large datebase

[mark2012]

How do deal with large datebase to help with performance? Mine have about 1.2 GB and today my hosting company just sent to me this email

Hi,

Your script running on x account continues to have problems with the MySQL DB so we are going to convert it for you to INNODB to help with performance. The DB on the site is fairly large and you will probably need to upgrade the RAM if it continues to grow and eat up the RAM.

Regards

What do you think about this option ?

[AlexJ]

Without seeing Machine/VPS specs, your database engine tables and your MySQL specs it's hard to suggest or to provide any feedback.

[GreenLinks]

Alex is right however the response you received makes me think that you are highly possible on a vPS or low level Dedicated server.

On top of what Alex asked , you should supply following information so we can supply our suggestions :

• Phpinfo page link
• Server specs
• Online user + guest average with 15 min cookie time out
• Slow query log output
• My.conf output

[mark2012]

Alex is right however the response you received makes me think that you are highly possible on a vPS or low level Dedicated server.

No, not low level dedicated server but low level hosting support. Right now i cannot post any info because the server is dead, as usually. waiting for my check on 10th, did found a germany datacenter where to buy an unmanaged server where to move.

Will be back with info when the server is going back online.

[AlexJ]

Just a personal advice: If you are going to buy the dedicated server offshore check the HD health first and see if they give you new hard drive or not. HD I/O is critical on busy boards.

You can use SMART data from HD to check hard drive health and how much old hard drive is.

[mark2012]

These are the server specs:

System FreeBSD 8.2-STABLE FreeBSD 8.2-STABLE #0: Mon Sep 19 20:47:28 UTC 2011 root@backup5.website.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64
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'--with-freetype-dir=/usr/local/lib'
'--with-kerberos'
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apache2handler
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Path to sendmail

dont have ssh access so dont know where to get the info from My.conf.
Took the bellow details from the hosting page:
ZFS ZMIRROR 500 gb
8 gb ram
100 Mbps Transfer
cpu 3.3 GHz I3-2120 DC

[mark2012]

Just a personal advice: If you are going to buy the dedicated server offshore check the HD health first and see if they give you new hard drive or not. HD I/O is critical on busy boards.

You can use SMART data from HD to check hard drive health and how much old hard drive is.

Thanks for tip ! I have to decide between this one and this one from oVH

Also planning to install Nginx instead apache and maybe varnish cache too

[IveLeft...]

We run Apache and Unixy Varnish - works really well

[mark2012]

We run Apache and Unixy Varnish - works really well

Using nginx instead of apache with unixy varnish would do better? I`ve read many good things about nginx this is why im asking.

[IveLeft...]

You could use both nginx and apache with varnish :thumbsup:

[AlexJ]

OVH is over sold network lately so be careful. Also their support is in French most of the time so for me it was hard to get support from them when I needed one.

With 20% VAT it would be around same price... to other good providers in US. If you are not going to use all 32GB RAM then I would opt for RAID 1 and SSD for DB. That would be screaming fast I/O. But I don't know your load, users and all so I can't say much.

But stay away from OVH if you find some nice deal with other good host provider.

[GreenLinks]

The server you have is basically a personal pc which is converted to a server. i3 is not designed to run on servers. Server and regular PC cpu's differ a lot and servers always need more horsepower. Without seeing your My.cnf it is hard to say anything.

If you are looking for unmanaged servers , i highly suggest checking Germany. Their prices are way lower compared to US companies.

[mark2012]

Thank you very Alex and Sjv!

Yeah i`ve noticed the VTA from OHV it`s kinda sucks, the price per server is much bigger now. Also OVH took 8 days to answer to my email and wandering if something wrong it happens 8 day without an an ticket response will be truly pain. Webtropia answered to my email in decent time, around 24 hours.

[AlexJ]

Their are many good host in US in terms of 100-150$/month. E3/16GB/RAID 1 is easily doable for 120-130$ in US and might even get 32GB with SSD + RAID 1 (HD's) for 150$ on Tier 1 or 2 networks.

What's your budget?

[mark2012]

Their are many good host in US in terms of 100-150$/month. E3/16GB/RAID 1 is easily doable for 120-130$ in US and might even get 32GB with SSD + RAID 1 (HD's) for 150$ on Tier 1 or 2 networks.

What's your budget?

My budget for this one is not more than 200 bucks and since my main target is europe i have decided to find an european provider.

[IveLeft...]

Mark

What spec are you looking for VPS or Dedi ? Ram ? HDD ? Cpanel ?etc

[mark2012]

Mark

What spec are you looking for VPS or Dedi ? Ram ? HDD ? Cpanel ?etc

Well i`m looking for a server with more performance than the actual server (soon ex). A server who can handle easly 500-600 online members simultaneously with not more than 250 gb disk space which is more than enough for me and with 16 gb ram preferably 32 gb ram. And not managed due to my last horible experience. These are my specs located in EU would like.

[GreenLinks]

Well i`m looking for a server with more performance than the actual server (soon ex). A server who can handle easly 500-600 online members simultaneously with not more than 250 gb disk space which is more than enough for me and with 16 gb ram preferably 32 gb ram. And not managed due to my last horible experience. These are my specs located in EU would like.

Check hetzner.de , they have latest i7 series with high memory and ssd

[mark2012]

thanks Sjv , just sent them an email now. Waiting for their answer.

[Grumpy]

The server you have is basically a personal pc which is converted to a server. i3 is not designed to run on servers. Server and regular PC cpu's differ a lot and servers always need more horsepower. Without seeing your My.cnf it is hard to say anything.

If you are looking for unmanaged servers , i highly suggest checking Germany. Their prices are way lower compared to US companies.

Yes, i3 is not targeted at businesses to run as servers, but desktop CPUs aren't that far from server, "enterprise", CPUs.

The L series and extreme aside, the mainstream for both desktop and server are identical except that the server carry few additional features. These includes things like ECC and virtualization. In turn, the enterprise CPUs lower clocked in turn for lower voltage, because they need to be low powered as power consumption and it's resulting outcomes is #1 upkeep cost for datacenters (other than humans). L series (low power series) are great examples of these, and that's why L series are supported for longer because it's more cost efficient to do so.

The architecture are actually exactly the same. It's perfectly fine to run a server with a desktop cpu if you do not value these added feature. In most cases, ECC is likely the only valued item if you are running a mission critical application. There's a chance (like one in trillion) that a bit will be misread by a computer. 0 when it should be a 1 for example. an ECC module will correct that if it happens. Though, chance ^2 that ecc fails too. :tongue: And the funny part is, if you opt with cheap hosts *cough* OVH *cough* they often actually skip the ECC module on the lower end so they can get cheaper components -- which completely nullifies the point of getting the enterprise CPU.

and desktop cpu's usually come with integrated graphic card, but no one cares about that... ^^;

I also somewhat disagree on the statement that Germany/EU is cheaper than USA. It's a bit of a niche issue.

EU is full of staple server providers like OVH, Hetzner, PlusServer (has many names)... meh I'll stick leaseweb in there too... that focus on automation to delivery of servers. Awesome part about staple server is that if your needs fit within one of their pre-configured server with pre-configured images, it allows automation to take place very easily, they get to buy in huge bulks -- saving money, and ultimately you get it for cheap. But the moment you need something else, it becomes really expensive. By the words of the Hetzer PR guy, they aim for 95 percentile, aim to fit most needs, not all needs (bit paraphrased).

I could get something like E3, 16GB ram, with 4 bays, 2x SSD, 2x HDD (something I'd recommend the OP) for $200 (in budget) if it were USA. But, it's hard to get the same in europe because this kind of half mix and match of disks won't fit into their prebuilt servers. Actually, OVH has one.

Oh and yeah... Mark, if you can, get a E3-XXXX (frankly doesn't matter that much, v2 if possible. Just not 1220 [has no HT]). You don't really need 32GB ram, and the 8GB modules for the CPU with ECC are oddly more pricy than the 4GB (typically the mobo have 4x ram slots). So, just stick with 16GB. 2x SSD for OS + MySQL would be awesome. 300GB SSDs tend to be kind of expensive and not really sure if a 2 bay 300GB SSD will be cheaper or 4 bay with 2x 80GB SSD and 2x 500GB HDD for everything be cheaper. Personally, given your # of online, I would find SSD mandatory. It's better and cheaper than 15k drives anyway...

Though, after all this typing, I don't really have a recommendation for you. I feel like all the ones I know in EU are going to be out of budget. You might be able to check swiftway's sales for one and be within budget... but feel like not... probably doesn't hurt to ask. Don't even look at their website... just go straight to sales email.

Good luck searching.

If searching fails... well. Pick your poison among the 4 mentioned. xD But don't expect like <15min response from support for emergencies...

[GreenLinks]

I disagree nearly everything you said grumpy

There is a reason why desktop and server products differ. It is not only CPU speed but stability and the life span of the product is critical.

However i am not going to type tons of things like you , feel free to believe and order what ever you need dude.

[mark2012]

Thank you very much for explanation Grumpy !

Yep instead of chosing 32 gb ram and i3/i5 i can find a server with E3/E5 and less ram instead.

Hetzner is not on my list anymore, they replied to me couple of moments ago, didn`t decided myself yet still searching and reading on webtalkhosting. I will be back here these days after will purchase the machine :mellow:

[Grumpy]

I disagree nearly everything you said grumpy

There is a reason why desktop and server products differ. It is not only CPU speed but stability and the life span of the product is critical.

However i am not going to type tons of things like you , feel free to believe and order what ever you need dude.

Not even really sure what you disagree with considering most I said are stuff said by the manufacturers and suppliers.

Though yes, I did miss out on the CPU "life span". While the manufacturer promotes the enterprise cpu with longer life span... but this has to be a joke. CPUs don't fail. Okay... it's extremely rare. Doesn't matter if it's consumer or enterprise. The statistical likelihood of a CPU failing is so low that you'll likely go through like 100 other replacements before you need to replace a CPU. The rare occasions where CPU fail is almost always due to bad power supply or overclocking. But these days, with great mobos, it's virtually impossible to break cpu's with OC.

Stability go hand in hand with ECC. It's how the enterprise CPUs have greater stability and I covered that already.

If the enterprise cpus are indeed much superior to the desktop counterpart, the pricing point doesn't make sense. An e3-1270 and i7-2600k are similar pricing point, same architecture and similar performance. Majority of increase in price by choosing "enterprise" is the rest of the components like chassis, motherboard, ram, etc. Though, some getting custom desktop usually gets MUCH superior power supply for desktop. You can quite frankly take the 1270 and put it on desktop mobo and run fine, and same vice versa. Again, this is what OVH actually does with their low end.

Again, I'm not talking about low or high ends like atoms, mobile, or E7 line. I'm not talking about CPUs from pre-"core" series when they really were completely separately designed. I'm talking about the mainstream line of today: sandy/ivy bridge, namely the E3s vs newer i5~i7. They carry the same chipset. Same architecture. Same sockets. They are NOT designed differently, just different features. Choosing the "cream of the crop" aside, they are same.

[AlexJ]

With desktop grade CPU's you get desktop grade mobo's and HD's most of the time and you run into issues sooner or later with desktop grade hard drives. Learned the lesson hard way :)

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1200617

Irony, I am using Hetzner but if I can change IP's then I would leave them in heartbeat!

[mark2012]

ok, just bought tuesday my new server from webtropia.de and it was ready thursday. It have this configuration:
i7

32 gb ram

2x1000 sata 2 hdd

100mps

with centOS6 , didn`t installed any control panel and not planning soon. It took me more than 70 hours to read how to configure the server and make the initial setup. Mess up the whole server yesterday and i had to re-install the centos in order to make the iredmail to work properly. I`ve dealt with so many errors when was trying to re-import a backup starting with blank white page (really pain in the ass) from the board but now it`s all good. Waiting to propagate the dns to make the final change today or maybe tomorrow.