How we created a hosting provider with our own data center
Hello! My name is Vladimir. I am 37 years old. I am the founder of a hosting service company. I want to tell you about how I, almost from scratch, created my hosting with my own data center.
I think that my story will be interesting and useful for those who want to do hosting. Or those who doubt whether to start a business without having a large start-up capital. Disclose and show problems that can be encountered and which you initially do not attach importance to, due to the fact that you have not encountered this or that.
The story is quite long. I want to share it in stages, starting with prehistory, ending with what we have today. We will be very happy to open communication, you can ask any questions and none of them will be left without attention. A weekly publication is planned, one chapter each, and between publications I will answer your questions. Perhaps there will be any suggestions, wishes, we will definitely take them into account and additionally disclose the topics of interest to you outside the schedule. Regarding how the material plans to publish, we figured out, now let's move on to the hosting.
So, what is hosting in a nutshell? Hosting is a service to provide resources for placing information on a server that is constantly located in the network. The information may be different, these are websites, mail, databases, some individual projects. For their correct operation, they are placed on their servers, or they are referred to the services of hosting providers, where the equipment is working, in our case, around the clock, monitored by experts. We now turn directly to the story.
')
Our hosting provider has existed since 2011 to this day and continues to evolve. I started absolutely one, but as it developed, it became harder and harder for one - I realized that I couldn’t cope anymore and organized round-the-clock technical support.
A little background: It all started a long time ago, in the early 90s, when I, a 6th grade student, had the first computer, thanks to my parents. I dreamed about him for a long time, and here my dream came true. For that time, it was an unprecedented luxury. I remember that it cost 1000 dollars and was based on intel 486. Then I realized that my life would undoubtedly be connected with computers and Internet technologies. I very enthusiastically began to learn how to create various simple little programs, then more complicated. Used various literature. In general, he was self-taught. Closer to class 10, I decided to create my local network, my idea was supported by the guys from the neighboring houses, we carried cable along the roofs, one end was tied to a stick, and the stick was transferred to the next roof, and so on. Thus, we combined several computers, which allowed us to share files, chat in our chat and much more. It is not surprising anyone now local network, but then, in the mid-nineties, it was know how. In our fairly large city at the time such networks were once or twice and turned out. Many people began to support my idea and joined us. But sooner or later everything ends. There were other concerns, study at the university. During my studies, I created several projects, but we will not dwell on them in detail.
The idea of creating my own data center came to me long before I started taking the first steps to create it. I understood perfectly well that this is a very expensive business. Then in 2006 the market was not yet oversaturated with similar projects. We ourselves used hosting services, as we developed one IT project, the services of which were accessible to everyone and were inexpensive. And of course, faced with various kinds of problems. I do not want to offend anyone, but I wanted more from technical support. Nobody really understood your problems, and we really wanted to be able to help us quickly and efficiently. Collaborated with different providers. But what I would like to see, I have not met unfortunately. So there was an idea to create your own hosting and make one of the priorities high-quality, operational, round-the-clock technical support, which would thoroughly delve into the problems of those who applied and also carefully and quickly helped to resolve the current situation. But it was only in thought for now. I am well aware that, having the resources I possessed, I cannot immediately provide quality services, but this is not a reason to retreat. As in any business, everything will manifest itself in the process of work.
From our project, which we sold, there are about 20 servers based on INTEL, with completely different capabilities and an uninterruptible power supply. Here I decided to start with them. To minimize costs, I asked my friend, who had free space in the office, to stay for a while with him. All my equipment took only one square meter. I started to create a simple site, I did everything on my own. About two weeks I worked on the site, of course, during this time I did only everything I needed to start. Subsequently, the site was refined and additional functionality was added. Then I did not have my own data center, and I could operate with only two services. Placed information on several sites, the first customers did not take long to wait. By the way, many of them still work with us, which is good news. We are very grateful to them for this. Already in the second month of work, I began to pay for my monthly expenses. We had to move on, because nothing stands still. Now you can order 3-4 servers per month. But the first problems appeared. As the number of servers increased, the temperature increased and the noise level also, all this caused certain inconveniences for my friend and his staff. I decided to pick a separate room and move. In the same building of the business center I was offered a room of 8 sq. M. meters, and I agreed. I spent there electricity thick cable. And it was necessary to gradually engage in improving the reliability.
Initially, I had one stand and a 2.5 kW household air conditioner was enough. But as I wrote the number of servers increased and there was a need to purchase a specialized industrial air conditioner. When choosing, I was guided by the price, since I did not have large working capital. I stopped at a unit with a power of 14 kW. In reality, of course, he did not pull out so much, but he coped well with his duties. For some time, the problems with overheating could be forgotten. Spent on cooling at this stage 80,000 rubles. the air conditioner itself, 24,000 units and 3,600 specials. Now I had to choose a generator, because there are power outages, or there are emergency shutdowns in the business center itself and there was a need for a place to place it. With the place we decided quickly. In the basement of the business center there were many different rooms, they offered me to change the common door to the basement, and for this they would provide me with a separate room for the generator. But with the choice of the generator had more difficult. Again, I chose based on cost and I did not take into account many different things, which in my view should be the default. I will touch on this topic in more detail, can someone come in handy. Of course, it is better to use the services of a good proven company, as we are doing now, but then I did not attach much importance to this, but in vain. I still had to spend a lot of extra money and time.
I stopped my choice on a Chinese generator for 180,000 rubles with a capacity of up to 20 kW. Rather, the engine itself was German, and the mounted Chinese. This is of course something with something. The organization that sold did not offer any installation service. As it turned out, the installation instructions were not available, not in Russian, not in any other languages, there is no oil, there is no antifreeze, and so on. I had to deal with everything on my own and modify. Even refined and corrected parts that were included in the kit. Plus, the manager said that his weight was 250 kg, so I invited 6 people to unload and transport him to the basement. In fact, it turned out that its weight is 750 kg. And the movers take only up to 650. In general, transportation to the basement brought a lot of trouble and the reason for this was a simple lack of preparation for the process. Again, the lack of experience of this kind of events. Another plus is a narrow long passage and several so-called pockets on the way added complexity. In general, I mean, pay attention to any little things when buying equipment. After 4 hours, the generator was in place.
This is the very first generator.
To be continued…
Continued here habrahabr.ru/post/321226
I think that my story will be interesting and useful for those who want to do hosting. Or those who doubt whether to start a business without having a large start-up capital. Disclose and show problems that can be encountered and which you initially do not attach importance to, due to the fact that you have not encountered this or that.
The story is quite long. I want to share it in stages, starting with prehistory, ending with what we have today. We will be very happy to open communication, you can ask any questions and none of them will be left without attention. A weekly publication is planned, one chapter each, and between publications I will answer your questions. Perhaps there will be any suggestions, wishes, we will definitely take them into account and additionally disclose the topics of interest to you outside the schedule. Regarding how the material plans to publish, we figured out, now let's move on to the hosting.
So, what is hosting in a nutshell? Hosting is a service to provide resources for placing information on a server that is constantly located in the network. The information may be different, these are websites, mail, databases, some individual projects. For their correct operation, they are placed on their servers, or they are referred to the services of hosting providers, where the equipment is working, in our case, around the clock, monitored by experts. We now turn directly to the story.
')
Our hosting provider has existed since 2011 to this day and continues to evolve. I started absolutely one, but as it developed, it became harder and harder for one - I realized that I couldn’t cope anymore and organized round-the-clock technical support.
A little background: It all started a long time ago, in the early 90s, when I, a 6th grade student, had the first computer, thanks to my parents. I dreamed about him for a long time, and here my dream came true. For that time, it was an unprecedented luxury. I remember that it cost 1000 dollars and was based on intel 486. Then I realized that my life would undoubtedly be connected with computers and Internet technologies. I very enthusiastically began to learn how to create various simple little programs, then more complicated. Used various literature. In general, he was self-taught. Closer to class 10, I decided to create my local network, my idea was supported by the guys from the neighboring houses, we carried cable along the roofs, one end was tied to a stick, and the stick was transferred to the next roof, and so on. Thus, we combined several computers, which allowed us to share files, chat in our chat and much more. It is not surprising anyone now local network, but then, in the mid-nineties, it was know how. In our fairly large city at the time such networks were once or twice and turned out. Many people began to support my idea and joined us. But sooner or later everything ends. There were other concerns, study at the university. During my studies, I created several projects, but we will not dwell on them in detail.
The idea of creating my own data center came to me long before I started taking the first steps to create it. I understood perfectly well that this is a very expensive business. Then in 2006 the market was not yet oversaturated with similar projects. We ourselves used hosting services, as we developed one IT project, the services of which were accessible to everyone and were inexpensive. And of course, faced with various kinds of problems. I do not want to offend anyone, but I wanted more from technical support. Nobody really understood your problems, and we really wanted to be able to help us quickly and efficiently. Collaborated with different providers. But what I would like to see, I have not met unfortunately. So there was an idea to create your own hosting and make one of the priorities high-quality, operational, round-the-clock technical support, which would thoroughly delve into the problems of those who applied and also carefully and quickly helped to resolve the current situation. But it was only in thought for now. I am well aware that, having the resources I possessed, I cannot immediately provide quality services, but this is not a reason to retreat. As in any business, everything will manifest itself in the process of work.
From our project, which we sold, there are about 20 servers based on INTEL, with completely different capabilities and an uninterruptible power supply. Here I decided to start with them. To minimize costs, I asked my friend, who had free space in the office, to stay for a while with him. All my equipment took only one square meter. I started to create a simple site, I did everything on my own. About two weeks I worked on the site, of course, during this time I did only everything I needed to start. Subsequently, the site was refined and additional functionality was added. Then I did not have my own data center, and I could operate with only two services. Placed information on several sites, the first customers did not take long to wait. By the way, many of them still work with us, which is good news. We are very grateful to them for this. Already in the second month of work, I began to pay for my monthly expenses. We had to move on, because nothing stands still. Now you can order 3-4 servers per month. But the first problems appeared. As the number of servers increased, the temperature increased and the noise level also, all this caused certain inconveniences for my friend and his staff. I decided to pick a separate room and move. In the same building of the business center I was offered a room of 8 sq. M. meters, and I agreed. I spent there electricity thick cable. And it was necessary to gradually engage in improving the reliability.
Initially, I had one stand and a 2.5 kW household air conditioner was enough. But as I wrote the number of servers increased and there was a need to purchase a specialized industrial air conditioner. When choosing, I was guided by the price, since I did not have large working capital. I stopped at a unit with a power of 14 kW. In reality, of course, he did not pull out so much, but he coped well with his duties. For some time, the problems with overheating could be forgotten. Spent on cooling at this stage 80,000 rubles. the air conditioner itself, 24,000 units and 3,600 specials. Now I had to choose a generator, because there are power outages, or there are emergency shutdowns in the business center itself and there was a need for a place to place it. With the place we decided quickly. In the basement of the business center there were many different rooms, they offered me to change the common door to the basement, and for this they would provide me with a separate room for the generator. But with the choice of the generator had more difficult. Again, I chose based on cost and I did not take into account many different things, which in my view should be the default. I will touch on this topic in more detail, can someone come in handy. Of course, it is better to use the services of a good proven company, as we are doing now, but then I did not attach much importance to this, but in vain. I still had to spend a lot of extra money and time.
I stopped my choice on a Chinese generator for 180,000 rubles with a capacity of up to 20 kW. Rather, the engine itself was German, and the mounted Chinese. This is of course something with something. The organization that sold did not offer any installation service. As it turned out, the installation instructions were not available, not in Russian, not in any other languages, there is no oil, there is no antifreeze, and so on. I had to deal with everything on my own and modify. Even refined and corrected parts that were included in the kit. Plus, the manager said that his weight was 250 kg, so I invited 6 people to unload and transport him to the basement. In fact, it turned out that its weight is 750 kg. And the movers take only up to 650. In general, transportation to the basement brought a lot of trouble and the reason for this was a simple lack of preparation for the process. Again, the lack of experience of this kind of events. Another plus is a narrow long passage and several so-called pockets on the way added complexity. In general, I mean, pay attention to any little things when buying equipment. After 4 hours, the generator was in place.
This is the very first generator.
To be continued…
Continued here habrahabr.ru/post/321226
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/320300/
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