USA Reseller Web Hosting: Unix or Microsoft?

If you're in the USA, and you're planning to get into the USA reseller web hosting industry, you need to consider one major issue, first and foremost: would you like to offer Unix-ready features along with Microsoft-only ones?

Offering Microsoft-only services may seem to be the smart choice, but supporting Unix is its own asset, which could open a world of opportunities for you as a USA reseller web hosting outfit. In fact, if you have avenues to ask for both Microsoft and Unix support from your web host, all the better!

One downside to reselling web space instead of putting up your own server is that you don't get to control the basics. As a reseller, you may be able to change things around via the standard control panel. You may even have limited access to certain features like merchant accounts and secure site hosting. But when you want to switch between operating systems, or OS-es - it's unfortunately not your call, but your web host's.

Web hosts determine the kind of OS-es that run on their servers. Many web hosts offer both Windows and Unix features, by using Unix machines as servers, and then just running Windows programs and servers within these machines. Over time, Unix server OSes have become increasingly tolerant of Windows programs, which makes a Unix server a sweet deal for web hosts and resellers alike.

Unix servers are cost efficient because they are ideal for running open source programs. Preferring open source programs help save on operational costs, since they're mostly free for use, depending on the specifications of the persons or outfits who developed the codes to be used. When you run paid programs or servers on your machines, you don't only need to think of the cost of buying the software - you also need to consider the potential costs of license renewal.

There is, after all, no assurance that software licensing will cost the same throughout the years! And you have to consider that in your profit projections if you are running a webhost. Thankfully, you don't need to be concerned with that as a reseller. However, as a reseller, you should be aware of what software your potential customers will need.

If your web host only supports Unix and open source features, you run the risk of losing a big part of your clientele. But you run the same risk if your host only supports Microsoft and Windows! As a USA reseller web hosting outfit, you should be intimately aware of the needs of your target market.

Data Recovery From Server Computers

Computers are of many types depending on their size and use. Desktop computers are an assembly of various units such as a monitor, input devices and a CPU. It typically resides on a desk, as their name suggests. Laptops are very small computers that integrate the CPU, monitor and keyboard into one portable unit. Palmtops are even smaller than laptops.

One of the most important computer systems is what is called a server. It is a central computer, or an application running on it, that “serves” other computers (“clients”) and responds to their service requests. Servers are very important machines that run mission-critical programmes. They are designed to be rugged and able to run for a long time on their own with minimum supervision.

Servers use modified operating systems that have special modules built in to ensure a more efficient running of various applications and programmes. The most popular operating systems for servers – all derived from UNIX – include Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD.

Servers that are not running mission-critical applications or do not have much load can be built using commonly available computer parts similar to the ones used in desktops. However, for servers which handle a large amount of traffic and are mission-critical, there exists an expert and more robust hardware that is optimised for their particular needs.

Servers are of many types:

Web Servers: These form the backbone of the Internet and host all the websites that you see on the World Wide Web. They have website files stored on their hard disks and provide a file at a time across a network on the demand of the web browser installed on client computers.

Mail Servers: These servers are very common and store and transfer emails over a corporate or international network such as the Internet.

FTP Servers: The FTP servers are tailor-made to move data files securely from one computer to another on the Internet using the File Transfer Protocol.

Application Servers: These servers host various applications and software programmes and typically act as a mediator between a huge database and the client computers.

RAID

RAID is short for “Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.” Because the data-storage needs of servers are huge, the most popular way to fulfil this requirement is to wire up a large number of commonly available hard disks together so that they function as one unit but still deliver more functionality than one single disk having a huge capacity. The disks can be arranged in different types of array architectures, from RAID 1 to RAID 5. RAID 0 is referred to denote an architecture which is not redundant.

Data Loss

Servers can suffer data loss in various ways. They may become unbootable or the RAID architecture may become corrupt. Viruses, worms and Trojans are quite common reasons. Other causes of server failure include deleted partitions, corruption of the controller card, natural or man-made disasters and human error.

Protecting Your Server

Servers hold mission-critical data whose loss can be a tremendous setback to businesses. It is therefore essential to take all precautions to keep the server data safe. There are many things you can do on your own to secure the data or try to recover it in case of data loss.

The first thing you should do is to check that all cables are connected properly to various components. In normal operations or servers, lot of subtle vibrations are created as hard drives and fans do their job. Connections can become loose due to this.

Servers have to be protected from excessive heat. Heat has a slow but devastating effect on integrated circuits (ICs), memory chips, processors and hard drives. You should take care that the room where the servers are kept remains cool at all times. Also, ensure that the fans inside CPU are set at the correct RPM.

Apart from heat, dust and other contaminants suspended in the air are the biggest enemies of servers. They prevent proper connectivity and hinder free circulation of air inside the CPU. You should clean the insides of the servers regularly with an air blower to wipe dust off all vents, ICs and ports.

Server Host: Where Does My Web Page Go?

For those of you who don't really understand where or how your web page is sitting on your hosting server, this is a basic over view of how it works.

A server is basically hardware and software and protocol. We will go over these three basics of your hosting server.

Server hardware.

Server hardware is so similar to your old PC hardware that the price of server hardware has come down considerably. Down enough that it's tempting for a lot of us to host our own server. But that's a whole different article. All a server is:

Very fast processor.
A large amount of RAM.
A vast amount of Disk Space.
Connection to a T1 line (access to the outside world).

The hardware is housed in very large office buildings. There are many racks of servers filling these climate controlled rooms. Most of the server host brag of their 99% or better uptime. This is very impressive and another reason to use a server host. How often have you re-booted your PC in the past?

Software. (Operating system)

There different operating systems on the market. Most likely the software on your server is running Apache on Linux, an open source product. Servers need to be secured and an open source application is more likely to be less buggy and more secure then their larger competitor Microsoft. These servers use an interface for you to access and configure them, a control panel. Some control panels are more complicated then others. Depending how technical you are, this is a point of concern when picking a server host.