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  1. #1

    My experience so far, looking for direction

    Hi,

    So I recently launched a website that has quite high traffic and am trying to find the right solution for it.

    Originally it was launched on a shared hosting platform which I found useless almost immediately.

    I then started hunting around for a VPS. I was very price conscious and went with chicagovps.net. I ordered an OpenVZ which was very cheap and upgraded to 6GB of ram. What I'm struggling to understand is, despite having 6GB, and opening apache up to allow a lot of connections, the website came to a halt pretty quickly under heavy traffic, and the memory didn't spike over 1.5gb. Would they be using the resources on my VPS to handle overload?

    When it comes to virtualisation I know very little, so I'm not sure whether this is something that is possible (although assume it would be).

    Having read around a bit now about chicagovps, I see they have a lot of bad reports. I'm now looking for a reliable VPS that will not employ dirty tactics.

    The site itself is a pretty basic blog on WordPress. I'm aiming for 100k traffic per day, although may take a month or so to reach this (having to estimate). As far as traffic spikes go, I'm going to take a guess and said we could have 5k hits simultaneously when fresh content is posted on social media.

    I looked into rackspace.com which seemed like a good option, but they were pretty pricey, especially their bandwidth costs.

    My background, I'm from a Microsoft environment (little bit of server admin but mostly dev/database) but I have pretty poor linux/apache/vm knowledge.

    Would appreciate any advice/feedback as well as some suggestions.

    Thanks all.

  2. #2
    I'd also want something that would be easily scalable if that traffic spike was to increase down the track

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    I was very price conscious and went with chicagovps.net. I ordered an OpenVZ which was very cheap and upgraded to 6GB of ram. What I'm struggling to understand is, despite having 6GB, and opening apache up to allow a lot of connections, the website came to a halt pretty quickly under heavy traffic, and the memory didn't spike over 1.5gb. Would they be using the resources on my VPS to handle overload?
    Maybe too much overselling. Imagine a server node costs more than $350/month with 96GB RAM. Calculate how many VPS would share the server to make some profit.
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  4. #4
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    From your description, it seems like your concurrent connections limit is being maxed out.

    While I am not certain what ChicagoVPS's 'semi-management' entails, have you sought their help in optimizing your website?
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  5. #5
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    ChicagoVPS are un-managed / semi-managed.
    You can hire someone to look into your VPS and do some optimization.

    You can also try:
    1) Use CloudFlare free account.
    2) Use any cache plugin.
    3) MySQL / Apache Optimization.

    You can also consider a KVM / XEN fully managed VPS. OpenVZ are generally oversold.
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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by HostWithLove_Cody View Post
    From your description, it seems like your concurrent connections limit is being maxed out.

    While I am not certain what ChicagoVPS's 'semi-management' entails, have you sought their help in optimizing your website?
    I upped the MaxClients A LOT to ensure this wasn't the issue. When I had it set quite low I found an error in the apache2.conf which suggested it was too low, but since I upped this (to a couple thousand) it didn't report any errors.

    I've contacted them asking for some assistance and they told me they are a completely "unmanaged solution" - their helpdesk does not provide very good support at all.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by ravi_9793 View Post
    ChicagoVPS are un-managed / semi-managed.
    You can hire someone to look into your VPS and do some optimization.

    You can also try:
    1) Use CloudFlare free account.
    2) Use any cache plugin.
    3) MySQL / Apache Optimization.

    You can also consider a KVM / XEN fully managed VPS. OpenVZ are generally oversold.
    I've got a cache plugin on the WordPress install, just using some basic features at the moment and this didn't help.

    I've also done some MySQL optimisation but again, I don't think the DB calls are heavy load. Apache, would love to know any config suggestions you have here.

    What is CloudFlare and is a free account enough?

    As I mentioned above, ChicagoVPS have told me they have no ability to give tech support as they are an unmanaged service.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    What is CloudFlare and is a free account enough?
    Yes, it does work to speed-up website and save lots of bandwidth.

    As I mentioned above, ChicagoVPS have told me they have no ability to give tech support as they are an unmanaged service.
    Yes, with un-managed VPS you cannot get all support. They can help you only with Network and hardware.

    what is result of
    Code:
    top
    Code:
    free -m
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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by ravi_9793 View Post
    Yes, it does work to speed-up website and save lots of bandwidth.


    Yes, with un-managed VPS you cannot get all support. They can help you only with Network and hardware.

    what is result of
    Code:
    top
    Code:
    free -m

    Just tried cloudfare - I set the correct name servers and they appear to be been updated but now the website is unavailable.

    Any ideas? The domain is testosteroneprinciples.org

    I ran top/free -m and lot of memory is free at the moment

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    Any ideas? The domain is testosteroneprinciples.org
    Its loading at my end, and I think it working good now.
    Code:
    C:\Users\nameme>ping testosteroneprinciples.org
    
    Pinging testosteroneprinciples.org [108.162.198.116] with 32 bytes of data:
    Reply from 108.162.198.116: bytes=32 time=160ms TTL=51
    Reply from 108.162.198.116: bytes=32 time=175ms TTL=51
    Reply from 108.162.198.116: bytes=32 time=158ms TTL=51
    Reply from 108.162.198.116: bytes=32 time=159ms TTL=51
    
    Ping statistics for 108.162.198.116:
        Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
    Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
        Minimum = 158ms, Maximum = 175ms, Average = 163ms
    IP 108.162.198.116 is a CloudFlare IP. That means your website is now using CloudFlare
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  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by ravi_9793 View Post
    Its loading at my end, and I think it working good now.
    Code:
    C:\Users\nameme>ping testosteroneprinciples.org
    
    Pinging testosteroneprinciples.org [108.162.198.116] with 32 bytes of data:
    Reply from 108.162.198.116: bytes=32 time=160ms TTL=51
    Reply from 108.162.198.116: bytes=32 time=175ms TTL=51
    Reply from 108.162.198.116: bytes=32 time=158ms TTL=51
    Reply from 108.162.198.116: bytes=32 time=159ms TTL=51
    
    Ping statistics for 108.162.198.116:
        Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
    Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
        Minimum = 158ms, Maximum = 175ms, Average = 163ms

    Interesting, I get "Ping request could not find host testosteroneprinciples.org Please check the name and try again.

    If the DNS hadn't updated on my end surely I'd still be seeing the site? Or do you think Cloudflare takes a while to update it's own servers per country? I'm in Australia by the way..

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    If the DNS hadn't updated on my end surely I'd still be seeing the site? Or do you think Cloudflare takes a while to update it's own servers per country? I'm in Australia by the way..
    Check your website through some proxy like:
    kproxy.com
    awebproxy.com

    On your computer (if windows), run following command in CMD
    Code:
    ipconfig /flushdns
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  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by ravi_9793 View Post
    Check your website through some proxy like:
    kproxy.com
    awebproxy.com

    On your computer (if windows), run following command in CMD
    Code:
    ipconfig /flushdns
    Ya already tried flushing the DNS, seems odd. I'll give it a couple hours and try again.

    So how does this work? How is it free and are there multiple VM's working for this? If I have a huge traffic spike do you think it'll be able to handle the load??

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    Ya already tried flushing the DNS, seems odd. I'll give it a couple hours and try again.
    Have you tried opening your website using proxy like:
    kproxy.com
    awebproxy.com

    So how does this work? How is it free and are there multiple VM's working for this? If I have a huge traffic spike do you think it'll be able to handle the load??
    CloudFlare can work to speedup website, save bandwidth, improve security.
    http://www.cloudflare.com/overview

    Yes, it can also help during high traffic. But cannot be a solid solution.
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  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by ravi_9793 View Post
    Have you tried opening your website using proxy like:
    kproxy.com
    awebproxy.com


    CloudFlare can work to speedup website, save bandwidth, improve security.
    http://www.cloudflare.com/overview

    Yes, it can also help during high traffic. But cannot be a solid solution.
    Ahhh, ok. Do you have any suggestions as to what would be a solid solution?

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    Ahhh, ok. Do you have any suggestions as to what would be a solid solution?
    How many websites you are hosting on this VPS??
    What is average daily traffic??

    I think your current VPS configuration is very sufficient for your wordpress website. If you are not happy, upgrade to a fully managed KVM / XEN VPS with cPanel.
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  17. #17
    Just the one website. Daily traffic will be aiming for 100k per day and as I mentioned up to 5k simultaneous during spikes - purely due to posts on facebook

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    Hi,

    So I recently launched a website that has quite high traffic and am trying to find the right solution for it.

    Originally it was launched on a shared hosting platform which I found useless almost immediately.

    I then started hunting around for a VPS. I was very price conscious and went with chicagovps.net. I ordered an OpenVZ which was very cheap and upgraded to 6GB of ram. What I'm struggling to understand is, despite having 6GB, and opening apache up to allow a lot of connections, the website came to a halt pretty quickly under heavy traffic, and the memory didn't spike over 1.5gb. Would they be using the resources on my VPS to handle overload?

    When it comes to virtualisation I know very little, so I'm not sure whether this is something that is possible (although assume it would be).

    Having read around a bit now about chicagovps, I see they have a lot of bad reports. I'm now looking for a reliable VPS that will not employ dirty tactics.

    The site itself is a pretty basic blog on WordPress. I'm aiming for 100k traffic per day, although may take a month or so to reach this (having to estimate). As far as traffic spikes go, I'm going to take a guess and said we could have 5k hits simultaneously when fresh content is posted on social media.

    I looked into rackspace.com which seemed like a good option, but they were pretty pricey, especially their bandwidth costs.

    My background, I'm from a Microsoft environment (little bit of server admin but mostly dev/database) but I have pretty poor linux/apache/vm knowledge.

    Would appreciate any advice/feedback as well as some suggestions.

    Thanks all.
    Originally I had a recommendation for you, but reading a bit more I really think I need a bit more information. You have some logs of what is bottle necking you at the moment? I am not sure if your having issues with poor hosts or poor management of your site.

  19. #19
    That's a good question, is there anything specific I can look for to give you? Unfortunately I am amateur when it comes to linux/apache

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by ravi_9793 View Post
    How many websites you are hosting on this VPS??
    What is average daily traffic??

    I think your current VPS configuration is very sufficient for your wordpress website. If you are not happy, upgrade to a fully managed KVM / XEN VPS with cPanel.
    Just asked them and they told me they don't offer managed service for any plans they have

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    Just asked them and they told me they don't offer managed service for any plans they have
    You can always move to a different provider who offer fully managed VPS.
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  22. #22
    Yeah I guess I'm just looking for some advice/assistance as to what I need spec wise and who would be a reliable managed host at reasonable rates

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by djblurr View Post
    Hi,

    So I recently launched a website that has quite high traffic and am trying to find the right solution for it.

    I then started hunting around for a VPS. I was very price conscious and went with chicagovps.net. I ordered an OpenVZ which was very cheap and upgraded to 6GB of ram. What I'm struggling to understand is, despite having 6GB, and opening apache up to allow a lot of connections, the website came to a halt pretty quickly under heavy traffic, and the memory didn't spike over 1.5gb. Would they be using the resources on my VPS to handle overload?

    Having read around a bit now about chicagovps, I see they have a lot of bad reports. I'm now looking for a reliable VPS that will not employ dirty tactics.

    The site itself is a pretty basic blog on WordPress. I'm aiming for 100k traffic per day, although may take a month or so to reach this (having to estimate). As far as traffic spikes go, I'm going to take a guess and said we could have 5k hits simultaneously when fresh content is posted on social media.

    Not only doesn't ChicagoVPS offer managed hosting and what you consider basic support, but they are also banned from WHT for bad behavior. Folks need to research providers before spending hard earned money. Good luck getting a refund, CVPS isn't known for refunds either.

    You should be aware that ChicagoVPS has been hacked and their customer database made public twice in the past year.

    From that, the horror to discover 100's of GB's of RAM sold on rather pedestrian sized E3 servers. Should explain some of the oddness of your VPS resources or lack thereof.

    You bought on price and screwed yourself, sadly.

    A project like this needs modeled and tested locally or on a dedicated box first. With your code, apps, etc. an exact copy of what is to be deployed must be load tested.

    100k what a day? Pages I assume. Every page will have many elements, so total hits could total in the millions to 10's of millions all depending. That could be fairly large load.

    5k simultaneous accesses or even that in say a few minutes is literally a DDoS style attack in a virtualized environment. Most hosts will shut you down for resource abuse. Read their TOS and AUP policy before buying from anyone else. Those docs should cover these points, if they don't stay away.

    A project like this would be best perfected on a dedicated server. Give one a try first and determine after perfecting it - IF - it can be made to run in a virtualized environment. But, something like this really would be well suited in a true cloud environment with multiple daemons, redundancy, fail over, etc.

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