Updated May 27th, 2002:

Seven months after signing up with Rackspace, my opinion still holds true, especially after a minor hardware failure. Here's the story:

The motherboard in my server developed a problem with the drive controller. I started getting lots of read errors, so I contacted support with an emergency request to swap out the motherboard and hard drive (just in case). Two hours later, I was up and running again with a new system, with all of my software and configurations transfered over. There was no cost to replace the hardware, although I was charged for labor (~$150).

The nice part is that I renegotiated for a six month lease (instead of the month-to-month I was maintaining), which hacked about $50 off my monthly bill. They take into account hardware depreciation, which is very nice, and means I'll be able to make significant upgrades to the system at the end of this six month contract, without raising my overall rates.

Considering what I've experienced over the past six months, Rackspace still gets a 5 out of 5 star rating. Highly recommended.

Original Post:

I entertained the idea of co-locating a server for several months, before settling on a managed server at RackSpace. My main concerns were availability of service, turn around time on support queries, and (of course) the over-all cost. My hardware/software needs were pretty simple - a low-mid range Intel box running FreeBSD that could host web sites and allow my friends and I to develop and share files.

Rackspace responded to my inquires quite quickly, and answered all of my questions (even very technical ones) without any problems. After e-mail and telephone conversations spanning two days, I decided to purchase the server.

My current configuration is a 650MHz AMD Duron, with 128MB of RAM, a 20GB hard drive, and 10GB of outgoing bandwidth per month. The setup fee, including the server, was $195. I pay about $210 per month ($7.05 a day), and I can renegotiate my contract for discounts based on hardware depreciation over time. Hardware and bandwidth upgrades are quite reasonably priced. In addition, if any of the hardware components fail, they immediately replace them free of charge. Available operating systems include FreeBSD, Linux, NT, and Windows 2000 -- if you're not happy with those options, they'll install any operating system you want them to, so long as you pay for the installation costs (which are around $75 per hour, I think).

To date, Rackspace has been absolutely top notch. All of my e-mailed support inquires have been answered within hours with detailed responses. My phone calls have been answered and resolved without any time on hold, and I've always dealt with real live people.

My server has been solid, except for mistakes I've made in my administration techniques -- and even then, Rackspace hasn't charged me for minor services like physically rebooting the server. As far as I can tell, the software on the machine was a stock FreeBSD install with a few patches. Once the machine is set up, it's your baby -- they don't do any management unless specifically instructed to do so. If you want someone to take care of the system administration for you, Rackspace may not be your best option. On the other hand, if you want to do a lot of heavy tweaking and you're comfortable with administration, I can't think of a better way to do things.

My server is the lowest server they offer -- the high end is pretty much limited to your imagination. I know they host several high bandwidth, high availability sites with exotic hardware and private subnets, so I have the strong suspicion they can accommodate nearly anyone's needs. They have hosting facilities in Texas and England, and their network is fed by multiple pipes from QWest, UUNet, SBS, and AT&T.

Their server deployment is extremely fast. They have several "1 hour server" configurations that can be online within an hour of a deployment request, and I've heard that most configurations (even complex ones) are put online within a day. Mine was up and running six hours after my confirmation phone call.

Their end-user configuration and services web site is pretty nifty. It has easy access to support request forms, real-time server monitoring, interactive forums, a searchable support database, and some neat tools like a DNS wizard that makes managing domains incredibly easy (and DNS hosting on their servers is free, although they don't do registrations).

All things considered, I'd recommend RackSpace to anyone with administration experience who wants a great place to co-locate a server. My experience with them has been nothing but good, and I definitely think I'm getting my money's worth.


Recommended: Yes

Monthly fees (US$): 170
Platform used: FreeBSD
Hosted on Secure Server: Yes
Database used: MySQL