Questions/advice needed regarding personal dev server

[st3ssel]

Hi there!

I'm in the market for a dedicated server to host my personal projects on as well using the server for learning purposes. My idea is as follows, to split the server into four different OpenVZ VPS's.

1 x 8GB VPS - To mess around with VestaCP/Ajenti and host my websites

1 x 8GB VPS - Host a few game servers (source/minecraft) for myself and my friends

1 x 512MB VPS - Personal VPN (OpenVPN access server)

1 x 4GB VPS - Misc. development & testing

As far as hardware, I was looking at the following offer from VersaWeb:

Xeon-1230

32GB RAM

50TB @ 1Gbps

240GB SSD

$199/qtr

I have a few questions/concerns:

1 - Installing/managing containers with just OpenVZ seems daunting, would SolusVM make the process easier? SolusVM looks pretty straightforward, all I would need to do is install the script and then I would have a web panel to create/manage the containers, correct? If so, it would seem to be worth the $9/m fee for the master license.

2 - Is the hardware I'm looking at too overkill for what I plan on doing with it?

 

[fizzyjoe908]

1 - If this is your first time with a dedicated server, SolusVM might not be such a bad idea. That being said, it isn't really that difficult to get to grips with OpenVZ through a command line. I suggest looking over this tutorial and deciding if SolusVM is worth it to you or not. The article goes over the basics you need to know to install, create, manage, and destroy OpenVZ virtual machines.

2 - No, perfectly acceptable.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

1. I'd take a look at Proxmox instead of SolusVM (assuming this is all personal/private, then everything should be fine).  It does OpenVZ and KVM side-by-side and works for private-uses (saving you money).  If you want to learn everything via CLI (which is actually probably recommended), then follow the tutorial linked by @fizzyjoe908.  

2. The hardware isn't overkill depending on what the gameserver is really.  The only major resource-intensive process I can see (or assume) is the gameserver and you'll definitely have a pretty good margin to grow in if it's just light usage.

A Comment:

Depending on how much traffic your websites have, The VestaCP, OpenVPN, and the Development server (depending on what you're developing) are probably going to be the lightest resource used service.  The SSD is a great choice assuming you don't need large storage.  

I think 512mb for an OpenVPN server is over-committing, but because OpenVZ allows over commitment of resources it's no big deal if it's just one user (you) (I run an OpenVPN service on a 64 MB OpenVZ VPS, if I recall it can go all the way down to 32 MB)

 

[wlanboy]

You might think about for your dedicated server.

 

[Nett]

Get feathur.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Get feathur.

Linked to Feathur

Its free for private use.  So yeah use Feathur or Proxmox.  Or do it via CLI by following @wlanboy's tutorial (you'd be surprised how easy doing things by CLI is!)

 

[willie]

Server with live data and one SSD, no RAID?  Uh oh.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Server with live data and one SSD, no RAID?  Uh oh.

It's not a big deal. 

As long as backups are in place (e.g. get a BuyVM Storage VM or that Cloudshard storage VM) 1 SSD isn't bad.  He also isn't hosting paying customers but personal projects and tinkering.  It's fine.