Server Specs

[bowers01 +]

Hi,
I am looking at moving my site off shared hosting. I dont have a huge budget for hosting but i have come up with 2 options.

#1 VPS -Guaranteed RAM 256Mb - Burstable RAM 1024Mb +
#2 My Own Server in Co-Location - 3.2 xeon single core - 3gb RAM - 2 x 146 15K SCSI drives.

I know my server will run the site fine but its going to cost me about $250 a month when the VPS is only $35.

My question is will the site run better on VPS over shared hosting? keeping in mind that on the shared hosting i have a limit of 128mb for PHP Script.
I dont really want to pay for Co-Location if the VPS will run it fine.

Any suggestions would be great.

Nick

[Lhotch +]

server specs needed are based on 2 main things. Amount of traffic you get and if you need to allocate more memory to your php scripts. The main reason to allocate more memory to your php script is to allow people to upload larger images.

Since we dont know how much traffic you are going to get or what size images you want to allow people to upload then no one can answer your question.

[bowers01 +]

Hi,
i want to be able to use a multiple image upload script, allowing users to upload 10 or so images at a time, with a image size limit of say 2mb.
Traffic is not a real problem yet, but would VPS speeds be better than Shared hosting?

[Lhotch +]

Im not sure how the multiple image upload script works but most likely it still only processes a single image at a time. An original image that is 1200 x 1200 pixels will eat up approx 13mg of memory and many shared hosts have you limited to 16 so if thats all your wanting to do you wouldnt really NEED to go beyond shared hosting unless the traffic requires it.

You would however be well served to experiment with you image file size upload settings so the script doesnt allow files larger (in KB on disk) to be uploaded than your server can handle in terms of pixel dimensions. The way most people have their 68C sites setup, someone can upload an image that is smaller than the file size specs set in admin but when uncompressed to be resized it eats up more memory than the server allows the sript to use and the user sees nothing but a white page.

So having said all of that VPS would be bettern than shared hosting, but its still a shared server its just virtualized so you havesome dedicated resources. However if it has dedicated resources but you arent allowed to change php.ini settings its kind of a waste.

[ombre +]

Originally Posted by bowers01

Hi,
i want to be able to use a multiple image upload script, allowing users to upload 10 or so images at a time, with a image size limit of say 2mb.
Traffic is not a real problem yet, but would VPS speeds be better than Shared hosting?

Everything depends on the number of your users. My site, with about 10000 users daily is running on own server. There are few small web-sites also there, but they don't disturb the site.

In the time where i have only 10% of visitors i was on shared hosting system.

So, keep the money in the pocket and use a system for 10 $/month if you have only 1000 users daily ...

[bowers01 +]

Hi,
Ok so you say for example the image will take up 13mb out of the 16mb, what if two users are uploading at the same time, will i be given 32mb between them or will it be 26mb of pics with 16mb of allocated space?
What happens there?
Cheers

[bowers01 +]

Ok ill keep that in mind ombre, thanks for the input.

[Lhotch +]

Originally Posted by bowers01

Hi,
Ok so you say for example the image will take up 13mb out of the 16mb, what if two users are uploading at the same time, will i be given 32mb between them or will it be 26mb of pics with 16mb of allocated space?
What happens there?
Cheers

I believe the limit is per execution of the script. So if you have 2 users placing an ad at the same time they each get 16mg. There are also process limits set at the OS level however that will prevent PHP running off with all of the system resources.

So for example lets just say for ease of visualizing an example your server has 1000 megabytes

The OS limits PHP to 500 megabytes

and the php.ini setting memory_limit is set to 20 megabytes.

That would allow you to have 500 divided by 20 or 25 people running the image upload script simultaneously if they are all using 20mg. Of course more could run it if they all were not using the full 20mg.

If you wanted to allow users to upload 6 megapixel images they would be approx 35megabytes each uncompressed plus you would have some script overhead so lets say you would need a memory_limit of 40mg.

500 mg usable overall by php divided by 40meg mem limit means with the same "host" you could only handle 12 people uploading 6 megapixel images at the same time.

So in the end its all about how many users are using your system at the same time.

[bowers01 +]

Ok Thanks for the help.
I currently have 128mb to play with so ill stay with shared for the time being.
Thanks,
Nick