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Volstate Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 Can someone tell me their experience on semi dedicated hosting as compared to VPS hosting? My site has outgrown shared hosting and I'm trying to decide whether to go to semi dedicated or VPS. I was told by my current host that with semi dedicated i basically go on a server with with up to 100 other people versus the 500+ on a shared server. Will I notice much of a difference in speed on my site?
Aiwa Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 From what I understand 'semi-dedicated' or 'business hosting' or 'other fancy name' is just a term used for a shared server that the host puts a cap on the number of sites on the server.. So while you are on a server with fewer people, those people generally have more powerful sites and needed the bump in the first place.. You'll likely see 'some' bump in performance, but you're still on a shared host. Even with a VPS, you're still on a 'shared' server... Personally, if you don't have the funds for a full on dedicated, then go for a VPS over the 'semi dedicated' as the call it... A VPS would give you more control over your site and specific programs you run to streamline your sites performance. Plus you get 'semi dedicated' resources on the machine.
Dmacleo Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 iirc from when I looked at option like that the price difference btween that and vps was so small that root access vps was well worth the difference.
MGBrose Posted October 26, 2012 Posted October 26, 2012 Get a VPS hands down, like the mentioned semi dedicated = fancy word for shared hosting.
Grumpy Posted October 27, 2012 Posted October 27, 2012 Generally, VPS > semi-dedi. But, semi-dedi is more hassle free and will operate much like shared hosting you've been using. There is the convenience factor. Additionally, you're going to have to pay for your own cpanel license (if you still need/want it) on a VPS. But a semi-dedi with up to 100 sounds really terrible to be paying a hefty premium on...
Royzee Posted October 27, 2012 Posted October 27, 2012 Definitely VPS. My VPS with root access ( self managed ) costs $52 a month w/cPanel. It is as fast as the dedicated I had previously. Shop around though for specs, and VPS node can be over crowded same as shared.
AlexJ Posted October 27, 2012 Posted October 27, 2012 Xen or KVM VPS. Stay away from OpenVPS because many host abuse it... Make sure to check hard drive I/O of the VPS before moving your forums. If you are just planning to run your own forum on it, don't get any panel and it will save you extra RAM for your web-server or DB usage. If VPS is well maintained, you will definitely see difference from your old shared hosting.
Grumpy Posted October 28, 2012 Posted October 28, 2012 Xen or KVM VPS. Stay away from OpenVPS because many host abuse it... Many people say that, but personally, I hate that advice. Because the most commonly problematic or oversold component of a VPS node is the hard drive. And Xen has NO PROTECTION whatsoever with regards to HD IO oversell. Xen does somewhat protect the users from hosts overselling ram, but when has anyone seen a vps box actually unable to allocate the ram they bought? Virtually never.
AlexJ Posted October 28, 2012 Posted October 28, 2012 Many people say that, but personally, I hate that advice. Because the most commonly problematic or oversold component of a VPS node is the hard drive. And Xen has NO PROTECTION whatsoever with regards to HD IO oversell. Xen does somewhat protect the users from hosts overselling ram, but when has anyone seen a vps box actually unable to allocate the ram they bought? Virtually never. I agree with you ... but you can check easily HD I/O through dd command. Although, "dd" command is not that accurate but it's indication of poor and good HD I/O. Most of the OpenVZ are over sold and hence they are cheap. Hosters have just abused OpenVPS so badly that everyone gives that advice now a days. OpenVZ could be faster if it's not oversold by host. Even Xen could be well oversold for RAM too using ballooning technique but less host do that. Best is it go for cheap dedicated servers off shore. Then at least you know what you are getting. You can easily good dedi server in 50$-60$/month now a days. Better then high priced VPS from good companies. HD I/O of good VPS which I have for back up and other things. It's a dirt cheap.. 6$/month and still has good I/O. dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync; unlink test 16384+0 records in 16384+0 records out 1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 6.19363 s, 173 MB/s
Grumpy Posted October 28, 2012 Posted October 28, 2012 You can just outright ask up to how many users or on average are fit on a box and what hardware they use, though not all will spill the beans on share ratio. That's the best way to measure the amount of oversell. Not whether or not they use xen vs openvz. Companies like Linode used to say in their website how many boxes per node outright to guarantee a resource share ratios (they used to, but couldn't find the link, maybe not saying it anymore in public). A $50~60 VPS running off of Romley with SAS Raid10 or SSD will smoke any dedi box you can grab for the same price at any application or benchmark. You CAN be picky about hardware when picking VPS. Better then high priced VPS from good companies. But you just proved yourself that your $6 VPS has higher write speed than a single disk or raid 1 can possibly handle which is as good as it gets for $60. Surely a low end dedi is more consistent in behavior than any VPS, but better? Can't agree on that.
AlexJ Posted October 29, 2012 Posted October 29, 2012 A $50~60 VPS running off of Romley with SAS Raid10 or SSD will smoke any dedi box you can grab for the same price at any application or benchmark. You CAN be picky about hardware when picking VPS. But you just proved yourself that your $6 VPS has higher write speed than a single disk or raid 1 can possibly handle which is as good as it gets for $60. Surely a low end dedi is more consistent in behavior than any VPS, but better? Can't agree on that. Not entirely true... It's matter of time on VPS that someone abuses either HD I/O, CPU or RAM and all other customers see the effect. I just use low end VPS for back up cos I don't need consistent good HD I/O. It's the user who needs to ask himself. Is 80MB/s enough for HD I/O for his applications in RAID 1 ? If not go for SSD for DB and other services and choose the dedi server specs accordingly. But you just proved yourself that your $6 VPS has higher write speed than a single disk or raid 1 can possibly handle which is as good as it gets for $60. Surely a low end dedi is more consistent in behavior than any VPS, but better? Can't agree on that. You are assuming it wrong. I just said my cheap back up VPS has good HD I/O but that doesn't mean it has "consistent" good I/O since VPS is still shared. More or less it's not as good as 60$ dedi server because it doesn't have dedi CPU or RAM. That VPS got 256Mb OpenVZ shared RAM and shared CPU and my 60$ dedi server got dedicated 8GB RAM, 3.4Ghz (Quad Core + HT CPU) and consistent 60-80MB/s HD I/O. Also I don't have to worry for BW because most of the dedi server companies provide min 80Mbps speed on their 100Mbps port while on VPS it could even reach 1Mbps and then forum will open to damm slow. A low end dedi will always be more consistent unless and until their is hard ware failure but then again most of the companies provide free hard ware replacement for dedi servers. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinions and choices and for me dedi server will always out run any VPS because 80-90% host in the market running VPS are always oversold to make more $$.
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