How we created a hosting provider with our own data center (continued)

Links to previously published materials - one and two

Hello! Finally, there was a minute to write a continuation of our story about how we created our hosting company. I want to draw attention to the fact that the events described were taking place in the past and do not mean that it is now at the moment. This applies to those readers who commented that we have a non-professional approach and would not trust us. I agree, everything was done with my own hands, by trial and error, but I repeat, now a completely different level and we will definitely reach it. As they say, the century is a living learn ... And the goal of publications is to reveal the seemingly invisible difficulties that we encountered, plus to show how we started, having very, very modest resources and what we have achieved now.

So, we stopped on how we moved to a room of 8 sq.m.

Some growth was already felt, the number of clients was increasing. And for this we somehow did not do anything at the beginning. Placed on one of the specialized sites and participated in the discussion on some forum. That's all. Information diverged due to word of mouth. Our clients shared with their friends and partners. I think a great role was played by the attentive and sympathetic attitude and quick response to incoming requests of any nature.

From the moment of launching the project to moving into a room of 8 sq.m. two months have passed. In this room, we worked exactly a year. Server equipment was purchased; this year the financial turnover has increased fourfold. Let me remind you that in the first month, income began to prevail over expenditures. This year there were no significant interruptions in work, except with air conditioning. There was a leak of freon, looking ahead, I will say that it was not possible to eliminate it. A very expensive procedure of installation, dismantling and delivery to the service center. It fell on our shoulders and the warranty service was not included. It was necessary to attract special equipment. Nevertheless, we repeatedly took it to the organization that sold it to us, for repair, unfortunately, without success. And there was nowhere to place new ones, since these 8 squares were already stuffed with equipment. So they lived, periodically (about once a month) refilling freon.
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In a good way, of course, everything is done quite differently, but for this you need a huge budget. And I did not have such. Therefore, everything was done along the way. Due to the increase in sales of our services, we needed additional capacity. There was practically no place, all the racks were crowded, it was becoming more and more difficult to cool.

And the power supply of the building left much to be desired, frequent outages, the transformer substations were very old. I began to think about the selection of a separate building for a larger data center. In general, in our experience for the entire period of work, most of the problems and outages were related to power supply. In the future, we did not save already in this direction. It was necessary to have a room with a greater power of electricity, a larger area and quite remote from residential and office premises, so as not to disturb anyone when the generator is turned on. Call up ads for the rental of suitable premises. Most interested in the area with the capacity at the plants. About two weeks I spent on finding a place for our already larger data center. Found a room of 70 sq.m. in the territory of one of the former giants of the Soviet era and with a capacity of 100 kW. The most interesting is that the rental price was only 6000 rubles for the whole area. For comparison, I remind you that for 8 sq.m. I paid 5000 rubles. The room, of course, required specific repairs. It was located so that the entrance was from the factory, it was necessary to pass and pass through the checkpoint, and part of the building with windows overlooked the territory. When we imported building materials and other property, it was necessary to submit an application for import and export, which made it very difficult and time consuming. This application had to be submitted in advance, so that the signature of the head of security, who was very difficult to find at the workplace, was required. When you make repairs and you scramble back and forth, then you bring one, then another, then you need to take out the garbage, applications have been drawn up for all this. After tormenting this for some time, I suggested to the landlord an option from the window that extends beyond the factory, to make the door and then there was no need for any applications. The window looked out on the closed parking of cars at 50-60. Very convenient access, you can bring the material and equipment. It was quite comfortable to drive a lengthy. The building itself was the letter G, on the third side a high fence adjoined closely and through the passage there was another structure on the fourth side. It turned out such a reliable, closed entrance from all sides, plus a convenient parking. We have, but probably like everywhere now, the problem with parking. But we have this problem is particularly acute, as the city is very large. It was necessary to plan the premises and make repairs, almost capital.


And again, on their own. Of course, sometimes I invited my relatives for help; not everything was within one's power, for which we thank them separately. Without advice and parting instructions as older and more experienced builders, I would have failed. The material was spent about 100,000 rubles, plus work on their own. If I had hired a brigade, that number would have tripled. We dug the windows, made a window out of the window, put fire doors.


Everything new was bought at this site. The UPS (uninterruptible power supply) was no longer holding 20 minutes, like the previous one, but an hour and a half, it cost us 550,000 rubles along with the installation. The air conditioner, about which I wrote above, was repaired temporarily, it was enough for the whole year of operation. As a result, we bought two used air conditioners from one of the most famous banks. Such new ones cost 500,000 each, and we got two for 120,000 rubles, plus 100,000 spent on new internal blocks, which were also lacking 150,000 installations. Energy consumption of 15 kW. The maximum power of each 36 kW. Six more racks were purchased, each of which housed about 30 cars. In total, there were already 10 racks, in four of them 120 cars. Four racks were also made, each of which had 20 desktop servers. Now it was necessary to purchase a second generator. In our, one of the largest cities of Russia, there was and still exists an organization engaged in assembling a diesel generator set (diesel generator set) We didn’t go there, because using the search engine, we found it twice cheaper, though 2000 km away, delivery


I don’t remember exactly, in my opinion the whole thing cost us 840,000 rubles. By the way, I immediately clarified whether there is an instruction in Russian, since we have already encountered a similar problem. The diesel itself was domestic.



A generator and controller of French production.


The kit also included a container, type "north" insulated.



Delivery was to a place that could not but rejoice, and we made the installation ourselves. Antifreeze and oil was included. I especially remember how I drove a 20 liter canister of diesel fuel to fill a 400 liter tank. Some changes in the design, we still made, but more on that in the next publication, as well as the details of the room layout. See you. To be continued….