Web Servers

Web Server

[jamiedykes1]

Hi, I have recently started my own Web Design company, and I have already receieved an overwhelling amount of customers. Because of the complexity of the websites I am having to host them myself. I would really appreciate it if someone could help me.

I know I have to buy servers, and I will have to adopt the web server farm technique. Im hoping to spend between 30-40,000 on some servers drom dell (rack servers) and a Dell Administration panel, with a KVM Set up. Each company wil have their own server. But Im very confused, when the company types in to their address bars: www.companyname.com, and the DNS resolves the domain to my IP address, how will my main server know which server to point to?

I Would really really appreciate it if someone could help, as It is getting rather urgent.

Regards

jamie

[Krapulator]

I think a question you need to ask yourself is: are you a web design company or a web hosting company?

Web hosting requires a great deal of specialist knowledge and experience to keep everything running smoothly and to deal with the inevitable damage control when something goes wrong (and something always does sooner or later).

There are a lot of good hosting companies out there who can give you reseller agreements, thus allowing you to make money from the hosting, but without you having to spend all your time maintaining servers when you could be gaining more clients and building more sites.

I personally would rather leave the hosting to the experts and focus my time on developing websites (and more business).

[jamiedykes1]

Hi, I do understnad your point, but I have done extensive research into this area, and this is the only part that no other website has been able to advise me on, I pretty much know the rest, and after my first contract has gone through Ill be able to employ someone that shouldnt be an issue. Its just the initial set up that I need help with, and what to do with 5. or 6 servers.

They will all run Windows 2003 server on them.

They will all be connected via a swtich, and have fixed IP addresses. How would someone accessing say www.business1.co.uk be redirected to the right server, as surely I will only have one WAN IP? Eventually this will become a web hosting company, and I hope to learn more as soon as I buy the servers, i just need some guidance on this initial set-up?

Thanks for your help

Jamie

[py9jmas]

as surely I will only have one WAN IP?

I hope not. For this you really want a set of globally unique public IP addresses. With each server having its own public address, DNS can point directly to the relevent server.

[jamiedykes1]

Ahh, this maybe where I'm going wrong with this concept. How would I do this though? Theyre all going to be networked anyway, so that I can use the Dell Console Management System, how would I assign Public IP addresses to each server within an internal network?

Really appreciating this help by the way, Thanks

Regards

[Burner]

Forwarding to an internal LAN IP happens at the router. You will need to bind all your external Internet IPs to your router, and the router will forward then either an IP address or just selected ports to an IP you designate on the private LAN.

You may want to consider separating out the webservers into their own DMZ away from your regular network for security sake.

My 2 cents,
Burner

[jamiedykes1]

Ah rite, I see. Thankyou for the help! Much appreciated. I understnad the concept much better now. As it stands, I dont currently have any network set up, so I dont think setting up DMZ is necessary. I purely want to set-up the network for the hosting capabilities.

1 more question however, well more advice really, Would you be able to advise me on the most suitable router for this purpose?, and I'm sorry again to ask yet another question, but how would I get several IP addresses to point to my router?

Thanks!

Jamie

[Burner]

Glad to help!

Actually, your ISP is the best one to help here. They will provide the extra IPs to you. I'd also see if the have a deal where they will sell or lease you the router. This way if (actually when) your Internet connection goes down, there won't be all kinds of finger pointing between the ISP and company providing the hardware since they're now one and the same. It may cost a few more dollars, but definitely fixes configuration or troubleshooting hassles.

If they won't sell/lease you a router, which would be surprising to me, then go with a higher end router. The cheap ones often don't support NAT or port forwarding on more than 1 IP at a time. For my money, Cisco is the only way to go. But a Linux/BSD box running IPTables is a great alternative.

Burner

[jamiedykes1]

Thanks for your advice,

unforutnately I live in the UK where ISP's barely provide a free broadband modem. Ive heard that Cisco is a very good choice to make, but I'm not sure what level to get.

These are my server specs:

8 x Dell Rack Server. Each have 80GB memory, 3.2Ghz Pentium Processor, 512mb RAM, Windows 2003 Server Web Edition.

Now each server is for each of the schools that I will be hosting their sites on, so 1 school = 1 server. Basically, the students are going to have the capability to upload and download content onto the server (Secure) via their own dedicated areas. Im guessing that ill get about 1GB bandwidth a day. COuld any recommmend a specific model? I'm sorry but im only a programmer, but I would really like to be able to host the sites, especially since I bought them today...

I need one that can handle multiple WAN IP addresses (something that I didnt even know existed until today) and no more than say 5GB Traffic a day. I need the router to take in IP ( WAN) requests and redirect the request to the right server.

Thankyou so much for your help guys, i really do appreciate it, its all a learning cuve for me im afraid.

Regards

Jamie

Just for reference, not sure if this helps

[Burner]

Could any recommmend a specific model?

Not actually, I made my living for years as a Network Engineer and the one thing I learned during that time is that infrastructure is CRITICAL. The network has to be properly sized and potential network growth has to be weighed. Budgets taken into account and already available resources taken into account. If you just went and bought a router from some person's recommendation in a forum on the web, you would be setting yourself up for a world of hurt on down the road.

I can't stress this enough... You should hire a WAN tech to meet with you, recommend and support your hardware. Properly configuring & troubleshooting routing is something that can take years to perfect.

I know this wasn't the answer you wanted but I do wish good luck to you,

Burner

[jamiedykes1]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice, it is greatly appreciated, and I do understand that this is something that is going to take a long time to set up, even though after developing my first site, realisitcally I should be hosting it for them, because of its complexity, however I guess that my final solution is to speak to a professional about it.

Thanks everyone that has contributed to my posts, every post is, and was valued, and thanks for the advice :) probably doesnt help that I'm only 16 lol.

Regards

Jamie

[carguy84]

I can give you some hardware advice, and I'll get to that in a minute, but first, let me give you some business advice. Don't do it. Don't get into hosting if you can't provide your customers with all the answers. Find a contract network admin and have him either set it up for you, or work along side you teaching as he goes. You can provide your customers with the best looking, best functioning websites, but if they aren't up and running 99.99% of the time, they're going to become irate customers. OK, that being said....hardware:

Buy used. Buy 1-2 year old used, I'm sure there are places around you that sell warrantied used equipment. Buying new Dells off their website, while extremely easy and fun, is not the way to do it. Look for used Compaq DL380's (G2 if possible) if you have the space for 2U servers, otherwise, the 1U DL360's. The 1Us only have room for 2 hard drives, the 2U's have room for 6...a HUGE difference. Dual P3 1.4Ghz Compaq 380's with two 36GB drives in RAID1 for your OS, and 3 73GB drives in RAID5 for your data and 1 gig of RAM will run you less then $2000US. THe Compaq's also have better RAID controllers. I have 2 Dell pizza boxes that I have to support, and I thought it was all hype what the other admins were talking about when they'd talk build quality, but wow, what a difference.

Router. You want a router/firewall. Something like a SonicWall Pro 2040 or the 1260. Most SonicWall sellers will configure it for you after you buy it too. The sonciwalls support antivirus, antispam, content filtering, intrusion prevention....and are a little less pricey then the Ciscos, and a little less costly. I'm not sure what the traffic will be like, but both Cisco and Sonicwall have devices that can pass through millions of transactions per second...they just cost a lot :)

Operating System. MSFT 2003 Web Edition is a great OS, and priced extrememly well. However, one major limitation is that you can't run MS SQL on it. Not sure what the websites are going to be running their data from, but just a heads up. When I was using the Beta 2003 WE, I wasted quite a bit of time figuring that one out :(. Standard Edition supports SQL Server. Costs about twice as much.

Bandwidth. What kind of bandwidth are you expecting to need? The one good thing about not spending $30,000 on new Dells, is that you're going to have about an extra $20,000 for a fat pipe! :)

In any case, good luck, it sounds like things are going well. Just PLEASE, hire a network admin for this work. It will probably take him about 20 hours, so figure worst case scenario, $3000....so you'll have $17,000 for that fat pipe.

Chip-

[netguy]

jamiedykes1, it sounds like your web design business has quickly become an outstanding success. As such, carguy offers some excellent advice. Don't try to learn this at the expense of your clients.

The server (administration) side of the business is not for anyone without the knowledge to protect themselves from certain disaster. All of those wonderful new clients will leave you in a heartbeat, if your box(s) becomes unsecure through improper setup or a missed software patch.

Without more experience, you can quickly find your clients domains being used for illegally grabbing credit cards, distributing p*rn, SPAM that gets your IPs blocked by the major networks, or hacks that steal personal information from your ecomm clients.

At a very minimum, take Chip's advice and hire a good network consultant that has ten years or so of experience to guide you through this precarious business.

Steve