Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : What hardware for hosting?

[thunder11]

What is the optimum hardware for hosting 200 websites. And we are talking about websites that have 2-3 mysql databases tops. We would like to buy few more servers for hosting but unsure about processor power and RAM needed to run 200 websites. I hope someone can recommend some nice powersaving solution
thanks in advance

[Layer3]

There are quite a few variables that will affect the optimal hardware configuration for your 200 sites. How much traffic do see across these sites? Are these sites relying heavily on MySQL? I can easily see 200 low traffic sites being hosted on a modest VPS without a hiccup.

A little more info on the type of sites and traffic these sites are seeing will help with everyones recommendations.

[thunder11]

Thanks for your reply,
I see traffic of about 300-400 visits per day on each site (thats tops). Most of them are wordpress, phpbb3, joomla. We have them hosted on Intel Core2 Quad 4GB RAM, 2.4 GHz, and as you can imagine it is a little bit too much for 200 sites. At least I think so.

[gordonrp]

Originally Posted by thunder11

Thanks for your reply,
I see traffic of about 300-400 visits per day on each site (thats tops). Most of them are wordpress, phpbb3, joomla. We have them hosted on Intel Core2 Quad 4GB RAM, 2.4 GHz, and as you can imagine it is a little bit too much for 200 sites. At least I think so.

You "think so", or you "know so?" If you already have clients on a machine then you should look at what is causing issues and upgrade that. Only you can plan for your clients. Random people on forums can only make general suggestions (RAID 10, dual Xeon, high RAM) without detailed current usage data.

Evaluate your current server resource usage, your planned level of service to your customers (enterprise? average? cheap?), and your cashflow and you should find the solution!

[thunder11]

Originally Posted by gordonrp

You "think so", or you "know so?" If you already have clients on a machine then you should look at what is causing issues and upgrade that. Only you can plan for your clients. Random people on forums can only make general suggestions (RAID 10, dual Xeon, high RAM) without detailed current usage data.

Evaluate your current server resource usage, your planned level of service to your customers (enterprise? average? cheap?), and your cashflow and you should find the solution!

I know so. CPU usage is really low and by my calculations I think we would be just fine with a CPU half as this one. THats why Im asking for your help

[gordonrp]

Originally Posted by thunder11

I know so. CPU usage is really low and by my calculations I think we would be just fine with a CPU half as this one. THats why Im asking for your help

I'm pretty sure the answer is 42.

I suggest you log your CPU usage/spikes, IOWAIT, RAM usage, etc. If you don't know how to do this, then you should hire someone to do it for you. Having the correct hardware is critical to any hosting business. It is the last thing I, personally, would skimp on. Only someone with access to your server can evaluate your hardware needs, no 200 clients are the same.

[bqinternet]

A used server from 10 years ago would probably do fine. You might consider using a VPS for such small needs.

[thunder11]

Thank you very much for your responses. Im very new to this, I tought there is a some sort of a rule of thumb, when it comes to CPU!
I hope I didnt waste too much of your time with my questions.
Take care

[Layer3]

A good VPS provider should be able to provide with you a modest package that should be able to handle those 200 sites.

[funkywizard]

Originally Posted by thunder11

Thank you very much for your responses. Im very new to this, I tought there is a some sort of a rule of thumb, when it comes to CPU!
I hope I didnt waste too much of your time with my questions.
Take care

Hi, there are certainly some rules of thumb, but it all comes down to your actual usage. If you want I could set you up with some graphs that will log the load on your servers so you can see the amount of ram / cpu / disk i/o being used. Only when you get some real data to work off of can anyone give you good advice on what hardware is best for you.

About how much disk space are all the sites using up in total?

[thunder11]

Originally Posted by funkywizard

Hi, there are certainly some rules of thumb, but it all comes down to your actual usage. If you want I could set you up with some graphs that will log the load on your servers so you can see the amount of ram / cpu / disk i/o being used. Only when you get some real data to work off of can anyone give you good advice on what hardware is best for you.

About how much disk space are all the sites using up in total?

Just ckecked. Its about 100GB total.

[funkywizard]

Originally Posted by thunder11

Just ckecked. Its about 100GB total.

Ok. If you want high performance, you would want to be using either 2x 147gb (or larger) 15k RPM SAS drives in raid 1, or 4x74gb (or larger) 15k SAS drives in raid 10, as they're about 2-3 times as fast as SATA. For general purpose shared hosting, the disk subsystem can get overloaded before anything else, so this isn't a bad way to go. Beyond that, I would recommend a decent quad core (say x3460) with 8gb ram and enough bandwidth for whatever your users are using.

The above is a good rule of thumb, but, is it optimal for you? Probably not. Without knowing the real usage on your system (disk i/o, ram use, bandwidth use, cpu use), it's almost impossible to suggest a system that best meets your requirements without overspending in some areas and underspending in others. You might only need 2x SATA in raid 1. Or you might need something faster than SAS, you might need SSD. Or you might need dual quad core processors, or you might only need a dual core cpu. Really hard to say.

We can recommend a good balanced system to you, but everyone will have a different idea of what that is. Which one is best for you is impossible to tell without diving deeper into your actual system utilization.

[FastPCNet]

I provide colo for a few hosters and they almost alway overbuy their hardware. I would say start with a VPS and go with your own hardware when you really need it.

[thunder11]

We have our own link!
thanks everyone who posted here. For now, we will be focusing on lower specs for our servers and see how it goes.