Managing your servers

[GordyMac]

Who secures your companies servers?
Do you do it yourself or do you pay someone to manage and secure them for you?
Do you have the time to do it? the knowledge?

 

[klooki]

Do it myself.

Have done since starting with Cobalt raq4i's up to the servers we have at present.

The best thing to do i found is create a checklist for a new server.....run through that and you cant go wrong. Also - find out exactly when your server is coming online. Dc's like RS send you the password in the email - not good. You need to know when it is gonna be available and get on there and lock it down asap.

I would really like Dc's to start using the telephone or fax machine for the initial login details. Its just such bad bad practise to send in a email the login for a server especially when the server they have placed online has no firewall, old kernel, telnet access available etc......

 

[GordyMac]

Yeah, obviously telephone or fax would be much more secure for sending especially passwords.

 

[imported_maxhest]

What some hosts do if you don't change your password within 24 hours of services being offered, they shut down your site. Sometimes that could be done. But, Phone/Fax is good too

 

[turnkey]

I am not sure if killing the customer because they did not change there password within 24 hours is good practise.

But, I like the idea of calling the customer and giving them a password over the phone or fax.

Currently, I call new customers who use a credit card so it would not be much more for me to call them with there password.

-- Unless they are over seas then the phone bill can get pretty expensive.

 

[BlackStorm]

Thats one big problem, if you live overseas.
I live in Ireland and most servers and DCs are in the US.
The phone bill would kill me phoning a premium line in the US.

I dont think its good sending out the password for a server via email but I dont think it would be effective to phone to give the password.
Wat if its a business in the UK that a DC in the US has to phone and they keep getting the voicemail, they would end up spending a fortune trying to contact the server owner.

 

[imported_maxhest]

Leave a voicemail, pretty simple, and cheap also. Also, you can get a international phone card, and dial out from that.
-Max

 

[Anjay]

<< Who secures your companies servers? Do you do it yourself or do you pay someone to manage and secure them for you? Do you have the time to do it? >>

Personally, no I do not secure my servers nor manage them or really take part in that side of the business. Especially, now going into another sector of the industry, won't have the time. If you only have shared hosting servers, fine yes you can do it yourself. Maybe get some help, as you may not be a linux guru - but if you do dedicated server leasing and the likes, very bad idea to do it all yourself - especially when having 400+ servers. Get a professional team to do it - however though, if you do totally unmanaged you won't need anyone to do it.
The time to do it? No. If you're the president, CEO or so on of your company - you won't have time to do it, as you should be looking into other things and work on other aspects of your company: see if you can get a loan, get local grants and so on, sponsor local companies for free advertising, doing marketing, signing contracts with the datacenters, thinking to yourself would you make more profit by paying less tax; and then going to find out if you can pay less tax and how to go about doing it. The president/owner of a company should, never ever, I think, manage his own servers. He should always leave it up to his trained and qualified employees - I don't know about you, but I only have two hands each with five fingers.


<< What some hosts do if you don't change your password within 24 hours of services being offered, they shut down your site. >>

Wow - heh, I've never ever heard of this happening before. Max, care to share some companies you know of whom do this?
I agree however, it is very bad to do this - although it may not always be bad to do it on managed solutions. For example, there are companies out there whom offer managed servers and whom actually secure the server up and make everything just right before sending out the password - which is a lot better than some other companies who give the server out with practically nothing, as Klooki said.


<< The phone bill would kill me phoning a premium line in the US. >>

I agree here. Phone bills are very expensive. The best thing you can do when being in Europe, or England and wish to phone internationally at a cheap rate is get into contact with Tele2 - their rates are about €1 per minute, even to the United States - however I'm not sure if they are in Ireland. You may want to get into contact and see if they are.
In the United States, they are very lucky to have services such as Kall8 and Voyage (spelled something like that) and the likes. Then they are able to call internationally at a very low rate, which is very very nice, however those of us in Europe must make do with what we can. :curse:
Currently, I'm stuck with France Telecom for land line, and I also have an Orange Pro France mobile phone - Orange Pro is very good, and also very cheap for international calls so I use them a lot. With France Telecom, it's the most expensive telecom company in France for international calls, however I would still need a phone line with them - and if I went with another company, my number would change and I'd have to dial some other number before being billed on another account which is very annoying. :gun:
Currently, each month my phone bill runs at about €1,000 - :curse:

<< Also, you can get a international phone card, and dial out from that. >>

Max, I don't know about the United States, but an international phone card in Europe - or at least in France, really isn't any better than going with Tele2, and at least with Tele2 I know I also get rude service which is a nice touch.
(Tele2 -> Their customer service reps are extremely rude if you do not speak their home language fluently.)

 

[BlackStorm]

Very good post Anjay!
Really like your opinions and some are also very true for me.
Phoning from here, even with a phone card, not worth phoning just to get some info when it can be sent another way for free.