Hosting recommendations - resource intensive website
Discussion
Hi all - I've seen a few names pop up on here in the past, but wanted to get some recent views on a recommended web host for a fairly resource heavy forum.
We are currently with TSO Host on a dedicated server which is being decommissioned, and wonder if this is the right opportunity to move elsewhere given their significant performance and support deterioration!
We would either likely need another dedicated server, or a high spec VPS, so would appreciate any views from anyone that has dealt with sites of that scale rather than relatively simple/low user website.
Many thanks
Owain
We are currently with TSO Host on a dedicated server which is being decommissioned, and wonder if this is the right opportunity to move elsewhere given their significant performance and support deterioration!
We would either likely need another dedicated server, or a high spec VPS, so would appreciate any views from anyone that has dealt with sites of that scale rather than relatively simple/low user website.
Many thanks
Owain
Not Pistonheads level of intensive, but something that isn't just a handful of visitors. We get circa 1.5-2m page views a month, and as it's a database driven forum it's fairly intensive.
Currently spec of dedicated server is:
Linux DS1
1x Intel Xeon Hex Core 16GB
2x 300GB SAS
2TB
cPanel
Alternative VPS that we've been offered is a potentially higher-than-needed of this:
16 vCPU
64 GB RAM
800 GBNVMe SSD Storage
Currently spec of dedicated server is:
Linux DS1
1x Intel Xeon Hex Core 16GB
2x 300GB SAS
2TB
cPanel
Alternative VPS that we've been offered is a potentially higher-than-needed of this:
16 vCPU
64 GB RAM
800 GBNVMe SSD Storage
Can the database go in Amazon RDS or similar? Would need a less powerful VPS then.
EC2 specs are here to match against:
https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
EC2 specs are here to match against:
https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
The key here is to understand the tech stack you're running on, is it a custom built forum or something off the shelf?
Odds are it can sit on AWS/Azure/etc but the choice will boil down to how well their various solutions support your forum app.
Eg you could go for a virtual server similar to your current setup but then someone needs to maintain it, or as another poster mentioned you could move to a cloud database and some sort of hosted web application solution.
Odds are it can sit on AWS/Azure/etc but the choice will boil down to how well their various solutions support your forum app.
Eg you could go for a virtual server similar to your current setup but then someone needs to maintain it, or as another poster mentioned you could move to a cloud database and some sort of hosted web application solution.
Thanks both. Sorry I wasn't very clear, and I'm used to seeing less techy questions and responses in the business forum!
It's a MySQL driven forum using phpBB3 software.
We are looking for a managed server (either VPS or dedicated), and likely to go with a 'normal' web hosting/server provider rather than looking to self manage to migrate to AWS or similar.
It's a MySQL driven forum using phpBB3 software.
We are looking for a managed server (either VPS or dedicated), and likely to go with a 'normal' web hosting/server provider rather than looking to self manage to migrate to AWS or similar.
Ah, in that case I'd suggest hunting down someone that specialises in hosting phpbb rather than a generic VPS supplier, otherwise you'll likely be no better off than with AWS etc in terms of support.
If you're aware of other forums running phpbb that you think work well in terms of performance you should be able to figure out who hosts them from the IP address.
If you're aware of other forums running phpbb that you think work well in terms of performance you should be able to figure out who hosts them from the IP address.
When you say managed do you mean 'here is my DB and my phpBB install + skins.... make it work' or do you mean you don't need to worry about patching / updates and so forth?
Just trying to see what the 'managed' bit entails over a VPS which are fairly low effort once running.
Just trying to see what the 'managed' bit entails over a VPS which are fairly low effort once running.
Edited by GiantEnemyCrab on Monday 4th September 17:12
GiantEnemyCrab said:
When you say managed do you mean 'here is my DB and my phpBB install + skins.... make it work' or do you mean you don't need to worry about patching / updates and so forth?
Just trying to see what the 'managed' bit entails over a VPS which are fairly low effort once running.
The latter - I'm not sure I really need much in the way of managing as such, but something that I can get up and running and just leave with minimal maintenance basically.Just trying to see what the 'managed' bit entails over a VPS which are fairly low effort once running.
Edited by GiantEnemyCrab on Monday 4th September 17:12
Probably how I should have started was, can anyone recommend a decent VPS provider that has good support and reasonable pricing!
If it is just the latter I'd probably get an EC2, configure it for daily / weekly / monthly (as required) snapshots to belt and braces whatever backup mechanism phpBB has builtin (assume this is the case) then run something along the lines of:
apt install unattended-upgrades ufw fail2ban
Then change SSH to be keys only rather than username
assword, perhaps restricted to your IP address at home or work if it doesn't change very much.
Should cover of most of the patching and so forth, whilst also being able to be easily reverted to a snapshot should something go wrong. AWS can also clean up old snapshots on a schedule if you wish.
apt install unattended-upgrades ufw fail2ban
Then change SSH to be keys only rather than username
assword, perhaps restricted to your IP address at home or work if it doesn't change very much.Should cover of most of the patching and so forth, whilst also being able to be easily reverted to a snapshot should something go wrong. AWS can also clean up old snapshots on a schedule if you wish.
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