To help you run and manage the servers you colocate with us, we are pleased to present these information resources, consisting of our FAQ of commonly asked technical questions, followed by links to our knowledgebase and also third-party websites that provide useful instructional information and tutorials.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What is colocation?

Colocation hosting provides you with space for your servers in our datacenter. We provide you with physical space, electrical power and network connectivity. You provide and operate your own servers and other needed equipment. This differs from dedicated server or managed hosting, in which the servers are provided and managed for you. Colocation can be substantially less expensive than dedicated server hosting, as you can acquire and own your own servers, as opposed to paying a fee to rent someone else's.

2. What servers should I buy?

That depends entirely on your application. If you're running a relatively basic, low-traffic website or application, most entry level servers will suffice. If you intend to run virtual machines, we recommend the use of servers with at least 8 GB of memory, and fast Serial Attached SCSI (rather than the consumer standard Serial ATA) disk drives, or a separate Storage Area Network or Network Attached Storage appliance with redundant controllers. For running a large database, we recommend the use of servers with at least 8 GB of memory, and potentially more, depending on the size of your application, and large numbers of fast Serial Attached SCSI disk drives. Regardless of your application, and the servers you need, you should pay attention to the physical size of servers, and the power they consume. We recommend that you buy rackmount-optimized servers, as these fit into our racks more securely and use the rackspace more efficiently than towers. We also very strongly recommend that you purchase servers with facilities for remote management, in the form of an IPMI card for Supermicro servers, a DRAC card for Dell servers, or a fully licensed iLO or RSA card for HP and IBM servers (Remote management is standard on most Sun Microsystems and all Cisco Systems UCS servers). Remote management allows you to access the console of your server (the keyboard, monitor and mouse) from a web interface, power the server on and off, view system logs (for system temperature and other key diagnostic information), and in most cases, to reinstall the operating system remotely; this functionality is extremely helpful when managing servers installed in an offsite datacenter such as our facility.

3. What operating system should I run?

Since you own your servers, you can install and run any operating system you desire. For generic web applications, we suggest the use of Red Hat Enteprise Linux, or its free, community-supported clone, CentOS. These operating systems have the broadest range of compatibility with mainstream servers software, and are exceptionally easy to administer. Many customers are familiar with Microsoft Windows Server, or need to run Windows Server applications. Windows Server is an excellent, highly capable operating system, and it can be used in a safe and secure manner; we simply recommend that you follow Microsoft's best practices for Windows Server security, available here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb625087. aspx.

For demanding, high-performance applications, many customers achieve great results with Oracle Solaris, or the free OpenSolaris derivative, or the FreeBSD operating system. These are UNIX-derived systems that are optimized for maximum performance in application environments. If your environment requires an extreme level of security, the OpenBSD operating system is a popular choice (you can also use it to setup firewalls). Note that Solaris, FreeBSD and OpenBSD are demanding operating systems to configure and administer; however, a wealth of documentation on how to use them is available.

If you intend to run virtual machines, we suggest the freely downloadable VMware ESXi hypervisor, which you can get by visiting VMware's website. This system provides a compact hypervisor with just enough facilities needed to efficiently run large numbers of virtual machines; however, it requires a modern server with 64 bit CPUs and fast disk drives. If you need to run virtual machines but your server cannot run VMware ESXi, we suggest the use of the freely downloadable VMware Server product, which you can also get by visiting http://www.vmware.com.

4. If my server crashes, can you reboot it?

Yes, we provide 24/7 assistance. A fee is charged for each reboot you request; please contact us for pricing. For easier management and the ability to reboot your servers yourself in the event of a problem, we can attach your servers to an APC managed PDU, where you can, via a web interface, turn the electrical power going to your servers on and off. If you buy a server with a remote management card, as described above, you can initiate a reboot yourself by connecting to the server's remote management interface, usually a simple website.

5. How many public IP addresses can I get?

All Los Angeles Datacenter customers receive a private subnet, SWIPed to them via ARIN. You can get as many IP addresses as you justify for. When you setup an account, an IP address justification form, or IPJ, will be sent to you, which you will need to fill out. Outline the details of your application and how many IP addresses you think you need, and if your request is in order, we will issue that many IP addresses. The minimum subnet we can allocate is a /30, which contains four IP addresses, of which 1 is usable.

6. Do you have IPv6?

Yes, and we can supply you with a routed /64 or /48 for use on your network.

7. What is rDNS? Do you provide rDNS services? Can you delegate rDNS to my nameservers?

rDNS stands for Reverse Domain Name System. It is used for reverse lookups of domain names based on the IP address of the server. Increasingly, it is required by many major e-mail hosting providers, such as AOL, Yahoo! Mail and Google Apps; e-mail sent from mailservers lacking rDNS records is typically marked as SPAM. We provide rDNS at no charge, on request. Simply specify for us the records you need setup, and we will create them immediately. 24 to 48 hours is typically needed for global DNS propagation. If you need help in figuring out which records to create, let us know.

If you have your own nameservers and would like us to delegate rDNS lookups for your IP addresses to them, please let us know and we will accommodate you. You will need to structure your zone file and DNS server config on your end in a specific manner in order for the delegation to work; we will provide appropriate instructions.

8. What should I do to secure my servers? Do I need to buy a firewall?

To keep your servers secure, we recommend you use a presently supported operating system (older operating systems such as Windows Server 2000, Red Hat Linux 9, and Solaris 8 are now unsupported and no longer receive security updates), and make sure you keep your servers up to date with the latest patches and security updates. We also suggest that you configure the software firewall built into your server to filter unnecessary traffic, and that you use strong passwords or keys for SSH and remote desktop authentication. You do not need to buy a hardware firewall; a hardware firewall can be useful, however, for controlling access to your servers centrally; more advanced hardware firewalls can also provide load balancing, malware detection and screening capabilities, content filtering and SPAM filtering. You can also easily setup your own hardware firewall by using a standard server and using one of several downloadable firewall operating systems, such as Vyatta or pfSense.

9. Do I need to buy a switch?

If you intend to collocate more than one server with us you may find a switch to be helpful. For a small installation of servers, an unmanaged 5 or 8 port switch can be acceptable. For larger installations, we suggest the use of managed switches. We recommend Cisco, Juniper, and HP Procurve switches; we actively advise against the use of Linksys, Dlink or Dell PowerConnect switches, as these are normally used in branch offices and tend to be less suitable for datacenter deployments. You can also buy an additional port from us, and connect your servers directly into our switches; additional fees will apply. We keep in-stock a selection of managed Cisco switches and unmanaged 5 and 8 port switches for use by our customers, so in the event you need a switch, or you buy a switch and it malfunctions, we can usually sell you a replacement (please call us for selection, pricing and availability).

10. Since I moved my servers, my applications are running slowly. Help!

In almost all instances we get of slow performance after customers install their servers, the problem is incorrect speed and duplex settings between your servers, your switches or firewalls, and possibly, our switch. Ethernet links have settings for speed, and duplex, and when these settings are not matched on each device on the end of an Ethernet link, packet loss occurs, which can result in slow performance, timeouts, and other errors. Our switches will attempt to auto-negotiate with whatever device you connect with them the correct speed and duplex settings for the Ethernet link. If you experience degraded performance, let us know, and we will guide you through the process of checking your speed and duplex settings to ensure they are correct. In the event auto-negotiation fails, which does occur frequently, especially if you use older switches to interconnect your servers, we can help you to easily correct the problem. This, in almost all instances, will solve any problems you may experience with unusually degraded speed or application performance.

Additional Resources:

Please be advised that the following links take you off of the Corporate Colocation website. We can assume absolutely no responsibility for the content they may contain. Please report any broken links or undesirable content to us.

Los Angeles Datacenter Support Portal and Knowledge Base:

http://support.corporatecolo.com/

If your question isn't answered above, it may have been answered separately in our knowledge base. If you are still unable to find help with what you are looking for, you can file a support ticket and we will provide you with prompt assistance.

Command Line Reference: Database and Operating Systems

http://ss64.com/index.html

The above link takes you to a tremendously helpful site that contains a command line reference for Linux, Windows and other major operating systems.

Cisco IOS Tutorial:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/cpropub/45/tutorial.htm

If you buy a Cisco switch, router or other product, the above link will take you to a tutorial which will show you how to configure and manage it using Cisco's simple command line interface.

Windows Server Information:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb625087.aspx

The above link takes you to Microsoft's complete documentation for currently-supported editions of Windows Server, including their technical libraries and security guides.

MX Toolbox:

http://www.mxtoolbox.com/

The above site provides a number of useful diagnostic tools for debugging problems with sending and receiving e-mail.

Safari Books Online:

http://safaribooksonline.com/Corporate/Index/

Safari Books Online is a subscription service providing access to a very large library of technical books and reference manuals.

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