View Poll Results: Which is better?

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  • A lot of low-quality servers

    16 36.36%
  • Few high-quality servers

    28 63.64%
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  1. #1

    Quantity or Quality

    In your opinion, is it better for a hosting company to have 100 low-quality dedicated servers or 25 high-quality dedicated servers?

    Imagine that you have 10,000 websites you are hosting. Would you rather divide those 10,000 websites between 25 high quality servers or 100 low quality servers? 10,000 is just an example.

  2. #2
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    I'd rather have 100 low quality servers because if something happened to one, there wouldn't be such an impact.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Jacob Wall View Post
    I'd rather have 100 low quality servers because if something happened to one, there wouldn't be such an impact.
    That is what I was thinking too but wanted to get everyones opinion... Thanks for your input.

  4. #4
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    I'll go with the quality servers option without a doubt.

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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jacob Wall View Post
    I'd rather have 100 low quality servers because if something happened to one, there wouldn't be such an impact.
    I agree.

    It works well.

    Specially 4 U
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  6. #6
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    Lots of low quality servers are better!

    If people wanted a few high quality servers then mainframes would be much more popular.
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  7. #7
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    Fewer number of servers, easier for system administration, and human error/system administration is probably the largest source of downtime. That should also allow you to get additional redundancy built into the servers. Even though you'll affect more customers when you do go down, you should really never go down in the first place.
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  8. #8
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    I would choose (already have with my company) more servers - less number of clients per server. That makes the management harder, but that way anytime we may experience some problem with some server, any type of problem, less users have impact... my clients are everything to me so I choose the longer path.
    Downtime eventually happens. That is something you cannot escape, with 25 or 100 servers.
    Last edited by xeno007; 07-22-2009 at 09:17 PM.

  9. #9
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    I vote for low-quality (whatever that is). I don't think the low-q version will be 4x likelier to fail as your example ratio presumes.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Collabora View Post
    I vote for low-quality (whatever that is). I don't think the low-q version will be 4x likelier to fail as your example ratio presumes.
    Correct, the 100 low-end systems will likely have MORE than 4x the actual number of failures. This is because you're using lower-end, less redundant hardware AND have 4x as many systems. That is why I say the fewer systems should be the choice, better hardware = higher reliability, and then add on less system management to that.
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  11. #11
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    what would you say about google then?

    they always claim that they use low end servers, what kind of servers do they have in place?

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by wheimeng View Post
    what would you say about google then?

    they always claim that they use low end servers, what kind of servers do they have in place?
    My answer did not apply to all cases or all applications, it was specifically relating to someone running a web host, who is asking for advise on WHT.

    1) Google goes for the best value for the cost, looking at the cost for the life of the system, not specifically going with low end hardware. Also, certainly some of their hardware is considered high-end by WHT standards. The cost calculation is very different if you're purchasing systems for use in your own wholly owned facilities or building it with dedicated servers.

    2) They have developed a redundant "cluster" environment where individual system failure does not matter to them at all. Had the OP developed their own similar system, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be asking this question.

    3) The environment Google runs would also require specifically custom made applications, including a web server, mail server, control panel, back-end management, etc. I am assuming the OP has not gone through that trouble.

    So yes, if you have the development resources of Google, sure go that route, but I'm assuming you don't. Simply put, the array of applications needed for fully featured shared hosting is much more complex to design for than an application with a single purpose, designed from the ground-up for that platform, such as Google Search, Gmail, etc.

    Note: You can still go with a cluster type environment with a smaller number of systems, and I feel with doing this with dedicated servers you're going to get the most overall value by getting a smaller number of more powerful systems. The smaller number of systems will also result in less overhead in whatever virtualization layer you're using for the clustering, etc. At that point though you'd really need to do a full-out cost analysis, etc. as it then depends what exactly the "low end" and "high end" hardware is, etc.
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  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by wheimeng View Post
    what would you say about google then?

    they always claim that they use low end servers, what kind of servers do they have in place?
    who cares?

    I do not mean this in a confrontational manner what so ever, so, please do not take it that way...

    We have some pretty advanced clusters setup, and we ONLY use high end, redundant equipment on each and every single node..

    redundancy is nice - and its nice on all levels.. low end nodes only act to create points of failure... having high end systems with redundant, hot swap components - even in redundant, load balanced arrays - creates a better TCO then using arrays of low end servers... Google should already know this.. if they are willing to run on an inefficient TCO - that is their perogative - and they can certainly afford it - this however does not make it right - and lets face it - large corporations are not exactly known for making the best TCO decisions... (of course, this is assuming Google is really running low end systems in their arrays)
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  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by cartika-andrew View Post
    who cares?

    I do not mean this in a confrontational manner what so ever, so, please do not take it that way...

    We have some pretty advanced clusters setup, and we ONLY use high end, redundant equipment on each and every single node..

    redundancy is nice - and its nice on all levels.. low end nodes only act to create points of failure... having high end systems with redundant, hot swap components - even in redundant, load balanced arrays - creates a better TCO then using arrays of low end servers... Google should already know this.. if they are willing to run on an inefficient TCO - that is their perogative - and they can certainly afford it - this however does not make it right - and lets face it - large corporations are not exactly known for making the best TCO decisions... (of course, this is assuming Google is really running low end systems in their arrays)
    We operate the same way, clusters of high end systems, but I disagree a bit on the Google side. They really are going for the lowest TCO on their equipment, but for them, the operational costs are the key there. Their cost scale simply ends up being very different than anyone here on WHT, thus you cannot make a direct correlation.
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  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Syfonic View Post
    In your opinion, is it better for a hosting company to have 100 low-quality dedicated servers or 25 high-quality dedicated servers?

    Imagine that you have 10,000 websites you are hosting. Would you rather divide those 10,000 websites between 25 high quality servers or 100 low quality servers? 10,000 is just an example.
    honestly, there is no correct answer to this...

    it really depends on what the expectations of the customer are and what type of service they are after... many customers will value quantity over quality and many customers will value quality over quantity.. good thing is, there are plenty of providers that fit both profiles - so, no matter what a customer prefers, there will be options
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  16. #16
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    na, i was wondering that as well, thanks for the answers, i didn't have a stand over this quantity vs quality thingy.

    so just seeking for opinions.

    thanks guys

  17. #17
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    Personally, I'd rather have a few high quality servers. Easier to manage.

  18. #18
    I heard google has more than a million servers.. When you have that many, you gotta think about cost.. But I bet they have a large variety of servers. Some big ones, many small ones etc..

  19. #19
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    High quality servers. Fewer of them to worry about on an administrative side. Since they are of higher quality less failures. You also need to factor in licenses if you use say R1Soft you now have way more licenses to back everything up. If you're using a control panel if it's per machine once again another thing that'll cost more.

    Only reason I can think of you using low end is if you cannot afford higher end machines.
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  20. #20
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    And the answer is: it depends on your application.

    If when a machine dies the only impact you see is a slight drop of overall capacity on your RRD graph, and there are no noticeable impacts (no downtime, no slow downs) and you can take your time to bring that machine back up, and node restoration is pretty much automatic (PXE boot with kickstart), go with many boxes. Obviously it only starts to make sense when you have enough of them.

    If, on the other hand, a dead box requires immediate attention because X number of clients are offline, then I'd choose fewer high(er)-end boxes.

    Other things to take into account: power and space requirements.
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  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by TonyB View Post
    High quality servers. Fewer of them to worry about on an administrative side. Since they are of higher quality less failures. You also need to factor in licenses if you use say R1Soft you now have way more licenses to back everything up. If you're using a control panel if it's per machine once again another thing that'll cost more.

    Only reason I can think of you using low end is if you cannot afford higher end machines.
    exactly

    I actually do not believe the bit about google using only low end servers..

    but, it was a generic statement - as the OLD thought processes of building clusters was too use a LOT of low end gear and who cares if a node fails..

    Unfortunately, ANY basic TCO study will show you that running, managing, maintaining, licensing, updating, power, space, monitoring, cabling, networking, etc, etc, etc 100 servers has a MUCH MUCH better TCO then 300 servers or 500 servers or 1000 servers..

    so, you will, almost without exception, be better off running fewer, high end machines, vs double to triple the amount of low end gear..
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  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by TonyB View Post
    High quality servers. Fewer of them to worry about on an administrative side. Since they are of higher quality less failures.
    Agreed. Especially 25 versus 100. If it were 1 high powered server versus 4 low powered ones I would say different (I would go with the four) but that is more due to placing all my eggs in one basket.

    100 servers starts to become quite a task to administrate remotely. 25 is a bit more manageable.

  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by dlm7 View Post
    Agreed. Especially 25 versus 100. If it were 1 high powered server versus 4 low powered ones I would say different (I would go with the four) but that is more due to placing all my eggs in one basket.

    100 servers starts to become quite a task to administrate remotely. 25 is a bit more manageable.
    Those numbers were just used as examples.

  24. #24
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    High Quality Servers.

    I would rather invest in good, powerful machines that use quality hardware which will reduce chance of failure. Also it saves on things such as licenses, eg cPanel.


  25. #25
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    I am curious where is this "fewer for the sysadmins to manage" comes from ?
    Even if the number of servers will be smaller the number of clients will be the same and the hardware usually works ok so the sysadmin or the support will not have that much work on that part but the same on the client side.
    You can have an argument for example if you are colocated and the colocation price wil increase rapidly with a lot servers.

    Has anyone compared a Q9550 with a Xeon 5000 series ?
    If we are talking about a lot of P4's then yes, you may go for a high end server and that also depends on the number of P4's.

    Quote Originally Posted by shad0wz View Post
    High Quality Servers.

    I would rather invest in good, powerful machines that use quality hardware which will reduce chance of failure. Also it saves on things such as licenses, eg cPanel.
    I agree with the number of licenses.
    It would have been easier if cPanel was multiserver here
    Anyway depends on what you are doing with the hardware.
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