Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : VPS Hosting : What level of VPS hosting does my site require?

[eoino]

Hello,

I run a site with an average of 4,000 visits per day, and 25GB bandwidth used per month. It will probably hit 5,000 visits per day by the end of 2005. The main component of the site is a PHPBB forum, with 230MB database with 250,000 posts, maybe 25 users online at any one time, peaking at 100+ users online at certain times of the year. There are currently 12,000 new posts each month.

It's hosted on a shared hosting plan on Ehostpros.com. They temporarily suspended my account because of "excessive use of mysql and httpd connections to the server causing high load".

That's why I've started to look at finding a VPS host.

Does it sound like a VPS solution would suit my needs? Is 256MB Ram enough for such a site? Any big issues I should be taking into account?

Thanks for any pointers you can give me
Eoin

[CoreBlue-Mike]

Hi eoino-

As far as a VPS solution goes, 256MB of RAM is not enough -especially if you are running a control panel on top of it. I'd say you'd be looking at around $100/mo. for a VPS that would handle this. Might want to check out ServInt's Signature or Ultimate or PowerVPS's Power-2 or Power-3 plans.
A VPS is great for running custom software that requires root access but not usually great for sites that are resource-intensive unless you get a rather large VPS. Did you have a price range?

[theacolyte]

Honestly, a properly configured 256mb VPS will be fine. I run some forums with about 10-48 on at any given time, about 30gb a month almost 2 million hits a month (I'm averaging the past week or so and spreading it over a month period), and a couple other websites, and it's pretty fast. YMMV with different hosts though.

Edit: This is with a2b2.

[eoino]

Thanks for the replies.

MHarness, it's a good point that VPNs are more for installing custom scripts than heavy-usage applications. However, I'm hoping a forum script will be a suitable application for a VPN environment.

I don't think my budget could handle $100 per month. It would be closer to $50 or $60 a month (max!). But, I'm open to suggestions.

Do other people have suggestions on minimum RAM/configuration I would need for my forum?

Thanks again!

[Layershift Andrew]

The beauty of VPS's is that you can start at 256MB and upgrade as required without any downtime at all, so it's probably a good starting point for you.

[CoreBlue-Mike]

If you'd like, I have a VPS that currently isn't being used. I can set you up an account on it so you can get a feel for the speed. It's a PowerVPS-1 Plan. Just let me know. Don't worry, this isn't a sales attempt or anything. No strings attached or $ involved.

Originally posted by eoino
Thanks for the replies.

MHarness, it's a good point that VPNs are more for installing custom scripts than heavy-usage applications. However, I'm hoping a forum script will be a suitable application for a VPN environment.

I don't think my budget could handle $100 per month. It would be closer to $50 or $60 a month (max!). But, I'm open to suggestions.

Do other people have suggestions on minimum RAM/configuration I would need for my forum?

Thanks again!

[eoino]

Originally posted by MHarness
If you'd like, I have a VPS that currently isn't being used. I can set you up an account on it so you can get a feel for the speed. It's a PowerVPS-1 Plan. Just let me know. Don't worry, this isn't a sales attempt or anything. No strings attached or $ involved.

How could I refuse an offer like that!! I'd like to test it out temporarily, just to see how this VPS works out I'll PM you.

Eoin

[eoino]

Oh, ok, I'm not allowed to PM. You could contact me at:
simon_a99 at yahoo dot co dot uk

Eoin

[Firefox_100]

hi MHarness

It interests me their offer, I leave him my email: jorcosmer@hotmail.com

Write me

[jrothagreat]

I would pick powervps their service is just unreal i got a email responce from them in like 45 sec at 230 in the morning cant beat that

[Firefox_100]

I have the same problem that EiOno.

My forum has a stocking of 50 user on line, but it sometimes ascends at 80 and rarely at 100, of there it doesn't happen.

But my consumption is high, I have an average of 2Gb per day (I use the phpBB2 with several Mods)

At the moment I am in a plan reseller, of $28, without problems, my server load it doesn't pass of 2.00, average.
But I want to grow (I have but you visit every day) for that reason I look for a better option.

Any advice will be well received

[eoino]

Firefox_100,

using up 2GB a day is quite a lot. Have you tried cutting down on image size, taking away excess html code, and using the gzip compression option for PHPBB?

Just a suggestion.

Eoin

[eoino]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to go with ServInt's Essential package with 256MB RAM. If needed, I'll upgrade. But I will report back here after using the service a while.

Eoin

[layer0]

Originally posted by eoino
Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to go with ServInt's Essential package with 256MB RAM. If needed, I'll upgrade. But I will report back here after using the service a while.

Eoin

Pretty good choice. Be sure to ask them to install things like eAccelerator which can improve the performance and reduce load for your PHP based site.

Best of luck to you.

[eoino]

Oh, cool. I didn't know of eAccelerator, I'll ask them to install it.

Eoin