Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Server Load Question

How many clients, without overselling, do you think that I could provide email and web hosting services for from one machine?
This machine's specs are as follows:
1x Quad Core 2.83ghz
4x 2 Gb RAM
2 TB disk space
Freebsd

[ldcdc]

There's no right answer I'm afraid. It could be 1000 if they're all hosting HTML based business card websites, it could be 100 if they're using dynamic sites and have some traffic, it could be 10 if you're dealing with busier sites, it could be 1 if it's a very busy site or one with huge usage peaks, it could be none if your very first customer is Google.
If you can describe your average customer's needs, some hosts may share an opinion, though many refrain from doing such guesstimates.
In the end, you can host as many as you want to host on it. The ones that get in the way of reaching that goal, must either upgrade or find another host.

There's no right answer I'm afraid. It could be 1000 if they're all hosting HTML based business card websites, it could be 100 if they're using dynamic sites and have some traffic, it could be 10 if you're dealing with busier sites, it could be 1 if it's a very busy site or one with huge usage peaks, it could be none if your very first customer is Google.
haha, yeah, I should've specified that
None of them should have exceptionally high loads since they are all selling to a local market. Some, however, will probably be e-commerce sites, or flash based, obviously demanding more resources, but I would imagine that the majority of the customers in the demographic I'm after will want html sites.
As for google, we're still negotiating

[Exoware]

Like ldcdc pretty much said, there are so many dependencies and key factors in such a question, that it's an impossible question without a very specific scenario.
What you want to watch out for are script-based sites like PHP with large databases. They often cause quite a bit of server load if they get enough hits.
If you held a gun to my head and told me to guess, I'd probably go for around 400 websites, with an equal mix of static and dynamic content with an average database size for clients that need them.

[tim2718281]

How many clients, without overselling, do you think that I could provide email and web hosting services for from one machine?
This machine's specs are as follows:
1x Quad Core 2.83ghz
4x 2 Gb RAM
2 TB disk space
Freebsd
I have calculated the answer; it is 42

[Exoware]

Internet sarcasm?

[tim2718281]

Internet sarcasm?
Not really; there is some workload that makes "42" the right answer. So it's as good an answer as any.
I suppose as a potential customer, what I would like to know is how many web server hits per second I can expect to do, how much disk I/O per second, how much SQL database work I can do, how much data I can receive and transmit, and so on.

Not really; there is some workload that makes "42" the right answer. So it's as good an answer as any.
I suppose as a potential customer, what I would like to know is how many web server hits per second I can expect to do, how much disk I/O per second, how much SQL database work I can do, how much data I can receive and transmit, and so on.
Except I told you my demographic, and you're obviously not the average potential customer.

Thanks for at least taking a stab at it Exoware . . . I obviously didn't want an exact answer. I'm new to hosting for other people (have been a sysadmin for a while, on the opposite end of the hosting spectrum) and want to see what kind of mileage I can get out of the hardware I've invested in, without sacrificing performance for the customers I've outlined, who should, by and large, have pretty low requirements.

[Exoware]

If you're starting out, diving straight into a quad core server is a little over the top, unless you have clients lined up already.

I have some lined up, definitely not 400, but I had the capital on hand and decided that it would be better, given my financial situation, to make the initial investment than to experience growing pains in the not-so-distant future.

[Exoware]

If you're planning on rapid expansion, a VPS provider with easy expansion might be worth looking at.

[Rageki-John]

That server should be able to handle a fair amount of users. It all depends on the sites you host. If you just host simple sites that don't consume too many server resources you can host at least 100 websites. However, if you host resource intensive websites, then it can be a totally different story.

[CoishAssociates]

Like everyone has said above, it depends on many factors but you really have to watch out for sites with large databases. Especially large, popular forums. Basic sites, the odd e-comm or flash site really not all that big of a deal. Those are typically the favorited clients for a host. Low resources. I think you will be fine with a min of 100 clients with something like that and probably more.

[CoderJosh]

As there's no correct answer to your question upfront, I'd say that monitoring is the key: Keep an eye on your server while you add customers, and watch how the consumption of resources will increase. This should give you a rough idea about how many accounts will finally saturate the server, and you can stop adding customers before reaching that point.