Things You Need to Know/Do To Run a Dedicated Server at Hostgator

I been doing shared hosting with hostgator for a while now. I was wondering what kind of technical expertise do I need to know to run a dedicated server? Can I get by on just the basics?

Also, if my server goes down will hostgator automatically take care of it or will I have to contact hostgator myself to tell them to fix/reboot the operating system?

 

Hostgator as I understand is fully managed. They take of everything for you. No involvement on your part is required.

 

Thanks for response. When i looked at the plan they said they give emailing about when it goes down, but im not sure if that means you have to then notify them of problems or if they just automatically tell you while they automatically will fix it.

 

When you order something from hostgator I think there is one thing you need to know. Hostgator support dont want to tell their customers which datacenter they are using. Their live chat operators always answers "our own" But I assure you, they use theplanet.com

And where is the proof?
Well open run, and type cmd. In command prompt type tracert hostgator.com

 

Something that is easy to misinterpret for people; read exactly on their site what this means; it doesn't mean they do everything for you. They do some stuff for you, up to a point (like installing security updates, upgrading OS, fixing hardware). If you ask them to install the halflife gameserver (just an example) they'll tell you no. We have quite a number of clients saying they bought managed at some provider and didn't get managed because they did not want to install something like HL gameserver and that's why they went to another provider.

 

I went to livechat and they said its fully managed. They did say I will need to learn how to configure the WHM cpanel part, which im not familiar with. I didn't even know what that was until i saw it on the "demo" for hostgator dedicated server.

 

Thanks for the info, but I already was aware of that. theplanet doesn't offer managed hosting though. I would never get a dedicated server unmanaged, especially since i never run one before. I know its more costly, but its worth it.

 

Im not looking for anything fancy on the dedicated server. Just simply software like wordpress, simplemachines, etc.

 

I do not know the extent in which HostGator will manage your server but I can almost guarantee you that they will not help with things like WordPress. Generally, fully managed means they will handle all hardware and server software related problems (Apache, BIND, OpenSSH, Exim, etc).

As someone else pointed out, you would need to ask HostGator exactly what they cover. Each company has their own definition.

 

What do you mean not help me with wordpress? I know how to install wordpress on my own(plus they have fantastico too). Why would I need their help for wordpress?

All I need for them is to handle automatically 404 or other types of automatic errors, server overload, rebooting, or whatever happens due to network congestion. Stuff like that. I never done dedicated, so I just need them to manage the basics and to take care of downtime due to errors or traffic overload while i'm away or sleeping.

 

Thanks for information. but i already know. i need new points for advice. anybody help me.

 

Yes HG is a fully managed dedi box
i have 1 dedi box with them.
You just need to send email to them to ask them to reboot your server.
Whats more,they handle your server 24/7
so no need worry

 

Dude; I know you are doing the HG affiliate program, but no need to color things here; there is no need to worry, but if OP cannot install things himself like SMF, WP etc he should know that HG won't do that for him so he *might* have something to worry if he cannot do that. And they won't solve any problems with 3rdparty scripts either except the ones they install when installing the OS. This is or might not be a problem, a probably he will have WHM/Cpanel/Fantastico to help him, but there is no need to make things nicer than they are. HG will not help you in a great many of cases, no matter how many times you say 'no need to worry'.

 

Wait, how can it be fully managed if I have to email them to reboot the server? They won't reboot the server automatically if it gets overloaded? It seems pointless having managed dedicated server if they don't take care of the most important aspect, monitoring your server to make sure it doesn't stay down while you are away. Maybe I should go self managed or is that a bad idea for a noobie?

 

The guy on hostgator support said they won't actively monitor the server for downtime etc so if my server needs a reboot or whatever I have to contact them. Seems like what is the point of a managed dedicated server? If I never have run a dedicated before and just used shared hosting do you think it is a good idea to get manaded dedicated hosting?

 

Why do you need dedicated? If you don't *need* it you shouldn't do it; it is wasting your time and energy. Go with shared in that case; own servers are more of a hassle anyway.

You can also go in smaller steps; first take a VPS; you can always move to dedicated after that.

Thanks

 

I don't need it at the moment, but as my traffic grows eventually i may need it someday to handle all the traffic I think (I have many different active sites). I got your PM about VPS. What is the advantages to a VPS over just shared hosting?

 

VPS is used to run a number of shared hosting accounts on; it is like a 'part' of a dedicated server. If the hoster does not oversell, you'll have the full promised resources and won't get suspended (like in shared hosting) when your traffic grows. Basically and simply put; VPS gives you much more control and more (controlled) resources than shared hosting gives you.

 

Thanks.


I seen some hosts like downtownhost.com offer SEMI-dedicated hosting. I can't figure out if Semi-dedicated is the same thing as VPS or is that something else?

 

Yes, that is some kind of virtualization/VPS; same thing, different (original?) name.