February 05, 2012
Top 5 Lessons We’ve Learned the Hard Way From Owning Our Own Servers
If you don’t mind us bragging—or potentially pulling on your ear—for a second, we’d simply like to say that we’ve been in this business for a while. As such, we’ve happened to own more than our fair share of servers, websites, and businesses over the years. We’ve also had more than enough time to accumulate a wealth of knowledge learned the hard way that we can guarantee you won’t find in the average college textbook. The Internet is one big place, and in all that we’ve done throughout time’s slow crawl, we’ve learned a lot—and can potentially teach even more!
With that in mind, we feel it’s time we started parlaying some of our more painful learning experiences to you here, helping the burgeoning web master and the seasoned veteran alike find their niche and expand their territory. If you’re looking to beef up your dedicated server, or optimize your personal hardware, there’s really no better place to start than just below the break:
Server Lessons Learned at the School of Hard Knox
1. No Matter What You Know, It Isn’t Enough: The first thing we’d like to impart is not meant as a put down, but if it comes across as such, so be it. No matter what you think you know about web hosting, coding, managing data, etc. it’s very likely that you still don’t know enough. What we mean is this: How many times have you agreed to a project, started in on the initial steps, and then suddenly realized you’re unbelievably outside your element? It happens to us often, and if there’s one thing we can learn from these repeated experiences, it’s that one should always do his homework before signing any contracts. Likewise, no matter how comfortable you are with your server as is, we guarantee you there’s more you could be doing out there. Do some routine Google searches, follow more hosting blogs like this one, and try to implement efficiency changes into your software and hardware.
2. Unlimited Means Unlimited (But not Performance): We have a feeling some of our more seasoned readers will be saying, “Duh!” over this one, but it’s a valid point. Many—and we mean many—shared web hosting providers tout their unlimited services as something special. To be certain, ensuring your hosting plan isn’t tempered by set limits or meters is important, but unless the hardware behind the system is impressive too, you’re not getting the most bang for your buck. If the host you use has the oldest possible set of CPUs installed, but offers you unlimited services, you’re going to benefit from the latter point, but suffer dramatically from the former. As the age old expression says, “You can’t polish a turd.” So does that mean we should avoid unlimited hosting at all costs? Heck no! However, before signing any paperwork, first ensure the hardware the company uses is up to date, or if not the latest available, at least decent enough to handle your needs.
3. Obscurity is no Security Guarantee: A point we had to learn the hard way, your server is not secure simply because the website or data it houses are lesser known. We aren’t just being paranoid here. No matter where your server hides out in the deep, dark cave that is the Internet, if you offer any kind of connectivity (HTTP, FTP, SSH, etc.) there’s an hacker out there that will find you. Does this mean you should turn off all connection to your server when it’s not in use? Heck no! That defeats the purpose of the Internet itself. But instead, be prepared to deal with unwanted invaders, as well as potential security problems. We’ll talk more about the steps you can take in just a second, but if we can impart anything to you, it’s that your server’s security is key in its lifetime efficiency.
4. Make More Backups: On that note, are you making backups of your servers? If you aren’t, you should really consider doing so. If anything should happen to your server, the whole thing will come tumbling down in a matter of minutes, leaving you with only the smoking ruins of what was once your pride and joy. Obviously, this is a pretty unsatisfactory set of outcomes, and should be avoided wherever possible. The easiest way to do so? Make backups of your server. Once those have been completed, make backups of your backups. In fact, if you can even sync that data to a cloud-based networking option, that would be even better. You can never be too secure, and when your Internet presence is on the line, you’re going to wish you had a stored option somewhere.
5. Server Management is an Active Lifestyle: We see lots of web masters get into the server management business with the expectation that they’ll be able to spend a fair amount on the front-end to setup a world class databank, and then kick back for a couple of years. However, nothing could be farther form the truth. When running your own server, or managing your own website directly, you will likely be logging into the shell terminal on a daily basis, if not an hourly one. Why is this? Because server maintenance is a process composed of many parts. Not least among these is security, which you should be keeping an eye on at all times. Security updates and firmware modifications alone will keep you busy for months, as you work to optimize the safeguards built-in to your system. If you’ve partitioned off your server for other’s to use, we guarantee they’ll be creating problems in spades. Users have a habit of doing things to the server you never thought possible. In other words, if you’re sitting around the office counting your money, instead of typing away at a code console, you’re not in the business of web hosting.Popular LinksCategories: Dedicated Servers |
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