I am paying over $400/mo for a dedicated Windows Server from 1and1. The box is five years old, and I've been reluctant to upgrade, due to the fact that I'd have to move everything, reconfigure, etc... Figured it's worth exploring other options first (and if I did upgrade I would most likely switch hosts). Running a Quad 2.4Ghz Dual Core AMD Opteron 2216HE, 8 Gig Ram, Hardware RAID (Areca ARC-1110)
Also have a linux server that runs another $100 or so/ month, and an inhouse asterisk server.
What I'm thinking about is one box, virtualized, to run a Windows Server and Linux Server for production on two separate public IP's, then an internal network (so I can tunnel into it) and on the Internal Network I would have sandboxes for Windows & Linux and also move the asterisk server to it.
I'm in Los Angeles and can pay someone like rackalley $129/mo to colocate the box.
My questions:
Is this a viable option (as opposed to 2 dedicated servers) for production?
From a cost perspective based on my needs (about 5 VM's, maybe another for managing an internal network) what's the cheapest option -- Xen or VmWare?
Thinking of going Whitebox, hardware recommendations welcome, also, how many NIC cards would I need?
What else am I missing? Just seems like paying $129 for a 4U colocated box and the capability to walk in there and upgrade my hardware at any time beats being locked into a contract at 1and1 where my cost is going to remain the same every month, hardware gets outdated, and it becomes a major hassle to move everything to another server (since they won't upgrade the physical box or drop the exorbitant pricing based on ancient specs).
Also have a linux server that runs another $100 or so/ month, and an inhouse asterisk server.
What I'm thinking about is one box, virtualized, to run a Windows Server and Linux Server for production on two separate public IP's, then an internal network (so I can tunnel into it) and on the Internal Network I would have sandboxes for Windows & Linux and also move the asterisk server to it.
I'm in Los Angeles and can pay someone like rackalley $129/mo to colocate the box.
My questions:
Is this a viable option (as opposed to 2 dedicated servers) for production?
From a cost perspective based on my needs (about 5 VM's, maybe another for managing an internal network) what's the cheapest option -- Xen or VmWare?
Thinking of going Whitebox, hardware recommendations welcome, also, how many NIC cards would I need?
What else am I missing? Just seems like paying $129 for a 4U colocated box and the capability to walk in there and upgrade my hardware at any time beats being locked into a contract at 1and1 where my cost is going to remain the same every month, hardware gets outdated, and it becomes a major hassle to move everything to another server (since they won't upgrade the physical box or drop the exorbitant pricing based on ancient specs).