[Koha] Hosting options for Koha installation

[Mark Tompsett]

Greetings,

> ... install Koha for
> ... a small association... we
> have no ... IT team.

good back story.


> After some research I found providers offering "root servers" or "managed 
> servers"
> which are a little costly (about € 30,- a month).

Well, I'll pipe in another voice for Digital Ocean.
We host on the $20/month server and we're starting to bloat. I think we'll 
be
bouncing up to $40/month for the extra ram (we're operating like a 
consortium).
From what you say, I'd recommend starting with the $10/month.


> - Are there any recommended hosting companies and products?
> It would be best if they were in Austria or Germany but also abroad ist 
> ok.

Digital Ocean has Frankfurt servers. I recently had the pleasure of our 
backup
system failing, and needing to migrate our backup processes. We chose
Frankfurt, because Digital Ocean let's you attach Block Storage. This would
also be handy if you plan on hosting a lot of PDF's, etc. for your 856$u
references. :)

> - If I get a root server will I be able to install it only with the
>   Installation instructions?
> I am proficient with the command line and
> I already installed and set up Koha on a "virtual machine".

If you have succeeded at setting up on a virtual machine on a desktop, a 
host setup with any "root servers" (as you call them) is going to 
essentially be the same.


> - Is there a better/easier way?

Not that gives you *dramatic voice* ultimate power *regular voice* over your 
data and configuration settings.

The beauty of hosting is as another person pointed out: snapshots and 
backups. Also, they provide and maintain the hardware for your software. No 
more budgeting to buy a new server every 5 years. And another benefit, 
offsite backups. If your building floods, burns down, or is destroyed... 
your data is safe. Granted, taking a backup and storing it locally would be 
good too, but effectively the "offsite backup" portion of a good backup plan 
would already be handled. I've heard stories of horrible data loss due to 
poor backup plans. May you succeed in finding what you want to meet your 
hosting needs.

GPML,
Mark Tompsett