My site has grown to 1 million visits per month and is still on a shared server. Time to do dedicated. Any recommendations? Here's the current consumption: 140 GIG/monthly bandwidth (outbound: 500 kb/s average, 700 kb/s max) 14,456 files (6 GIG of space used) 9 mysql datbases, mysql-heavy site LAMP server dedicated ip, cron jobs CPU is throttled about 5 minutes per day The shared server specs it's currently on: 2U chassis that provides motherboards for 4 separate customer servers. 8x AMD Opteron-6274 16Core (Processor) 1x Super Micro AS -2122TG-HTRF (Chassis, Motherboard, Heatsinks) 16x 8 GB DDR3-1600 ECC / REG (Memory) 12x Western Digital Velociraptor- WD1500BLFS (Hard Drives) 8x OCZ Daneva II's 240GB (SSD Drives) 4x LSI 9285-8e or 9280-8e depending on availability (Sata Controller) 4x LSIBBU09 (Controller Battery) Storage Array 2x External JBOD Chassis- 4u 45Bay SAS (Chassis) 90x 2TB Hitach 3.5" (Hard Drives) I had a different website that was on a dedicated and it was slower than the shared host above. So, I'm cautious and want to make sure the host I go with is screaming fast. Please recommend a host if you are a customer and happy with your host, but if you are the owner or get commissions, then please don't or I will boycott it. Thanks!
Nothing wrong with resellers. It can get you a better deal on servers depending on your needs and requirements. =)
Very true...it can also get you paying close to double the price you would pay by going to the actual provider. And now you have to go through a middleman to get support, who then has to go through the datacenter. It all wastes time.
Just depends on the support level you need. If the reseller monitors tickets well enough it can be pretty good especially if they offer their own management services. The only real issue comes down to hardware problems. Either way, pros and cons for both
If the site is working fine on shared hosting, and there's no problems with your set-up, why move? If the 5-mins a day CPU throttling is a problem, why not just offer to pay more to have the throttling level increased so it doesn't happen? Moving from shared hosting where everything is laid on for you (email, dns, ftp, database, sites, control panel) to a dedicated server is not a minor move. As you've already recognized, you may not even get similar performance unless you go very high spec. If you're happy, if it's working out, and your host is happy, I'd be wanting to stay where I was - unless you have a huge budget to play with.
The site is used worldwide, but is in English so 80% USA (no regional preference or relevance), and the rest spread among English speaking countries. The current host is based in Salt Lake City. But they tend to shut down websites completely when they become too popular/successful without notifying the client (me). So, I can't continue with that uncertainty knowing that a server nerd can destroy my income at any time, depending on his mood that day. Is moving to a VPS an easy transition? If I already have the files/mysql setup on the VPS, when I change the nameservers on the domain registrar to the VPS server, how many hours of downtime is normal? And is there a way to simulate/test the speed of the VPS before flipping the switch, or do I pretty much need the traffic to test it?
I guess it could be hassle free for you to move to the managed VPS as the tech. staff members are helping transferring data free of charge if the platforms are same on the servers. For the more info , I think better to see this - http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2579806 servers are in Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles, by choice, I'm sure VPS 4 or 5 will suit your needs. Other choice is a dedicated server, I could send you more info if you're still interested. Cheers.