How Dedicated Servers Operate

When we talk about hosting web servers, there are three principal categories - shared website hosting web servers, VPS (private virtual servers) and dedicated servers. Shared servers host numerous customers and hence the system resources per web hosting account are limited, virtual private server plans offer more configuration freedom, but also influence other private virtual servers on the hardware node if utilized unwisely, and dedicated servers offer you the autonomy to perform everything you see fit without intervening with anyone else.

Why would you require a dedicated server?

Dedicated servers are traditionally much more expensive than shared hosting web servers or private virtual servers. Why would anyone, then, want to use them? The answer is rather simple. If your company has a heavy resource-absorbing web site, or simply has very precise server setup requirements, the most relevant choice would be a dedicated server. For somebody who is prepared to invest in security and reliability, the greater price is of no importance. You gain full root access and can use 100% of the physical server's system resources without anyone else availing of these system resources and messing with your sites.

Hardware configurations

The majority of web hosting service providers, incl. us at Hosting Nigeria, provide several hardware architectures you can pick from in consonance with your requirements. The configurations offer different varieties of microprocessors, a different amount of cores, different RAM and hard disk drive sizes and different monthly bandwidth allowances. You can pick a web hosting CP, which is a useful software tool if you want to use the web server for web hosting purposes only and choose not to resort to an SSH terminal for all the modifications you will be making. We offer 3 sorts of hosting CP software - Hepsia, DirectAdmin and cPanel.

The web hosting Control Panel of your choosing

If you are a self-assured Linux OS user (our dedicated hosting web servers are running on Linux or other Unix-based Operating Systems), you could manage your dedicated server through SSH only. That, though, could be awkward, even more so if you wish to grant root-level access to someone else who has less technical proficiency than yourself. This is why having web hosting Control Panel software activated is a splendid idea. The Hepsia web hosting CP interface that we offer does not include full server root privileges and is chiefly appropriate for somebody who runs plenty of sites that absorb a lot of resources, but wants to administer the online portals, databases and electronic mail addresses using an easy-to-use hosting CP. The DirectAdmin and cPanel web hosting Control Panels, on the other hand, grant full server root access and offer 3 levels of access - root, reseller and user. If you intend to resell hosting packages rather than utilizing the web server solely for yourself, you should select one of these two.

Server monitoring and backup procedures

Last but not least, there is the matter of monitoring the dedicated server and of backing it up. In case of a problem with your dedicated hosting web server, such as an unresponsive Apache or an outage, it is good to have some kind of monitoring platform enabled. Here at Hosting Nigeria the system administrators monitor all dedicated servers for ping timeouts, and, if you have a Managed Services package, they monitor the individual services on the dedicated server too. Backups are also an extra feature - the web hosting services provider offers you data backups on our own backup servers. You could choose a kind of RAID that would permit you to store the same data on 2 server hard disk drives as a protective measure in the event of a server hard disk drive failure, or in case someone whom you have ranted complete server root access erases something by accident.