Dedicated Hosting Definition

When we speak of web hosting servers, there are three main types - shared website hosting servers, VPS (virtual servers) and dedicated hosting servers. Shared web servers host lots of clients and so the resources per account are restricted, virtual private server accounts offer more configuration independence, but also affect other VPS web servers on the hardware node if used heedlessly, and dedicated servers give you the chance to carry out everything you desire without messing with anyone else.

Why would you need a dedicated hosting server?

Dedicated servers are traditionally much more high-priced than shared web servers or VPS web servers. Why would anyone, then, want to use them? The answer is quite simple. If your company has a high resource-devouring web portal, or just has very specific web server setup requirements, the wisest option would be a dedicated server. For somebody who is prepared to invest in security and stability, the higher price is not a concern. You acquire full server root privileges and can utilize 100% of the hosting server's system resources without anyone else sharing these system resources and messing with your online portals.

Hardware architectures

Most shared hosting distributors, incl. us at lumenhost, offer different hardware configurations you can choose from in accordance with your requirements. The hardware architectures offer different types of microprocessors, a different amount of cores, different RAM memory and server disk drive sizes and different monthly bandwidth allowances. You can select a hosting CP, which is convenient software if you wish to utilize the web server for website hosting purposes only and prefer not to resort to an SSH terminal for all the changes you will be making. We provide three types of hosting Control Panel software - Hepsia, DirectAdmin and cPanel.

The hosting CP of your choosing

If you are a self-confident Linux OS user (our dedicated web hosting servers are running on Linux or other Unix-based OSs), you could administer your dedicated server via a Secure Shell terminal only. That, though, could be inconvenient, even more so if you wish to grant complete server root access to someone else who has less technical expertise than yourself. This is why having web hosting CP software pre-activated is an intelligent idea. The Hepsia web hosting CP software that we offer does not include full root privileges and is mainly suitable for someone who has many sites that demand lots of system resources, but wishes to administer the websites, databases and email box accounts via an easy-to-use web hosting Control Panel. The DirectAdmin and cPanel web hosting Control Panels, on the other hand, grant root-level access and include three levels of access - root, reseller and user. If you intend to resell web hosting accounts instead of utilizing the dedicated hosting server solely for yourself, you should select one of these two.

Server monitoring and backup procedures

Last but not least, there is the issue of monitoring the dedicated hosting server and of backing it up. In the event of a problem with your hosting server, such as a non-responsive Apache or a network downtime, it is desirable to have some kind of monitoring platform enabled. Here at lumenhost the system administrators monitor all dedicated servers for ping timeouts, and, if you order a Managed Services upgrade, they monitor the individual services on the dedicated hosting server too. Backups are also an additional option - the web hosting company offers you data backups on our own backup web servers. You could select a type of RAID that would allow you to save the same data on two hard disks as a precaution in case of a hard drive failure, or in case someone whom you have given complete server root access deletes something by accident.