Web Hosting

Hey all,

So I picked up a dedicated server from Limestone Networks, as they have a great winter combo offer going on at the moment. My machine has the following specs:

Intel Core2Quad Q9300
8 GB RAM
750 GB SATA HDD
CentOS 5.2 x64
10mbps Unmetered Pipe
cPanel/WHM

I’ve installed cPanel/WHM on this server, and have also configured CSF/LFD and the like. Basically I’m using this box for personal sites. I happen to run a network of 89 proxy sites, and I’ve already transferred the sites over to my server.

I transfer anywhere from 10 - 20 GB a day. I’m basically looking to optimize my Apache configuration. On average there are about 70 users on my sites (total) at any given time.

I’ve noticed that my Apache /server-status page seems to be filling up quite a bit with “W” scoreboard keys. (Sending Reply)

I’ve done some thorough reading/research on different configurations, and have put together the above piece by piece. Any suggestions are welcome. Essentially, I’m looking to process requests as fast as possible, to deliver the best end-user experience.

Answer:

Login to your server as root using ssh.

All the important configuration options are stored by Apache in a config file called httpd.conf that is located at /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf We will start by opening this file in your favorite text editor. For exemple:

nano /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

* MaxClients - Total number of concurrent connections.
Locate it in the configuration file. This should be set to a reasonable value. I suggest using this formula to determine the right value for your server.

MaxClients = 150 x RAM (GB)

So for example if you have 2 GB or RAM set this value to 300.
There is no reason for you to set it any higher unless you have a specific problem with this value. A high value can lead to a complete server hang in case of a DOS attack. A value too low can create timeout problems for your clients if the limit is reached.
* MinSpareServers and MaxSpareServers - MaxSpareServers and MinSpareServers control how many spare (unused) child-processes Apache will keep alive while waiting for more requests to put them to use. Each child-process consumes resources, so having MaxSpareServers set too high can cause resource problems. On the other hand, if the number of unused servers drops below MinSpareServers, Apache will fork (an expensive operation) new child-processes until MinSpareServers is satisfied.

Leave those values to:

MinSpareServers 5
MaxSpareServers 10

If you have more them 2 GB of RAM and you run a resource intensive website consider increasing MaxSpareServers.
* MaxRequestsPerChild - Controls the number of request the a child serves before the child is killed. This should not be set too low as it will put an unnecessary load on the apache server to recreate the child. I suggest setting it to:

MaxRequestsPerChild 1000

* KeepAlive and MaxKeepAliveRequests - KeepAlive provides long-lived HTTP sessions which allow multiple requests to be sent over the same TCP connection. In some cases this has been shown to result in an almost 50% speedup in latency times for HTML documents with many images, but having keepalive on is also a resource intensive setting.
Here comes the big question: To KeepAlive or not to KeepAlive?Well the opinions are mixed here, some say to KeepAlive some say not to.
If you want to hear my option I would say NOT to KeepAlive if you are running a shared hosting business or if you want to get the most out of your hardware. You should KeepAlive only if the loading time of your pages is the most important factor in your business and you have the money to invest in a more powerful hardware. If you decide to KeepAlive I suggest you set MaxKeepAliveRequest low to something like 2 seconds.

* StartServers - Sets the number of child server processes created on startup. This setting depends greatly on the type of webserver you run. If you run low traffic websites on that server set it low to something like 5. If you have resource intensive websites on that server you should set it close to MaxClients.
* Timeout - The amount of time Apache will wait for three things: the total amount of time it takes to receive a GET request, The amount of time between receipt of TCP packets on a POST or PUT request, the amount of time between ACKs on transmissions of TCP packets in responses.
The default value is 300. You should set time to something a bit lower. A setting of 150 is probably ok. This will also help in case of small DOS attacks like to ones targeting some phpBB forums. Do NOT set it any lower then 90 as your users will start having timeout problems.

After you have done all the necessary changes you can go ahead and restart Apache.

service httpd restart

It should restart without any problems. If it doesn’t please double check the changes that you done.

Important Notice ! After upgrading to cPanel 11 and recompiling Apache there is an extra step that you have to do so that the changes that you done to httpd.conf aren’t lost.
Starting with cPanel 11.x all the apache setting are also stored in a database and the configuration files are recreated each time an account is added or a recompile is done.
To also save the changes in the database you will have to run:

/usr/local/cpanel/bin/apache_conf_distiller –update

You can check to see if the changes were accepted and will not be discarded at the next apache recompile by running

/usr/local/cpanel/bin/build_apache_conf

Before the warning comes, I know that the gsp market is saturated with sub-par companies run by ignorant owners (avoided using the word kids, oops i just did) that have a few hundred dollars to burn and the high hopes of getting rich quick. I also understand that I need to take any answers I get on these forums or anywhere on the Internet with a grain of salt.

On to the actual post…

While I haven’t figured out whether I want to start out with co-location or dedicated, I think that will be a later decision based on projected profits and start-up investment.

Current Hardware Estimates: (taken from softlayer’s website)
Dual Processor Quad Core Xeon 5430 - 2.66GHz (Harpertown)
8 GB FB-DIMM Registered 533/667
73GB SA-SCSI 15K RPM (or 32/64GB Intel SLC SSD, pending research)
2000 GB Bandwidth

Ideal Setup: (information gathered from other GSP sites)
running cs 1.6 1000 or 2000 fps private servers - 1 12man server per core
running cs 1.6 500 fps private server - 2 12 man server per core (does server fps eat resources exponentially or linear?)

What I would like to know, assuming the first setup of 8 cs 1.6 servers per box, would 2000GB bandwidth be enough or do I need to upgrade the bandwidth to be safe? (I expect the servers to be full/utilized less than 30% of the time or approx 50 hours of gaming per week)
note: no custom map downloads or sounds allowed

From reading I have come across multiple posts that say RAM is the bottleneck and some posts that say gaming servers are CPU intensive. The only thing that most people seem to agree on is that hard drive speed is critical (for loading I assume).

Can anyone shed some light on the subject of RAM vs CPU?

Answer:

Well then welcome to the wonderful world of game servers!

I agree that you should wait to make a decision about co-location or dedicated server rentals.

The machine outlined will be a very strong baseline for you to start your business from and to grow off of. I would avoid the SSDs right now because of their low storage and high price. If you plan to make them part of the success of your business model and plan to leverage that with your customers then by all means give them a shot. AFAIK very few GSPs are utilizing SSDs.

My biggest concern right now is that you have the know how in regards to running the game servers. The configuration of these services can at times require very intimate knowledge of the services and how the game actually play from the ‘inside’.

As for bandwidth the 2TB allotted will be enough for your originally outlined plans. CS1.6 is not a bandwidth monster compared to some other games. Purchasing additional bandwidth is expensive and you will most likely be better off by expanding the number of machines you operate.

I would say in a linear function.

On the subject of RAM vs CPU, go for the latter if hosting anything 500FPS or greater. The memory these servers use up will be relatively unaffected by the fact that you are running at 500FPS or higher, but the CPUs will be the hardest hit. The higher the tickrate and FPS you wish to operate each game server at the higher the CPU load will be. The CPUs you have selected are serious workhorses and a good starting point. The amount of memory you have selected will also be more than enough for what you’ve outlined.

Looking to move from VPS to dedicated and wondering on significance of upgrading HD speed vs CPU speed for our specific application…..

Our install is a one trick pony, a WordPress MU install that will hopefully be growing significantly over the next year and an ever increasing DB. Right now we are more than fine on our VPS resource wise, the issue is more with down time caused by recurring issues with our node (which may or may not be caused by other users) and the restart time that occurs when the machine has to restart, since it is also re-starting services for others…. we hit the wall today after 35 minutes of downtime earlier and an hour and a half later in the day…. which are 2 of the 4 occurrences we’ve had in the last 5 days…. so for our sanity and more importantly, our reputation we are moving to a dedicated.

The wordpress themes and plugins that the MU install uses are not always as optimized as we would like and can cause slow page load times, but that is part of the deal when using WP, which is fine… for this reason I want to do whatever I can within reason to insure our hardware will be suited as well as possible for a MU install to help compensate for any slowness due to code….. the goal is to provide the best harware environment for our specific use, a WordPress MU install, especially for the next 6 to 12 months when we expect our database to grow dramatically…..

Our budget is $250 and it looks like getting 2k of ram is a non-issue at this price range…. so when it comes to CPU and Hard Drive speed, I’m wondering where we should focus. I’m guessing that since we are not real resource intensive at this point we should focus on HD speed as opposed to Processor speed….. but maybe I’m wrong…? Again, I’m also concerned about 6 months down the road when our DB has grown significantly and we are a lot more resource intensive……

One package we’re looking at:

» Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
» 4GB ECC DDR2 RAM
» Primary Disk: Hardware RAID-1: 2×250GB 7.2k RPM SATAII 16MB Cache or upgrade to 2×1000GB with 32MB cache

Does upgrading to SATA 10K or even to SCSI 15K make any sense for attempting to speed up page load times? Is a core2quad pointless / overkill?

Answer:

If you are using some caching mechanisms on your wordpress such as wp-cache, or hypercache you won’t really need fast drives. A good optimization of Apache and MySQL will also work wonders. I recommend lighttpd + PHP5 (fast-cgi) + eaccelerator + MySQL. Your budget is going to take a bit of a hit, since it isn’t particularly large. RAID-5 may be a bit more difficult to rebuild in case of drive failure, as opposed to RAID-1. If you want to get the best of both worlds, you would want to go with RAID-10 which will give you redundancy and an added performance, but again, a proper raid controller is going to cost, aside from the 4 drives you will require to set it up.

Question:

Hi people

i need alittle help here i want to get a dedicated server and set up small VPSes on it so i can sell them to people this is the dedicated server im looking at

Processor AMDAthlon LE 1660
Hard disk 250 GB IDE
RAM 2 GB DDR 1/2

i need help on how to set it up when i get the server how ever when signing up for the server i get a list of these operating systems some whihc are for like virtualisaion

Hosting: Web / Emails / VPN / VoIP
Release 2, Release 1, Linux Plesk 9, Linux Plesk 8.4, Linux Plesk 8.0, cPanel, Extranet Group Work, Windows Plesk 8.1

Experts: raw distro
Debian 4.0 old-stable, Debian 5.0 Stable, Ubuntu Server 8.04, Ubuntu Server 8.10, Open Suse 11, Fedora 9, CentOS, Gentoo 2007, Gentoo 2008, Slackware 12.1, FreeBSD 6.2, FreeBSD 7.1, Windows 2003 Pro, Windows 2003 Basic

Virtualization
VMWare, Xen, Proxmox, Virtuozzo4

Remote desktop
Ubuntu Desktop 8.04

So can someone please help me and tell me what operating to use

Answer:

Indeed. If you are to go into the VPS Business, you will have to understand the first basics of VPS Supplying, starting with the Server Specifications. I’d recommend MINIMUM:

Dual-Core
4 GB RAM
500 GB HDD
RAID Configuration (Recommended RAID 10)

Most providers these days for their servers use a Quad-Core, simply because it’s reliable.

Get RAID Configuration, don’t forget.

Now, your options are Virtouzzo or HyperVM to use imo. As I have experienced both, and like them both. Virtouzzo is a better user-friendly interface and easier to work with, but it costly. On the other hand, HyperVM is not so user-friendly (imo), but is free.

You choose.

Next comes the choices of which control panel you want to offer. DirectAdmin, cPanel, Plesk are three control panels which are widely popular and used most often. DA being the cheapest amongst all 3 of them, and cPanel/Plesk are both costly, but not as much. There are different types of Plesk licenses as well, such as 30 domains, 100 domains or unlimited. cPanel comes with Unlimited I believe.

You Choose.

Next will be if you want to offer Managed service, Semi-Managed or Un-Managed service to your clients. If you can gather up a team of experts to join with you to run your new company, then that’s great, you can offer Managed Service, just like what Sarora Hosting is doing now, if not, then I suggest you go with Un-Managed service, where you just install the basics, and the client has to do the rest.

You Choose.

Question:

Currently my company offers low cost hosting $5 a month for 1gb space and 10gb transfer with premium features, we do offsite backups daily, offer phone support and work with the customers to make our hosting fit their needs, my question is how do I create premium image, we offer premium service and support I would rather charge more money and have less clients. What steps can I take to move toward offering only premium hosting solutions. Do you think many other companies do daily backups for their $5 a month hosting clients, if so maybe i don’t need to change anything.

Answer:

There is a difference between small and successful, and large and popular.

My personal recommendation is you need to get your image out there, once done you will be able to get those individual clients that are willing to pay the extra buck for the “premium” service. If your just a new company with a brand new name, you can say premium as much as you want, but no one will bite unless you have proof.

Lastly, “premium” clients, are typically local. If you want someone to pay triple the amount the can pay at every other Joe Blows web host, why would they? To answer your question about hosts doing daily backups for $5.00/monthly clients, majority of hosts do that with all clients automatically.
It saves time, hassle, and plain out arguments in the future.

You need clients that let the world know you’re a “premium” host. It doesn’t matter what you provide if you don’t have clients willing to attest to that claim.

In terms of marketing 101 - you charge more, you become a more “premium brand”. If the average market price for shared hosting is $5/mo, and you charge $50/mo, you become a premium brand! Of course, you need to project/brand yourself as premium too.

But the biggest problem with creating a premium brand webhosting company is getting that premium traffic to come to your website. That requires a high-degree of networking. Internet sales alone aren’t going to cut. I’ve seen so many big-named companies (backed by big-named promoters) cut down pricing to the value market because they weren’t getting enough premium clients.

It’s a tough nut to crack, but you develop an image, price your services accordingly for this premium service, and then follow through 110% of the time. The goal is to make potential clients think it is a privilege to be hosted with you, which takes good marketing, great service, and a special talent for putting it all together and keeping it that way.

A quick path to becoming a premium brand is to partner with a local online marketing team and Web design firm to enable your team to deepen the relationship with your customers. Many of your customers probably have a Web presence that was either designed by the business owner themselves or by a technical Web designer, however they are not getting the traffic or traffic quality they need to feel/experience success with the Web.

Other things you can do - charge more, focus on a few verticals and rise above the low-end price focused messaging. Adding online marketing and Web design services to your offerings will start to put you on a path to a “premium brand”.

Creating a premium brand is all about ‘perception’.

Sometimes, people spending $20-$50 a month on shared hosting are actually less demanding than those paying $5. Sometimes, it makes people happier to spending more on their hosting, rather than less. When people don’t spend much on something, they usually look for faults. When people spend a lot on something, they tend to look at the positives, to positively affirm the choice they’ve made in their head.