[Hcoop-discuss] next server set-up - colocation questions

[Adam Chlipala]

Justin S. Leitgeb wrote:

> On our co-location wiki page 
> (http://wiki.hcoop.net/wiki/ColocationPlans), it looks like a four 
> providers have been discussed.  Starting off the list we have GAIA 
> Host (http://www.gaiahost.coop), which is a hosting co-operative.  
> Since most, if not all co-operatives seem to think it is valuable to 
> help other co-operatives, what does everyone think about using this 
> provider for co-location?  Has there been any discussion between our 
> co-operatives?  Is this a viable option?  If we have spoken with this 
> co-op, what are we looking at for monthly costs for a 1U or 2U server?
>
> Are there compelling reasons to choose any other provider over this one? 

Nathan already listed some reasons.  I'll give you mine, one of which 
reiterates one of his.

- They have a horrible record of responding to e-mail communication.  I 
believe I still have an outstanding e-mail to them awaiting reply from 
early fall 2005.
- Their bandwidth prices are extremely uncompetitive.  Their quote to me 
included 50 GB/mo. in a $175/mo. managed server package, with a 
$2/GB/mo. charge for usage beyond that.  Their cheapest bulk bandwidth 
option beyond that would be $350/mo. for a 0.5 Mbps connection.  
Contrast that with the 1 TB/mo. we get with our current $150/mo. 
dedicated server plan.  GAIA's pricing just doesn't scale if it's to be 
the home of any of our main servers.

Shaun Empie wrote:

>I agree that colocation is the way to go from here.  I think one of the
>main issues is how we are going to raise the funds to build the server(s)
>that we will colocate.
>  
>
Do you think we need to do something beyond setting member dues 
appropriately and giving members the option to sign up to pay multiple 
shares?

>There was some talk about Simpli's colocation service.  They seem very
>reasonable as far as rackspace goes..but bandwidth is a bit pricey.
>  
>
Don't forget that I've been told that we'd get a 30-40% discount as a 
non-profit org.  Probably most colocation providers wouldn't offer us a 
discount at that level, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

ntk at hcoop.net wrote:

>Unfortunately they only go back to September '05, we didn't migrate the
>archives from the old server (although I think they are still on abu and
>it would be easy enough to merge them just by catting the mbox to the
>beginning of the archive mbox on fyodor, the script generates html from
>that file).
>  
>
Actually, they are on fyodor, but they're under the "users" list.  This 
was the list name I chose back when we were an informal group of 5 or so 
people sharing a server, and it contains some things that are unrelated 
to HCoop.  Those archives are only available to people who were 
subscribed to that list when it was decommissioned.  I could make them 
available to everyone if that turns out to be really important.