Page 23 - Payout Magazine Online Volume 9.4

If you are wanting to build for scale, I’d
recommend looking at the HP ProLiant lineup.
These servers stack very well and they work
great with virtualized infrastructure. These
servers offer more density and that provides
you with more scalability and flexibility in the
future.
Nerd Stuff: Processors, RAM and
Disk Space
If you are purchasing colocation space in a
datacenter, you probably want to get the most
bang for your buck.
In order to do this, you’ll want to ensure your
used server has everything it needs so that you
aren’t constantly bringing it down to perform a
hardware upgrade.
Consider the following when buying
a used server:
Buy a server with multiple CPUs, or at least
multiple CPU sockets. This way, you’ll be able
to use dual CPUs to handle your compute
workloads or have the ability to upgrade and
double your CPU power in the future without
having to rack another server.
What is the max amount of RAM your
server can hold? Read the fine print because if
you want to upgrade your memory, you’ll want
to ensure your server can handle the larger
sticks of RAM.
If you are wanting to store more data, you’ll
want to consider the number of disk bays a
server has in it and how big the disk bays are
listed.
Disks come in two sizes. The larger 3.5”
disks are the standard size and these are much
cheaper to purchase. Higher density servers
use the 2.5” disks, which are more expensive
but give you the ability to add more disks for
future expansion.
Where to Buy Used Servers for Web
Hosting?
Naturally, you should look on Amazon and
eBay for these types of used servers. If you
have Amazon Prime, you can sometimes get
servers shipped without any shipping charges.
The best deals can be found on eBay, where
hardware liquidators will ship a server directly
to your office or datacenter. Many eBay sellers
will preconfigure the server or even offer to
install upgrades as long as you reach out to
them before completing the purchase.
At the time of this article being penned,
you can find Dell PowerEdge R510 servers
with dual 8 core 2.4GHZ processors, 32GBs
of RAM, 8 Terabytes of hard disk space with
8 drive bays for under $450. The shipping is
only $50.
For under $500, you could buy a used
server that could get your datacenter
colocation project up and running. If these low-
end used servers work out for your website,
you can always add more servers and scale it
out as your network continues to grow.
Other Considerations
When you are purchasing datacenter
colocation space, think about how many
U’s your servers are listed at and be ready
to estimate how much space you’ll need to
lease in order to host your servers. When
you purchase used servers, don’t forget to
purchase the rails. Your datacenter may try
to sell you generic rails for more than what it
would cost to procure them on your own.
Consider which servers you’ll buy and think
about how many units of rack space each
server will consume. Most of your 8 disk bay
servers will consumer 2U’s of rack space.
When you begin building out these
configurations, you’ll need to be mindful of how
much space you have in the rack when you
start adding networking gear such as firewalls
or switches.
The general rule of thumb is that you should
keep your servers as resource compact as
your budget will possibly allow. If you can follow
this rule well, you’ll make better technology
investment decisions as your datacenter
infrastructure continues to scale and grow.
PayOutMagazine 23