Razor recently announced that we were offering IPMI access on all of our new servers. What is IPMI and how does it help you to administer your dedicated server?

The “theory” behind IPMI (short for Intelligent Platform Management Interface) is that it is good to have out-of-band access to help you in managing your server. This is helpful in case your server has an issue where you can not communicate to the OS through the network. If the server is right at your side this isn’t an issue because you can hook a monitor and keyboard up to it and see what is going on. But what if it is at a data center 10,000 miles away?

The 1st Generation:
Serial Console Redirection

The first way to achieve Out of Band access (OOB henceforth) was to use the linux kernel’s built-in console redirection. This essentially output what was showing up on the screen to a serial port. We then connected the serious port to a second switch and gave customers access to their server in this manner.

Good: You could effectively manage your server even if the network was shut down.
Bad: It relied on the Linux kernel already being booted, and of course you needed Linux.

KVM over IP

The 2nd Generation:
KVM over IP

KVM, or keyboard, video and mouse switches allowed us to hook up the server, via its input/output devices, to the network. This was really cool in that is actually made it seem like you were standing next to your server in the data center, even if the actual system didn’t actually boot up – for example if it was stuck at the bios post.

The downside with this setup was that there are lots and lots of cables. With hundreds and hundreds of servers in our data center, managing all of those keyboard, mouse and video cables became a nightmare. Look under your desk? Imagine that, multiplied a hundred times.

The Current Generation:
Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)

IPMI is a motherboard feature that works at a level below the bios to enable you to connect to the system even if it isn’t booted up. It doesn’t just stop there though – it allows you to manage the system in ways that were previously not possible. You can monitor the hardware vitals of the system, configure system settings remotely, and even connect “virtual” CDROM media to the system before it boots.

IPMI is the Green Cable

Virtual and Cloud Machines: Do they still need OOB Access?

Virtual machines live in a bit of a different world. The short answer is, yes, it does help to have out of band access on a virtual machines. Our Cloud servers have always had a 2nd way of accessing them in case they are not available on the network. Generally speaking, both with us and other providers, this is provided via VNC (Virtual Network Computing) on the host system. Since the host is always assumed to be up and operational, this provides an easy way to gain access to the server when it otherwise is offline.

Razor currently offers IPMI access on all of its new machines. Through your management portal, you can currently see the fan speeds, temperatures and other diagnostic information on your server. Shortly we plan on being able to show you the console right within your management portal. These updates give you unprecedented access to your physical, dedicated server. We hope you take our IPMI access for a spin!

As you have heard by now, the SOPA and PIPA bills are bad for the internet. But how exactly do they affect the hosting industry?

Razor Servers is a member of the Save Hosting Alliance which is an industry group formed specifically to fight the SOPA and PIPA laws which have been presented by United States lawmakers.

How do the SOPA/PIPA bills affect hosting companies like ours?

1. Overly burdens hosts as litigation targets.

The responsible party for uploading content gets away with their activities as copyright owners can just go after the hosting company instead of the real source of the illegal activity.

2. Undermines the Safe Harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which allow all hosting providers to operate.

The wording of the acts lay the blame directly on hosting providers and not the offending parties.

3. DNS Blocking is a fundamental change of how the internet operates.

A centralized DNS blocking authority would be difficult to implement securely, and only affects users who utilize US-based DNS servers. Blocking external DNS services is akin to creating a “Great Firewall” such as the one used in China to sensor websites.

We believe that for these reasons these two bills must be defeated. If these bills pass, it is quite a slippery slope of Censorship and the ability to quash the freedoms that this country was founded on – the freedom of speech and press, and the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizures.

Our messages and representatives of the hosting industry have been lobbying against these bills for months now. Join us in speaking to your representatives about your feelings on these bills and why they are a bad idea.

Well here we are again, another year gone by. 2011 was a big year for us at Razor. We have moved to our new data center at 1309 Noble Street, where we actually own and operate the data center equipment. This has given us the ability to expand our capabilities significantly all while offering the same fast network and reliability we always have at our previous location at 401 North Broad Street.

We are very thankful for our wonderful customers and we hope that every interaction they have with us is a positive one.

The staff here wishes that you and yours have a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Holidays & Hanukkah, a Wonderful Winter Solstice or whatever else you might celebrate this time of the year!

Signed,
Razor Servers

PS: No servers were harmed in the making of this holiday card.

We just received a new shipment of Dedicated Servers from Dell. Here is a photo of them arriving at our loading dock.

To the left, you see one of our technicians Chris expertly directing the work.

From the loading dock, we unpack the servers and move them over to our data center floor to prep them for installation into our racks. Between the servers and the rails, a lot of packing materials is thrown away and recycled when we receive a shipment like this. Wouldn’t it be great to just receive them in a packaged rack? It would seem to be greener all around.

The servers are loaded into the racks and then connected to our networks. Each server is connected to at least 3 different network switches – the public internet network, a private backbone network and also the IPMI server management interface.

These particular servers have Intel Xeon 5620 processors with 16GB RAM and 2 x 1 Terabyte hard drives. And they are fast.

Both cloud servers and dedicated servers have their place within the hosting industry. The rise of cloud computing services has pushed out a lot of the demand for dedicated servers – however for some applications dedicated servers still reign supreme. But which applications excel on which type of service? First, let’s go over the basics of either hosting server types.

Dedicated Server Hosting

When you purchase a dedicated server, you get 100% of the resources of that server. It is not shared between you and other clients, the computing resources are all yours. What you buy is what you get.

In this regard, fault tolerance is not built in. If a hard drive goes bad, or if the power supply burns out – your machine is down. Fault tolerance and high availability need to be built into the application layer.

Cloud Server Hosting

With cloud server hosting, the specifications you purchase are on a shared server environment. Even though your actual system is compartmentalized and private, your resources are not. This can be good or bad – for example if there aren’t any other users on your particular node, you may be able to utilize 100% of the computing resource.

Fault tolerance is also built into the server somewhat. If your particular hypervisor (the machine your server is running on) goes down, it will automatically relaunch on another one. This is due to the separation of the computing resources and the storage resources – externalizing the storage resource allows this feature.

So when is a Dedicated Server better?

When you have a high i/o (input/output) operation that requires many reads and writes from the disk, a dedicated server may be a better option for you. This mainly means database operations where you are storing data and require fast delivery. If it can’t be stored in memory and must be stored on disk, then a dedicated server is going to perform much better than a cloud environment.

Going even further, a dedicated server gives you some flexibility in the options for disks and other server and compute resources. A cloud is ‘commoditized’ – meaning that you get a standard offering in exchange for lower rates. In a dedicated server, you can order such things as SSD drives in RAID, or a Graphics card (GPU) for your server. For specialized computing requirements, this might be a necessity.

Dedicated Servers From Razor

Our sales specialists can help you customize your hosting requirements and even offer a hybrid cloud/bare metal dedicated solution for your needs. Razor specializes in this customized hosting environment and can certainly answer any questions you might have about hosting.

Give us a call or chat (contact info is below) and start rocking that application you need hosted!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

IPMI Interface Allows Customers Unparalleled Access to Server Management and Information

Philadelphia, PA., November 17, 2011 – The latest software release of the Razor Servers management portal introduces a new interface for the management of a server – IPMI access via web. This new interface allows clients to see such statistics on the server such as CPU and chassis temperature, fan speeds, system voltages and more. It also allows clients, when authenticated and logged into their management portal, to perform such tasks as power down, power on and reboot their server, regardless of whether the system is currently responsive or online.

This new feature gives clients the ability to reboot their machines at any time on their own, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Customers can check on the status of their server at any time to ensure environmental conditions and check for any heat or fan issues.

Future plans involve adding a virtual console to the web interface, as well as virtual media drives, allowing customers to completely manage their server – even reload the operating system – directly through the management portal. For more information and screen shots on rebooting a server via our management portal, please see our knowledge book article on rebooting your server via ipmi.

Media Contact:
David Drager, VP of Technology Development, 18777296777 Ext 223, dave@razorservers.com, Twitter: @razorservers
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Over the years I’ve told a number of people that I work at a server hosting provider. The question people usually ask me right away: What is a server? Let’s go over the basics of what makes a server a server.

There are (at least) two ways to define server. The first is a software definition. A software server, or sometimes called a service, means that a program on a computer listens for other computers to connect to it and tell it to do something. This might be a music server, or a video server or any other kind of service.

There is also a hardware way to define servers, and that is what we mainly do. A server is considered a computer which offers a service in some sort of always-available environment. This can be anything from a computer sitting in a data center, to a personal computer at home that remains on 24/7, even to a smartphone.

In a typical sense, a server is a computer which has a specified function which it remains on during a set period of time. For web and email hosting this means being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Servers can take multiple form factors, in fact there are almost an unlimited number of shapes and sizes of servers, from a USB-sized server to full-room mainframes.

Razor provides best-in-class server hosting solutions to everyman and everywoman. When a server is purchased from us, you can be assured that it is available all of the time. If/when hardware failures occur, we have replacement equipment available to go to get you back up and running as soon as possible.

FindMyHost, a premier hosting directory and review site based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has named Razor Servers it’s November 2011 Editor’s Choice for Dedicated servers.

This award highlights the best hosts in multiple categories, including dedicated servers, shared hosting, colocation, cloud hosting, shared hosting and more.

Full text of the press release from FindMyHost is available here.

Razor maintains an ‘A’ report card from FindMyHost, and encourages its customers to leave reviews on the site.

Razor Server is currently undergoing an comprehensive audit to gain SSAE-16 approval.

What is SSAE-16?

SSAE-16 is an accountability standard that is applicable to colocation centers, hosting providers and data centers in general. SSAE-16 is generally considered to superceed the SAS-70 which has been an industry standard in the past. The full version of the SSAE-16 standard can be summarized as providing a set up guidance and controls that data centers should follow which ensures the security and availability of data within the facility.

What does the SSAE-16 Standard Provide You?

Once our data center is certified by an independent audit, we will be able to provide an SSAE-16 certificate to our customers which can be used to certify the security of our systems and data. Many financial institutions require this certification as a prerequisite to their hosting platform. This will expand the customer base which will be able to host services in our data center.

When will this audit be completed?

Razor Servers is currently in the process of obtaining their SSAE-16 audit and will issue a press release and notice to customers when it has been completed.

Have any questions about the SSAE-16 standard or SAS-70 audit? Use our contact form to send us a message.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Razor Servers Sponsors Philadelphia Startup Weekend event this Friday, October 14th through Sunday, October 16th

Philadelphia, PA., October 14th, 2011 — Razor Servers has announced that they are sponsoring Philadelphia Startup Weekend, being held this weekend, October 14th to 16th at the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University.

Startup Weekend is an international event where local entrepreneurs, developers, graphic designers and other interested participants get together to form a team focused on building a company around an idea. After the ideas are pitched on Friday, participants vote on them and then break into groups and begin working on the top ones, bringing them to fruition over the weekend. On Sunday, a demo day is held to showcase the groups’ progress, and the overall winner is picked from a panel of judges who include local business owners, venture capitalists and attorneys.

Razor Servers is proud to sponsor the event and is offering free hosting services, advice and more to participants over the weekend. Philadelphia’s last Startup Weekend, held in February 2011, included GitHacking, LaunchRock and Artwork Evolution as the top three winners.

UPDATE: The winners from October’s Philly Startup Weekend were: F the PPA, Hangplan, and Intro’d.

About Razor: Razor Servers provides managed and unmanaged servers, backup, cloud hosting, virtual private data centers and other services to clients around the world. Razor Servers operates their flagship data center in downtown Philadelphia.

Media Contact:
David Drager, VP of Technology Development, +1.877.729.6777 Ext 223, dave@razorservers.com, Twitter: @razorservers
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