I was having problems with a host and Ed (one of the owners) helped me out creating a custom package to fit my needs and moving my sites across.
I've posted more than my fair share of tickets and they all get responded to quickly. All the tickets have either been my own problems for example installing scripts or sales questions.
Server speeds are good for me and prices are low.
I've actually had a post-it note pegged to my project board for the last two months to remind myself to write up a review of Pacific Rack. Between the holidays, life and there never being enough hours in the day...I just hadn't had a chance until now. Please allow me to apologize in advance if I go into more detail than what is needed. I have an annoying habit of over-explaining things.
Anyways - here is a bit of background:
My Industry:
A freelance designer that also provides web hosting to design clients on a dedicated server housed with Pacific Rack. My main website can be found at [url]and most of the websites displayed in my design portfolio are also hosted on the server (Caution: Those websites in my portfolio are semi-adult in nature [companionship providers], so if you are at work or have an irrational hang-up about such things, I suggest not following my portfolio links). I don't make a profit from hosting (nor do I try to) - so it's not like I'm a big, high-tech hosting company. In fact, what I know about server management is pretty pathetic and minimal - which is why I pay PSM to manage it for me. I mainly offer hosting as a convenience and extra layer of identity protection to design clients.
The websites I host are mostly smallish, semi-dynamic outfits powered by my own, mysql-based, home-brew CMS solution. I host around 60 accounts, none of which are very resource intensive. My clients typically require require between 3-12GB monthly transfer each.
Server Hardware:
The server specs and package I have with Pacific Rack are as follows:
Intel C2D (2.0Ghz)
2GB Ram
250GB SATA 16MB Cache
CentOS 5.1
cPanel/WHM
2000GB Bandwidth
100Mbps port
50GB Automated Backup
Sign-Up:
I moved to Pacific Rack from Dediwebhosting in May 2008. The initial contact and transition was handled by Alex Ferrier, who was simply phenomenal. Yes. I am aware he is actually Chris so-and-so and that there was a huge controversy about him and some shady way he handled a hosting business several years back (he was a teenager at the time, mind you). Frankly - I don't care. He was not only courteous and helpful to me during my transition, but he didn't make me feel like an idiot for being such a noob. He also had a sense of humor and communicated on a level that was very personable. Knowing what I know now about his past has not changed my opinion of him or Pacific Rack in the slightest. Ok. Getting off topic. So I signed-up/paid on 5/29 and had my server up and running by 6/1. I had some issues with the new server having an updated version of mysql that broke my CMS - but this wasn't anyone's fault but my own.
Reliability:
It hasn't been a full year yet, but I've had very little downtime with my server and none that I can even recall clearly. Far less than I'd experienced with a reseller account at H9 or with my first dedicated server with Dediwebhost (neither of which were excessive either). I also noticed a definite improvement in overall server response and performance when I moved to PR - though my hardware specs were much better than where I was coming from. I'm not sure if is due to a better network, but previously my server couldn't send/receive mail with AOL accounts (yes. I'd gone through all the troubleshooters) - but this problem was resolved after moving to PR.
Support:
So this is where I think they really shine. I'd mentioned above that I currently use PSM for my management needs. I think they're a terrific service but there are some limitations in terms of response times and how thorough they are in making sure things aren't broken after doing an update for you. There have been a few times in the last year when a server package install/update has caused problems with my client sites, which ... after waiting an hour or more for a response from PSM (while I'm stressing from clients yelling at me) - I'd get impatient and submit a ticket to Pacific Rack instead. In every single one of those cases, Pacific Rack responded to (and often resolved) my issue within 15 minutes. They're just darn quick with support requests. They have the pay-per-incident option (usually only $5), but they've only actually charged me a couple of times out of all the instances I've contacted them.
Not only that, but as touched on above - they just don't make me feel like the server idiot I know I reveal myself to be at times. WHT is intimidating for me to post on because it seems as if most of you are big shot hosting gurus (or big companies that can afford to hire your own hot shot hosting gurus). I'm just a rinky-dink freelancer, whose hosting requirements are quite modest compared to many of the people here. Yet, all things being relative - my hosting needs are still important and significant in my own little world.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'm sure PR has much larger accounts than my small little server...yet they don't project an attitude that I'm any less important to them. Support is quick, friendly and informative. In fact, I'm waiting to hear back from their sales department about what management services they offer. I really have appreciated having PSM, but because I host so many accounts that depend on me for uptime - I feel like I need to look into more reliable management options.
Actually, 'reliable' isn't the right word...as PSM has been pretty great. I just need a service with faster turn-arounds on tickets.
So all in all, I highly recommend Pacific Rack. I realize my modest server requirements may not be the proper scale from which to judge your own performance and reliablity needs...but their support and network uptime would apply to anyone ... and that I can vouch for. I just feel like I'm in good hands with them.
With all the high power servers/blade servers, the 40A (@ 110V) power limit is way too small. I am wondering if there is any colo space targeted for high density application, e.g. with 10 KW/cab limit for 60A @ 208V power drops. Does anybody know of such high density colocation space? East coast is preferred.
View 14 Replies View Relateda company gives me 40U rack with 16A by 600€ per month. It will be enough power to fill the rack with Dell servers R200/R300 with dual and quad core processors?
View 14 Replies View RelatedI just shipped a server out to wowrack.com... Anyone got an opinion on this company?
View 13 Replies View RelatedI woke up to a complaint by the ISP of spamming for one of our servers. More than 10 000 spams in a shared hosting environment. Found Steven online, thank God! PM him and he went to work looking for the culprit. He spend time monitoring and putting in scripts to catch the culprit and in no time found the faulty script causing the spams.
Really saved me a big headache on how to explain to the ISP. Thanks to the consistent excellent work done by Steven of Rack911.
Those unpatched forums of clients can really be a hassle and a big source of problems.
We plan to redoing one of our rack in the next weeks
Server, switch and firewall of this rack will be move to new rack, so redoing cable and order at best.
You known any video tutorial of how to better this?
Our server count with The Planet only seems to be increasing as of late and I'm now starting to drive myself nuts with bandwidth counts, costs, etc.
My main concern at the moment is our total bandwidth. While we might have a server with a 2500GB limit only use 50% we might have a 1500GB limit use 200%. I understand that any overages are our own fault, etc but there must be a way for us to combine all bandwidth across all servers!
Is it possible for The Planet or any of the other big boys to provide private racks with pooled bandwidth without going colo?
I am planning on getting a server that will run Linux.
My requirements are as follows,
Should be rack server.
Can handle around 20.000 page views a day.
Should be solid.
Should I build it or should i just get HP, DEll etc.
I also would really appreciate if you guys assist me on what components should I get picking up a good server configuration.
I honestly dont understand why does DELL, HP and others price their 1U TFT monitors at 3 times the cost of the cheapest laptop?
I mean, dont get me wrong, I am all for spending good money to get quality products but I feel very awkward spending 3 times as much for a screen and keyboard when I can get their laptops WITH OS, MEMORY AND HDD for 3 times as less and use it as the 1U TFT monitors.
I can get a powerful server from Dell and HP at that price for crying out loud.
But then again, I might be seriously overlooking something here because what justifies such high price?
We have about 50 Cpanel servers in our own AS with two upstream providers. On the cpanel servers we use the following IPs in the /etc/resolv.conf:
1. IP of the cpanel server
2. DNS IP of the 1st upstreamprovider
3. DNS IP of the 2nd upstreamprovider
I realized, that the upstreampoviders nameserver are not answering that fast and therefore I was thinking to make my own DNS Server, which I could use additionaly after the IP of the cpanel server.
Is this a good idea or is it not necessary? If it is a good idea, which dns deamon would be recommended? If we build this server, maybe would be also nice if we could offer DNS as a single service. Is there any solution where we could create user accounts where user could manage there own dns zones?
I have 10 servers and it causes me $1713 monthly. I decide to get a rack and buy 10 servers from dell but the problem is: I don’t know anything about racks
View 16 Replies View RelatedIf capacity was not an issue, where would you buy a rack in Seattle?
View 14 Replies View RelatedI´m having a problem right now. I need to buy a Dual Xeon system, to use 2 Quad Cores, however there are some things I need:
- I already have a SCSI controller (Dell Perc 4 (PCIe))
- I already have HD´s (3x SCSI U320)
- I want to use RAID5
- The chassis must be 1U
... my problem is that I never worked with SCSI U320, just SATA and SAS. I usually buy Tyan racks, more specifically, this one: Tyan Tank GT20 5381
It doesn´t have the option for SCSI U320, however they sell SCSI Backplanes that are compatible with this barebone. My question is:
- How do I connect a standalone card (like the one I have) to the backplane? Is there any SCSI connector on the backplane?
- Since space is a bit of a problem in 1U racks, are there any kind of cables that can do more tight turns inside the case?
What do you guys think about putting 40 Amps into one rack? Our colocation provider wants to whine about it and not allow it. When we're paying them $1000+ a month - I think this is just shoddy. They say it's for heat concerns - but really this just makes me mad. We have fifteen 1U servers in there, and can't get much more on our existing 20 amps.
View 14 Replies View RelatedDoes anyone have any recommendations where I can get a few cheap (full length) rack shelves in the UK. They don't have to be adjustable but would prefer if they where full ones and not the half ones as I don't think they would take the weight correctly.
View 2 Replies View Relatedi am looking for a Rack Maps software design to manage all our rack and server position inside the rack.
View 12 Replies View RelatedI need 1/4 rack in the San Francisco bay area (hopefully south bay), at least 5A and 5mpbs. Any suggestions?
View 0 Replies View RelatedI have had bad experiences with zero-U PDUs (i have only tried the APC ones). They keep getting in the way of equipment when you put them in the back of the cabinet .... I usually end up just having them standing up in the back of the cabinet and zip tie them to something so they dont fall down.
Am I just stupid and using these wrong or do other people have this issue? if you have an extra long server that sits out the back it bumps into the PDU so you got to nestle the PDUs into a corner of the cabinet.
What PDUs is everything using in various co-los? I might go with the 2U rack PDUs but with the need for 2 of them that is 4U wasted (and also since they are not very long you need some long cable runs for all of the equipment to plug into them)..
Have an issue that I am dealing with, APC support couldn't really help me get anywhere either.
Here is the story:
I am leasing a rack at Equinix in Sunnyvale.
It came with 3 APC Switched rack PDUs.
By the looks of it, they were used by the previous customer.
APC sent me a serial to RJ11 programming cable, and I have been trying to use HyperTerminal, but I get a blank screen when I attempt to connect.
I have tried arp commands, but, again, it looks like the device was previously configured.
I downloaded this: [url] hyper terminal software.
My nearest major city is Manchester, so naturally I'm looking for rackspace in the region.
Unless anyone has better suggestions, I'm thinking of going with NorthernColo. They start at £50/month but jump to £70/month if you draw more than 1A of current.
If my basic physics is anything to go by, 0.5A at our 240V means a maximum server power rating of 120 watts.
...are there any dual-core / 2GB RAM box configurations which consume less than 300W thesedays? My own USB mouse for my laptop consumes 50mA.
Otherwise I'm begining to think of their 0.5A pricing as being a bit of a scam, since the 1A price also pays for 2U worth of space.
we would start to offer colocation in our rack but i would know if there any system that will limit the customer access only on the 1U or 2U posistion where the server is located inside the rack, so nobody can touch other servers
View 12 Replies View Relatedim not able to decide from where to buy dedicated .....money never matter i want good support quality server , most important reliable
serverplace.net or pacificrack.com
I have a Switched Rack PDU AP7921 in use and it was working now for several months without any problems. But sice yesterday I have a problem with the network connection. I was not able to connect to the PDU anymore, after pressing the reboot button it was working again. But after a few minutes, the problem appeared again.
Is this a common problem of this APC PDUs? Is there a fix, for example a firmware upgrade or is it broken?
Does anyone know where you can buy rack ears/brackets for devices that don't include them? (specifically an APC MasterSwitch)
We have square hole rack ears/brackets for them however we have a round hole cabinet.
where about I can get a decent 1/4 rack for a couple server's I'll be using and selling. I was thinking BlueSquare or Savvis. Blue square would be decent, although I don't see a price scheme on there website.
Poundhost, who are in the BSQ have been the most "attractive" to me. The rack is £260/month although It has a few thing's I would need more of and not sure if they offer it.
1) I will need atleast 50 IP Adress's
2) I want 20,000GB transfer on the rack, so each server get's 2000gb.
I was wondering also these question's:
1) Do I have to go to the datacenter personally, or can I send the server's down with a courier?
2) Is there a way on a rack, to limit each server to a set ammount of bandwith?
I'm asking these question's as I've never had a rack before, nor colocation, It's usually been dedicated. I've been looking to get atleast 50% of them quad core server's and hope they would sell like hotcakes.
how many server can i host in the full rack ( 42U )
this is my servers info: 1U Supermicro SC811I-260 (260W, 2 Hdd, 1 CD, 1 Floppy, 24 Inch)
Where I'm certain that this is a gateway issue, perhaps experience will prevail, where someone having experienced a similar circumstance will have a solution.
We have a box, running CentOS 4.3 (64 bit) that has an 8-block at LayeredTech through ZipServers. Strangely enough, two of the IPs are operating at a reduced speed!
To test the matter, we've posted a file shared across all IPs (/var/www/html/testfile.gz), and when downloading through different IPs, the speeds are different.
For example (fictitious file links):
72.232.186.42/testfile.gz (DL at 350k/sec)
72.232.186.43/testfile.gz (DL at 350k/sec)
72.343.186.44/testfile.gz (DL at 350k/sec)
72.232.186.45/testfile.gz (DL at 70k/sec)
72.232.186.46/testfile.gz (DL at 70k/sec)
Further, this isn't related to Apache, as FTP is affected in the exact same manner. If we FTP into the machine using a same account, but with different IPs as hostnames, the download speeds differ just as the HTTP downloads do.
After running 6 or so dedicated servers purchased thru several different resellers, my company decided to get a rack at the Chicago InterNap DC.
The quote we got was $3,400 per month inclusive of cabinet, Usage based 10/100, and Cross connects.
Have a couple questions.
A) Is that price in the ballpark of where it should be?
and
B) Our quote states Usage based 100mb Ethernet (10MBps Min). Tier2 at $150 month and $1,400 for the 10.00 Mbps Base. Being new to this, I have no idea exactly how much bandwidth we can use before the "usage" fees kick in.
How does this work?
I'm using an unmanaged switch on my server rack connected to about 11 server machine. Most of these machines are not mine as I offer colocation service to my local customers.
How do I calculate the total monthly bandwidth usage?
I do not have access to each server to install MRTG or something.
Lets say you're building your 'perfect' rack or cabinet, you've got a single network and power drop from your provider, 20 x mixed 1 and 2u boxes (two interfaces per box), 1u switch and require remote reboot across them all. No other servers to go in the rack at a later date.
What are you gonna buy if budget wasn't an issue? rack/cab/pdu/cbl management/etc/etc.
Basically it's your geek pr0n rack/cab. I'll post mine once I've had a further think.