Help me spec a server

[sg2013]

I'm currently paying a fair amount to host my forum, but I'm sure I'm over paying and don't need the amount I'm paying for.

Forum stats:

750k posts

15k topics

150-200 average online

I'm on a cloud server with 2GB ram with a daily backup, and its costing me over £100 a month.

What do others use to host forums, what should I really need?

[Aiwa]

Would also depend on what load any addons are putting on the server as well.

What's your average memory usage?

Not sure that you'll find a dedicated server for less than what you're paying now, but there are VPS's out there that are significantly less than what you're paying that would have more power. Though, they would be unmanaged. You'd need to know how to manage the server yourself or hire a server admin.

[Dmacleo]

Dual Xeon 5520, 3x500GB, 24GB, 20TB/month and 5 ips

69/month

unmanaged though.

does come with directadmin but I dumped that and use cpanel as I host a few domains.

[Rhett]

You get what you pay for when it comes to hosting, if your site is working well, stick with what you have imo. Or if you can fit on our 175 package, you can save some money as well https://www.invisionpower.com/pricing

We do daily, and weekly backups, support, free transfers and more. :)

[sg2013]

Would also depend on what load any addons are putting on the server as well.

What's your average memory usage?

Not sure that you'll find a dedicated server for less than what you're paying now, but there are VPS's out there that are significantly less than what you're paying that would have more power. Though, they would be unmanaged. You'd need to know how to manage the server yourself or hire a server admin.

I was on a VPS before, but as the site grew, it just kept crashing.

free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2026 1545 480 0 50 1068
-/+ buffers/cache: 427 1598
Swap: 0 0 0

Dual Xeon 5520, 3x500GB, 24GB, 20TB/month and 5 ips

69/month

unmanaged though.

does come with directadmin but I dumped that and use cpanel as I host a few domains.

Thanks, but after a UK host.

You get what you pay for when it comes to hosting, if your site is working well, stick with what you have imo. Or if you can fit on our 175 package, you can save some money as well https://www.invisionpower.com/pricing

We do daily, and weekly backups, support, free transfers and more. :smile:

One of the reasons to move is that SQL keeps crashing the site, eats all the memory and it just falls over. I have to restart it.

I should have said, that does include daily backups as well.

The site was happy on a VPS, until this SQL issue started, and I'm not technical enough to get to the bottom of why it happens. Their support then want silly money with no potential outcome.

[Darvil]

Why don't you tell us your level of skill? Then people can recommend the right options.

IE if you know your hardware and software pretty well, you can colocate a server and manage it all yourself for really cheap. As low as 40 dollars a month.

If you don't want to deal with the hardware but know your OS, then you can just rent an unmanage server and install a free panel like virtualmin and use that. Running on bare metal hardware you will get alot of performance.

Of course if all you know is how to use a panel like cpanel then probably you should just get a better VPS deal and make sure its managed.

Honestly my opinion is that with that kind of traffic, you should start digging your nose a bit deeper on how things work underneath. Alot of better options will open for you and price as well. As long as you have time I suppose and are willing ;) Alot of people don't have the time to be nerdier then the minimum requirement.

[Gam3ronE]

https://zare.co.uk/

[Makoto]

A properly configured MySQL server won't just crash. Your memory limits are too high.

But if your server is running low on memory, you may consider moving to a setup with more available memory anyways. Either way, if MySQL is causing your server to run out of memory, it's because it's not properly configured. That shouldn't happen. Use a tool such as tuning-primer.sh to test your MySQL configuration.

My provider is based in the US, I don't have any hosts in the UK to recommend you.

https://zare.co.uk/

Those prices are quite low. I have a habit of not liking any host that claims unlimited bandwidth, because that's almost never true. It's pretty much never true for VPS' and shared hosts. Especially not when you're rolling out 1Gbps lines for every client. Unmetered 10Mbps and 100Mbps lines do exist, but they're priced accordingly. (An unmetered 10Mbps line will only use up to ~3.2TB bandwidth a month, an unmetered 100Mbps line can use up to ~31TB and an unmetered 1Gbps line can use up to ~310TB)

You're not getting an unmetered 1Gbps line for those prices, no way. It's "unlimited until we think you're using too much, then we shut you down."

I can't find any reviews on the service either, it seems to be a very new start-up.

Are you affiliated with the host in any way, or do you just use them? Seems like a host that might be operated by someone you know, which isn't a bad thing, but it's good to be wary about opting for hosts that lack credibility if you're hosting anything you really care about.