Posted by alxconn on September 4, 2008 at 2:30am
What is everyone doing for web hosting? As a group, we could likely consolidate our sites to run on a single server optimized for Drupal (ideal PHP.ini settings, modules, etc) and save everyone a load of cash in the meantime.
Now, obviously, we probably don't want to share a server that is in charge of a BIG drupal site, because that runs the chance of blowing performance for everyone.
We could probably cover the cost of the server easily with what our clients are paying for current solutions, and get them an SLA (uptime promise) and improved performance.
Thoughts?
Comments
DreamHost
I use DreamHost shared hosting and I pay $10/month. My sites have run almost perfectly with very little problem. Granted...they are not very high traffic.
-Mike Goodwin
Red Leaf Media
http://www.redleafmedia.com
Really? My main Drupal site
Really? My main Drupal site (http://indychristiangeeks.com) is so doggedly slow on Dreamhost that it's nearly unusable. Your server is OK though?
http://www.alxconn.com
CB Consulting
no problems
I've always been on shared hosting at DreamHost. So, I don't have much to compare it to. I've had no complaints, and none of my clients have either. How heavily trafficked is your site? How many modules do you use? Do you compress the CSS and Javascript? Your design looks pretty simple. So I don't imagine that images are slowing things down.
-Mike Goodwin
Red Leaf Media
http://www.redleafmedia.com
Your site
Wow. Your site does render very, very slowly. I had this "slowness" problem with both GoDaddy and Siteground. No matter what I did with the php.ini files, the cache settings or the .htaccess file - no luck. Then I began working with HostGator and have had very good luck so far. I will say though that I am building a site that hasn't gone live yet. So, until it goes live I cannot verify anything.
Art is like life - be creative!
Art is like life - be creative!
I do my own hosting
I have many clients and can't really consolidate to a shared server. I have a WingSix VPS which I'll no recommend to anyone. Their support is good but the performance and stability of the VPS is very bad.
Yeah, this is why I am
Yeah, this is why I am recommending indy drupal users to rent a Dedicated server for use just with Drupal. Going with a reputable managed server company would definitely yield the best possible performance at a price point we could probably handle.
http://www.alxconn.com
CB Consulting
What do you think??
I have said it a few times in here and now I have this opportunity to say it again.
I have excellent relations with Midwest Internet www.mw.net
Some of you may remember meeting at their offices on Tacoma street in Broadripple on the Saturdays meetings in March through May.
I have an office there as well since that is where the offices of www.indyassociates resides as well.
I have long since been a fan of a COOP whereby we all go in together and just gran a box over there, place it on their mind-boggling high speed pipe and run with it.
We can use an existing box, place our own, or buy one. We can be as simple or as complicated as we need.
If this is the start of the conversation that I have always wanted to have, then YAY!
Pipe up....
What do you think?
What would your needs be?
would a WHM/CPANEL environment work for you?
Can we all agree on CentOS with PHP5?
If not then what are your needs?
It is VERY possible that most of us could band together, reduce costs, increase quality, and make our collective clients MUCH happier.
Let's talk about it...
- DV
Here is my "professional"
Here is my "professional" recommendation on a server configuration:
Rented dedicated server located in Chicago (oddly, a huge majority of Indy-bound from-indy traffic has to go to Chicago anyway, so performance would actually be faster to have it there).
Managed by hosting company; that way we get 24/7 support IN the datacenter, so when something breaks we can get it fixed FAST; plus, this would include server security management, etc. to protect us from Hackers and DDOS attacks which DO happen as I have found. Also, server management by the hosting company is typically comparable to or cheaper than a 3rd party.
Some hosting companies have different control panel offerings; CPANEL is definitely something that would have to be rented from a host, as purchasing a license is ridiculously expensive. If nobody is particularly tied to a certain control panel, I would probably recommend one of these:
http://www.cubepanel.com/
http://www.directadmin.com/
I've used DirectAdmin in production, and have found it to be much less resource intensive and much easier to use than cPanel. (cPanel is actually quite taxing on the host machine)
I've looked into pricing with a few companies, but until I know more precisely who is interested and what the hosting needs are, I can't size an appropriate server.
If there are interested persons that would like to have a round-table discussion in real-time, we can definitely use my Ventrillo server (Much nicer than Skype for Conference calls, lower system and network requirements and push-to-talk which cuts down on background noise).
http://www.alxconn.com
CB Consulting
Ventrillo server
More on the Ventrillo server would be nice. Maybe we can use it for broadcasting the meetings. The last meeting in August I broadcasted with Skype and it kept losing connection on the inhouse wireless network. It sounds like your Ventrillo server would be less needy.
As for cpanel using resources yep... I can not lie.
24/7 server admins are also cool. mw.net has business hours but can pop in quickly when things go wonky after hours.
I personally like walking into the server room, plugging in a screen and keyboard and burning disks or copying data off of disks when I need to.
I know that a few others are pretty sold on cpanel. Other than plesk and dreamhost I have seen no other panels. I will check out your links and see how they look.
- DV
Ventrillo only requires 3-6
Ventrillo only requires 3-6 kbps of data for high quality voice :-) CPU Utilization is also quite low. If you would like to test it out, here (http://www.alxconn.com/post/come-vent-with-me/) is the blog post with the current information as to how to connect. I'm usually chilling in there if I'm at my computer, so feel free to pop in at any time.
I actually got the Vent server to use with IndyMeetups.info, for eMeetups and for including remote persons into physical meetups, so beyond scheduling availability it's no big deal. Also, it's a 20-client license, so up to 20 computers can be connected at any one time.
I'll be on tonight and tomorrow morning if anyone wants to try it out :-)
http://www.alxconn.com
CB Consulting
My personal website is now
My personal website is now hosted on slicehost. Gives me root access to the whole box. Nothing better than that in my opinion.
Freelancer
Twitter sdudenhofer
seth@osjournal.net