Timothy Parker Consulting Incorporated

Turnkey Web Servers Part 1: Cobalt Servers

After having left the subject of Virtual Private Networks, it’s time to turn to another frequently-asked subject: turn-key Web servers. In previous columns we’ve explained how to set up a Web server from w Windows NT or UNIX machine, but we didn’t look at the simplest way of all: buying a self-contained plug-and-play server. You may be quite surprised to know that there are several turn-key servers available at very reasonable prices, most running Linux, all of which can be installed with a bare minimum of technical knowledge and on-going administration. The primary vendor of these turn-key solutions is Cobalt Networks, which makes a web server designed almost specifically for ISPs called the Cobalt RaQ, as well as a turn-key solution suitable for most businesses called the Cobalt Qube.

Over the past couple of months I’ve gotten to know the Cobalt products quite well as I set up several Web servers and racks of RaQs for ISPs. To put it mildly, I’m impressed with the quality and value of these products, and they make an excellent example of a turn-key solution that anyone can afford and install. In the next few columns, we’ll look at the issues involved with these solutions, as well as how these specific products and installed and managed. Any VAR can do this without extensive training of knowledge of operating systems! You can easily provide a turn-key configured Web server and firewall for customers using these (and similar) products.

The reason I got into these units so heavily is because I had a customer who wanted to get connected to the Internet for hosting several domains at once, provide lots of POP e-mail accounts, and get access to the Internet for the entire company’s staff. Traditionally, I would have steered the customer to an ISP who could provide ISDN or T1 access to the Internet, and host their Web pages on a central server in the ISP’s office. Alternatively, the customer could install a Web server of their own using Windows NT or UNIX.

Two overwhelming considerations ruled out both solutions. First, the customer didn’t want an ISP to be hosting the pages because of lack of direct control of the server. The information on the server was sensitive, and should have been kept in-house as much as possible, accessed only through strict login scripts through the Web. Posting the information on an ISP’s server would have violated a security agreement with my customer’s customers. Second, most ISPs charge a healthy amount of fees to host larger Web sites, as well as those with multiple domains. POP accounts tend to be charged expensively, too, after the few freebie accounts are used up. All told, the customer was looking at several thousand dollars a month for his requirements, assuming security wasn’t an issue. An overriding concern on all this was the need for an easy maintenance procedure for the Web server. The customer’s company is small and already stretched. Spending hours each week administering a Web site, firewall, POP e-mail server, and other features like FTP would drain resources from the true work of the company. The solution had to be relatively inexpensive. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on a high-end Web server with expensive Firewall software was out. The total budget for hardware was around four thousand, and monthly costs had to be reasonable.

At the same time I was doing some work for a start-up ISP company. They wanted to provide a small country town with Internet access, Web hosting for local companies, and also offer e-commerce solutions. Since most companies in the small town were unable to spend even thirty or forty dollars a month on a Web site (since most of the purchasers were local anyway) a solution around a hundred a year for a few-page site was wanted. The start-up ISP company had limited funds, but was installing a T1 line to provide service. I was asked the best way to inexpensively set up servers to handle the Web hosting, Internet access, and other services the ISP wanted to provide, while keeping admin costs down and start-up costs at a minimum. The ISP had excellent technical knowledge.

The solution in both these cases came from Cobalt Networks, a Qube for the company wanting its own Web server, and RaQs for the ISP. The costs, as you will see in future columns, are low as are maintenance and setup overheads. Prior to dealing with the Cobalt units themselves, though, it was necessary to get dedicated telephone lines installed for the two sites. The ISP was easy: a T1 line was ordered from Bell and installed quickly. A connection through the T1 to a large ISP was made using Burstable T1, which allows the customer to pay for only the amount of traffic the T1 line actually uses, averaged over a month. Costs for installing the T1 line and a Cisco router were about six thousand dollars and expected on-going connection charges to the main-line ISP and Bell’s charge for the T1 line were expected to average two thousand dollars a month.

The business wanting its own Web server and access went with a less expensive ISDN solution. Installing an ISDN line (which could be doubled or even higher as needs arose) and configuring the equipment cost about five hundred dollars. Monthly phone line charges and a connection to an ISP for the Internet access averages about two hundred dollars a month. These costs were reasonable for the functionality the business needed.

Send mail to tparker@tpci.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1995-2007 Timothy Parker Consulting Incorporated
Last modified: January 23, 2007