How NOT to Host Your Server
April 3, 2009 by Kevin Hazard, Web Hosting Evangelist in Evangelist's Corner
A few days ago, I read a great article by Smashing Magazine explaining 9 Steps for a Happy Relationship with your Hosting Provider, and I was inspired to respond with “9 Ways your Hosting Provider Should Make you Happy” article. Instead, I thought a much more entertaining post would be to share an experience I had last weekend. We could call it something like “9 Signs Your Hosting Provider Ain’t No Good.”
The Problem: One of my friends has an old server that he needs to pull data from. The server itself is moving beyond its usable life, so putting it into colocation for a day to access that data once doesn’t really make sense. His predicament: he only uses laptops at home, so he doesn’t have a monitor or a keyboard to make the configuration changes necessary to enable access to the server on his home network. But I do.
Instead of bringing the components to his place, he decides that it would be more efficient to bring the server to me … forgetting that it’s heavy and awkwardly sized. After rigging a rolling duffel bag to accommodate this monstrosity of computing power, the server is lugged to my door, in retrospect like a lamb to the slaughterhouse.
The “Solution”: My desk became a makeshift server room.
Pay close attention. If your server room looks anything like the picture, you need to make a change. A word of warning: for those of you who value quality hosting infrastructures, you may want to avert your eyes … the image might be a little too graphic and disturbing.
- Server Seating. Your hosting provider says “A comfortable server is a happy server, so instead of going with racks or cabinets, we’re moving toward faux-leather seating for all servers in our fleet.” Move your business now.
- 100% Power. Your hosting provider says “Rather than provide an SLA agreement for power, we’re going a step further by dedicating a whole outlet to your server.” Move your business now.
- Server Security. Your hosting provider says “Too often, DC personnel rely on screws, rails and ‘bread racks’ to keep servers in place. We’re more confident in the armrests of the aforementioned faux-leather seating.” Move your business now.
- Cable Management. Your hosting provider says “Too often, cable organization can get overcomplicated with colors and labels. The new wave: use only black cables and let them hang as precariously as possible.” Move your business now.
- Efficient Airflow and Cooling. Your hosting provider says “Some of our top engineers have been focused on airflow and cooling strategies and they’ve come to a surprising consensus: rather than isolating hot and cold air in the server area, just position the server so half of it is not encumbered by racks or cabinets.” Move your business now.
- Inventory Management. Your hosting provider says “We don’t need a dedicated area for our parts inventory … We just keep everything laying around to make it easier to access.” Move your business now.
- Contingency Planning. Your hosting provider says “We don’t think inclement weather should affect your service, so we’ve got dedicated umbrellas for every server in our fleet to keep it online rain or shine.” Move your business now.
- Accessibility. If your hosting provider says “KVM units allow for remote access to your server’s keyboard, video and mouse controls … we think offering the real thing is even better,” move your business now.
- Safety First. Your hosting provider says “Because this server room configuration is a little non-traditional, it’s important that the operations folks performing ‘remote hands’ work on your computer are equipped for safety. Hard hats are also useful in physically hitting a server that needs a metaphorical kick start.” Move your business now.
Click on the picture above to see a larger version of the nightmare. Are there any other red flags you notice that you’d point out?
-Kevin
P.S. Again, if your server room looks anything like the picture you see above, call us now. Right. Now.
