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I know it might sound a bit bizzare but does anyone know some where that people can share a dedicated or colocated host?

Basically buying a server and paying for colocation in a data centre is much cheaper than paying for shared or dedicated hosting with the same specs. With tools like VMWare ESX/ESXi being available for free, I'm thinking of getting my own colo but one box is bigger than what I need and I'm thinking of sharing it with others who are in the same position.

VPS is a good option but is much more expensive (especially for Windows boxes which I need) for the same amount of memory. Also I have licenses for my Windows OS which I can't use on VPS and will end up paying for Windows license.

For example, you can buy a low end Dell with 8GB RAM and a Quad core Xeon for around $1000 and colo it for $100pcm. Compare that with a VPS or even dedicated of the same spec.

So I was wondering if anyone knows of an eBay for Colo sharing?!

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4 Answers 4

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There is no "eBay for colo sharing", but plenty of colo facilities are happy with you starting your own business by renting a normal box from them and running VMware or Xen. If you are successful, you will need to rent more boxes from them; they like that. When I colo'd at AboveNet, probably a third of the systems that had business cards attached to them were people who were running a sharing business.

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What you want is a VPS - a Virtual Private Server. Basically, all the users of a service pay a small amount monthly which the provider pools together to buy hardware. If you search Google, you'll find many VPS providers - I recommend Linode, who have a nice $20/mo plan - four shared Xeons, your own 360MB RAM and 16GB disk

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It might make sense but be aware that you'd all need to have root-level access to this ESXi box and all parties would be in a position to mess up or reconfigure the box for their own benefit.

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  • Why would they all need root? The owner needs root to add new VMs. That's it. Mar 29, 2010 at 19:36
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I'd seriously consider just getting a virtual machine somewhere and paying the monthly fee. Unless you are really pushing things in terms of usage, it seems likely to be far cheaper and safer in the long run.

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