I have a website that I host for a customer that may become mission critical for them. I am contemplating moving it to a dedicated server at dreamhost.
Will I be able to move just the website to the dedicated host while still using the shared dh servers such as the mysql or email server? Or will I have to install my own pop3/imap and sql servers on my dedicated host?
(I will not be terminating my current shared hosting plan.)
–Brian
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We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.
[quote]Will I be able to move just the website to the dedicated host while
still using the shared dh servers such as the mysql or email
server? Or will I have to install my own pop3/imap and sql
servers on my dedicated host?
[/quote]
While some customers have used the shared services for a while as they transition to their new dedicated server, generally this isn’t necessary and is only temporary.
Remember, managed DreamHost Dedicated servers are almost exactly the same as the shared hosting services you’re used to. You still get the exact same web panel, and all of the services you’ve come to rely on are present on your own server as well (ie. you won’t need to install stuff like MySQL, a mail server, etc - that’s all pre-installed on your dedicated server, and will work more or less as before).
OIC.
Will I have root access to a dedicated server? or… if not root access, at least access to modify config files (such as apache config).
For example, right now I have compiled my own php and run it as a cgi. I’m wondering… on a dedicated server, would I be able to compile my own php and run it as an apache module?
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We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.
so when I look at the pricing for dedicated hosting and it talks about the disk space on these servers… is that the disk space available after the installation of the operating system, plus apache, mail server, mysql, etc.? or is that the total space available on the server…
in other words… how much usable disk space will I have?
–Brian
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We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.
speaking of mail and sql and access to the server…
would I, for example, be able to install my own mysql server or mail server… (if for example, I wanted a later version of these servers than what was installed by default)
(although ya’ll do a pretty good job of keeping everything current on the most stable version)
or suppose I wanted to install something else that my application might require, such as an LDAP server or …
–Brian
(I promise to stop asking questions now… at least give someone a chance to post a response) 
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We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.
You might wanna read through the dedicated hosting section to get a better feel for things, specifically this page: http://dreamhost.com/dedicated/managed.html
[color=#0000CC]jason[/color]
If we’re going to manage mail or MySQL for you, then you’re basically stuck with what we like. However, it wouldn’t be difficult for us to not manage particular services on the machine (provided you also don’t care that we don’t monitor them).
Installing additional applications is usually not a problem, provided you keep up with security updates. We would generally prefer that you install Debian packages if possible (if you want a later version, you might check for one at backports.org or other backport sites).
You’d need to specifically request sudo access (and read / agree to our terms on that) before being able to install custom software as root.