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Ask HN: Finding a contractor to set up our server

3 points by catone ↗ HN
I'm working on a software as a service app, and my co-founder and I are confident in the app itself, but not so much in our sysadmin abilities. In order to feel comfortable taking people's money, we want to be confident that our server is set up correctly to handle the expected load and is secure.

This isn't something we want to trust to what we can pick up from reading books, articles, and tutorials on server administration -- we'd rather hire someone to do the initial server set up, and ideally find someone who could be around on a once-in-a-while contract basis to fix any issues that may crop up.

So the question is, how do we locate and evaluate such a person? Has anyone had experience in hiring a sysadmin on a contract basis to do some one-time set up work?

13 comments

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davidw
I'd suggest that you also try and learn from this person - it might cost a bit more initially, but basic admin skills are something that everyone technical should have. Sure, know your limits too - you may never be the guy that runs the 100 system data center, but you should be able to manage a few computers competently.
mattculbreth
Yeah ditto this. I think you'll actually find that's it a fun part of startups too.

That said, I bet if you provide some more details on what you have and what you need that you'll find a couple guys here.

davidw
It's fun... but it's also a good way to avoid someone having you by the balls if they're the only ones who can run the systems, and there's a problem at 3AM.
kellishaver
You make a very good point, sir. :) It's definitely something we need/want to learn more about (Hi, I would be the other co-founder). I've set up a few servers in the past for small, personal things, so I feel like I have a good basic understanding of how it all works and I'm eager to leanr more. Hosever, since I've had no actual training or instruction on how to efficently set up and secure a server, I just want someone to oversee it and make sure it's done right. If they're willing to teach me, all the better.

That said, if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations on the best way to go about learning this particular set of skills, I'm all ears.

davidw
One approach would be to insist that it's you sitting at the keyboard when your expert goes through the system. He'll have to tell you what to do, and explain it if you're not getting it. That works way better than watching over a shoulder. It'll be slower/more expensive, but you get both the actual help as well as some training.
catone
Definitely good advice. Having the skills to be able to fix problems when shit goes awry (or at least enough so that things aren't exploding until someone who really knows what they're doing can fix them right) would be a good thing, for sure.
icey
Things that would be helpful for us to know:

    * The language / frameworks you're using
    * The amount of traffic you need to handle
    * One server or many
    * Your budget
    * The expected load your application will create on the server
catone
I guess the question was mostly theoretical -- then again, it's only theoretical for another month or so.

To answer your questions:

* Ruby on Rails, Apache with Phusion Passenger for deployment. We've been using SQLite for development, but probably MySQL for deployment, and are not picky on the flavor of Linux, but like Debian.

* Tough to predict at this point. The software is fairly niche, but it's a large niche (freelance graphic and web designers).

* The plan right now is to start with one server (likely at Linode) and use S3 for file storage (perhaps also backing up to Mosso). But this is something we'd definitely be open to changing based on the recommendation of an expert.

* We're bootstrapping the app and have the biggest chunk of money set aside for legal fees (incorporation and making sure our TOS passes muster). In my head I was hoping this wouldn't cost more than $1000 as a one-off job, but, this is definitely not a place I want to be cheap. I'd rather spend more now than wake up one morning to a disaster because I tried to cut costs at the get go.

* We don't think it should be too heavy.

Planning to run a small closed beta in the next couple of weeks to get a better idea of things like that, though.

knowtheory
The way you find server guys to do contract work, is you put up a posting on the ruby and/or rails job boards. That's the way I found the backend/server guy (who is now a good friend of mine) for the company i contract with atm.

Also remember contracting rates run like $60-100/hr (sometimes more!) for people who are competent.

icey
If you are doing RoR development and you don't feel like you have the sysadmin chops on hand, you should seriously consider Engine Yard. From what I've collected their hefty fees are offset by the fact that they solve almost all of these problems.
menloparkbum
I used engine yard for a recent project. Great guys, but they don't solve the sysadmin problem unless you're a big client. They're also slightly behind the curve when it comes to Passenger.

If the budget is less than $1000 I'd just find a good independent guy and get a server at Rimu (or similar host).

menloparkbum
You should be able to find a person to do this by posting the exact same information above to jobs.rubynow.com. If it's just setup it should take max of about a day and cost less than $1000.