Hello,

Let me describe my situation first, I'm currently on reseller hosting, everything is working fine except sometimes the server load goes much higher than normal ( > 8.xx for 8 CPUs), when this happens then something bad happens too, like slow website or ftp service down or difficult to access the email etc. Although this doesn't happen often, I'd like to avoid this as it's not good for my business.

I assume that's because I'm on reseller account, where the provider allows unlimited accounts (although this provider has a good reputation, my partner found them in WHT), because they offer unlimited accounts, anyone else may host a lot of their websites and causes the issue.

So, my question: does this always happen on reseller account? Is it a good way to move to a provider who limits accounts created so less chance this issue can be happened? or do I need to get a VPS? although what I understand VPS is sharing CPU too.

FYI, I'm using reseller account for my own sites only, there are 3 active sites that don't require high resources. I only like to separate the website to have their own cPanel.

Any suggestions or advices appreciated. Thanks.

Does the provider offer unlimited or unmetered hosting accounts? Issues with overloaded servers and slow load times are usually caused by servers that are either not managed well or are overcrowded or oversold due to the fact that it offers unrealistic packages. Even as a reseller, you're in a shared environment. Depending on how many accounts and users are put on a single server, any single account that decides to run a process or a script that uses a high amount of CPU or memory will likely affect all the other users on that same server. It's usually best to go with providers who do not oversell or does not oversell as heavily and you'll likely see much better performance as there is a less chance of server abuse.

Many company doesn't share CPU on VPS, you can easily find a company with dedicated CPU.

If you want through a good start to a hosting company, the best way will be a dedicated servers.

i currently use UnderHost for my decals site via VPS and never got any downtime in 3 month.

maybe one of the other sites on the server got hacked and a is eating up the server resources.
or its an overcrowded server.

if i were you, i would ask the host to move me to a diffrent server.
i assume you have your own dedicated IP ( right? ), ask the provider to move everything includeing your IP to another server.

try opening a support ticket, tell them exactly what you feel while trying to work with your websites.

i am sure they will help you, as it is a reseller account, which means you dont have actual root access to the server, there is not much we can advice to do on the tech aspect.

open a support ticket, mail them , call them by phone...
they must and will solve this for you.

worst case ? search for a new provider.
but that's only as your LAST resort.

The best way to get away from high server loads and one website slowing down all of the websites on the server is picking up a VPS. A VPS will provide yo the isolation that you need. It can happen time to time with even the best reseller providers, that someone will abuse their given resources, or get the "dig effect" and sometimes that can bring a tightly packed shared/reseller server to its knees.

Sorry to hear about what you are going through.

I think the most likely cause here is an overloaded server. When servers are overloaded, too many clients are on it, so this eats up CPU and as a result slows everything down.

Try contacting the provider and see what they tell you.

If the issue persists and it really is bothering you, consider picking up a VPS.

I believe that my current host doesn't oversell although it's not zero overselling. So I guess the issue wasn't caused by overloaded server, but since they allow unlimited accounts (not unlimited space/bandwith), a new client may come and put a lot of websites, and one of his sites caused the issue. That's why I'm looking for alternative that limits the accounts.

For VPS suggestion, I'm still in doubt, because firstly, my sites don't need extra power from a VPS, shared or reseller account is enough actually. Secondly, I'm still wondering if a VPS can really isolate my account from other accounts in the same server, it's sharing the CPU, right? Someone above said there's a VPS with dedicated CPU, what's this called, Hybrid server?

Other question, I read some posts about VPS, saying that some VPS virtualization allows the provider to 'oversell', does this mean there's no guaranteed memory amount (or CPU) and I might encounter the same issue like shared environment?

I believe that my current host doesn't oversell although it's not zero overselling. So I guess the issue wasn't caused by overloaded server, but since they allow unlimited accounts (not unlimited space/bandwith), a new client may come and put a lot of websites, and one of his sites caused the issue. That's why I'm looking for alternative that limits the accounts.
As others have said, you can submit a ticket and see what's going on :) Ask them to move you to another server if it continues. If that doesn't help (indicating all their servers are overloaded) or they say they can't help, possibly look to move elsewhere.


For VPS suggestion, I'm still in doubt, because firstly, my sites don't need extra power from a VPS, shared or reseller account is enough actually. Secondly, I'm still wondering if a VPS can really isolate my account from other accounts in the same server, it's sharing the CPU, right?
It depends on the type. Although it really isn't like shared/reseller hosting whereby what one customer does can effect everyone. CPU usage in a VPS is still controlled. I've been using them for 1.5 years now and never have problems with other customers on the node.

Someone above said there's a VPS with dedicated CPU, what's this called, Hybrid server?
Not quite - a hybrid server is a 'beefy' VPS with a larger share of CPU, and a larger share of RAM, bandwidth and disk space too. It's basically just that there are less accounts per physical server, meaning that you get a larger share of the resources available.


Other question, I read some posts about VPS, saying that some VPS virtualization allows the provider to 'oversell', does this mean there's no guaranteed memory amount (or CPU) and I might encounter the same issue like shared environment?
There are bad VPS hosts out there who do oversell and overload their nodes, so then you'll encounter similar problems (well, arguably worse - nodes crashing due to RAM shortages etc).

However any quality provider (KnownHost, WiredTree etc) won't oversell since they know what they are doing ;)

But it's just like shared/reseller - there are quality shared/reseller hosts out there who don't overload their servers or (massively) oversell. As you quite rightly ask, a VPS isn't necessarily a direct solution to being on a slow server. Any quality shared/reseller host will happily move you to another server or 'sort out' (suspend, etc) the accounts which are slowing up the server :)

I'd say to firstly look to move to a new server or a new host, and if it then turns out that your sites have out-grown shared, move to a quality VPS provider like KnownHost, WiredTree etc :)

Get yourself VPS based on XEN technology and your CPU will not be shared.

unlimited accounts most likely equals overselling, buy your self VPS with cPanel and forget about load generated by other users. However most likely you will be having something about 512Mbytes on your VPS when on shared/reseller server you're usually have from 4 to 8 Gigs of it.

Get yourself VPS based on XEN technology and your CPU will not be shared.

unlimited accounts most likely equals overselling, buy your self VPS with cPanel and forget about load generated by other users. However most likely you will be having something about 512Mbytes on your VPS when on shared/reseller server you're usually have from 4 to 8 Gigs of it.

Misleading, Xen can be oversold.

OpenVZ/Virtuozzo is fine. If you doubt you will need the power of a VPS, then I highly doubt you would have any use for a Xen VPS since the only thing Xen has over OpenVZ is the ability to run its own kernel and not use a shared one.

Misleading, Xen can be oversold.

OpenVZ/Virtuozzo is fine. If you doubt you will need the power of a VPS, then I highly doubt you would have any use for a Xen VPS since the only thing Xen has over OpenVZ is the ability to run its own kernel and not use a shared one.

However Xen usually goes without any 'burstable' ram options AND with better hard-disk control then openvz have. Please provide me with normal way of overselling xen? Also Xened is more look like dedicated server also because of levels of system schedulers.

Misleading, Xen can be oversold.

OpenVZ/Virtuozzo is fine. If you doubt you will need the power of a VPS, then I highly doubt you would have any use for a Xen VPS since the only thing Xen has over OpenVZ is the ability to run its own kernel and not use a shared one.

Want to explain how Xen can be oversold other than bandwidth?

{RANT}
Why is everyone quick to push the VPS Button on all Reseller Accounts with "Load Issues", while it is true that improperly managed servers are trouble, the EXACT SAME problem can exist on a VPS. While this is a solution for some, it is not always the best next step.
{END RANT}

Sorry for that....

May I ask a question?
1) Does this seem to happen at certain times of the day? - I offer reseller accounts and do see the server load go up during the morning (I assume people waking up to check their e-mail) and at around midnight (Clients Billing Application crons). Normally this will not cause services to fail, but I cant rule it out.

On properly configured VPS you will be only owner of whole machine. xdimension mentioned that he has 3 simple sites, this means overload generated by someone else account, and support guys of that hosting company he is using just not able to work this out. this is bad.

{RANT}
Why is everyone quick to push the VPS Button on all Reseller Accounts with "Load Issues", while it is true that improperly managed servers are trouble, the EXACT SAME problem can exist on a VPS. While this is a solution for some, it is not always the best next step.
{END RANT}

Sorry for that....

May I ask a question?
1) Does this seem to happen at certain times of the day? - I offer reseller accounts and do see the server load go up during the morning (I assume people waking up to check their e-mail) and at around midnight (Clients Billing Application crons). Normally this will not cause services to fail, but I cant rule it out.

I completely agree. Reseller hosting can work just fine with tons of domains as long as the system is administered properly. Even with proper administration, high load happens. It is how the support team deals with it. If they won't correct it then that's an issue, if they do.. Then why should anyone go virtual unless they have outgrown it?

Misleading, Xen can be oversold.

OpenVZ/Virtuozzo is fine. If you doubt you will need the power of a VPS, then I highly doubt you would have any use for a Xen VPS since the only thing Xen has over OpenVZ is the ability to run its own kernel and not use a shared one.


It's all too often that this community go immediately to pushing VPS services and it always seems to be a VPS provider doing it. Reseller hosting is perfectly fine and it can contain hundreds of sites depending on the server configuration.

Speak to your host about the issue and try to resolve it before looking for an answer here. This community is too often about sales pitches than actually wanting to help. If you've had good service and this is just every now and again, do try to resolve it with the host first.

You mention you have 3 active sites. If they are highly resource intensive then I can understand but if they are not, then reseller hosting should be perfectly fine.

Want to explain how Xen can be oversold other than bandwidth?
Xen 3.3 Feature : Memory Overcommit (http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2008/08/27/xen-33-feature-memory-overcommit/)
Memory overcommit provides the ability for the sum of the physical memory allocated to all active domains to exceed the total physical memory on the system. For example, if your machine has 4GB of RAM and you want to run as many 1GB domains as possible, you can run at most three — because Xen and domain 0 require some physical memory also. With the new memory overcommit feature in Xen 3.3, in some environments, you can run six or ten or even more.

Edit: and that's just memory. I/o is usually more critical and can be overcommitted on any VPS platform.

{RANT}
Why is everyone quick to push the VPS Button on all Reseller Accounts with "Load Issues", while it is true that improperly managed servers are trouble, the EXACT SAME problem can exist on a VPS. While this is a solution for some, it is not always the best next step.
{END RANT}Good rant! :agree:

Xen 3.3 Feature : Memory Overcommit (http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2008/08/27/xen-33-feature-memory-overcommit/)


Edit: and that's just memory. I/o is usually more critical and can be overcommitted on any VPS platform.

Good rant! :agree:

Is it actually stable though? We had several issues with 3.3 when testing this feature. With 3.4 we didn't even try it.

I/O is more configurable on Xen as there are processes which handles I/O of paravirtulized VM's and you can ionice them - this will help.

I would suggest you get yourself a VPS. There are a lot of VPS offers here in WHT. With a VPS, it will give you the isolation you need, and you have full control over it.

Just to clarify couple things:

1. Support: Yes, I had contacted my host support and as usual the issue was resolved. What I mean, I don't have any problem with the support, I'm just wondering why it happens and happens again, although it's not often, once it happens it's really bothering me in doing my business.

2. To answer Kdisk's question: No, it's not a little spike at certain times of the day, I don't mind if there's a little spike at certain times, the issue here is very high load that makes some services down.

Ok guys, thank you for all your information here, I think I got a view which road I should take with consideration from all you have described here. Again, thanks!

Its sound like your site is hosted on a server on which some site must be using too much resources which might be effecting on your site for loading slowly. You should need to contact your hosting support and request them to find the user responsible for this or request them to move the site to another server.