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Hosting (Colocation) My first 1U server
Hey,
I'm currently hosting around 30 websites (static and wordpress) at home,
on an old i7-7700K machine of mine which I turned into a server.
I host those websites for my clients (I am a web developer) and they don't really have a lot of traffic, so it works so far.
I got a 1Gbps port. CloudLinux OS, and my clients don't have panel access.
I am thinking of Getting a new server:
2x Xeon E5 2696 v4
4x 16GB DDR4 EEC 2400
2x 1TB NVMe (Raid 01)
And have it collocated in a local DC to expand operations, make it more "secure", and give clients more freedom like panel access.
Now I watched some 1U assembling videos, and they use network cards, and those PCIe cards with fiber ports, etc..
Do I really need all this if I get a regular X99 board with built in 1Gbps port?
If its just building the unit and taking it to the DC then I will handle it,
But is there anything else maybe that I don't know about? any tips?
Also a side question,
if I get a separate home network (for commercial use so I don't run into problems with ISP)
Can I host the server at home? assume that I have stable electricity and backup
I am more concerned about security risks, so I'm wondering whether its possible to host it using a regular $100-$150 router and not have all the commercial grade networking equipment that they got down in the datacenters.
Thanks 
Comments
I really wouldn't recommend home hosting anything for commercial purposes. I'm not saying it can't be done - but ultimately it's worth doing right by your customers.
It honestly sounds like a reseller hosting plan would suffice for your use case. You'd be able to have individual user accounts on cpanel and your traffic doesn't sound like it would exceed plan limitations.
If you really would like to tinker with a box though - I'd recommend buying something on ebay or a local server shop. If you are cool with 1gbps keep the ethernet and don't even worry about a card.
You can typically have the server you buy shipped directly to your colo provider. I also recommend you ship them/drop off - At least one spare drive, and spare RAM. Most colo providers won't give you facility/rack access for single u colocations. This is something you'd want to check if it's important to you.
We also highly recommend a dual power supply server for redundancy.
Typically the colo process is really simple. You order your desired colo config (power, upstream, u space) - You drop off/ship the equipment - They rack the server and give you the management/IP information
Unless you're buying a bare chassis and the components separately - there shouldn't be any building involved.
Keep in mind, this is not going to be economical - more of a way to justify an interest
First thigs that jump to mind for colocation:
If by regular X99 board you mean a consumer one, I would reconsider this and get something with BMC/IPMI management. It's an absolute life saver. It's not a hard requirement, but the first time you have to pay remote hands to do something you likely already made up the gap in price to an enterprise board.
Hosting at home could alleviate the remote access stuff, and it was super common (going back about two decades or so) for people to do that with a commercial line to their home or small office. You don't need $100k juniper routers and piles of fancy switches for a handful of websites with low-ish traffic. This part gets a little out of my realm, but something like pfsense (or similar firewall) can easily handle 1G-10G ports and traffic as long as it is setup properly.
Best advice I can give you: do you make more money from designing/consulting on the websites or hosting them? If hosting isn't a significant revenue driver, I wouldn't be taking on too much of a burden with that as it can quickly become a massive time-sink that really only makes sense if you specialize or can scale operations.
The only issue with building a 1u is usually cooling. They can be tricky to cool if not done right. I've seen some toasty builds in the past. I usually suggest used enterprise equipment instead of building it out yourself. I usually go with Dell because their software updates are easy to access, you have a built in BMC (iDrac) controller so you can manage the machine remotely and you can easily find out what processors, memory, etc. it will take and max it out without worrying about thermal issues or compatibility, etc.
The datacenter will likely require things like rails and sometimes power cables. If they have a bandwidth limit and you go over you can see some really fun bills. One thing to note is to make sure your build is within the colo centers amp limit when under load and not just at idle.
Sure, you can host at home but you might miss some of the perks like DDOS mitigation, etc. Anytime you have a public facing IP you are going to have to be cautious of security risks. As long as you keep things updated and follow best practices with ssh and such then you can minimize your risks.
If you live in a city with lots of datacenters you could do a reverse proxy to your home for the server using a cheap VPS. DCs in Chicago on my connection are sub 1ms ping.
I was considering it since getting an extra 1Gbps connection at home + paying for power
could end up being cheaper than getting a colocation, while also coming with extra benefits like unlimited bandwidth and having the whole port for myself.
Some datacenters here even offer no more than 100mbps
One of the things that I offer is hosting domestically. Renting a decent VPS here could cost like this whole thing that I am trying to do (in the long run).
Besides, I would prefer to have my own metal to allow myself to expand and not be worried about resources for a while.
I will be using CloudLinux for security, and DirectAdmin.
By ordering those from abroad I could end up paying hundreds on shipping.
I am planning to buy all light parts from eBay and get the case + power supplies here.
Our 3 main datacenter providers here have a DC in my city that I can just walk to,
and one where I can take a short bus ride to.
I checked and it seems like to get a 1U colo I would have to sublet it from another company that rents a full rack there.
Thanks for the tips! highlighted some important quotes for later
Buy/build your 1U server with IPMI as @crunchbits said and keep your old server as home as a backup.
In case of issues with hard drives or anything else in DC you can change ns and move all sites from dc to home hosting......
Damn, that sounds like a dream.
I would have to check about the BMC/IPMI thing, sounds useful.
I was under the impression that just shipping it with CloudLinux OS installed, ssh on, and root account in place is enough x)
Yes, I meant a consumer mobo. I will definitely will check the ones for servers actually.
And that's just what I wanted to hear about the home setup, will call some ISPs to see if they could give me a price and look what I can do.
I promised to host the websites for a certain period of time, and after that we would discuss hosting rate.
If they would find the price acceptable we can continue, if not I would help them migrate to a host of their choice.
I also told them what traffic and resource limits I offer, so they know that if their website blow offs they would have to migrate.
If I sort it out now I would be able to offer better deals than most local hostings here I believe, hopefully keep most of the clients, and keep on growing.
Thanks a lot for the tips!
Thank you for the suggestions. Marked myself some points.
I think I will go for a 2U then to be safe.
What can I do against DDOS at home? buy certain networking hardware?
Or maybe there is an external service that can provide that without users losing the low latency that the local server provides.
1ms Wow!
The reverse proxy thing sounds like a good idea.
I should find something within 5-20ms range.
Is there a good software that can constantly backup all data from the cloud server to my home server in live time?
Yes it works pretty well most of the time.
performance wise it wouldn't be faster vertically compared to your 'old i7 7700K' but rather scale horizontal. The i7-7700K is faster under less multi threaded load. You could fit it into a 1U case and have about equal power budget.
I wouldn't bother with colo, once hardware dies you face downtime. The benefit with current specs isn't much compared to older rented dedis, while you can get multiple of those for the initial investment for many months. it starts to make sense with the higher end epycs.
If you really want to colo check out refurbished pre-assembled ones. DDR4 Intels are neatly priced these days and may come with some kind of warranty.
It's often much pain for not so much gain. It's cool as fuck I admit but would really really consider if you want this for business/clients
Unless you have very specific applications, having multiple cheap cloud VPS in high availability would get you better uptime and maybe even better pricing if properly done.
For applications 99% of the time you would want some modern Ryzen/EPYC with a 3K+ GB6 while your current server and proposed server does ~1K per process. Developing on a different age of hardware takes additional development labor
Certainly, don't bother with business grade ISPs, make multiple tunnels to DCs. Add some kind of (virtual router) in front that takes care of load balancing / high availability. PFsense/OPNsense can be run virtual. Make sure it's DDOS protected on the tunnels. Or just use cloudflare. Again it's cool as fuck but at some point will become a burden if money/contracts is involved
Thanks for the advices
I think I will consider going for a $500-$700 EPYC if so.
Do these CPUs have server boards, or a consumer grade mobo will do the trick?
4v/6v dedics here (I promise local hosting to my clients) can cost almost like 1u colocation, and come with not so much ram and storage.
Regarding down-time, I plan to have a backup dedic in Europe (ns2) that will allow me to have downtime sometimes to fix the hardware, just gotta figure out how to set it up.
How do I make tunnels to DCs?