I'm starting a hosting company, having administered servers for several years, and I was wondering how many clients you would put on a server? We're looking at going with either P4 3Ghz with 2GB ram or dual Xeons (Unix multiproc support isn't exactly the best right now), but how many small clients would you, in experience, put on a box? We're looking at going with 36 small clients (i.e. smaller sites), as we can give them alot of HDD space and good amounts of bandwidth cheap.

Does this sound about right? I've built servers with high loads before, but I have no idea how this would play out in the real world.

Thanks!

36? I would put like 100 clients on a server like that.

We can't give you a proper answer for a question like that. We have no idea what kind of specifications you're giving each client, how crammed you want to have the server be and there's always the 3rd variable being what your users will be like. I will tell you that if you plan on putting only 36 user on a server like that and selling your plans for $3.00 a month, don't expect to stay in business to long.

In that sort of box with small sites you can do 80-100 easily.

Ah, ok. I've been surfing on boards in my niche (I'm looking at doing adult hosting, as my business partner has experience in that area), and the most critical thing that people could say about their hosts is that they'd offer these $10-$15 packages, then try to put a ton of sites on.

We're looking at putting on (due to the feedback, which I do appreciate) 105 clients per P4 3.06Ghz with at least 1GB ram (looking at upping it to 2GB), and giving them 1.5Gb Bandwidth and about 500MB of space, and features, for $15/mo, which seems more feasable. (we're also not expecting everyone to use their full allotment, but planning in case they do)

My only other concern is, with low-end packages like this, how do you plan for support? I've got a base of about 3 junior admins to help, but knowing that those who pay the least usually demand the most, what steps can a host take to plan for this?

Hmm
The plans that you are going to offer (1.5 GB of Bandwidth and 500 MB of space) doesnt seem right for 15 dollars a month.

For example: I am starting a new hosting website where the largest plan is 2.5 Gigs of Space along with 45 Gigs of bandwidth (with cPanel, fantastico etc.) for free...

I think you should reconsider :)
>> Ah, ok. I've been surfing on boards in my niche (I'm looking at doing adult hosting, as my business partner has experience in that area), and the most critical thing that people could say about their hosts is that they'd offer these $10-$15 packages, then try to put a ton of sites on.

We're looking at putting on (due to the feedback, which I do appreciate) 105 clients per P4 3.06Ghz with at least 1GB ram (looking at upping it to 2GB), and giving them 1.5Gb Bandwidth and about 500MB of space, and features, for $15/mo, which seems more feasable. (we're also not expecting everyone to use their full allotment, but planning in case they do)

My only other concern is, with low-end packages like this, how do you plan for support? I've got a base of about 3 junior admins to help, but knowing that those who pay the least usually demand the most, what steps can a host take to plan for this?

I got a P4 3.06Ghz with 1gb ram and we got 250 sites on it now and its not close to being full we have no problems at all. We are planning on 300-350 before we stop adding to the server. Just watch your server when you get more clients on it.

Lol! Free? I charge a little more than $15 for 500mb space and 5gb bandwidth.

I'd like to know how you will pay for your resources. :) off topic but..had to comment. :)

Originally posted by auveeb
Hmm
The plans that you are going to offer (1.5 GB of Bandwidth and 500 MB of space) doesnt seem right for 15 dollars a month.

For example: I am starting a new hosting website where the largest plan is 2.5 Gigs of Space along with 45 Gigs of bandwidth (with cPanel, fantastico etc.) for free...

I think you should reconsider :)
>> Ah, ok. I've been surfing on boards in my niche (I'm looking at doing adult hosting, as my business partner has experience in that area), and the most critical thing that people could say about their hosts is that they'd offer these $10-$15 packages, then try to put a ton of sites on.

We're looking at putting on (due to the feedback, which I do appreciate) 105 clients per P4 3.06Ghz with at least 1GB ram (looking at upping it to 2GB), and giving them 1.5Gb Bandwidth and about 500MB of space, and features, for $15/mo, which seems more feasable. (we're also not expecting everyone to use their full allotment, but planning in case they do)

My only other concern is, with low-end packages like this, how do you plan for support? I've got a base of about 3 junior admins to help, but knowing that those who pay the least usually demand the most, what steps can a host take to plan for this?

I charge $9.99 for 100 mb disk space, 3000 mb bandwidth. It was 1000 mb bandwidth, but decided to give a bit more. There is many factors to consider with any business.

Originally posted by programmer
Lol! Free? I charge a little more than $15 for 500mb space and 5gb bandwidth.

I'd like to know how you will pay for your resources. :) off topic but..had to comment. :)


Well, we had established ourselves as a paid hosting company. We had many clients. But now, after checking out many free hosting websites (freewebspace.net, freewebhostingtalk.com) we have noticed that there are many people out there who have excellent content to place on their site, but don't have the funds to pay for it. The way we make a profit is by placing a google ad on the users website (the advertisement itself is placed by the user, it's not forced)

We have created a ring of sites that offer free hosting.

Here are my plans:
Plan 1
This plan is basically for project sites that do not require any interactive content (forums etc.)
100 MB Space
3 GB Bandwidth
1 FTP Account
1 Email Account
1 Addon Domain
0 MySQL Databases
cPanel, Fantastico
In exchange for a text link on the user's website

Plan 2
This plan can be used for anything...
1000 MB Space
20 GB Bandwidth
3 FTP Accounts
3 Email Accounts
2 Addon Domains
5 SQL Databases
cPanel, Fantastico
In exchange for a google Half Banner advertisement placed on the user's website.


Plan 3
This plan is meant for larger websites (companies to be more specific)
2500 MB Space
45 GB Bandwidth
15 Email Accounts
5 FTP Accounts
3 Addon Domains
10 SQL Databases
cPanel, Fantastico
In Exchange For A 460x80 google advertisement placed on the user's website.

To addon to that, me and my business partner both have full-time paying jobs.

IMO giving away 45GB of bandwidth is a good way to run yourself out of business IMO.

There are so many ways to abuse that it's not even funny.

As for the original poster, if you're going to be looking for adult hosting, do expect them to use all of their resources, and charge a higher rate than you proportionately would.

I know it is a risky thing to do, but we have many staff members that are watching the sites constantly.
And sorry for stealing the original authors topic, I'll stop. Hah

I'm usually hosting 300 to 500 on a PIV 3Ghz HT with 1 GB of RAM and 120 GB hard drive. Works fine for me... The load is usually around 0.4 (remember its an HT) and the hard drive around 80% empty after 6 months.

12,498 sites. Easily.

Or one.

Or two.

Depends on the circumstances.

But definitely 12,498. Ya...definitely.:D

Originally posted by dmike
IMO giving away 45GB of bandwidth is a good way to run yourself out of business IMO.

There are so many ways to abuse that it's not even funny.

As for the original poster, if you're going to be looking for adult hosting, do expect them to use all of their resources, and charge a higher rate than you proportionately would.

Yeah, we're betting on them using all of their resources, and we're planning ourselves to best our competetion, so we'll see how that works out.

If anyone's got any general advice/obvious things that no one sees at first, I'd welcome any and all advice. After all, I can't know everything right off the bat (can I?)

Just monitor the server load... If it gets too high (i.e. stays above 1 on a single CPU server) you should consider to order a new server. Also take into consideration that the server load will increase as the users upload more scripts and get more visitors etc.

Originally posted by spif
Ah, ok. I've been surfing on boards in my niche (I'm looking at doing adult hosting, as my business partner has experience in that area), and the most critical thing that people could say about their hosts is that they'd offer these $10-$15 packages, then try to put a ton of sites on.

We're looking at putting on (due to the feedback, which I do appreciate) 105 clients per P4 3.06Ghz with at least 1GB ram (looking at upping it to 2GB), and giving them 1.5Gb Bandwidth and about 500MB of space, and features, for $15/mo, which seems more feasable. (we're also not expecting everyone to use their full allotment, but planning in case they do)

My only other concern is, with low-end packages like this, how do you plan for support? I've got a base of about 3 junior admins to help, but knowing that those who pay the least usually demand the most, what steps can a host take to plan for this?


LMAO...bro, if you're really going to offer hosting to ADULT webmasters, they'll laugh at you just as I am.

ONE decent listing on ONE decent site could chew through 10 gigs in a day. Get a REALLY good listing and you might chew through 50 gigs in a day. That's for gallery traffic, now if you're client is doing movie galleries, It'll be 4-5 times that for the same listings.

Honestly man, when I was doing adult sites, I had 2 boxes each running about 5 domains and sometimes with multible decent listings going on at the same time I'd be freaking out watching apache trying to keep up. Yeah, one or 2 sites on a p4 2.8 with 512 ram could handle the load, but apache would be running with 200+ requests going 24/7.

Unless you have some decent experience with adult hosting, I'd suggest staying away from it, because if you don't know what your customers need and want, you'll get no where fast.

Originally posted by Shin
LMAO...bro, if you're really going to offer hosting to ADULT webmasters, they'll laugh at you just as I am.

ONE decent listing on ONE decent site could chew through 10 gigs in a day. Get a REALLY good listing and you might chew through 50 gigs in a day. That's for gallery traffic, now if you're client is doing movie galleries, It'll be 4-5 times that for the same listings.

Honestly man, when I was doing adult sites, I had 2 boxes each running about 5 domains and sometimes with multible decent listings going on at the same time I'd be freaking out watching apache trying to keep up. Yeah, one or 2 sites on a p4 2.8 with 512 ram could handle the load, but apache would be running with 200+ requests going 24/7.

Unless you have some decent experience with adult hosting, I'd suggest staying away from it, because if you don't know what your customers need and want, you'll get no where fast.


Yeah, that's only looking at smaller site hostings. For medium- and larger-size sites, we've got other packages we're going to be offering. We're also getting beefier servers, more bandwidth for them, but it's a costlier package. From several of the other site owners I've talked to, and from my own experience, the mid- to large- guys will be taken care of, I just wasn't sure about the smaller guys.

And how does one get experience with adult hosting without actually doing it? :p

i should have said that if you don't have experience with adult sites. But i suppose it's almost the same thing.

Thing is, that in adult hosting, there really isn't "small" vs big. Most people will try it, and either explode or stop. Adult sites aren't like regular sites that will grow over time. Adult sites are on or off, depending on where they get listed that day.

But even a newb to the industry will burn through more than a gig or 2. I used around 500 gigs my first month of doing it full time. I could have done more if I'd wanted to. The trick for the webmaster is to make money off that traffic :P

Yeah, we're betting that most of the people will pretty much just stay small, and we're putting bandwidth limitations on the domains to keep them from going past their allotments. If they grow past that, they can upgrade to a bigger account, and we figure by that time (even if it's within a week or two), they'll see either potential income to their site, or have more income, and grow upwards.

We're basing our main business model on bigger packages, but we're just looking at the starter level, as we want to offer an option there as well, something to grab them and lure them in.