Choosing a dedicated server is often a sign of growth, but it can also bring uncertainty. Customers often worry about performance, responsibility, security, and whether they’re “technical enough” to manage a server properly.
You’re not wrong to pause and ask questions, so our goal is to help you choose well, with clarity and confidence, and determine if this is the right option for you.
This guide will explain:
- What a dedicated server really is (and what it isn’t)
- Clarify how dedicated servers work at 1-grid
- Help you understand performance, control, and responsibility
- Break down hardware concepts like RAM, CPU, storage, and RAID
- Show who dedicated servers are best suited for (and who they’re not)
- What is a Dedicated Server?
- How Dedicated Servers Work at 1-grid
- Who Uses Dedicated Servers?
- High Performance from the Ground Up
- Understanding Server Resources
- Availability and Performance (RAID Explained)
- Reliability
- Ordering Your Dedicated Server with 1-grid
- Logging into Your Dedicated Server with 1-grid
- Important Information About Your New Dedicated Server with 1-grid
- Server Security Responsibilities for Your Dedicated Server
- How to Protect Your Dedicated Server
- Monitoring Network Traffic on Your Dedicated Server
- How to Identify High Bandwidth Usage on Your Server
- Our Scope of Support
- FAQs
- Additional Resources
What is a Dedicated Server?
A dedicated server is a physical server that belongs entirely to one customer.
Unlike Shared Hosting or VPS Hosting (where full/partial resources are shared), a dedicated server gives you exclusive access to the full machine:
This means you are not sharing performance, risk, or resources with anyone else.
How Dedicated Servers Work at 1-grid
At 1-grid, responsibility is clearly and intentionally split.
What 1-grid Manages
- Physical server hardware, like Ram, CPU and disks, for the lifespan of the active server with us
- Data Centre environment (power, cooling)
- Network infrastructure/connectivity
- Initial operating system installation
What You Manage
- Server software and configuration
- Applications, databases, and websites
- Security hardening and updates
- Ongoing server administration
Why This Matters:
This transparency prevents misunderstandings and ensures you know exactly what level of control and responsibility you’re choosing.
Who Uses Dedicated Servers?
Dedicated servers are typically used by medium to large businesses that need:
- Full administrative (root) access
- Maximum performance and reliability
- Custom software environments
- High security and isolation
- Predictable, consistent resources
Common Use Cases
TIP: If downtime, performance dips, or shared environments are holding you back, then a dedicated server may be the right next step for you and the scaling of your business.
High Performance from the Ground Up
Dedicated servers deliver bare-metal performance, meaning:
- No hypervisors
- No noisy neighbours
Your applications run directly on the hardware, backed by enterprise-grade infrastructure and a 10-Gigabit fibre-optic backbone network.
BENEFIT: This delivers more consistent performance, faster processing, and greater stability under load.
Understanding Server Resources
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the total amount of data moving in and out of your server.
Uses
- Website visitors
- File downloads and uploads
- APIs and integrations
- Email traffic
- Media or streaming delivery
IMPORTANT: Unlimited bandwidth does not mean unlimited performance, so CPU, RAM, network, and disk speed still matter.
Storage: SSD vs HDD
This is where data is permanently stored on the server.
SSD (Solid State Drives)
- Extremely fast storage device with no moving parts
- Offers high-speed load times, stronger overall responsiveness on the server, and improved database performance
- Ideal for operating systems, databases, websites and applications that require fast read and/or write access
HDD (Hard Disk Drives)
- Larger capacity spinning disk drive
- Offers a cost-effective solution for storing large amounts of data,
- Best for backups, logs, and media storage that require maximum storage space
TIP: Use SSDs for speed-critical workloads and HDDs for bulk storage.
Memory (RAM)
RAM is the server’s short-term working memory.
More RAM means:
- More simultaneous users
- Better application stability
- Less performance slowdown
TIP: If your server feels slow under load, RAM is often the first bottleneck.
CPU (Processing Power)
The CPU handles all calculations and instructions.
- Clock Speed (GHz): how fast each core works
- Cores: how many tasks can run in parallel
- Dual CPU Setups: improved stability and scalability
In Simple Terms: Cores are workers; GHz is how fast they work.
Availability and Performance (RAID Explained)
RAID combines multiple drives to improve availability and performance.
IMPORTANT: RAID is not a backup.
Below, we highlight 3 RAID options that are offered on our Dedicated Servers. For more in-depth details on RAID, the different levels, and how it works, you can explore our guide here.
RAID 1 – Safety First
Your data is mirrored on two drives. This means that if one fails, the other keeps running.
RAID 5 – Balanced Approach
Data is spread across drives with recovery information, so it survives one drive failure. Requires a minimum of three drives, only available on our mid and high-end tier offerings.
RAID 10 – Performance + Protection
Fast, redundant, and resilient, and ideal for databases and critical systems.
Requires a minimum of three drives, not available on our entry-level tier offering.
Reliability
Dedicated Servers at 1-grid are hosted in a PCI DSS and ISO-certified data centre, designed for reliability and uptime.
Ordering Your Dedicated Server with 1-grid
Whether you’re a first-time customer or expanding your business, you can easily order your Dedicated Server directly through the 1-grid website, or via your Customer Zone as an existing customer.
Placing an Order as a New Customer
Moving to 1-grid: Your Getting-Started Guide
- Visit the Dedicated Servers page
- Choose your server configuration
- Server
- Server+
- Enterprise Server (Check availability first by emailing [email protected])
- Complete Checkout
- Make payment
- Receive login details once you have completed your purchase
Placing an Order as an Existing Customer
If you are a returning customer and are expanding, you can follow these steps to order additional services directly from your Customer Zone, using Order New / Additional Services.
You can also follow the steps above (as for new customers) and simply log in to your Customer Zone during the checkout process.
Logging into Your Dedicated Server with 1-grid
Once you have purchased your new Dedicated Server and have received your login details via email, logging in depends on your operating system.
We have a step-by-step guide to help you log into your new server, and if you need to recover your access details, you can do so via your Customer Zone.
Important Information About Your New Dedicated Server with 1-grid
Accessibility (Public Static IP Addresses)
Every Dedicated Server is provisioned with five public static IP addresses. (/29 subnet)
These IPs are essential for accessing and managing your server.
IMPORTANT: Your assigned IP addresses must not be removed or modified at the OS or network level, as this can lock you out of your server.
Why This Matters
The assigned IPs are the primary path to your server. This means that removing or changing it will immediately result in loss of access, including SSH or remote connectivity.
If Access Is Lost
- If the server becomes unreachable due to IP changes:
- 1-grid will need to manually intervene to restore access
- An administration fee will apply
Nameservers (DNS Resolvers)
Dedicated Servers are preconfigured with 1-grid DNS resolvers. These DNS settings help your server resolve addresses, but won’t manage DNS for your domains, as they are not authoritative DNS servers.
What These Resolvers Allow
- Resolve hostnames for outbound connections
- Perform updates, package installs, and external lookups
IMPORTANT: These DNS settings cannot host or manage DNS records for your domains or websites.
Server Time and Time Zone (NTP)
For accuracy, 1-grid provides an Internet Time Server (NTP) to keep your server time in sync.
What Accurate Server Time is Critical For
- System and application logs
- SSL/TLS certificates
- Scheduled tasks (cron jobs)
- Security audits and troubleshooting
The Default Setup
- Server time is preconfigured with reliable defaults
- Time zone is set to GMT+2
IMPORTANT: Keeping time in sync helps prevent subtle but serious issues.
TIP: You may change the time zone if needed.
Monitoring and ICMP (Ping)
1-grid monitors Dedicated (and VPS) Servers using ICMP (ping) checks.
This allows us to:
- Confirm availability
- Detect outages early
- Support uptime monitoring
ICMP Blocking and Whitelisting
You’re free to restrict ICMP traffic, but you must whitelist our monitoring IP:
Monitoring IP:
41.185.10.74
IMPORTANT: Whitelisting is required so we can continue monitoring your server.
Server Security Responsibilities for Your Dedicated Server
On Dedicated Servers, server-level security is customer-managed.
This means that 1-grid secures the infrastructure, while operating system and application hardening is expected and essential on your end.
While 1-grid does not manage server security beyond the infrastructure level, we’re always here to guide you in the right direction.
Why Server Security Matters
Poor security practices can lead to:
- Bandwidth abuse or unexpected overages
- Data loss or exposure
- Server compromise
Linux Dedicated Servers: Security First Steps
We strongly recommend securing your server in this order:
- Databases and services
- Secure SSH access first
- Then secure:
- Applications
- Websites
A Common Risk to Be Aware Of
Automated brute-force attacks targeting:
- Common usernames
- Weak or reused passwords
How to Protect Your Dedicated Server
Best-practice hardening includes:
- Disable direct root login over SSH; use SUDO instead
- Disable password-based SSH login and require RSA/DSA key authentication
- If passwords are allowed, avoid common or predictable credentials
- Avoid common usernames
- Use allow lists and grant SSH access only where required
- Restrict SSH access to trusted IPs (e.g. VPN or fixed IPs)
- Use tools like fail2ban or SSHguard to block brute-force attacks
- Keep your OS fully patched
- Use yum-cron (CentOS) or unattended-upgrades (Ubuntu)
About SUDO
SUDO (Super-User DO) allows authorised users to run specific commands with elevated privileges without sharing the root password.
This improves security by:
- Reducing the risk of accidental or malicious changes
- Limiting privilege escalation
- Providing command-level logging
Monitoring Network Traffic on Your Dedicated Server
When it comes to network traffic on a Dedicated Server, clarity and action matter. We can see the total traffic going in and out of your server, but not which application is using it. This makes it important to run a monitoring tool on the server itself for you to get that level of detail.
We recommend tools like NetLimiter or Capsa to help you identify the source of high usage.
What 1-grid Monitors
To ensure network stability and fair usage, 1-grid monitors total network traffic at the server level, specifically:
- Overall bandwidth usage flowing into and out of the server
- Incoming and outgoing traffic on the network switch port assigned to your Dedicated Server
This allows us to:
- Monitor network health
- Identify unusually high overall traffic patterns
- Support you if there are network-level concerns
What 1-grid Does Not Monitor
On Dedicated Servers, application-level visibility remains fully in your control.
This means 1-grid does not have insight into:
- Which app, website, or script is responsible for high bandwidth usage
- Traffic generated by specific ports
- Traffic used by individual applications, services, or processes
Why This Matters:
Dedicated Servers give you full control and isolation, which also means full responsibility for server management.
Application-level Traffic Monitoring Requirements
- Direct access to the operating system
- Insight into running processes and services
IMPORTANT: For security, privacy, and architectural reasons, this level of visibility sits inside the server, not at the network edge. As a result, it falls under customer-managed server responsibility.
Quick Clarification
While we cannot identify which application or service is using the most bandwidth, we can see how much traffic is entering and leaving your server, not which application is using it.
What We’ll Guide You On
- Understanding your overall traffic patterns
- Knowing when server-side monitoring is needed
- Taking the right next step without guesswork
The good news? You have excellent tools available to get exactly that insight.
How to Identify High Bandwidth Usage on Your Server
To see which processes or applications are consuming bandwidth, you’ll need to use monitoring tools installed directly on your server.
Recommended Tools
NetLimiter is best for per-process visibility on supported systems.
Benefits
- Shows bandwidth usage per application or process
- Offers real-time and historical traffic data
- Ideal for quickly identifying what’s driving high usage
Capsa Network Analyzer is best for deeper traffic analysis.
Benefits
- Visual dashboards and detailed traffic logs
- Helps identify unusual traffic patterns or spikes
- Useful for troubleshooting and optimisation
Our Scope of Support
If you’re stuck, and need any additional guidance or support, here’s an outline of what we can do and what is not within our Scope of Support.
What We Can Help With
- Hardware reliability
- Network connectivity
- Data Centre operations
- Initial OS installation
What We Are Unable to Assist With
- Software configuration
- Application troubleshooting
- Ongoing server administration
FAQs
Q. Is a dedicated server better than a VPS?
Q. Do I need technical skills?
Yes, or access to someone who does. Dedicated servers are best for advanced users, but should not limit you if you need one.
Q. Can 1-grid manage my server for me?
We manage infrastructure only, so software management remains your responsibility.
Q. Is RAID enough for backups?
No, RAID protects against disk failure, not data loss or deletion.
Additional Resources
Explore 1-grid’s Dedicated Servers Product Page
A Guide to RAID and How It Works
Everything You Need to Know About an IP Address
Monitoring Network Traffic on Your Dedicated Server
Securing SSH on your Linux Dedicated Server
Logging into Your VPS or Dedicated Server with 1-grid
Dedicated Server FAQs
Need Additional Support?
We’re Here to Help:
Understanding what a dedicated server is and how it works doesn’t have to feel technical with this easy-to-reference guide. Stuck? Check out our Scope of Support, and then contact our Support Team for further clarity and guidance (https://1grid.co.za/contact-us/). We’re ready to see how we can help!