Basic server management company

C

charliez

Verified User
Joined
Sep 29, 2004
Messages
83
Hi!

I know there has been some posts on the subject earlier, but they all seems to be more than 1 year old.

Basically I'd like to get some sleep now and then - perhaps even a holiday. That would be fantastic.

So, I'm looking for a server management company that would work well together with Direct Admin. I'm running FreeBSD 4.8 on the server, but for the benefit for others with similar interests, I guess companies only supporting Linux may also be mentioned in this thread.

I like to do most of the management myself. But I'd like someone who could monitor the server, restart it when it goes down and give a little assistance now and then. Here is my wish-list:

i. Monitor the server. Restart the server if it should go down.
ii. Offer either a pr hour price for installs / help when I get stuck, or have a plan with an advice or an install now and then included in the price
iii. Do a check on the server when they start the monitoring services (security check, updates etc).

Currently my server is humming along very nicely. The companies I found were charging US$ 75, 100, 150 pr month. It just seemed far too much, because basically the server never goes down... As for monitoring, we are just talking about what you may call "insurance". Just so I can get some sleep.

Does anyone know any companies, or does anyone here offer such services? It doesn't need to be a company. Competent DA forum participants are welcome to suggest themselves!

Kind,
Claes.

PS! Some of you who have helped me so much on this forum now has the chance of getting paid for your services.
 
Well if it is just monitoring I can do it for a lower monthly fee, but if you needed extra stuff doing such as installing kernel changes etc. then it would cost you extra depending on the size of the task.

PM me if you want to talk more.
 
Chrysalis said:
Well if it is just monitoring I can do it for a lower monthly fee, but if you needed extra stuff doing such as installing kernel changes etc. then it would cost you extra depending on the size of the task.

PM me if you want to talk more.
Click to expand...

Hi!

Yes, just to clearify the prices mentioned above were basically for the monitoring and restarting services - that's why I thought them expencive.

I'll PM you later today.

Cheers,
Claes.
 
rldev said:
acunett.com/management
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Thanks! I know of these, but regretfully they refuse to manage freeBSD server. God knows why...

All suggestions appreciated, so just keep'em coming.

Claes
 
Hmm stranfe as they clearly state they support FreeBSD. They even have a section for it in their forums.
 
rldev said:
Hmm stranfe as they clearly state they support FreeBSD. They even have a section for it in their forums.
Click to expand...

I presume you must have misread the info. The page you yourself referred to says:

We currently are not accepting monthly FreeBSD orders, however, clients with BSD machines can order our one-time service listed above.
Click to expand...

They only do one time security checks on FreeBSD, and I'm looking for monitoring.
 
Ahh you are right. They are adding a couple of new admins, perhaps it will change. Good Luck and let us know what you come up with.
 
rldev said:
Ahh you are right. They are adding a couple of new admins, perhaps it will change. Good Luck and let us know what you come up with.
Click to expand...

I hope they will expand into FreeBSD too, as I hear a lot of good things about them.

FreeBSD in not supported by geeks4hire either - another well known company.

I will let you know what I come up with.

As for Chrystalis, who may be offering this sort of services: I thought I PM'ed you a few days back, but I may actually have PM'ed myself in stead... I have tried again. Jeeez, I need to stop drinking and surfing.

C.
 
dannygoh said:
check serverwizards.com
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Thanks for the suggestion! I don't know much of this company, but they seem to have been in business for some time.

Only problem is that their US$ 900 pr year management plan seems a bit of an overkill just for a monitoring / restart service. I am sure the plan gives great value for money because they offer a lot of support and installs included in that price, but basically I'll only need those services at very rare intervalls - possibly a couple of times every year or less.

I think I'd be better of with a monitoring plan with a pay-per-support option. In fact I think most DA users would, because DA it self makes day-to-day management fairly easy. DA is even set to restart services automaticall when they goes down. My point is just that I don't feel comfortable going away for a week or even sleeping a few hours extra on Sunday, trusting DA will do it all on its own...It may be because I have grown up using windows, and basically don't trust any program to be able to run more than an hour or two without crashing... :)
 
When a similar question was asked about a year ago, there were around 60 replies. Both jlasman and ProWebUK stepped forward as willing to do management / tuning / sec checks and monitoring.

I don't know if either is still offering this since none has posted here. I probably should PM them just to check. I'll post the reply.

Cheers,
C
 
It sounds as if all you need right now is server monitoring.

if that's correct, then we can offer it for significantly less than us$75 per month, which is what we charge for a full server management package.

I've not developed a pricing model for monitoring only, but I'll be happy to quote if you give me an idea of:

Which services do you want monitored (we use Nagios and can monitor all Internet-facing services), how often (and if we should notify on the first outage or wait until the second), and how you expect the notifications?

Note we can only notify you via SMS if your cellphone or pager provider offers an email to SMS gateway.

Thanks.

Jeff
 
Yes, you're more or less right. But I'm looking for someone who will also restart the server if it goes down. An sms to me won't do much good if I'm on a beach in Bali...

Basically I'd be looking for:

-Monitoring
-Restart
-Someone I can email when I need help and get charged pr hour / task.

As for what to monitor, I'm not very into this, so I'm probably going to make a fool out of myself by answering. But both me and my wallet would probably prefer if the status on the server was

DirectAdmin Running
Apache 1.3.31 Running
DirectAdmin Running
Exim 4.42 Running
MySQL 4.0.17 Running
Named 8.3.6 Running
ProFTPd 1.2.9 Running
sshd Running
vm-Pop3d 1.1.6 Running

I don't know if all this can be remotely monitored?

If you are uncomfortable posting prices, you can PM me and post the rest of the info here, in case others would be interested in your services. I'd be interested in:

i. mo price for the monitoring/restart service
ii. pr hour (and minimum billing unit) for assistance on installs / advice

and possibly a price for an initial server check to see that all is OK and reasonably secure.

Cheers and thanks for your reply,
Claes
 
charliez said:
Basically I'd be looking for:

-Monitoring
-Restart
-Someone I can email when I need help and get charged pr hour / task.
Click to expand...
Monitoring and even restart service are fairly easy, though we've never sold restart service without our complete maintenance package.

Does your host offer a remote reboot switch? Otherwise only a call to them can get the server rebooted if it hangs.

If they offer a remote reboot switch, or will accept our telephone call to initiate a manual reboot, then we can take on the task. Otherwise can only restart services, but cannot start the entire server if it fails.
As for what to monitor, I'm not very into this, so I'm probably going to make a fool out of myself by answering. But both me and my wallet would probably prefer if the status on the server was

DirectAdmin Running
Apache 1.3.31 Running
DirectAdmin Running
Exim 4.42 Running
MySQL 4.0.17 Running
Named 8.3.6 Running
ProFTPd 1.2.9 Running
sshd Running
vm-Pop3d 1.1.6 Running

I don't know if all this can be remotely monitored?
Click to expand...
You listed DA twice :) .

Of these, MySQL is NOT an internet-facing service, so while we can monitor it, there would be a separate charge for it. Note that monitoring these services _will_ create log entries.
If you are uncomfortable posting prices, you can PM me and post the rest of the info here, in case others would be interested in your services. I'd be interested in:

i. mo price for the monitoring/restart service
ii. pr hour (and minimum billing unit) for assistance on installs / advice
Click to expand...
I can't quote because I don't know how often you want monitoring done. Every week, hour, minute, five minutes, what?

Do you want us to log into the server on the first failure of a monitored service, or only if it fails twice (first failure monitoring is much more expensive because it will result in many false alarms unless your system enjoys perfect Internet connectivity.

As I said, I don't have a price for the service separately; in order to work something up I'd like to know what you need.
and possibly a price for an initial server check to see that all is OK and reasonably secure.
Click to expand...
We're notFreeBSD experts and we'll have a learning curve on security.

I'd rather not quote on auditing a FreeBSD server at this time :( .

For a Linux based server, our audit charge is us$75 if part of a management contract, or us$100 if ordered without a management contract. (A monitoring contract is not a management contract.)

Jeff
 
Hi again!

There are no extracorporeal membranes or other critical medical equipment controlled by the server, so checking with a medium frequency would be ok. Say every 10 or 15 minutes, and waiting for a second failure before any action is taken.

I don't have a reboot switch, but I do have a specially assigned email address to use for reboot requests. I have never actually had to use it, so I couldn't say what response time they have (Layeredtech).

It would be interesting to know the price both of the above and the price of a standard management plan. We can PM about other services.

Thanks again!
Claes
 
Claes,

I don't use PM because I can't keep taking the time to log into the forum to check for private messages.

(As you can see by the lateness of this reply it sometimes takes me a long time between logins but I read email almost immediately as it comes in.)

I'd rather give you pricing info via email; please write me at my email address in my sig.

Thanks.

Jeff
 
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