I have this site in my sig that has been getting some traffic recently. Though the domain is new, alexa is ranking it at about ~20,000 as of now. Currently it is on a shared server. It goes down at the snap of a finger and mysql disconnections are frequent too... I contacted my host and they say a shared server can only do that much and my traffic is too heavy for that. They also suspended the site twice due to resource overuse! Now they have asked me to go for either VPS or dedicated server. I do not have any experience with these. So far I have only had free/ shared hosting. Can someone please shed light on these two types of hosting? Thank you...
In VPS you get dedicated OS (you can install your own softwares) and shared hardware so its almost same as your shared hosting but advantage is you get guarenteed resources in terms of CPU and system memory. Dedicated Server has OS and hardware both dedicated. i suggest not to directl;y upgradding to dedicated one. as OS is dedicated there one level up in terms of maintainence. you can take VPS with 256 MB RAm with good VPS provider (like servint, atjeu, liquidweb, powervps). optimise it for better MYSQL usage and your problem should get solved. when you are aquented with server handling you can have dedicated server. i am having few VPS running with Servint and atjeu. they both are good provides with great support.
Thank you. That cleared most of my doubts... However, I really do not fully understand how to "optimise it for better MYSQL usage". Can you please go a little further on that?
generally VPS configs are with 256 or 384 MB of Sysytem memory. if requirement higher people go with dedicated one. to get maximum output of server its nessesory to optimise all possible services (like generally mysql, apache, antispam, antivirus uses lot resouces) to use less system memory. default config for mysql or apache are normally for 512 M of ram. please refer following urls http://www.webhostgear.com/49_print.html http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/presentations/presentation-oscon2000-20000719/index.html http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=132 i hope this will answer your querries.