Hi guys,

This is my first post in webhostingtalk.com so Hi to everyone! :)

I'm starting to develop a kind of social network with a big ammount of user generated content. About the technology, I'll use ASP.NET MVC2 and for the database I'm still not sure wheather to use SqlServer or mySql. I'm afraid of the "future" possible costs of SqlServer. Any suggestion about that will be also apreciated!

However, my main headache is to chose a hosting plan. Our estimations are to have arround 150.000 registered users by the end of the first year and arround 750.000 by the end of the third year and increasing during the next years. For the first year I plan to have an average of arround 5.000 visits per day.

Which kind of hosting do you think is the most apropiate for my project? Would you consider having 2 seperate servers from the first day, on for the database in Linux (in case of chosing mySql) and another running the IIS?


Thanks so much!

Regards,


Jordi Corominas

Welcome to WHT,

I'd recommend going with a VPS to begin with, then upgrading appropriately.

Do you have any experience in the hosting world, or would you require the server to be fully managed, and would you need a control panel?

P.S. 600th post :)

Regards,
Karl

Congrats for your 600th post and thanks for my 1st answer! :)

I'm not an ignorant in the hosting world but I'm not as experienced as I would like. However i think I can configure and manage the server myself. Am I wrong? :)

Which specs would you reccomend for the VPS server considering arround 5.000 visits per day writing articles and sharing experiences in a "wall"? Would you start with two servers on for the database and the other for the IIS since the first day?

Thanks for helping!


Jordi

It all depends really, will these visits be unique hits? If so, you'll need a top end VPS, possibly a dedicated server. Another variable is how well the website has been programmed if there's a lot of queries every second then you probably will need two servers.

It's always hard to answer questions like this without the absolute specifics, but I'd probably start with one VPS with maybe 2GB RAM, then you can purchase another one later if there's a high load and split the website and database accordingly. Then as your site grows you can upgrade.

One thing to look for is to get the servers in the same location, possibly even the same host node, that way the speeds between the site and the database server aren't effected much.

I'm not an ignorant in the hosting world but I'm not as experienced as I would like. However i think I can configure and manage the server myself. Am I wrong? :)

Most providers setup windows VPS ready to host websites.
All you need is add domain/website in IIS.

Would you start with two servers on for the database and the other for the IIS since the first day?
Yes if money is not an issue. Better performance and also easier to troubleshoot.
As it is a new website, there's no problem when using database & IIS on same server to save money. You need more RAM on one server so it's not much cheaper than 2 servers.

If you are just starting up, you can start with a basic VPS account and thereafter eventually expand your resources since a high end VPS might be an overkill to start with. Once you have exceeded VPS, you can consider moving to a dedicated server. Please be sure that you sign up with a host who supports easy upgrades without complete re-installation of your VPS.

Good luck!

Great! Would you chose mysql instead of sql server? I'm afraid of having to pay the full licence when moving to a dedicated server.

Thanks agan!


Jordi