I currently have a teeny lil' 'ol server - 1.8 celeron with 512k.

Things are getting busy - I was maxed out at 150 servers for about 24 hours.. apache restarted twice. Total server load was between about 10 and 18.5 most of the time.

I want this:

Intel Pentium IV 2.4GHz
1GB DDRAM Memory
(2) 120GB EIDE Hard Drive (2nd for backup - not raid)
2,000GB Data Transfer or unmetered 10mbit cap

Red Hat
mySQL (duh)
Cpanel/WHM/Fantastico
PHP (patched), Zend Optimizer, ImageMagik, all the standard stuff you find on a server with CPanel.

Managed (at least partially - I don't need hand holding - just when major problems pop up, which shouldn't be often - things like when bind fails to do it's thing, or I'm getting DOS'ed). I've dropped e-mail to support three times in 6 months, and called twice (one DOS attack, one failure to bind a new IP).

Please reply here with ballpark prices, and a way to contact you (ICQ, MSN, E-Mail).

Thanks!

Hey Fusionx,

Sounds like business is growing for you, congratulations.

I would like to suggest Powerstorm Webhosting. We have a good track record and were recommended by our users and nominated for an Xbiz award for 2005 webhost of the year.

We could offer a managed server:

Intel Pentium 4 3.06 GHz

1 GB RAM - (2) 120GB Hard Drives
2000 GB Monthly Transfer
RHEL/Cpanel/WHM
7 IP's

for $349.00 a month and no setup fee.

Please feel free to drop by the site or ICQ me if I can be of any assistance.

Drizzt
ICQ: 4578599
drizzt@powerstorm.net

check out http://www.choopa.com they got great packages.

Hey Fusionx,

I can get you up in the Marlin Web Hosting facility on the package you described for just $405 per month. That's assuming that by Red Hat, you mean Fedora. If you need Red Hat Enterprise AS, just add $40/month.

You can go with the cheapest offer, but at Marlin you have that assurance that you're going to get the most state-of-the-art facility available (owned entirely by Marlin), full redundancy, and 24 hour support. I'll even give you permission to blow up my cell phone any time you need anything.

ICQ: 103230788
Cell Phone: 407-697-6594

I'm the painful stages of growth. The point where one day I get 5-10k uniques, the next, some super forums posts a pic and a link to my site, and I'm getting 20k uniques. Someone else sees the pic on that site and posts it on theirs.. now I'm getting 30k uniques. etc. One big site posted, then about five other boards copied them - same pic, same dynamic url - gotta love it!

It's also cool when sponsors e-mail me to get their stuff on my site. That blew me away the first time. Kind of a rush :)

But anyway...

That looks like a pretty good deal. It's the best price I've seen yet with the 2kG transfer. What's that capped at? what's the allowed burst peak?


Also, forgive my ignorance - what is "RHEL"? I think I should know this

You might want to give m3 server a look too. Don't know if they are in the ball park or not, but Dantheman is family....
(and since apparently his boardtracker did not ping on your post, I will take the liberty of posting the link for him)

http://www.m3server.com/home.asp

I'm the painful stages of growth. The point where one day I get 5-10k uniques, the next, some super forums posts a pic and a link to my site, and I'm getting 20k uniques. Someone else sees the pic on that site and posts it on theirs.. now I'm getting 30k uniques. etc. One big site posted, then about five other boards copied them - same pic, same dynamic url - gotta love it!

It's also cool when sponsors e-mail me to get their stuff on my site. That blew me away the first time. Kind of a rush :)

But anyway...

That looks like a pretty good deal. It's the best price I've seen yet with the 2kG transfer. What's that capped at? what's the allowed burst peak?


Also, forgive my ignorance - what is "RHEL"? I think I should know this [/b][/quote]
That's all?

And you're maxing out a 1.8 ghz box with 512 megs?

Sounds to me more like you need to tune the server you've already got.

That's all?

And you're maxing out a 1.8 ghz box with 512 megs?

Sounds to me more like you need to tune the server you've already got. [/b][/quote]
I thought the same thing.... quite honestly I was amused by the number of sig whores that never post on here came running out of the wood works to spam.

All you hosting companies that posted here for the mans business should be ashamed of yourself without pointing out that he needed to turn what he had.

This is the reason sig whores arent welcome here.

You might also invest in a host that will tech you how to read stats too. From the message you posted it looks like somene hasnt explained it properly.

Sare has pointed out one of our family companies.... I will also do the same.
You could benefit from some of Kacy's tender loving care at nakedhosting.com .

The specialize in handling issues like this. Ive got a baby box out there now thats a fraction of what you have and we are nowhere near capacity.

Inabon could also help you out as well... if your looking for offshore or NT specialists at siliconcanal.com .

Skip the sig whores they want your money... invest in one of the 3 if you want service.

That's all?

And you're maxing out a 1.8 ghz box with 512 megs?

Sounds to me more like you need to tune the server you've already got.[/b][/quote]
Yep, that spec can handle that amount of traffic no problem. The obvious thing that would spring to mind to cause a high load would be a large database with no indexing where it was needed. Probably not the case here though.

As a comparison, i've had no problems with a 2.4Ghz/512Mb box handling ~500k uniques a day, with apps performing a couple/few million SQL queries. Room for more too.

Each situation is unique though.

You may want to check out http://www.alpharedhosting.com :okthumb:

Check your ICQ :)

www.Hostive.com

Bryan@Hostive.com
ICQ 260-844-610

Amazing...

As usual , I'm with my partner on this.....

The sig whores with one or two posts that jumped in this thread frankly will NEVER get my business.

Hostive
drizzt

You are like parasites.....

You come and feed here but give nothing back.

In fact , I smell, by how fast drizzt answered a potential for shilling collusion ....

I thought the same thing.... quite honestly I was amused by the number of sig whores that never post on here came running out of the wood works to spam.

All you hosting companies that posted here for the mans business should be ashamed of yourself without pointing out that he needed to turn what he had.

This is the reason sig whores arent welcome here.

You might also invest in a host that will tech you how to read stats too. From the message you posted it looks like somene hasnt explained it properly.

Sare has pointed out one of our family companies.... I will also do the same.
You could benefit from some of Kacy's tender loving care at nakedhosting.com .

The specialize in handling issues like this. Ive got a baby box out there now thats a fraction of what you have and we are nowhere near capacity.

Inabon could also help you out as well... if your looking for offshore or NT specialists at siliconcanal.com .

Skip the sig whores they want your money... invest in one of the 3 if you want service. [/b][/quote]
This may or may not apply to your situation, but still consider Gonzo's advice....

We're maxing out a much bigger box on pretty small traffic numbers because of the things we do... But good technical advice (rather than a sales picth) is invaluable regardless of what you do.

Hey all - thanks for the advice and the replies - mucho appreciated.

The numbers I gave were just examples of how the traffic is sporadic - the painful growth phase. I've done 194 gigs since Sunday night. This has slowed a bit since, but that's the general issue.

The main site I run is completely DB dependant, and the SQL in the software isn't optimized at all - it's pretty sloppy. I'm going through and fixing things when I can. It's getting better and better.

I also know I need to install MMCache or similar. That would reduce the load on the DB by a good margin.

Tuning apache, et al, will also help - I'm sure.

But, I'm adding new sites that will grab more CPU/Disk/Ram, etc, and I'll need to upgrade within a month anyway. I have 1000gig transfer now, and will definately need more soon.

Rather than tweak this one out, and make it last another month or two, I'll get a server with more capacity, a plan with more transfer, and will optimize the hell out of that one. It should take care of my needs for quite a while.

That being said, my current provider offered me a sweet deal - how does this look to you:

Intel Pentium IV 2.8GHz
1GB DDRAM Memory
(2) 80GB SATA Hard Drive
1500 GB Data Transfer, 10mbit cap
Cpanel/WHM/Fantastico

$189.00 per month, no setup, hosted at Sagonet in Tampa.

Here's a question for you all. When looking at overall server load through Cpanel, what do you consider a "stressfull" load? I've watched mine hold 15 - 20 for hours with not much degradation in delivery. Right now apache is showing between 50 - 70 servers active and the load is at about 1.8 - 2.2. It only seems to degrade when servers get up to about 100 - then the front end starts slowing down.

I know that's not granular - but it is a good indication of overall server stress?

Thanks!

1 x # of cpu or less is best, meaning instructions dont wait to be processed.

anything below 2 per cpu is quite alright in my book.

Dont be fooled though, HyperThreading CPUs are not two cpus... they're more like 1.10-1.25 CPUs...

I'm not going to spam a host....even though I love mine...but the family brings up some good points..

And, one of the essentials for me...is whomever I use for hosting has to look out for my needs...and, that means if I'm learning and getting my feet wet, I expect my host to teach me and help me get through the growing pains....

I don't know shit about hosting. Took me a year to learn what bandwidth really means....I've had two hosts who have taken the time to answer every stupid question I've ever had....and, they both took the time to check the server now and again and recommend tweaking or upgrading or just 'hey, you're doing great'.....

1 x # of cpu or less is best, meaning instructions dont wait to be processed.

anything below 2 per cpu is quite alright in my book.

Dont be fooled though, HyperThreading CPUs are not two cpus... they're more like 1.10-1.25 CPUs... [/b][/quote]
That's very true. If you are looking at more DB loaded sites, you may want to consider a dual xeon, with whomever you go with. Your current host sounds like they are trying to keep your business so I would hear them out before looking elsewhere.

Loads below 1.0 are best as stated above as well.

Again, Congrats on the growth.

Drizzt

I highly recomend www.phatservers.com
not sure how their prices compare, but their service is top notch...I already have a few sites with them and plan on moving all of my sites over to them...
one of the few hosting companies I've ever gotten a reply/solution to a minor issue from late night on a Sunday night

Thanks - the part about instructions not waiting brought it home for me. That was always one of those "amorphous" numbers.. had no idea what it really reflected.