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  1. #1

    What do I need? VPS? Ded? Help needed...

    Hi All,

    I have a decent size wordpress blog that is doing horribly on the MT cloud service. I need to move to a better managed solution but I'm clueless as to what to select. Can you help me out?

    Site Stats:

    WordPress Blog
    140k uniques a month
    23k MB bandwidth a month
    1.7GB disk space used
    500 GPU usage per month (I expect to bring this down some)

    Requested features:

    Speed
    Fully managed
    Some sort of Control Panel
    Static IPs

    I'm expecting some decent growth so I need to get on a server more reliable than MTs cloud. Speed and reliability is more important to me than price, although I can't break the bank

    Any suggestions, tips, pointers, etc would be greatly appreciated.
    Last edited by MrBob; 09-08-2010 at 03:58 PM.

  2. #2
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    You could still do shared/reseller, depending on how that traffic is spread out. What is the highest amount of uniques you get PER HOUR?

    We need to know more about what you mean decent growth (ie, double your current uniques, more, less?). A decent VPS is powerful enough to handle your workload, the question becomes whether you can find a provider with a stable node (the entire server, not just your VPS), I would say that's quite difficult.

  3. #3
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    If you're not using any sort of caching such as WPSuperCache I would suggest enabling it and that will help a lot.

    Your uniques per month is fairly high for a standard shared plan but it would be doable with the appropriate caching. Beyond that you may try a smaller managed VPS or a lower end dedicated server.
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  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Lev View Post
    You could still do shared/reseller, depending on how that traffic is spread out. What is the highest amount of uniques you get PER HOUR?
    I have no idea how to determine that, any tips?

    We need to know more about what you mean decent growth (ie, double your current uniques, more, less?
    I would say double within a year or so.

    WPSuperCache I would suggest enabling it and that will help a lot
    I am caching now and using a cdn service.

    A decent VPS is powerful enough to handle your workload, the question becomes whether you can find a provider with a stable node (the entire server, not just your VPS), I would say that's quite difficult
    great...but thats why I posted here

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrBob View Post
    I have no idea how to determine that, any tips?
    Do you have a statistics package that you use? Like awstats, or google analytics? I am not familiar with MT's cloud service, but I would be very surprised if they did not include some kind of statistics (ie, how did you determine your uniques is 140,000 a month?). That should have uniques per hour, take a look and tell us what you see.

    If you're determined to go with a VPS or higher, a decent VPS (just don't go low end) will do well as long as the entire server is stable (even if you're basically getting all those 4k visitors/day in a couple hours). A low-end dedicated server will also do well for you.
    Last edited by Lev; 09-08-2010 at 04:30 PM.

  6. #6
    I use google analytics and didn't see how I could see stats by hour?

    I haven't had much luck hosting this site so I am thinking VPS at a minimum. Do you have any suggestions as to which host? I was ready to go Hostgator until I saw a couple posts on here...

    I also don't really know what I need, some of these hosts have configurable packages...where do I start with that?

  7. #7
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    Unless you get all the visitors in one hour per day and you were using some resources intensive plug-ins, you still should be able to be hosted on a decent shared host, you have an average of 4700 visitors per month, which still suit perfectly fine in a shared account.
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  8. #8
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    A small dedicated server, if you can afford it, would give you much more speed, control and the ability to grow on.
    If you don't have the funds, try a decent VPS.

    Good luck!
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  9. #9
    you have an average of 4700 visitors per month
    I think you mean per day? and shared is really no go here, this site has killed many shared hosts and I need room to grow.

    visitors in one hour
    I checked visitors per hour and the highest was 795.

    A small dedicated server, if you can afford it, would give you much more speed, control and the ability to grow on.
    If you don't have the funds, try a decent VPS
    I know that much but thanks I need help picking the host and how much I really need on the server.

  10. #10
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    You may do better with some Business hosting, where there are no more than around 30 sites hosted on a Dual, quad core server.

    Again as said above failing that a small VPS... I'm sure you'll find many hosts on this forum who can provide what you need.

    Are you looking for a UK or US provider...?
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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrBob View Post
    I use google analytics and didn't see how I could see stats by hour?
    Login to Google Analytics and click 'Custom Reports' in the bottom left and then 'Create new custom report'. Next click 'Metrics' -> 'Site Usage' and then drag 'Unique Visitors' box to the blue 'metric' box. Then in the green 'Dimensions' box, click 'Visitors' and drag 'Hour of the Day' to the first green box. Then click 'Preview Report'. In the window that comes up, select a range of one day only. Note the highest unique visitors per hour. Do this for 5-10 days (or if you remember any particular high traffic days, try those). Give us what the highest results you get are.

    Edit: noticed you already found this, so nevermind.

    I haven't had much luck hosting this site so I am thinking VPS at a minimum. Do you have any suggestions as to which host? I was ready to go Hostgator until I saw a couple posts on here...
    I do not think a VPS will resolve the issues you've been having in the long term (well it will, but you need a very well managed server). One thing is for sure: the company you go with should have glowing reviews, it is quite difficult to maintain a VPS node correctly for prolonged periods of time. A dedicated server hosting one customer is significantly easier to manage than a server hosting many VPS'.

    I would suggest you find a company that does something like semi-dedicated and use that. It's shared but 800 visitors is really not that many, if the company has servers which specialize in hosting higher-use shared accounts, you should be fine.

    I also don't really know what I need, some of these hosts have configurable packages...where do I start with that?
    We need the provider in question. I know what you mean but different providers allow different configuration options.

    Edit: That 800 number you gave above, are you sure that's per hour and not for several hours? Google Analytics by default has a range of several hours. It's important to get this number right.
    Last edited by Lev; 09-08-2010 at 06:21 PM.

  12. #12
    Hey Bob:

    I recently bought a VPS and quickly learned not to skimp on RAM. Even a small uncached WordPress site can quickly take down a low end VPS.

    Regarding RAM, I think you are typically looking in the region of 3M per request for static content and 15M per request for dynamic content.


    Multiply RAM per request by the number of simultaneous requests you want your server to handle without crashing, and you get a ballpark figure for how much RAM you will need. A knowledgeable provider should be able to recommend what will/won't work for your needs.

    For managed VPS, I think there are several companies that regularly get good reviews on here: WiredTree, ServInt, LiquidWeb are a few you may want to look for reviews on.

  13. #13
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    Seems like getting a decent size vps server would work.
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  14. #14
    Are you looking for a UK or US provider...?
    US

    We need the provider in question
    I can't seem to get that far I've been told every type of hosting could be just fine but I know that isn't right...so I have no idea how to even start picking a provider yet

    are you sure that's per hour and not for several hours?
    yes, it was for the highest hour in the last 3 months.

    Multiply RAM per request by the number of simultaneous requests you want your server to handle without crashing
    well... wouldn't I want it to handle all of them without crashing? how do I know how many requests I need?

    regularly get good reviews on here: WiredTree, ServInt, LiquidWeb
    this is helpful thanks! but this did make my budget more clear - if I can only host this site I can't spend more than $1-150 per month. if I can host a couple other sites I can do $200 per month.

    dang, this is more of a pain than I thought. any/all other tips anyone has are very welcome, thanks for your help!

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Jedito View Post
    Unless you get all the visitors in one hour per day and you were using some resources intensive plug-ins, you still should be able to be hosted on a decent shared host, you have an average of 4700 visitors per month, which still suit perfectly fine in a shared account.
    agreed - a good shared account will easily suffice with this sort of traffic. As Jedito said, assuming you have proper caching setup and are not using any horrible 3rd party plugins.

    Having said this, if you have a need for scalability, and your traffic is "spiky" in nature (ie the majority of your traffic comes during certain times of the day or during certain days of the month, etc) - and if you do expect rapid growth - a GOOD, managed cloud solution is also a good idea for you.
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  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by MrBob View Post

    dang, this is more of a pain than I thought. any/all other tips anyone has are very welcome, thanks for your help!
    ok - here is a very nice solution.

    Get a real, hardware level VPS (something running on Xen or VMWare - they typically cost a little more, but, you get real hardware level virtualization). Some providers sell this with utility billing and market it as a cloud. You can also get a more advanced VPS with some sort of centralized storage and utility billing (other providers call this a cloud).

    With either solution, request an operating system call CloudLinux. What CloudLinux does is create software level virtual environments (they call this LVE - lightweight virtual environments) within the hardware container. Confusing I know, but, follow me here.

    OK - so you purchase a VPS or Cloud Server which has specific resources available to it (ie 2 CPUs and 4 GB RAM lets say) - you then load up all of your sites and via CloudLinux, you give your primary site 80% of the resources and your other sites 10% each (or whatever). As your sites grow, or if you get a spike in traffic, you increase the size of your environment and add resources. If you expect large bursts, or are uncertain - spend a little extra and get a Cloud Solution where storage is centralized - this way, you are not locked onto a single physical server - and if you need more resources then is available on the node your server currently resides on, it will be automatically, instantly and seamlessly switch to a different node in the pool which has the resources you require.

    You can then, in a very granular manner - reallocate the resources you have amongst your various accounts via CloudLinux and LVE settings.
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  17. #17
    agreed - a good shared account will easily suffice with this sort of traffic.
    he was assuming per month, the 4700 is per day unless I'm missing something.

    a shared account can't deal with that can it? I really don't know I guess but this site kills MTs cloud. and fwiw unless the cloud service provides a static ip cloud is out.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by MrBob View Post
    he was assuming per month, the 4700 is per day unless I'm missing something.a shared account can't deal with that can it?
    4700 uniques per day is not too high for shared hosting (though, it may be for the average $5-$10/month type of solution).

    There are many ways providers approach this market. Some of the higher end providers have shared packages going all the way up to $100 or higher - and then naturally and organically move clients into more isolated, managed environments.

    I really don't know I guess but this site kills MTs cloud.
    hard to comment on this - other then to say - either you have something very wrong with your script, or they have something very wrong with their environment...

    and fwiw unless the cloud service provides a static ip cloud is out.
    certainly a cloud can provide a dedicated IP. A cloud (at least how I define it) - has networking separated from processing (cpu and ram) and has processing separated from storage. With this architecture, IPs are not bound to physical machines, and are fluid, along with the cloud server between physical servers
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  19. #19
    thanks, I think. cloud was the only type of hosting I was sure wouldn't work, now I can add it back into the mix as well...

    I'm back beyond square one with this...why isn't this easier to figure out?

    btw, I am well aware this site has config issues. those will be fixed after the move.

  20. #20
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    Hello Bob, you might want to check MDDHosting Semi-Dedicated.
    http://www.mddhosting.com/semidedicated.php
    Ask for Server IP & Nameservers IP to check if your reseller provider truly provides 100% white-label.

  21. #21
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    We were running with a combined (so caching has less impact) account with several sites totalling 150K uniques a month, 35G traffic, 1M pages served a month on a virtual shared account. It is just starting to stutter a bit - on previous hosts it was all falling apart at a tiny, tiny fraction of that traffic so I know what you mean by killing virtual hosts. We were on pair.com. They do virtual servers for around $80 a month, and if their VPSs are as good as their shared plans they'd probably hold your site fine.

    We're moving to a Windows host at the moment as we're working on a new site that needs it, so we're moving the lot.
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