Any web hosting expert here?

[soft]

Dear all

As SOFT grows little by little each day. We have come to a point where our current hosting company commented that we are too heavy for a shared server.

Any SOFTies who are knowledgable in this field, do share with us your views on how SOFT should proceed.

Thanks!

Bandwidth is about 2Gb per day.
MySQL DB is about 300mb.

 

[lurgee]

Hey boss,

Let me check with my hosting company and see if they advise.
The most we switch server.
My site got unlimited bandwidth leh.

 

[jbarks]

It's probably more on the resources (CPU cycles taken up, SQL queries, etc) used by the site. Either a software change or a server shift would be in order I guess.

Site5 (www.site5.com) has a special with 5TB of bandwidth and 110GB of space. So far, I haven't had any issues with their servers but I'm pretty sure my sites don't use anywhere near the amount of resources SOFT takes up

Do read the T&C though. I'm not sure on their policy for high-usage sites.

 

[xklusivly4u]

yeah it is more like resources and application performance issue.
First, you should move SOFT website to a reasonably powerful dedicated server from shared server. Then do web application stress test by using some tools, basically it will generate numerous web connection to your site remotely and see how server react.

For example, if you have 200 simultaneous connections, you can get that figure from current web site, and then run the web stress tool for 200 requests.

Then check the server resources, see they are in acceptable level. If they are and you still have problem or delay in new connections, then it’s more like bandwidth issue. But I really doubt it since Soft does not distribute large graphic or videos.

Most of the reputable hosting company in Singapore has adequate bandwidth to major backbone suppliers. I suggest do not go for cheap second tier hosting companies. Let me know if you want more information.

 

[Cheez]

I suggest do not go for cheap second tier hosting companies.

Don't forget James is paying this from his own pocket!

 

[soft]

good advice. ha..ha.. actually, since we are going to be paying (from ad revenue) , we should choose one that is stable (good, cheap, freebies...).

my plan is to get a bigger space server so that i can upload better quality video (Flash format) of gigs/instructional instead of uploading to Youtube.

P4 Core 2 Duo 3Ghz server (or higher)
300 GB Diskspace  200 GB Monthly transfer 4GB ram

the above package will cost $200, is it good?

 

[Cheez]

Videos take up a lot of bandwidth, particularly if you are planning to expand that into instructional videos etc (which may mean even more bandwidth in the future). Are there no other alternative solutions to other video hosting sites or even file storage sites that can help offset the load?

 

[mikemann]

I dun know about internet technology, but from a layman point of view. To me it all just seems like marketing jargon, and it's just up to the service provider to package theirs as they see fit. What they can promise you, may not be what you will get in the end. Cause it's all in the backend and you can't see what they use to carry your content. Who knows if, for your data they are using 10yr old P3 servers, with equally old networking hardware with updated firmware.

It's just about a balance in cost and performance which is the main concern here. I won't care if they are using 20yr old servers, as long as the page loads reasonably fast and reliably when online whether it's 256Kbps or 10Mbps. Of course no downtime.

You should look at some chinese youtube clone sites, for free loads. The download speeds are simply 5 to 10X faster than youtube is now. The user base has grossly outgrown the capacity of youtube. Vid loads are extremely laggy these days.

 

[xklusivly4u]

Things are more complicated now since you want to achieve stability, availability and provide video streaming.

I understand that SOFT is a hobbyist website and cost is the concern. 200 S$ for that package is fairly decent.

But if you want to archive what you want, prepare to spend small fortune.

Solution 1: Sorry if it’s not in English.
- Two web servers (network load balance with high availability)
- Two clustered database server for redundancy and high availability
- External storage system SAN, iSCSI, NAS or DES (shared database and large video files)
- Hosted at major ISPs (SingNet, PacNet, 1Net etc.) unlimited bandwidth and transfer
- Optional multi media optimization products for streaming
You get high availability, scalable (add more servers if necessary), stability and, room for medium term growth but you need to buy hardware, software (depends on what you use), and rent half or full rack in data centers. Probably this is not a favorable solution for you.

Solution 2:
- One dedicated web server and a database server
- Internal storage (you can probably get 2 TB disk)
- Hosted at major ISPs (unlimited bandwidth and transfer)

No redundancy and no guarantee of service level but reasonable cater essential requirements.

Solution 3:
-One dedicated server running both database and web server
-Internal Storage (500 GB)
-Hosted at hosting company

Cheapest way but I don’t recommend that because hosting companies buy bandwidth from various ISPs and hosted many servers as much as they can. So they will charge you with limited bandwidth and transferred.

 

[soft]

xklusivly4u, thanks for the 'menu'. would you happen to have some rough pricing on the various Solutions? so that i can see if we can afford it :lol:

 

[xklusivly4u]

Option 1 is going to be costly and you may need a vendor to implement for you as that involve a bit of advance stuffs such as network load balancing and database clustering and I am not sure about your IT knowledge level. But it’s not that difficult though. But anyway here is the approximate cost, actual cost could be varied.

2 web servers = 5000 S$
2 database servers = 12000 S$
External storage = I don’t have that figure you need to contact to distributor but approximately 12000~15000 S$ depends on number of hard disks. You are looking at initial investment about more than 30k. But hardware last about 3 years, so you cost per year is 10K. You might want to contact some companies for leasing.
Operational cost is about 1K per month for half rack rental in major ISP, not sure abut latest pricing, so just drop them a mail and ask a quote.

Option 2
Similar as option 1 but only 1 web servers and database server. With more storage space on database server, you are looking about 15K for this option plus monthly space rental in data center. It could cost you less because its only two servers but some ISP minimum rental requirement is half rack. But I am sure there are some ISPs that can offer you a space for two servers in reasonable price.

Option 3
You already have figure for this option.

Now if I may suggest, you might ask contribution from soft members. A little from each will help you to move to better environment.

 

[soft]

xklusivly4u, thanks for the details.

i think SOFT will be able to spend $100 - $200 per month on the hosting. anyone got any suggestions?

or how about http://www.siteground.com/ ? the rates are really attractive.

 

[xklusivly4u]

or how about http://www.siteground.com/ ? the rates are really attractive.

very cheap and looks good. Go for it.

 

[xklusivly4u]

seems like SOFT went down again

 

[soft]

xklusivly4u, ya, went down for like half a day. hee..hee.. anyone missed SOFT? :lol:

 

[timmywong]

Hello,

I'm a user here at soft. What is your experience with your current hosting company? Still on Shared hosting or are you on vps or a dedicated server?

Whatever when the term runs out, contact me.. i can sponsor soft for hosting. either shared or vps, i'll do it for you free for 1 year coz im a music and a guitar lover myself. Who knows after 1 year ill continue to do free for you. Btw im a system admin for the passed 6 - 7 years, specializing in Hosting environment, recently started my own hosting company ipbash.com. So let me know if u need a sponsor. i'm also planning to give out free hosting in the near future to bands or solos, who wanted to showcase their music.

--
Tim