Data Center In Basement?

IkY0294

IkY0294

HD Addicted
Hey, Now don't think I am stupid well kinda.. >.<
But me and my dad were talking he said if we could get our own servers in basement and not a lot of money and if we make profet hell get one!


But is there a way I can just get my own data center in my basement? Will it take a lot of electrity? How much just for the equiptment? Should I get it? Do I have to pay monthy for it?
 
You certainly can setup a data center in your basement. Would I recommend it? No. A data center isn't something you just go out and get. It's an extremely intricate and delicate room, that needs constant attention and a sizable investment. I have experience with infrastructure analysis for large corporations - specifically relating to data center design and maintenance - and I can tell you that this is not something you want to put in your home. There power demands alone will be huge - not to mention the room will be very noisy (or at least it should - if you are cooling the room properly)

I have no idea what you want to put in your datacenter, how many racks, servers, etc. Regardless, if you plan to run a professional datacenter, you will need to investigate the following things (and much much more). There are different tiers of data centers (basically different standards) which will define your cost.

  • Raised Floor (for cooling, electrical and data distribution, etc.)
  • Cooling
  • Redundant Electrical Connections
  • UPS, Generator with EPO (Emergency Power Off)
  • Water bugs, temp sensors and other environmental controls
  • Reliable and redundant wan providers (a DSL connection just won't cut it)

A typical residential basement is a very poor choice of location since they are prone to flooding and humidity issues - which would be a major problem. The equipment costs alone will be in the tens of thousands of dollars (if not hundreds depending on the size of the data center you're looking to build). Monthly costs would include utilities (mainly electricity) and WAN connections (which would typically be thousands of dollars per month) Many big providers like Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, etc. would not be willing to provide a dedicated circuit to a residential endpoint.

Again, a data center is not something you just go out and buy. It's something you have to design, install, and maintain - typically with a team of consultants, technicians, and other vendors.

I would strongly advise against installing a data center in your home as it would turn out to be a very risky investment which would require a very long-term commitment.

However, if by data center you are referring to one A/V rack in a closet to serve your home for multi-media - then by all means - go for it.

Hopefully, my response helps you a bit with the details and intricacies that go into the design of a data center. I don't want to trivialize your idea - but I just want to help you put it into perspective. If you have more specific questions regarding data center design, I could certainly help you out.
 
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I know a friend who has her Mac server in the converted garage. She hosts a few web sites off of it - hers, a few family members, a few friends. She and her husband manage the server. They're both hardcore hardware geeks, so they know hardware issues, security, et cetera. However, she's said that if she were charging money for her services...she wouldn't use the equipment out of her home. Too accident-prone.

It's certainly possible to go lowest bidder on hardware, get the server hooked up, et cetera. But if your power glitches and you can't get it back online - if your bandwidth is blocked, throttled, or cut off - if just one person finds out that you host in a basement - your reputation goes down in flames.

If you're going to take money from people for providing a service, provide a quality service.
 
Also note, if you operate a server out of your house, your ISP may not like you. It's most likely against their terms of service.

And like with any other business, if you are the only one with access to the machines, that means NO vacations! I'd strongly advise going through a hosting provider that provides Managed Hardware replacements, and even for that matter, when starting out, managed software solutions.

I know in another thread you mentioned that you wanted to bring in a partner to help get things going, but there's more to the hosting business than setting up a computer and installing Apache.
 
Conor, you're absolutely right about the ISP restrictions. I know both Verizon (FiOS and DSL) and Comcast permit you to run servers on their restricted ports (80, 25, etc.) as long as you are on one of their business plans and I'm sure that goes for most other residential serving ISP's as well.

However, IGreGzI if you're really considering a real data center in your home (instead of a server in the corner of a room) than you really need to consider a dedicated circuit from a provider like Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, etc. Like Lesli said, if you're going to be running these servers as a service for any possible customers, than you need to have a quality setup.
 
Besides actually getting a provider to run a line to your house, this kind of thing usually has to get approved by the city. There are so many permits and fees the city can tax on you. I wouldn't go that route unless $$$ is not an object and you are willing to go through any obstacles that arise. I like the whole idea, as I had that vision also. But when you really sit down and think about it, it's not worth the hassle.
 
I dont think the option of running a data center at home is a good option for a business, we are playing with clients sites, and their business too, if something goes wrong, who will be responsible
 
While in college, I was hired by a company that was running a webhosting business out of their basement. It was quite amusing but apparently they were making a ton of money doing it. Back then I believe they were running everything off of a single T1 line coming into the house. I'm not even sure how they managed to coax a company to give them fiber to their house since its a residential area.

These days a T1 will not suffice so good luck with your venture. I wouldn't recommend it.
 
My friend said his uncle has 5 servers in his basement and its really hard to maintane, don't do it he said...
Its slow and really hard.

Just go and buy a VPS server from a datacenter from Texas or something
 
MoEzzi said:
While in college, I was hired by a company that was running a webhosting business out of their basement. It was quite amusing but apparently they were making a ton of money doing it. Back then I believe they were running everything off of a single T1 line coming into the house. I'm not even sure how they managed to coax a company to give them fiber to their house since its a residential area.

These days a T1 will not suffice so good luck with your venture. I wouldn't recommend it.
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OH my god ? single line and in basement ? Making good money ? Its bad time for their clients, what is the company name if you can say
 
Lesli said:
Too accident-prone.
Click to expand...

That would be most of the replies here on that very same note. Its one thing to host a dinky site (and that is not meant to be bad) but compared to hosting say your local banks website, another company that "has to be" up all the time - things like that need more than just a garage or a basement.

We all start somewhere, so its possible you could start up, but at some point you are going to need more room and more resources than a small room in a home could handle.
 
T1's in the home were very common in Los Angeles years ago. I had one as I needed constant internet connection and not via dialup so I could manage things.

Going back two steps further - in the mid 90's I had 34 phone lines into my house - yes MY HOUSE :) I ran a BBS, before the internet was popular, and had 34 separate phone lines and modems. I also had a Fido Satelite Dish for message networks.

The days of operating such an infrastructure out of the home are pretty much gone. At the same time, I currently (as do all of my staff) work from home. We have NO central office. All computers are in a Texas DataCenter (The Planet), and my staff are located in 6 different states. With less overhead, we can supply our product for cheaper. So you can still OPERATE of our your home, but I'd not advise running hardware out of there.
 
If you can host your hardware in some good DC yes you can operate from anywhere but what he wants to check is running from basement, its pretty good to see that you had done a lot in this area.

Here in India still we are running in 256 Kbps speed not even 1 Mbps so cant even think ofit
 
cooling needed!

The most important thing to consider while having a Dc is cooling.
and I would assume a basement Isn't a very cold place,unless you have half a dozen air coolers installed in there:D,besides It must be piping hot in there,cooling is the most important thing to consider while having a Dc.
The charges of having a sever are a very high let alone having a whole Data center,you might want to go and browse the charges on some of the poweredge servers from Dell.
Those are standard,you'll get the Idea of the Price once you check out their website.
 
I'd say just give up on your venture right now and only attempt it again when you have the capital to build up from scratch or do major renovations to your facility.
 
MoEzzi said:
While in college, I was hired by a company that was running a webhosting business out of their basement. It was quite amusing but apparently they were making a ton of money doing it. Back then I believe they were running everything off of a single T1 line coming into the house. I'm not even sure how they managed to coax a company to give them fiber to their house since its a residential area.

These days a T1 will not suffice so good luck with your venture. I wouldn't recommend it.
Click to expand...

Most actual T1's are copper not fiber... (and antiquated by today's standards) they've been around a lot longer than fiber has. As someone who has had a T1 at the house before, I can tell you the local tel company loves it. They get paid for the dedicated loop. You put up the check, they'll be happy to install it.
 
I remember seeing some homes with T1's in the more so on the west coast than the east coast, but the prices that Quest and so on would charge were kind of insane at the time too, the net was damn quick though. ;)
 
I did a search on youtube and I found lots of people running DC out of there house. I wonder how many of them run a web hosting business. I myself would like to own my own DC but thats a long time from now and I wouldn't have it in my house.
 
I guess it really comes down to what a person calls a DataCenter. Much like what determines a Web Hosting Business.

Running a SERVER out of a house is one thing, but a data center is much different.
 
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