This thread is a continuation of this thread:

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1201321547


MrMagoo wrote on Feb 11^th, 2008 at 10:54pm:

This thread has over 700 views already. Maybe all the extra CPU usage is coming from this thread about how to deal with the CPU usage. That would be great.

Kinda funny .. uh, but maybe not.

Started new thread .. to continue the discussion here.

Here's what I wrote to LP sppt today:


Quote:

Hi. Few days ago, I was told account usage had returned to normal (<1% CPU), and LP was looking to move me back to the production server. Now I'm being told my usage doesn't even qualify for VPS .. that I need to upgrade to a dedicated server. While increased traffic is always good, I can see no evidence of such a dramatic increase (more than 10-fold) in traffic on my end. On the contrary, traffic has continued to DEcrease .. since the highs we saw back in June (when server usage was not a problem) .. when we had TRIPLE the forum traffic we do now. As you also know, I do not have access to your reporting module, so I cannot verify your numbers for myself. And the fact that money is involved means LP is not without incentive to pad the numbers (and claim I need more robust hosting, which means more money for LP). Add to this that a recent message saw a sppt person making deals that involve offering pricing deals (see msg from feb 12, at 0423 AM), and you can see why I'm suspicious. Normally, sppt ppl take care of technical support, while Sales/Billing ppl deal with the financial aspect. Again, I am looking for *any* sign of increase traffic, but can find none. Can you explain why your numbers indicate a 10-fold increase of resource usage from just a few days ago? .. when my observed traffic numbers here remain relatively constant, and are actually *down* (dramatically) from their highs seen back in June? I really like Lunarpages, and have been pimping your services since signing on 2 years ago .. including lots of affilate links into my pags .. but now it seems as if you're telling me I need to find hosting elsewhere. I've moved the site before .. to a new host .. so I know the drill .. but would rather stay with LP .. if possible. It just seems like you're telling me this is not possible. I'm hoping there is some mix up. Reviewing this ticket, you can see I was told earlier that PHP was my top process, when I don't use PHP. Then I was told an ICON (tiny graphic) was also one of top processes .. which made no sense. I am consulting with friends, who (like you) administrate Linux servers as part of their day job. They tell me something doesn't add up. Do you have any explanations?

Here's another oddity. This is the most recent usage report, received with-in the hour.


Quote:

Please note that the acceptable usage range for shuttle and voyager plans is 1.0% average %CPU or less, 1.0% average %Memory or less, .5% mysql or less and Top Processes below 20%. radified.com cpu% 9.05 mem% 1.58 sql processes 0.0 Top Process %CPU 141 /usr/bin/peArl -- YaBB.pl Top Process %CPU 99.5 /usr/bin/peArl -- YaBB.pl Top Process %CPU 82.8 /usr/bin/peArl -- YaBB.pl

Notice anything odd? Take a look at the first "Top Process %CPU" listed. It says "141". But you can't have more than  "100" percent of anything. That's mathematically impossible.

The second "Top Process" listed only confirms this, as it's listed as "99.5" (%). So you can see why I continue to be suspicious of the numbers they give me.

I'm not sure where they are getting their numbers for top processes, so I'm not sure how it can be over 100.  Even 99.5 sounds high because that would mean you are monopolizing this server.  So, I doubt it is a true percent, and they seem to indicate that it is not in their earlier response to you:


Quote:

As for the Top Process list showing the same process 3 times... WHM simply shows the 3 most active processes on your account. They are the same because in 3 separate instances the YaBB.pl script was the most active process for your account. These wouldn't have been the same process (same PID) but rather multiple instances of the script being run, though not necessarily at the same time. The "Top Process" area is less important in determining the resource usage of your account though they can help point you in the direction of what may be consuming the most resources on your account.

They are probably using at least a dual core server, if not a dual core dual processor (4 total cores), so that may explan it somewhat, but one process still shouldn't be able to go over 100% of one processor.  I would like to hear their explanation as to how you went from under 1% to over 10% with no obvious jump in visitors to your site...  That's odd for sure.  

Could the backups you did have anything to do with it?

Haven't done any back-up since the upgrade to Y2.2

Regarding VPS .. I found these guys:

http://www.servint.net/index.php

found them here: http://whreviews.com/honest-hosts.htm

http://radified.com/gfx2/vps2.jpg

VPS is all they do. Just starting to research, but so far I like what I see, especially:

• $0 Setup
• founded in 1995
• won't "nickel and dime" you on support services
• FREE - Full daily backup, even if you are over your disk allowance
• 4 IP Addresses
• U320 SCSI HD in Hardware RAID 10

More:
• $49 Monthly
• located in Virgina
• 1 GB Burst RAM
• 256 MB Guaranteed RAM
• Unlimited Domains
• CentOS 4 Operating System

Wow, I like them a lot better than LP for VPS.  Managed Hosting takes care of the monitoring aspects I was worried about.  They are also serious about protecting your data - "Full daily backups" and RAID10.  RAID10 (or RAID 1+0) uses RAID 1 for redundancy and then stripes (RAID 0) across multiple RAID 1 arrays for better performance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

You don't really need 4 IP's at this point, but it might come in handy some day.  These guys look like they are worth the $4 difference between them and LP.

Yeah, even the overages they change for bandwidth and extra IPs are roughly a *third* of that I've seen at other hosts. (Hate being nickel-n-dimed.) They just have a good 'feel' to them.

And I like that VPS/dedicated is all they do. Anytime you specialize, you're bound to excel in that area.

And did you notice NOWHERE do they even *mention* CPU usage?

Rad

Before you jump to more expensive VPS--maybe you should make sure that Lunarpages isn't jerking you around.  You might do fine on a different host with a shared server as you have done for a long time up to now.

Seems strange though--you'd think Lunarpages would want to host a successful site--gives them exposure to other potential clients.  

Ghost4me has noted that the forum has been slow recently--I've been noting that also--I suspect you are now on a server that is being over-loaded with more *bad-boys* so your performance is taking a hit from the other over-usage that Lunarpages is not controlling!

Have you posted anything at the YaBB forum asking where folks who are using that forum software are being hosted--they must be finding hosting sites that allow the use of the *flat text based* forum software--what are their experiences?!

Hmmm. I could check out Dreamhost first, or one of the others .. to see if we raise flags with them. DH touts themselves as the best in Shared hosting.

I am downloading a back-up copy of the site right now, just in case.

As you may know, I have contacted Lunarpages regarding an upgrade to VPS, but they inform me our server usage EXCEEDS their criteria for VPS, and that I would need to upgrade to a DEDICATED server.

So .. I have been contacting other hosts, to inquire about their VPS accounts. Here is the response from ServInt, which I really like, especially cuz VPS is all they do, and they've been hosting VPS accts for a long time. They seem very professional. You may find their response interesting. (I did.) See here (Q&A format):

Q1. Do you recommend cPanel or Plesk? And why? Have you heard of stability problems with cPanel? I am familiar with cPanel but other VPS's seem to prefer Plesk.


Quote:

A1. Our engineers strongly encourage clients to use cPanel/WHM. The first reason is that cPanel/WHM is updated more frequently than Plesk. This is due partly to the fact that cPanel/WHM has a LARGER USER BASE. Bugs and exploits are therefore identified and resolved more quickly. The core packages for Plesk (PHP, MySQL, etc.) are not easily upgradeable. In fact, upgrading Plesk's add-on software tends to break things. Whereas, cPanel/WHM has an automated update tool that allows you to select your updates from a variety of update trees. This allows you to handle your updates manually, or automatically as new updates become available. Reality of the situation is that no control panel software is perfect. In fact, most control panel software is relatively buggy and poorly programmed. Of the available control panel platforms on the market today, we feel the cPanel/WHM is the most complete, well written and supported. I should also mention that end users, hosting companies, and cPanel's Support Staff use cPanel's forums heavily. There is a wealth of information that can be found there, whereas Plesk's forums are not nearly as populated or verbose. Having complete and updated information about bugs, exploits, and third-party software issues can be very helpful for administrating your VPS Account.

Q2. My current host focuses on CPU usage, but you don't even mention it in your description of account allocation. (You mention RAM instead). Can you explain?


Quote:

A2. Guaranteed and burstable CPU resources are allocated to every VPS Account. However, publishing the actual amount of resources is difficult because they vary from server to server. We dynamically balance CPU resources for optimal performance. So, a VPS Host Server with 25 Virtual Environments (VEs), would have different guarantees than one with 20. However, I should mention that Virtuozzo-based VPS Packages do not place a cap on maximum CPU usage, which might explain why your current host seems to be fixating on your processor usage. Overloading the CPU resource can have a negative impact on every account on a VPS server. So, it is likely that you current host is trying to safeguard against that. For the most part, we find that it is typically not a problem because we do not over-saturate our VPS Host Servers, but you could potentially be asked to consider an upgrade if you processor usage is excessive for your specific VPS package.

Q3. Do you limit the number of accounts on each VPS? If so, what are the limits?


Quote:

A3. You are welcome to create as many accounts as you desire on your VPS. Of course, there is a logical level of available resources. So, if you get to a point where you have hundreds of sites on your account and it starts causing RAM/CPU failures, that is an indicator you may have too many sites on your account for your package. At which point, upgrading to a higher package would be in order.

Q4. Are you saying I can *call* someone there 24/7 .. a real/live sppt person?


Quote:

A4. Yes! Our Network Operations Center (NOC) staff is on-site 24x7 and available via phone, support ticket, or E-mail. I think you will be very pleased with their responsiveness and the quality of the support they provide. If there is one thing ServInt is well known for, it's the support we provide.

Q5. What do you need, money-wise, to get the ball rolling?


Quote:

A5. All that's required to get a VPS setup is an order form submission and an initial payment for the first month of service. The order form can be accessed by clicking the "order" link below the package description on our VPS product page. At which point, you will have the option of paying by Credit Card, PayPal, Check, Money Order, Check, etc. Credit Card tends to be that method that gets the account setup the fastest, since payment is able to be processed immediately. PayPal is also relatively quick, whereas, checks take a while to clear the bank.

Q6. Do you have a guide on converting a site to another host? I've done it before, but not frequently enough to have a good grasp on it. In other words, would I need to re-config all email accts, MySQL databases, and my subdomains at your server?


Quote:

A6. Once your account is setup, you will be granted access to our Customer VPS Forums. In there you will find a number of "how to's" with step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish server-to-server transfers using cPanel/WHM or Plesk. Additionally, if you have any questions about the process, you are always welcome to contact our support team. They will be more than happy to walk you through the process. Hope this helps with your upcoming hosting decision. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Otherwise, you are welcome to proceed with your order whenever you like. Best Regards, Devon

Any other questions you can think of? The only negative I can think of is that they are not here on the West coast .. but that is minor.

Rad wrote on Feb 15^th, 2008 at 4:46pm:

Any other questions you can think of? The only negative I can think of is that they are not here on the West coast .. but that is minor.

LOL.  Some would see that as a positive.  The only possible negative I can think of is response time for you and others on the west coast.  Even that might not be as much of an issue as you think.  Most of the bigger ISP's (like Cox and Comcast) have their own backbone these days and traffic moves around the country fairly quickly before getting dropped onto the Internet.  The only other issue would be the time difference, but I don't see that as a problem since they are staffed 24x7.

I can't think of any other concerns right now.

Most of the tim, for me, response times up to LA seem instaneous. I've seen teen-pings.

What is typical coast-to-route trace time? I'm guessing 60. Got curious. Here's a trace to their home site.


Quote:

NeoTrace  Version 3.25  Trace Results Target: www.servint.net Date: 2/15/2008 (Friday), 5:39:04 PM Nodes: 9 Node Data Node Net Reg IP Address      Location            Node Name   1       Anaheim               2   1   -  Unknown   3   2   1  Irvine   4   3   1 67.114.50.1     Irvine   5   4   1 151.164.43.141  Irvine              bb1-g4-0.irvnca.sbcglobal.net   6   4   1 151.164.191.75  Los Angeles         ex2-p14-0.eqlaca.sbcglobal.net   7   4   1 151.164.249.18  Los Angeles         asn3491-pccwbtn.eqlaca.sbcglobal.net   8   5   2 63.218.83.2     WASHINGTON D.C.     servint.ge5-7.br01.wdc02.pccwbtn.net   9   6   3 209.50.226.164  Arlington           sm-www.servint.net Packet Data Node High Low  Avg  Tot  Lost   1    0    0    0    1    0   2    8    8    8    1    0   3   16   16   16    1    0   4   16   16   16    1    0   5   35   35   35    1    0   6   16   16   16    1    0   7   16   16   16    1    0   8   89   89   89    1    0   9   88   88   88    1    0 Network Data Network id#: 5 OrgName:    Beyond The Network America, Inc. OrgID:      BNA-42 Address:    450 Springpark PL Address:    Suite 100 City:       Herdon StateProv:  VA PostalCode: 20170 Country:    US Network id#: 6 OrgName:    ServInt Corp. OrgID:      SRVN Address:    6861 Elm Street Address:    Suite 4-E City:       McLean StateProv:  VA PostalCode: 22101 Country:    US Registrant Data Registrant id#: 2 Registrant: PCCW-HKT DataCom Services Limited   39/F PCCW Tower, Taikoo Place   979 King's Rd   Quarry Bay, Hong Kong 0   HK Registrant id#: 3 Registrant: ServInt Corporation   6861 Elm Street   Suite 4B   McLean, VA 22101   US _____ NeoTrace Copyright ©1997-2001 NeoWorkz

Anything under 200 is good enough to run any protocol under the sun (including voice applications.)  You should be able to get coast to coast in under 120 most days.  It jumps to 300+ once you go trans-oceanic usually.  

Of course it depends heavily on your ISP's architecture.  My numbers are based on cable, cuz that's what I know best.  FIOS, Cable, and DSL are the fastest (in that order, but the differences are small.)  Then dial-up and cellular.  The worst satellite.  Network latency of 500ms or more is not uncommon for users on satellite, even for domestic sites.

The above trace appeared as straight line on map-view. Sometimes traces bounce all around country .. b4 finding their destination. Not this one. So I'm guessing 90 is good as it's gonna get.

I have DSL here. Tech just came out yesterday .. to replace section of line that was corroded. Said he wants to come back and replace another section from pole to house, which "has interference". Tho I must say, being my first time on DSL, I'm impressed. (Normally I use cable.)

Cable, if I'm not mistaken, excels on the DOWNload speeds, where DSL has solid UP speeds (depending on which plan you have). Running a site involves lots of uploading.

I found it interesting that they close their forums to non-ServInt ccustomers. Not sure what I think of that. First impression is it strikes me as odd.

http://forums.servint.net/


Quote:

Current forum post count:: 39,956 Current registered users:: 3674

They have ~ the same post count as Radifed, and same # of users b4 I deleted a few thousand prior to the upgrade to Y2.2.

Wonder what forum software they use.  :question

I'd also like to check out some sites they host .. to check response times for myself.

I reduced my cell-phone plan from 900 mins/month to 450 (notta big talker), and my 24 Hour Fitness plan .. from all clubs/any time to 1 club, 4-days/week (since I don't even go 4 times a week) .. to help pay for VPS.

Each of those saves me $20/month (painlessly) .. or $40 total, which is the difference between current Shared plan ($10/month) and VPS ($50).

Throttle back on a few triple espresso's each week, and I'll come out ahead. =)

Here's another trace, taken shortly b4 midnight .. so it's probably as good as I'm gonna see, while most of the country is asleep. Still 85ms.


Quote:

NeoTrace Trace  Version 3.25  Results Target: www.servint.net Date: 2/15/2008 (Friday), 11:47:02 PM Nodes: 9 Node Data Node Net Reg IP Address      Location            Node Name   1   -   -                         Anaheim   2   1   - 172.16.0.1      Unknown               3   2   1 75.31.75.254    Irvine                 4   3   1 67.114.50.1     Irvine                 5   4   1 151.164.43.141  Irvine              bb1-g4-0.irvnca.sbcglobal.net   6   4   1 151.164.191.75  Los Angeles         ex2-p14-0.eqlaca.sbcglobal.net   7   4   1 151.164.249.18  Los Angeles         asn3491-pccwbtn.eqlaca.sbcglobal.net   8   5   2 63.218.83.2     WASHINGTON D.C.     servint.ge5-7.br01.wdc02.pccwbtn.net   9   6   3 209.50.226.164  Arlington           sm-www.servint.net Packet Data Node High Low  Avg  Tot  Lost   1    0    0    0    1    0   2    4    4    4    1    0   3   15   15   15    1    0   4   17   17   17    1    0   5   17   17   17    1    0   6   19   19   19    1    0   7   17   17   17    1    0   8   85   85   85    1    0   9   85   85   85    1    0 Network Data Network id#: 6 OrgName:    ServInt Corp. OrgID:      SRVN Address:    6861 Elm Street Address:    Suite 4-E City:       McLean StateProv:  VA PostalCode: 22101 Country:    US Registrant Data Registrant id#: 1 Registrant: SBC Internet Services, Inc   1701 Alma dr   Plano, TX 75075   US Registrant id#: 2 Registrant: PCCW-HKT DataCom Services Limited   39/F PCCW Tower, Taikoo Place   979 King's Rd   Quarry Bay, Hong Kong 0   HK Registrant id#: 3 Registrant: ServInt Corporation   6861 Elm Street   Suite 4B   McLean, VA 22101   US _____ NeoTrace Copyright ©1997-2001 NeoWorx Inc

Rad wrote on Feb 15^th, 2008 at 10:52pm:

Cable, if I'm not mistaken, excels on the DOWNload speeds, where DSL has solid UP speeds (depending on which plan you have). Running a site involves lots of uploading.

Cable has a lot more download bandwidth available in the downstream due to RF interference in the upstream direction.  The advantage of cable is that it is capable of much higher speeds and longer distances.  DSL isn't subject to the same upstream interference, so they can easily sell more symmetrical speeds.  

Cable's speeds are faster overall, but DSL does often have slightly faster uploads.  Cable usually has around 512kb/s upload on faster residential plans, while DSL has 768kb/s or even 1.5mb/s.  Cable download is the fun part - often 10mb or more in larger cities, while DSL usually provides around 1.5mb/s of download.  Since most people do far more downloading than uploading, it doesn't hurt that the upload is smaller with cable.  As you mention, web site administration is one instance where DSL might have an advantage with it's faster upload.

There have been tests of a system to eliminate cross-talk the twisted pair cables that DSL runs on, which could increase its speeds significantly.  In the cable world, DOCSIS 3.0 promises multiple channels bundled together to allow over 100mb/s download.

^^^^^Magoo's micro-guide to residential internet service^^^^^^

Two questions:

1. Where do I begin on the road to learning how to admin my own VPS server? I don't even know where to start. (But *you* do.)

2. What do you think of this VPS host?

http://vpslink.com/vps-hosting/

They have several plans that are less expensive than ServInt's $50 minimum.

My last complete site back-up was 1.15 gigs .. compressed *.tar.gz. Add reporting stats to that and I'd guess 2.5 gigs would do us fine .. for a while, anyway.

I noticed they don't mention CPU usage either. I'll try to find out what our memory req'ments are right now. I'd guess 1% of say, 8 gigs .. would be somewhere around 80 MBs. If we're using up to 1.6% (as they claim) .. that would be 128 MBs. But this is merely a guesstimate. If it had 12 gigs RAM, our number would be 192 MB.

I like that host.  They give you a lot for the price - looks like you can get the same size VPS as the last company you showed me for almost $20 cheaper if you sign up for a year.  Looks like one of the cheaper hosts you have considered.  They seem like they know what they are doing, and give you a lot of control over the server.  It's neat that they let you pick you OS.  It's fun to see Slackware listed - that's an interesting option.  Also, I've never seen a host allow the customer to choose between OpenVZ and Xen - usually the host just picks one and that's what all customers get.

The only thing is that it is completely unmanaged, which is probably why it is so cheap.  You (or I) would have to do the monitoring and all troubleshooting.  They don't even mention doing any kind of backup for you, so we'd have to do it ourselves (although they do have protections against drive failures.)  It's not a problem, I can do the monitoring and the backup - but I do like the idea that the other host you were considering would do a full daily backup.

The best way I can think of to get ready to admin your own VPS would be to do a trial run at home.  Take an old computer laying around.  Pretty much anything you have laying around should do - like 500MHz proc, 256 RAM, 20GB HD or better.  If you don't have anything, you could ask around.  Something like that won't run widows very well anymore, so its probably collecting dust at a friends house and I find they are often glad to give it to you to have it off their hands.  Otherwise you can sometimes find one cheap at a pawn shop.  Dual-booting your regular computer is an option, but not the best option since you are going to want to be able to research and test while working on the server and honing your skills.

Once you have a computer to use as a server, install Linux but don't install a GUI desktop.  I find that a lot of people who install the GUI find it too tempting to use, so they never really learn their way around the command line, which is important for admining a server.  Installing a control panel is allowed since many hosts provide them, but there aren't very many that are open source (RaqDevil is the only one I know of.)  Then, take one of your backup copies of your web site and try to get it running.  Configure Apache and Perl and see if you can pull up in your guides and forum in a web browser.  You'll need MySQL to get the blog to work.  If you can get it working at home, you shouldn't have any issues doing it on someone else's server.

My guide is the best I know of to learn Linux generally.  Many other much better guides have more detailed information for specific tasks on specific distributions.  I purposely avoided being too specific because I wanted to enable the reader to make their own choices about how to do things, although I admit I am still trying to balance that with providing enough information to get them off the ground.  Now that I think about it, I think I'll add a page to my guide listing essential skills for Linux users with links to tutorials on each skill.

I would suggest CentOS if you specifically want to learn how to admin a web server.  Lots of hosts use either CentOS, RedHat, or Fedora, and its a great system for a server.  It will also include options to install Apache, Perl, and MySQL during the system installation, saving you the trouble of learning how to install them afterward (at least right away.)

Be prepared that learning Linux is a little frustrating for experinced Windows users because you will have to work at doing things that should be very simple for a while.  For example, editing a text file in Windows probably takes you 2 seconds with Notepad, while in Linux you will have to find a text editor and learn how to use it, so it could take more like 30 mins.  It feels very frustrating (I think) to take 30 minutes on something you feel like should take you 2 seconds (although less proficient Windows users seem less frustrated because they don't know it should be such an easy task.)  After you do it a few times in Linux, you'll be able to do it just as fast as in Windows and the frustration will pass.  You just have to get over the hump.

Got yer email. Thanks for offering to hold my hand.

So you indicate the best place to start learning VPS admin is by learning Linux. That makes sense. And practicing at home, where you can't hurt anything .. that makes sense, too.

The reason I inquired was cuz I read a post at YaBB forums and didn't understand what the guy was saying.

http://www.yabbforum.com/community/YaBB.pl?num=1200435453/5#5

Notta good feeling. Hence my query.

Still learning about VPS. Seems there are both Managed and unManaged VPS accts:

http://forums.spry.com/showthread.php?t=1312

For 1st-timers like me, they recommend a managed acct, tho they tend to be significantly more expensive:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=4645612&postcount=2

One guide I read listed "same geographical area" as user base as #1 host selection criteria.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=621002

VPSlink is located up in Seattle. They are unmanaged. Their parent co. is Spry:

http://www.spry.com/ which has mangaged VPS:

http://www.spry.com/vps-hosting/ Spry ranks 7 in Google's page rank, so they are serious player. ServInt ranks 6, as does VPSlink. Spry has datacenter operations in LA also (I think, not positive):

http://www.spry.com/network-datacenter/

This just in from LP


Quote:

Hello On stabilization server arneb (you are right now on this server) we have : Mem: 4Gb On production server kwan: 8Gb of memory

This would suggest we're using 4 x 1.6 = 64 MB RAM. Certainly no more than 128.

Lots of learning going on. Great post on moving the site here:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpost.php?p=4878176&postcount=18

Here is Spry cPanel-based Managed VPS:

http://www.spry.com/cpanel-vps/

Same price as ServInt. (Actually, $45 if I pay for 3 months). What do you think? I have experience with cPanel, so am comfortable.

They have CentOS 5, but only PHP 4.x and MySQL 4.x which I heard support for v4.x is being dropped, now that v6 is coming .. I would prefer PHP 5.x and especially MySQL 5.x


Quote:

Backups. Full nightly backups are included with all VPS plans. Not only do we backup your website, we backup your entire operating system.

Quote:

Instant-on setup! Need your account setup immediately? Spry's instant-on provisioning system will have your account up within an hour in most cases. Please be sure to fill out all billing information correctly to ensure rapid processing.

Quote:

Upgradeability. All of Spry's plans can grow with you. Whether you're ready for the next size of VPS or ready for Managed Dedicated hosting, upgrades are quick and easy. No more waiting days for DNS to propogate, Spry can upgrade your account and move all your IPs in a matter of minutes.

A similar UNmanaged plan at VPSlink would cost $25, and I couldprobably get by with their $15 Plan #2, which offers 5 gigs of disk space + 128 MB RAM .. but cPanel/WHM is not supported in any plan under/below their Link-4 ($40/mo), which has way more than I need. (And cPanel license may be extra here, not sure.)

http://vpslink.com/vps-hosting/

For bandwidth, we use ~ a gig a day. Roughly. Easily less than 2.

Then, for UNmanaged, they have this LAMP option:

http://vpslink.com/lamp-vps/

So many options. My dang head is spinning.

Here's another which seems interesting, fully managed, $50/month, located in Chicago:

http://www.wiredtree.com/managedvps/features.php

http://www.wiredtree.com/ournetwork/datacenter.php

They have both PHP 5 and MySQL 5. I'm interested.

Rad wrote on Feb 17^th, 2008 at 10:18pm:

This would suggest we're using 4 x 1.6 = 64 MB RAM. Certainly no more than 128.

Correct, but on a VPS plan I think you also have to include the applications you are running.  On a shared server, they don't count Apache and Perl and MySQL against  your memory limits since everyone is using the same one.

I could set up a test server to see how much memory we would need.  You might be ok with 128, but 256 might be better.

As far as MySQL and PHP versions, I'm assuming we could install any version we want.  Based on what LP said, they will give you full access to the command line, so I could install any version of any software.  Some hosts have restrictions, and others install a basic version for you and you can do what you want with it (like upgrade.)

MrMagoo wrote on Feb 18^th, 2008 at 4:32am:

so I could install any version of any software.

This made me smile out loud. [smiley=smiley.gif]

Here's an article I found particularly interesting:

http://asymptomatic.net/2008/02/01/2699/how-to-choose-a-good-web-host

..especially these quotes:


Quote:

Beware when choosing a control panel. Some panels lock you in to certain configurations of software. For example, updating PHP on a server that runs Plesk can be tricky and often ends in violence. CPanel servers often run old versions of Apache, and can't support subversion hosting. Be aware that using a control panel may limit your ability to configure your server manually later.

I think you were alluding to this earlier.


Quote:

As far as shared hosting, I've come to the conclusion that the big guys are the love/hate of the hosting world. They work great up until they don't. When they stop working great, it's time to move up to a VPS.

My experience, precisely.


Quote:

If everyone on the server used their full allotment of space, the hosting company would go under trying to buy adequate storage to keep up. More likely, they'd just shut your site down citing an ambiguous violation of their terms of service. Happens all the time. Beware!

Might be worth mentioning that I have *tons* of Webalizer stats on the server .. which consume far more disk space than the site itself. Add to that a few back-ups, each 1-gig, and it makes you wonder.

Just deleted the Webalizer stats and the back-ups, after downloading.

But if they just wanted me off Shared cuz I was using too much SPACE (supposed to get 1,500 Gigs), I don't think they'd press for a DEDICATED server. That doesn't make sense.

But it would be funny if our "resource usage" suddenly (magically) dropped back below the "allowable" levels .. after I delete all those files.

Here it says:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-619634.html


Quote:

Managed: Varies a lot. Commonly it's only available with a control panel - the host will only support that control panel and its standard software. In some cases the host will do nothing unless you request it so you need to monitor the VPS yourself (ask about monitoring and proactive support).

Interesting.


Quote:

If you know how to use linux and manage a server, go for unmanaged. If not, managed. With unmanaged they do nothing except make sure the network and hardware are up. Managed will actually keep the vps itself up and make sure it's all going smooth. But it's more expensive too.

Lots of good info in that article.