colo. I wouldn't have access to the hardware very frequently if at all so I would have to rely on remote hands (read paying money) to have small services done.


 

Remote hands can be very expensive, especially when breakage happens.

If you are going to colo or considering it, you should make sure to heavily document all your colo'd gear down to the internal components prone to failure (drives, fans, PSU).   Keep a supply of spares wherever you are and make sure the facility will allow for parts storage on site (even at cost).  Ship a batch of parts for the server once racked.

Other thing to do is standardize on a server line when deploying multiple colo units.  That way you know what all the servers are and the spare are identical.

Colo really can be done in a cost effective manner.  You have to be highly organized and intentional in what you do.  Meticulous records are mandatory.

As for hand on, best to get the rates and hours up front.  I only deal with 24/7 operations typically.  Lots of oddballs with 9-5 M-F hands on and everything else is staff on call billed at emergency rates.

Last thing, demo run and install and test everything to be deployed locally first and make sure you know how to administer it before shipping.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 10, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Remote hands can be very expensive, especially when breakage happens.



Yes, I am very aware of this.



buffalooed said:


> If you are going to colo or considering it, you should make sure to heavily document all your colo'd gear down to the internal components prone to failure (drives, fans, PSU).   Keep a supply of spares wherever you are and make sure the facility will allow for parts storage on site (even at cost).


What is the normal cost for this, I haven't been able to find out very easily.



buffalooed said:


> Colo really can be done in a cost effective manner.  You have to be highly organized and intentional in what you do.  Meticulous records are mandatory.


Yay, I actually love logging things and I keep really good records as is.



buffalooed said:


> Last thing, demo run and install and test everything to be deployed locally first and make sure you know how to administer it before shipping.


Already done, I keep 2 of all my servers. 1 for production, 1 for testing.


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## earl (Jun 10, 2013)

Initially I just thought it would be neat to own the hardware, there was so many cheap and tempting deals on ebay that I was going to buy one and ship it direct to the DC, but you can never get the specs you want at the right price and I would not trust the guys at the DC to do things like add a CPU etc.. even a budget company like WII will charge you to install RAM so the savings you get for buying a cheap server is quickly reduced with having to pay for remote hands .. in the end it just was not worth it for the kind of hardware I was looking to colo, considering that some companies are willing to accept customer sent hardware like hard drives for a rented server it really does not make sense..


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## drmike (Jun 10, 2013)

bcarlsonmedia said:


> What is the normal cost for this, I haven't been able to find out very easily.


 

Stocking spares... Well, good luck there.  Many bargain facilities give the deer in headlights look about parts storage.  Somewhat hard to find.

The stealthful way to stock spares in some facilities that do not offer such is to take advantage of their often cheap additional rack unit charge and ship a full, unused parts server.

Good to ask up front about facility relationships with supply/parts vendors.   So facilities have relationships to get same day parts across town to facility.  Meaning you can order/pay for such and have them delivered locally there.  I've done that in the past.


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## earl (Jun 10, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Stocking spares... Well, good luck there.  Many bargain facilities give the deer in headlights look about parts storage.  Somewhat hard to find.
> 
> 
> The stealthful way to stock spares in some facilities that do not offer such is to take advantage of their often cheap additional rack unit charge and ship a full, unused parts server.
> ...


Excellent tips!


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## drmike (Jun 10, 2013)

I still believe colo is the better route if you are operating your own projects. If you are a seller of services to people, then I'd recommend dedicated server rental with real SLA and 24/7 hands availability.

I've been colo'ing gear since the 1990's.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 10, 2013)

Yeah, I just can't find a good dedicated server with 1 on off hardware purchases for reasonable pricing.


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## concerto49 (Jun 11, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Stocking spares... Well, good luck there.  Many bargain facilities give the deer in headlights look about parts storage.  Somewhat hard to find.
> 
> The stealthful way to stock spares in some facilities that do not offer such is to take advantage of their often cheap additional rack unit charge and ship a full, unused parts server.
> 
> Good to ask up front about facility relationships with supply/parts vendors.   So facilities have relationships to get same day parts across town to facility.  Meaning you can order/pay for such and have them delivered locally there.  I've done that in the past.


In a lot of higher end facilities, there is no spare part storage. It goes in the rack, so you're essentially paying for rack space. Good luck. We stock our own spare parts mostly in the rack. Depends.

Colo isn't worth it unless in large scale.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 11, 2013)

concerto49 said:


> ... Colo isn't worth it unless in large scale.


That's what I am starting to realize. However large scale can sometimes be a single server with the proper specs. I may end up building out a server with 2x3TB drives and 2x128GB SSDs - That would really fit me needs best and if I could colo it for cheap it would be the best price for that kind of meat in a server.


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## drmike (Jun 11, 2013)

Large scale is typically what the bills are at facilities when you need stacks of drives and tons of RAM.

Something I neglected to point out when dealing with colo is to have a local/regional person who is competent and can do admin work on site as needed. Facility hands can be limited or greatly delayed when you need them most. Plus the fees can add up quickly. Dedicated flat rate admin can sometimes been a life saver.


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## NodeBytes (Jun 11, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Large scale is typically what the bills are at facilities when you need stacks of drives and tons of RAM.


Mhhhmmm. That's why the idea of having an additional unused server for parts is a really good idea. 



buffalooed said:


> Dedicated flat rate admin can sometimes been a life saver.


Understandable.


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## NodeBytes (Jul 15, 2013)

I usually don't ressurect old threads, but I do think this one is worth it. I ended up going with an RTO server from SouthBendServers. @Zach is awesome and helps out a ton, he's a great guy and runs a reputable company. (He didn't pay me or anything to say this   )

I got the best deal I could in this case and the DC they are in has a good mix of peers. Level3, Internap, and Cogent make up the mix. And the latency to the west coast isn't bad.


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## Zach (Jul 15, 2013)

bcarlsonmedia said:


> I usually don't ressurect old threads, but I do think this one is worth it. I ended up going with an RTO server from SouthBendServers. @Zach is awesome and helps out a ton, he's a great guy and runs a reputable company. (He didn't pay me or anything to say this   )
> 
> I got the best deal I could in this case and the DC they are in has a good mix of peers. Level3, Internap, and Cogent make up the mix. And the latency to the west coast isn't bad.


I appreciate the kind words and look forward to working with you in the future, Brendan!


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