There are more things to servers than just plain web hosting. Out of the 15% market share of Windows servers, about 10 % are application servers and only the other 5% comes to Web Hosting. If you have a large company that has various branches around the world, and would like to keep the billing cnetralized, instead of hosting a server in your own office, paying for the internet and maintaining it, you could get it from a datacentre in the US, who would take care of everything for you in the hardware side.

These servers can be pointed to by a domain name, and an email service be installed in it, and the application that has been designed to take care of the billing or anything that it is supposed to take care of is installed on the server. When a billing PC of the associated company in any part of the world needs to fetch data, which would always be connected to the internet, it will do so from the centralized data on the server.

Logistics companies use centralized servers to run theri tracking applications, and make it available on their websites for the clients to view the progress. Airline companies, shipping companies, railways and even bus companies run their ticket booking services thru a server, and it is no longer thru phones thru which bookings are confirmed between various stations that a bus would pass thru.

Most of the application servers that I have seen are on Windows, as windows seems to be good at running single sites, if it is protected well from viruses. It comes with a remote desktop and it is easier to mange. And as long as Windows is only used by a closed group of users who know what they are doing, it is safe enough.

Have I told you that I was using Windows XP from 2002 to 2005 without a single virus infection, or having the need to format the hard drive, and that too without any virus, spyware or adware protection? Thats because I have always known the problems with windows, and what not to do to save it from getting my PC into trouble. Though I couldnt do much of that for my servers, since it was on a multi user environemnt and I had no control over the files that the clients would upload and share.

Have you got a server or a vps? Are you running a reseller hosting business? Or just sharing servers with your firends while you are administering the server? Well, I have got 1 good piece of advise for you. Never give SSH access in linux, or Remote Desktop access for windows for your reseller account holders.

Why?

Though their access might be restricted, you are literally giving them previlleges to download and install scripts on the server. They cant do that can they? You manage the server for them, and if they do something irresponsible, it would become your headache to get it fixed, and if they do something that affects your other clients? They will hold you responsible.

When in remote desktop, they can access the browser, and if they use it for some illegal activity, like using fake credit cards or stolen card numbers from your server on some site for some server or buy things, your server’s ips get recorded, and if there is a dispute, not only your server will be suspended, you will become responsible for the transactions that happen.

And if the client installs a mass mailing software on the remote desktop and uses it, your ip gets blacklisted.

There are several other things that could happen. Never give out Remote Desktop or SSH access to any client or reseller. You can always fix this limitation on your control panel when you create the account.

Trust me, its the most difficult job in the world. You can transfer cargo, just put them in containers and load them on ships and unload them where ever you want, but backing up with plesk from the old server and moving it to the new server and restoring it there is the most difficult thing that I have ever done.

Personally I have shifted homes, I have shifted offices, shifted my own websites between servers before I started a hosting company, and now I find that all very easy. No matter how many men you have to do the work, you cant work any faster than the server would. Plesk is dead slow, and with all those sites working on the server, and with clients from all over the world, there is no off peek time for your server, you will never make it.

Plesk has a backup restore function, which you need to use from the remote desktop. Create the backup selecting resellers or domains in each task, and once its complete, move the backup file to the new server, and restore it there thru the plesk bakcup resotre function.

Sounds easy? It will, till you see it. I had 12 people working on it for 24 hours a day for nearly 20 days last year to get 1 server migrated. And in the last leg of the migration, the hard disk failed on the old server, and unfortunately, the backup files that we had created were yet to be moved to the new server, and all data was lost.

Just google with indyahozting and you will find out the bad reviews that we had got because of that. But still, we were quick enough to get the new server ready and ask people to upload the backups that they have had. Luckily most of the clients had their backups handy, and they restored all files, except for the few ones, who just decided to write about us on the forums.

You are not into software development, or into any other service provider line. You are not selling things that is physical, or a one time service. You are selling hosting, and for the small amount of money that you collect from each client, you agree to support them for a whole month, or a whole year, or even 3 to 5 years at times. You have servers that is miles away from you, which you cant see physically at will, and the only control that you have got on it is the SSH for Linux and the Remote Desktop for Windows.

No matter you have got a perfect team to monitor the servers round the clock and thru the week, they are all under you, and however binding that their contract is towards your company and clients, it is ultimately your responsibility that the company perform well without any disasters.

Never play music in the office, no matter how relaxing and routine the work is. If someone makes a mistake while programming, he can fix it within a few hours, and if such a thing is done on a live server, it means downtime, or even a major disaster. An accidental deletion of a file could be irreversible.

Never allow anyone to speak or chat unnecessarily during work. Never let anyone browse any other website that is not related to work. It means disaster. Your people should always have work. If there is nothing for them to do, give them work, ask them to check various things on the server. Check sites for malware and stuff. Check the security aspects of the servers. Do things to optimize the server. Schedule defragmentation times and backup times analyzing optimal times for that.

Never let your walk-in clients walk into the support area if you have your commercial center and your backend in one place. And as I always insist, never let your top ranked support staff to talk directly to the clients. Employ people to do that.

And above all, you never take any worry about your server away from your mind. Anything can go wrong anytime. Hardware failure, DOS attacks, overloading scripts, spam from hacked mail accounts, anything can go wrong. Keep on worrying, and it pays you. If you are not in for it, dont come into hosting.