Hi there,

We have several VPS accounts with a reliable hosting company.

The problem is that we have a certain web application that is consuming too much memory (about 500-700 MB) possibly due to a faulty code, so this website is not suitable for our VPS environment as it consumes most of the available memory (which is not much) causing problems with other websites hosted on the same VPS.

Since we currently can't afford a dedicated hosting for this web app, I am looking for a premium shared hosting that can host that website with no problems.

We can pay up to $50/month for a premium hosting with good support.

please advise.

Hi there,

The problem is that we have a certain web application that is consuming too much memory (about 500-700 MB) possibly due to a faulty code, so this website is not suitable for our VPS environment as it consumes most of the available memory (which is not much) causing problems with other websites hosted on the same VPS.

Since we currently can't afford a dedicated hosting for this web app, I am looking for a premium shared hosting that can host that website with no problems.

We can pay up to $50/month for a premium hosting with good support.

please advise.

Looks like your app will consume whatever memory is available to it. No decent admin would allow your app on a shared server. There is no such thing as premium shared plan for bad code. You see what it does to a VPS -- a shared server will not be immune, there will be problems.

Just my opinion, but I think it would cheaper to find the root of this problem and correct it, rather than to try and find a new home for it.

Either way, good luck :)

Thank you for your feedback. I do agree with you that the problem with the code should be solved, but this is going to take a lot of time (we cannot take the website down during this time). I wonder if you know by any chance if there is some way to run diagnostics on the application level on Windows. I have the troublesome domain on a dedicated app pool, but all I got is that that app pool is using too much memory, but I don’t know which files exactly is causing the problems, it will help us a lot if can pin point the source of the problem. Any help would be much appreciated.

It shouldn't take that much time to clean up the code a bit. Judging by the extreme memory usage its probably something fundamental like not closing database connections. Check mem usage with perfmon. Set app pool to recycle after a certain level is reached.

Check out tools from sysinternals: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

In the meantime - why not get a vps specifically for this app - then you can just cancel the vps when it has been optimised, and run it on your existing vps.

In my opinion, if your current apps taking too much memories from the VPS, it would be a bad idea to migrate to a shared environment.

Even if the site can't be brought down at all, you should be able to transfer all the files to another location and get someone to look for any bugs. But it is weird that you are willing to risk your site from being suspended (assuming you are near to break your host tos) than getting it offline for maintenance.

Nevertheless, no shared host will accommodate your apps knowing what it will do to their hosting environment.

I don't think you'll be able to run the App in a shared hosting environment as most quality hosts will shut down your site as soon as it starts to consume more that 100MB. You are far better off getting a 1GB VPS MS VPS and testing the APP on there. Cost should be between $75-100. You might be able to get a $50 VPS with 512MB RAM and then use page file for the rest.

So what code base did you use for your app?

A SQA (Software Quality Assurance) test is also considerable. Find SQA professionals around you, provide them site data and they can point out to the actual cause in less time. I think this process demands less hassle too because you should count that time too when your site can suffer during host change.

So you can change easily modify bad code and keep on current VPS.

I seriously would like to go to one of the guys who say I give out unlimited disk space and unlimited bandwidth, most of the time those guys dont even include anything in their AUP and TOS regarding maximum usage and upload all my computer contents to that website, upload a billion 2GB files that have literally just junk inside them. I wonder what will happen after I use more than 5 GB of disk space?

Account suspended.
Customer: why did you suspend my account?
Support: you have used too much bandwidth, and disk space.
Customer: I bought your $5.99/month unlimited bw unlimited hdd space package.
Support: yes you did but, you are breaking our TOS/AUP we can no longer host you, sorry.
Customer: where in your AUP/TOS does it say I am not allowed to use more than 5GB?
Support: Oh it doesn't it just is.
Customer: thanks, please check this thread that I am starting on WHT in 5 minutes.
Support: Have a wonderful day.

most of the time those guys dont even include anything in their AUP and TOS regarding maximum usage .

Some of them actually do -- but I think that is bizaar. The majority will normally describe the nature of the service that is allowed. A typical web site will be less than 1GB over 95% of the time. Those customers will appreciate the freedom of not having to worry about their disk quota. For the small number of sites that go over 1GB, some of those are not web sites, but file sharing, archiving, or some other non-web hosting function. They will be the candidates for termination.

The key here is server management. You will find that it is the new hosts who have not utilized mcuh of their resources yet, and hosts that are not up to the job of server management, that are the critics of the unlimited plan because they themselves are unable to cope with them on a server management level. With proper server management and monitoring, both unlimited plans and overselling can be accomplished. The result is lower-priced hosting while maintaining high availablility.

Well yes that is true that a website would 95% stay below 1GB.

Why not go and say you are paying 1.99 for 250MB's but actually don't limit them and when they go over 250 go and charge them 2.99 for 1GB but not limit them, when they are at 1GB check if they are doing anything bad (eg filesharing, illegal p2p etc.) if not tell them they have to pay 3.99 for 2.5 GB's.

Whats the point of going and saying unlimited space and then, the second they are over your secret limit, terminate their account?

Well yes that is true that a website would 95% stay below 1GB.

Why not go and say you are paying 1.99 for 250MB's but actually don't limit them and when they go over 250 go and charge them 2.99 for 1GB but not limit them, when they are at 1GB check if they are doing anything bad (eg filesharing, illegal p2p etc.) if not tell them they have to pay 3.99 for 2.5 GB's.

Whats the point of going and saying unlimited space and then, the second they are over your secret limit, terminate their account?

There is no secret limit. Where did that come from?

I haven't said you do have a secret limit, but most companies have a limit that is secret.

The tos/aup is not secret. It gives the host a lot of leeway when it comes to things like "server abuse." But even if there is a "secret quota" I'll maintain that it is more than what over 99% of shared websites require. Why base recommendations on the circumstances of the less than 1% who probably shouldn't be on a shared server anyway?