Dreamhost Virtual Server Costs too Much – Research a Switch Over to ThePlanet Dedicated Hosting

Dreamhost Virtual dedicated server simply costs too much.  They want to grab all the Google AdSense money and leave nothing for the site owner. Thus I am researching getting a REAL dedicated server at ThePlanet. 

ThePlanet has a variety of plans.  Plans vary in amount of computing horsepower/Storage and level of support. Thus I wanted find out if I started with a low cost plan what the migration path to a higher power setup would be like.  The short answer is you can assume the worst.  You will have to re-install everything and move your databases.  Not alot of fun!  However having dreamhost suck up all the revenue from AdSense is even less fun.

Another note is that even if you buy the relatively expensive dreamhost dedicated server at 400 per month you still have to share the database server.  If your site is dynamically generated it seems this would be of little advantage as the db server will still be overloaded.

Here is the conversation:

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you…
You have been connected to Austin Poff.
Austin Poff: Hi, My name is Austin. If you are an existing customer please enter your username or customer ID for the best sales assistance possible. If you are awaiting order status please paste your order number in chat. What may I help you order today?
Customer: I want to talk about hosting with the planet
Customer: can you do that ?
Austin Poff: Yes
Customer: if I start with one of your lower cost plans ….what are the barriers to upgrade?
Customer: would it be like starting all over again to install everything
Austin Poff: Some of those servers have limited upgrade possibilities
Customer: if I want a larger disk for instance
Austin Poff: for example, 2 drive limites
Austin Poff: *limites
Austin Poff: -e
Austin Poff: And the lower end systems have IDE drives
Austin Poff: so you can’t get over 250GB
Customer: I see….so it sounds like it I should assume all the install efforts would have to be repeated upon upgrade as a worst case
Austin Poff: I wouldn’t take it that far
Customer: well I did say WORST CASE scenario
Customer: that is to say COULD HAPPEN
Austin Poff: But for ram, some of those entry level servers have a 2GB or 4GB limit
Customer: upgrading would consist of what? …. swapping parts ? …. or taking disk to another computer ? can you be a bit descriptive ?
Customer: or can a motherboard be swapped in situ ?
Austin Poff: If you specifically upgraded parts on THAT server, say you wanted to go to 2x250GB drives
Austin Poff: you’d need to backup everything, and then we’d do the install of the drives, and then you’d have to reload your OS
Austin Poff: If you wanted to upgrade SERVERS
Austin Poff: you’d just order the new server, migrate your stuff over, cancel the old server
Customer: when you say MIGRATE ….. does that mean re-install everything ?
Austin Poff: Yes
Austin Poff: we don’t move drives between servers
Customer: ok….got it…… I’ll assume the worst on effort.
Customer: now for install questions
Customer: if the server is self serve
Customer: and I want to run linux
Austin Poff: We do the initial OS install and basic packages
Customer: how do I install when it has no system installed ?
Austin Poff: like mysql, php, apache
Customer: those all run on top of the system which in this case would be LINUX
Customer: I have to be able to connect in the first place to install stuff I would assume ……..
Austin Poff: We do the OS install for you and you connect via ssh
Customer: ah ok.
Customer: thanks for now.
Customer: you were very helpful
Austin Poff: Please, if you buy online be sure to select my name in the drop down list. I look forward to serving all your needs, and please don’t hesitate to let me know if you need more information. Here is my contact info:
Austin Poff
Regional Sales Representative
214.782.7785
apoff@theplanet.com