Dedicated Server - What is needed?

sanaxe1

sanaxe1

sanaxe1

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Hey i'm just wondering if there is a table of what the minimum requirements are for a server for your needs. for example :


P4 2.0ghz , 512mb , 100GB / month shared bandwidth = small site upto 25K hits.


Just wondering as i'm about to move to the following :

Core 2 Duo 2.2ghz
1GB ram
160GB hdd
3TB / bandwidth on 100mbs line

and should be having say 30k unique hits / month ( oscommerce site ) but im wondering how much more i could go on the server until i should be thinking of upgrading again.

Also i'm just curious as to what spec servers should be used for tasks so if anyone has a rough idea then id be interested to know, thanks
 
I have 10GB Backup which is more then enough , I can get 2 x 80GB instead of the 1 x 160GB but they will not be in raid.
 
It depends exactly what the server is for. That one SATA hard disk for example, in most usage cases is going to be the bottleneck before anything else in the system. I would think about using memcached and increasing the memory in your server so that the hard disk doesn't get hammered.

Because you're running a shop, I think you should probably go for a RAID option - either RAID1, RAID10, or RAID5. RAID1 should suffice for now, and will protect you in the event of a hard disk failure. RAID is not a replacement for backups though.
 
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I would just like to mention at the moment i'm only at 20k Hits , but in a couple of months i expect to hit 30k , I dont know if that will make much difference , but i could always upgrade in the future when i do hit 30k.

The following will be on the site :

3 x Os commerce sites running off it , which includes obviously the shop software doing all its search , mysql queries , creations and emails . Then there will be a PHP Live support application running on all the sites and also 3 x Perldesk Ticket service's running as well as driver downloads for 1 shop.
 
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It's fine as far as the processor goes, but a processor doesn't "make" a server - it's not the be-all and end-all of all round system performance like it can be in a desktop machine. Because a server gets requests for files/operations on files and databases every second, the processors can often be sitting around waiting for the hard disk as it struggles to keep up... I think it will be fine for 30k visitors though, it's only 1,000 per day, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Just be aware that a single hard disk is not a good idea for a critical business application (which i assume it is if you're gettind a dedicated server for an OScommerce site). :)
 
Thanks , ive took your advise and gone for 2 x 80GB with my idea of running my most popular site on 1 hard drive and my 2 others on the 2nd harddrive. with a 10GB off site backup service.
 
Well, the advice was mainly to go for RAID of some kind. :o

Hard disk failures really aren't that uncommon and it's nice to know that your server (and thus your business) could continue to operate in the event of one. Even if the drives aren't hot-swappable, it's better than nothing.
 
lol oh right, well i might have to stump up the extra £10 a month and get them in the Raid 1 option they offer.
 
Definitely get RAID1 otherwise your hard disks are the weakest link in the system - when did you last see a CPU fail :) (we've never had one fail)

Also ensure you enable MySQL query caching and look at eAccelerator, etc.

As daz says the processor often isn't the bottleneck in a hosting server, it's virtually always the disks. We run 15K SCSI RAID 5 and could still do with more speed!
 
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