General Info: Dedicated Server
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The term dedicated server refers to an advanced form of web hosting in which the customer rents, and has complete control over, an entire server. Internet connectivity is provided to the server, in many cases over 10 or 100 Mbit/s Ethernet. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to colocation facilities, providing redundant power sources and HVAC systems.
The term dedicated server is also sometimes used to refer to a game server for games such as Counter-Strike in which a computer runs only the server portion of the game; the game is usually not played on the same computer as the server. This typically results in the server being able to handle several more concurrent connections, as the computer is not bogged down with tasks such as the rendering of graphics.
Operating system support
Availability, price and employee familiarity often determines what operating systems are offered on dedicated servers. FreeBSD, Linux, and variations thereof are often offered for free. Windows is often available for an additional fee to cover licensing costs.
Connectivity
Budget providers will often use a single budget upstream provider.
Higher quality providers will be multi-homed across multiple quality uplink providers, giving redundancy, in the event one goes down, and potentially improved routes to destinations.
Management
Administrative maintenance of the operating system, often including upgrades, security patches, and sometimes even daemon updates are included. Differing levels of management may include adding users, domains, daemon configuration, or even custom programming.
Limitations
Many providers do not allow IRC (eggdrops, clients or daemons). This is due to rogue IRC users triggering DDoS attacks against the provider, which may overwhelm their networks, lowering service quality for all customers.
Adult content is disallowed by many providers as it may either be of questionable legality or consume large amounts of bandwidth.
Spam is usually prohibited by the provider's AUP.
Extra features
Useful features for dedicated servers may be included, or cost additional monthly fees:
Serial Console or KVM/IP - this is used to gain access to a server if for some reason the user is unable to get in via normal means (e.g. ssh), and permits a server to be recovered from boot-time configuration faults, such as filesystem recovery.
Automated restore of OS - an automated system can be used to restore the server to its original configuration.
Remote Backup Space - ssh/FTP space to backup data stored on the server.
Management
Administrative maintenance of the operating system, often including upgrades, security patches, and sometimes even daemon updates are included. Differing levels of management may include adding users, domains, daemon configuration, or even custom programming.
External links
Host Hideout
Dedicated server at the Open Directory Project