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Ask HN: Should I choose a managed or unmanaged VPS?
Background: I'm about to complete an upgrade to an existing web application and need to decide between a managed vs. unmanaged VPS. I'm bootstrapping the project at the moment and although I'm comfortable managing my Ubuntu Karmic laptop, I am concerned about having administer a production server. I've read the tutorials on Slicehost and Linode and implemented a local test server, but feel that there is likely much more to managing a real server.
I am very interested in the Xen VPS servers, as they seem to offer better price/performance than traditional Virtuozzo CPanel-based VPS servers, but feel that the added work/time required is not worth the tradeoff.
Question: For those who have already made this decision and were not already experienced sys admins, do you feel that the initial time spent learning and the ongoing time spent managing your server is worth it? I am leaning towards the managed server option, since having managing development, sales and customer service is already time consuming.
Site specs: PHP5 (Kohana v2.3.4 framework); ~90% dynamic db-driven (MySQL); APC caching; ~10-15K unique visitors per month.
- xist 17y agoIMHO, if you need to ask, then managed is the way to go ;) In all seriousness, I would agree that your time might be better spent elsewhere. There's only so many hours in a day and if you're using it to generate income, your time is better spent elsewhere than playing around with things. Security aspects are the most timeconsuming part of managing even a test server. Installing software and configuring it is a walk in the park compared to doing the dance with all the script kiddiez out there. Good Luck!
- CyberFonic 17y agoYou need to look at exactly what you are getting with the managed service packages. The service levels and security guarantees are critical. As always you pay for what you get, but you may not get what you pay for.
- Travis 17y agoI manage my own, but I do that for my other jobs as well. So I guess you could say I'm a part time sysadmin. I say do it yourself. You don't have that much fine tuning to do. I just personally doubt that you're going to get very good "management" from your provider. It will be most useful in a situation of "please install nginx to run on a separate IP so I can serve static content." It will not be useful in preventing attacks, etc. Although I guess they could have really high service quality, I believe most places will scrimp on the services b/c they need to compete on the price. And the whole reason for going managed is the services.