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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Alabama
    Posts
    9

    What should I be looking for in a dedicated server based on these needs?

    Hello,

    I am in search of a managed dedicated server (eventually servers) for a new project I am about to launch and need some feedback on what I need to look for. I am a programmer and been in business for over 10 years, but I am NOT good on server specs and all.

    I currently have a managed dedicated server with a company I have been using for nearly 10 years (but I think they sold to another company). I have been happy with their support and service, but I need to shop around for servers to get the best bang (and service) for the buck. I am not talking cheap, but fair.

    My new project I will be hosting photographers using my own CMS system. I have written code so when someone signs up it automatically creates a new cPanel account with a sub domain, FTP account and installs my CMS system.

    I want to give each customer 5GB of space (could offer more with more space). Most will be small websites (20-200 visitors a day). I am thinking if I can get a 1TB hard drive, I could host 200 customers on a server. If they need more space they can create an Amazon S3 account and host their photos there.

    Uplink speed & server speed is important.

    Need WHM / cPanel.

    Needs to be a managed server (I just want to be able to log in and it works) with good support (I generally don't need much support).

    When it comes to RAM and hard drives, what should I look for?

    Is 200 websites on one server too many or could I get more without effecting performance? (as long as there wasn't a resource hog on an account).

    What kind of price should I be looking at?

    Any feedback would be very helpful.

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Dallas, TX
    Posts
    1,498
    With so few visitors a day, hundreds of websites on a server is not a problem. Just get enough RAM and a fast drive I/O system. How much is enough? Depends on how much storage you get.

    If you plan on hosting 200 websites (400-4000 visitors a day), then 8GBs would be enough. That's really not a lot of traffic unless they're downloading GB files. I'm guessing you could easily get a 2TB drive and host twice as many sites and still use the same 8GBs. 10 visitors an hour per site is very little traffic. Your main limitation will probably be storage space, not RAM.
    TailorMadeServers.Com - Dallas Dedicated Servers since 2003
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Posts
    1,321
    I too started out as purely a developer and simply hosting my clients sites before I launched my hosting company.
    I agree with the above. With the amount of traffic you expect, processor and ram will not be much of an issue. I suggest going with SSD to increase raid. You could even start with a VPS or look for a managed hybrid system where you can start small yet add space as needed.
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Minnesota, USA
    Posts
    939
    As the others mentioned, the big thing will be to get a fast drive I/O system. If you can leverage an SSD that would help. The RAM though would be fine at 8GB, Jose did a great job explaining that. Your traffic isn't anything crazy either which will help.
    David Byrne | Dedispec, LLC.
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  5. #5
    The best configuration is put your OS, MySQL, PHP, Web Server on a SSD drive then mount your /home partition on a 1 or 2 TB Hard drive. This way you have both the performance of SSD and also storage of SATA.

    I would not recommend running everything on a 1 TB SATA simply because your will run out of drive performance before you run out of space. You will not make it to 200 accounts. With the configuration I just gave you it will be possible to host more than 200 accounts. The trouble will be to find a host that offers this configuration and managed.
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Dallas, TX
    Posts
    1,498
    You can check out KnownHost.com, they offer similar configs.

    I do not think however you will run out of Drive I/O with only 4000 visits an hour. That's just over one visit a second. Many sites survive hundreds of concurrent sessions. How big are these photo downloads?
    TailorMadeServers.Com - Dallas Dedicated Servers since 2003
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    localhost
    Posts
    5,473
    Another important point to keep in mind is where the location of your users are coming from and the location in which your server is located.
    Respectfully,
    Mr. Terrence

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Alabama
    Posts
    9
    Thanks for all of the replies, maybe I am starting to get my head around all of this.

    Main thing is I don't want to loose performance by adding too many customers on one server.

    If I understand correctly the SSD drive is much faster than a standard drive? But also doesn't hold as much?

    Location will be an issue because I will have customers here in the USA and over seas like the UK. Maybe I will need to have a server for the overseas customers located closer to there.

    As far as downloads, majority of these customers will have photo downloads around 5MB. But many may not offer any downloads.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    Reykjavik, Iceland
    Posts
    28
    Quote Originally Posted by tsge View Post
    When it comes to RAM and hard drives, what should I look for?

    Is 200 websites on one server too many or could I get more without effecting performance? (as long as there wasn't a resource hog on an account).

    What kind of price should I be looking at?

    Any feedback would be very helpful.

    Thanks
    When it comes to choosing amount of RAM or diskspace you could check how much the system consumes at the moment and add 30-50% extra to be sure. It is also important that you will make sure that there is room to upgrade the resources in the future if necessary. Otherwise you would have to migrate to another (bigger) server.

    200 websites is not necessarily too much for one server. It all depends on how much resources they consume and how much traffic they get. If we talk about simple websites it should be okay.

    I would also suggest to consider what type of hard disks you should use. Perhaps SATA II would be too slow for you and you want to look into faster disks.

    I wish you the best luck!
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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
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    1,321
    Quote Originally Posted by tsge View Post
    If I understand correctly the SSD drive is much faster than a standard drive? But also doesn't hold as much?
    SSD's have a much higher I/O speed. They can hold the same amount of data if you get the same size drive. The only downfall is they are more expensive.
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  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by tsge View Post
    Thanks for all of the replies, maybe I am starting to get my head around all of this.

    Main thing is I don't want to loose performance by adding too many customers on one server.

    If I understand correctly the SSD drive is much faster than a standard drive? But also doesn't hold as much?

    As far as downloads, majority of these customers will have photo downloads around 5MB. But many may not offer any downloads.

    Most of the time the bottle neck for performance is disk IOPs performance. With SATA drives they can become easily saturated and effect performance.

    The configuration I presented earlier will fix the issue of performance and disk space storage. If you put the system OS, MySQL, Apache, cPane/WHM on an SSD drive then mount a 1 TB SATA for your home partition you will have both storage and speed, then your problem is solved.
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  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Dallas, TX
    Posts
    1,498
    Servers today are superbly powerful for what you are describing. I actually got into the business via having a website that offered downloads similar to what you are describing. I am also a computer/software engineer, so my background is similar.

    I started hosting this site 17 years ago using CPUs that had 1/50th the performance of today's CPUs, 1/10th the amount of RAM (at a quarter of the speed) and IDE Hard Drives @ 5400RPMs. Most of my files were smaller than 5MB but most people were in dial-up back then too, so the connections probably lasted just as long.

    Someone suggested putting the OS & Daemons on an SSD for improved performance. Unless your Database is really busy, you won't need this. The OS & Daemons all reside on memory once loaded, so other than improving your boot time (which hopefully you will sparingly), the SSD won't provide any help. As someone else mentioned, they are pricey for the amount of storage. If you do want to go this route, then you can always get a very small SSD for this, and then put all the pictures on a large HDD.

    For what you have described, any medium level server today will be more than sufficient. Just don't go for an Atom, Celeron or i3 CPU and you'll be fine. Get 8GBs or more, and get a 7.2K RPM HDD. You shouldn't be spending a whole lot.
    TailorMadeServers.Com - Dallas Dedicated Servers since 2003
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