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this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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I'm sorry for the non-answsers in advance but here goes:
If you won't have easy access, consider server motherboards with KVM over IP capabilities. They really can get you far.
IP is generally Managed DHCP but I have seen DCs that just tell you your IP and good luck and it's on the honor system. Some of them even let you publish your own BGP blocks.
Basically best practices boil down to:
Data centers are businesses and as a costumer they should be answering your questions about their operating policies. If they aren't consider a different DC.
Don't be a dick to them, and don't be a dick to your network neighbors.
You're no longer behind a home router with a firewall that has sensible rules, so it is now up to you to avoid getting pwned and footing the power bill. It is also up to you to avoid spamming out stray traffic.
Never colocated, but did rent baremetal from OVH back when they didn't have any KVM and all you could do is wipe/reinstall, reboot and boot into a 2-3 releases old Debian recovery.
Definitely seconding the KVM remote access part: you really, really want that, or at least some way to hard reset your server if it crashes. I can't stress this enough. Even if you think you'll never need it, you never know when you'll have a kernel panic or need to do some boot troubleshooting, even just to run fsck. It's absolutely nerve-wracking to reboot a server you don't have any way to access other than SSH and looking at that ping window for 2-5 minutes while the thing boots back up and wondering it it will come back online or not.
If you don't have IPMI and can't have some sort of KVM for your server, I highly recommend having at least a PiKVM or something in there to be able to do remote troubleshooting. Ideally I also recommend (if no IPMI) setting up some sort of preboot environment you know will reliably boot (maybe something entirely in initramfs) that will boot up, get network and listen for SSH for a couple minutes before chainloading back into the main OS so that you can at least turn off firewall/reset network to known good. Anything that will give you remote access independently of your main OS.
At least I had access to the recovery environment from OVH, but even then, that thing took a full boot cycle to boot up + some more time for them to deliver the credentials by email (that better not be hosted on that box itself), change a config file, reboot again. Legit 10-15 minutes between each attempt and little to no way of knowing what happens until you boot the recovery again. It was horrifying, can't recommend.
IPMI saved my ass a few times and I'm never getting another box without it.
Tbh I worked on a campus where we had total free access to our bays in the local DC (like 5 minutes away by car), even in the dead of night we just had to make a call to not get stopped at the door, and even then IPMI is still just so much more convenient than sitting on the floor with your laptop, a VGA screen and PS2 keyboard among your tools in a loud DC with mandatory earplugs and an eye on the nitrogen fire supression that really has no reason to trigger but it could and that is terrifying.
Or you could have IPMI and be sat at your desk with coffee and listening to music. Your choice really, I wonder why iLO licenses are so expensive :P
I have a spare Pi4 sitting around the house that I could pretty cheaply turn into a PiKVM. Looks like there are some slick hats to install into a PCI-E slot so I don't have a Pi and a bunch of wires hanging out in the chassis. Looks like I'll be going that route. Just need to figure out how to power it (they all seem to require external 5v or POE).
Consumer motherboards have some USB ports that have standby power @2A. Or the power supply has a 5vsb rail as well, that's where that comes from.