Hey Guys, I've been wanting to buy some servers and set them up at a colocation datacenter for mailing. I've been looking at this blade chassis setup. http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-PROLIANT...904756?pt=COMP_EN_Servers&hash=item1e75a71bb4 Can any hardware experts help me to see if I am missing anything here? I want to setup Interspire on each of the 16 blades and mail. I know I need a router/switch too. I am familar with mailing interspire, but I only know a little about the hardware side. Your help is appreciated.
Why dont you get a beast server, create multiple vps and setup Centos and interspire on each vps instead of 16 servers. It save you lots of headache in maintenance and also save on the cost of the colo too. Interspire doesnt require a lot of resources like the others so a vps should be good for it.
It sounds like a colo is least of your concerns if you are seriously planning on using Interspire. I don't mean to be a dick, but Interspire is ridiculous. If you're relatively new to the game, don't worry at all about a colo yet and get some real software going with servers you rent from random hosts.
What will you plan on accomplishing with 16 instances you could not accomplish with one instance? Interspire is terrible. You would be better off taking your 5k and either renting a different software platform, or building your own.. That looks like some pretty serious hardware..
Maybe it would help if you guys could suggest specific "real software" to use instead of Interspire. Such as... ?
When I say interspire I'm referring to a modified version that has rotating IP functions, FBL's, spinning content, and so forth. So it's not just a plain copy of interspire, it's heavily modified. I was just curious what kind of specs each server would need to run interspire?
And also please give suggestions on mailing systems... I've been looking at deliverability agent so far. Any other suggestions?
Well if you properly modified interspire you should be able to queue 50M a day on a $3-500 secondhand server... There is an ESP section on here, I think almost any software provider on there will get you setup with something that works better. Ironclad, onpoint, pathdroppro to name a few.
that blade setup isn't worth 5k. if you don't know hardware, don't get a blade. if you're just starting out, don't get a blade. most blade chassis require 30amp 220v power.. that will significantly add to the power costs at your colo. i have a 16 chassis blade setup running vmware. Just the power alone added $900/mo to my colo fee when a cage with 20amps was ~$700/mo. switch wise, i'd get a managed layer 3 switch. a cisco 3750 is good, they run about 2k on ebay. depending on the colo, some may provide a layer3 switch and some simple management. if you're going to manage all of this alone, the learning curve on cisco is steep. i had to sit my fat ass at the datacenter once for 6 hours to figure out a simple problem like connecting two switches together over a trunked port. i also have to disagree with interspire. unless you've really polished that turd into something useful and you know that firing up more copies of it will make you cash, i wouldn't put cash into more hardware.
If you have a mailing software that can send 50 mil aren't you still limited by how many IPs you have if your bulk mailing?
Very true. I'm not saying its great, I'm just saying its what I have. Def. happy to see some new suggestions to pursue.
It is true that interspire is a terrible idea but it is okay if ur mailing for ur own double opt in list, i wouldnt suggest to use it to mail for more than 1 mil list though, my server crashed the moment it hit 800k for some reason, i guess it's the limitation of php or its just my server. When i said beast, im talking about 32 gb ram, quadcore and up. The ones that u have to have custom build.
Take this advise from someone who owns a hosting company, stay clear from blade servers. The power to run them will kill you and they tend to be as difficult to deal with as most women. If your going to colo, a 2 generation old dual quadcore xeon setup with 16-32gb ram and a decent sized ssd or sas drives ( ssd's are always faster) will allow you to run quite a bit. But then again i would never run Inspire, so i dont know what its limitations are and what its resource usage would be
Agreed on all accounts. I would recommend you listen to these chaps. Additionally, I would recommend you look at, or invest, in a better MTA versus hardware and COLO at this stage of the game based on the minimal details provided in this thread. You really should be making consistent money before you start dropping tens of thousands into capital expense. Especially if you are just getting started (assuming based on the interspire preference). The money would be better spent in the short term on getting a good MTA that can help you scale. That would be something like DA, Goldbar, Ironclad as an example(s). Once you have perfected your mailing techniques and have some idea of monthly recurring revenues, only THEN would I be gaming out capital expenses of a COLO (servers, routers, switches, etc., etc.). Especially if you do not come from a web hosting/networking background. Meaning, you have to hire someone (which is even more monthly recurring expense) to manage it. /2cts
Thats kind of the point.. Why would you need so many blade servers when so little hardware should be able to do so much. The money would be better spent optimizing the software at this point. A quad core, or dual quad core xeon with 16+ gigs of ram second hand for under 1k should be pretty sufficient for a base of operations to tunnel from. then put a few SSD's in it.. A barebones PMTA injector is better than interspire. That hardware money would get you a good ways towards your PMTA license cost.
