Normal VPS vs Backup server plan vs Online storage?

[rubb3rfunk]

Hi
I want to have backups of the websites in remote location and wondering what are the pros/cons of normal VPS plan, backup server plan and online storage? The websites are running on VPS currently and the hosting provider does backup but I cannot just rely on them. But I don't know which is the best way to go for backup. Could you please give me an idea what the difference between these three when it comes to backup? I will need 70GB for now and it will increase more later as I will have more websites.
Thanks

[Harold Mansfield]

I'm not expecially versed on hosting. Cloud vs disk and all of that other stuff. But I've never uderstood VPS that costs the same or more than a Dedicated Server.
I've a Dedicated server plan for a couple of years now, with full back ups (content and databases), unlimited storage, bandwidth, and full 24/7 phone support and outside of a few problems that I caused my self, I'm pretty happy with it for $99 a month.

Sounds like you need a little more than that, but just to point out one aspect of your question, why go with VPS which is still sharing space, rather than getting a dedicated server all to yourself?
If you want/need additional backup other than what the hosting company provides, then obviously you'll need to contract with a 3rd party company. Again, why not just buy your own hardware and back up locally? I've seen Snap and HP servers with 1TB of memory for $300-$500.

If you need something offsite and cloud info , then I'll have to defer to people who know far more about it than I do.

[MyITGuy]

Hi
I want to have backups of the websites in remote location and wondering what are the pros/cons of normal VPS plan, backup server plan and online storage?

VPS Plans normally have a suitable/balanced amount of CPU/Memory and Disk to allow you to to use it in a production environmental for whatever purposes you need (Limited by the CPU/Memory/Disk space in your plan)

Backup Servers are normally just VPS's with an unbalanced amount of CPU/Memory/Disk. I.E. Since the job of the backup server is a storage medium you will have a greater amount of storage allocated to you, but minimal CPU/Memory specifications.

Online storage is just what it it implies, normally tied to a client that the vendor provides which may or may not be compatible with your operating system.


The websites are running on VPS currently and the hosting provider does backup but I cannot just rely on them. But I don't know which is the best way to go for backup. Could you please give me an idea what the difference between these three when it comes to backup? I will need 70GB for now and it will increase more later as I will have more websites.
Thanks


I'd recommend looking for a backup provider that allows you to utilize rsync, or a provider that offers R1Soft clients (Assuming your in a *nix environment). If you want some recommendations I'd recommend looking through webhostingtalk.com which is a popular forum for hosting providers and people looking for information on services.

[MyITGuy]

But I've never uderstood VPS that costs the same or more than a Dedicated Server.
I've a Dedicated server plan for a couple of years now, with full back ups (content and databases), unlimited storage, bandwidth, and full 24/7 phone support and outside of a few problems that I caused my self, I'm pretty happy with it for $99 a month.

Sounds like you need a little more than that, but just to point out one aspect of your question, why go with VPS which is still sharing space, rather than getting a dedicated server all to yourself?

Normally VPS's cost much less than your standard dedicated server, however if you do come across a situation where a VPS is comparable in price to a dedicated server then you will definetly want to review the specifications of the services you are obtaining. In my experience, dedicated servers that are less than $100/mo are on the low end of the specifications (I.E. P4's, CoreDuos, older xeons or AMD Processors) with less than 4GB of memory and a single disk with no raid.

If you come across a VPS that approaches this $100 mark then your likely to find that it will be on a server with shared access to CPU's with multiple cores, lots of ram and raid 10 storage on-board storage (If not SAN Storage) with automatic failover to secondary servers if an issue is encountered.

A few notes for you to consider though:
1st - Do not rely on your providers backups. Always keep your own copies off-site and up-to date!
2nd - On a dedicated server (Or any other for that matter) there is no such thing as unlimited storage. There is a limit somewhere, you just might not have hit it yet. Out of curiosity, what type of RAID and size of hard drives do you have in your dedicated server?

[Harold Mansfield]

2nd - On a dedicated server (Or any other for that matter) there is no such thing as unlimited storage. There is a limit somewhere, you just might not have hit it yet. Out of curiosity, what type of RAID and size of hard drives do you have in your dedicated server?

I'm sorry man, for some reason I'm really competent on a lot of things web and internet, but when it comes to servers my brain just shuts down. I can make my way around a Cpanel and WHM dashboards, but not enough to do it for a living.

I don't know what my plan specs are anymore, I'll have to look it up as I haven't looked at it for probably 3 years.

I'm sure I don't need anything nearly as complex as what the OP is looking for. I'm just hosting my own websites, and shared hosting wasn't doing it for me.

When I purchased my current plan, my needs were pretty simple.

Is it faster?
Do you have full 24/7 phone support?
Is there any limit on databases and bandwidth?
If the whole thing crashes can you recover everything?

So I know I can't do anything complex like run a bunch of mobile gaming apps, or streaming video.

[rubb3rfunk]

Hi Guys

Thanks for your advice.
I think I got the differences between these three options and the back server is the way I should go I reckon. You saved me again, MyITGuy! So even backup server can host a website but the spec may be not good enough to host the website compared with normal VPS? Then online storage is just a HDD in somewhere.
Now it's time to pick up the best backup server provider. As one of the sites are running on Windows (Planned to migrate to php based site), still need two servers of Windows and Linux but I hope I can find good ones otherwise I will have a look on the forum you suggested.
BTW, the discussion about the dedicated server was also good to know. Thanks, eborg9.

[jimr451]

As a former sys admin, my concern with dedicated servers is maintenance and disaster recovery.

For instance, if there's a security issue with apache, or php, etc. who is responsible to upgrade the software and patch the hole? In a VPS situation, I believe the hosting provider maintains the environment. With a dedicated server, it's up to you.

In the event of a hardware failure, who's responsible for restoring the site? Usually the hosting provider will fix the hardware, but if they have to re-image the dedicated server, they may not be responsible for bringing your sites / data all the way back. With a VPS, you usually have redundancy to the point that this isn't an issue. Granted, you can probably go years on a dedicated server with no problems.

In any case, I agree with MyITGuy - do your own backups just in case. I have a client hosted with Rackspace, which has a very good backup setup, always been reliable when we've asked for a restore. However, my client *still* pulls down a full backup every week locally.

Hope this helps.

-Jim

[MyITGuy]

As a former sys admin, my concern with dedicated servers is maintenance and disaster recovery.

For instance, if there's a security issue with apache, or php, etc. who is responsible to upgrade the software and patch the hole? In a VPS situation, I believe the hosting provider maintains the environment. With a dedicated server, it's up to you.
Regardless if its a VPS or a Dedicated Server, it's you who is responsible for the security/upgrades/backups and etc. However you may be able to relieve yourself of some of these responsibilities by obtaining/paying for a semi-managed or managed solution...however I would still highly recommend that you keep your own backups no matter what the case is.


In the event of a hardware failure, who's responsible for restoring the site? Usually the hosting provider will fix the hardware, but if they have to re-image the dedicated server, they may not be responsible for bringing your sites / data all the way back. With a VPS, you usually have redundancy to the point that this isn't an issue. Granted, you can probably go years on a dedicated server with no problems.

In the example you provided, there is no difference between a dedicated server or VPS as hardware failures can cause loss of data regardless of what platform you may be on.
Most VPS companies out there are just leasing/renting dedicated servers and using them to provide VPS Services (I.E. No redundancy).
There are a few providers that I know of that are actually providing VPS Services using some form of "cloud" or SAN Technology, however they have been known to have issues/data loss as well (I.E. If the SAN Fails).

In all cases, the provider may make a "best effort" to restore your data, but ultimately the responsibility is yours to maintain backups and restore your site when they can't.



In any case, I agree with MyITGuy - do your own backups just in case. I have a client hosted with Rackspace, which has a very good backup setup, always been reliable when we've asked for a restore. However, my client *still* pulls down a full backup every week locally.

Hope this helps.

-Jim
Just to reiterate what I and Jim said...yes, always pull down your own backups. There are so many circumstances that I've seen where clients of companies lost their sites and/or businesses. I.E. The companies just up and closed without any warnings, the company fell behind on their payments to the data center so they were suspended (And never recovered), The feds/government can come in and seize the equipment if the company (Or its clients) is involved in illegal activity and etc.

So pull down your own backups just to be on the safe side...

[BNB]

Seems like you can just pull a backup off from time to time and load it into online storage. Carbonite and Mozy work pretty well. Depending on how much space you need, dropbox is super inexpensive and works very, very well. You would just put the backup into your dropbox folder on your computer, and it's auto-sync'd.