Hello all,
I've been with my host for 3 years, and now they're saying I'm using too much CPU and RAM (over 6% daily). They're suggesting I move to a semi-dedicated or dedicated server, at $75 or $200 (respectively) per month. This seems to me like an awful lot for my site (plus they haven't been great on a couple of other issues too).
My site gets about 300 visits / 7,000 hits / uses 60 MB Bandwith per day, average.
There are nearly 10,000 nodes.
I think I need a new host.
What I need to know is:
1. what's a great host for a Drupal site?
2. I have several (4 sites), and I'd like to move all of them, so it would be nice if the hosting would offer a package that would cover all 4 (and I'll probably make several more - none of them have anywhere near as much traffic as the primary site, as all but the primary site are quite minimal and have almost no usage).
3. how much space do I need? Does it sound like I need dedicated or semi-dedicated, or is shared hosting enough?
4. how difficult / easy is it to switch? Are there any problems I should look for, and any webhost that will make it easier? Anywhere good to get instructions on how to switch hosts?
thanks very much!
Comments
jumpline/hostmonster
i have 6 drupal sites running on jumpline.com
they dont get a lot of hits so ive never been concerned with the bandwidth etc.
but drupal installs without any conflict. and ive never really had a problem with them. i only had to call to increase the php upload limit which i figured out how to do myself before they emailed me back.
so take a look at their specs and prices if you are interested. im a happy customer
ive contemplated switching to hostmonster.com just because they are really cheap. ive done a drupal site on there and the only problem ive run into is that they arent (or at least weren't) running the newest version of php. so image manipulation was tough.
as far as switching hosts its pretty simple from what ive experienced.
just disable clean urls.
export your database
name new database the same as old on new host
upload files to new host
-might have to change settings.php depending on your host passwords and such
http://drupal.org/node/343857
A server is most likely a Virtual Private Server. http://drupal.org/node/343857 compares a couple of VPSes in Australia. Read it for hints on what you should look at when selecting a VPS. I moved sites from US to Australia because response time is quicker for Australian customers and for the Web developers in Australia. With the fall of the AUD, local prices are better and more predictable. Leaving out the choice of country, everything else about the selection process should be relevant.
You want up to date software. CentOS 5.1 is the latest. A VPS with Cpanel lets you update as often as you like.
A Cpanel controlled VPS lets you set up as many accounts as you like and each account can be a separate site.
The DNS changes take the longest time, up to a couple of days. Set the DNS time-to-live to 5 minutes so that you can switch quickly. Pretty much everything else is standard. The ISP will give you an IP address to access the new site. You FTP copy all the static files across. You switch the old site offline then copy the database and any new files across. You change the DNS to the new site then switch the new site online. Most people will see the new site in 5 minutes. You then change the DNS time-to-live back to 24 hours.
petermoulding.com/web_architect
petermoulding.com/web_architect
60mb is pretty low.
300 hits a day shouldn't require a VPS or dedicated server, unless your site is really poorly optimized. If you've already covered the basics, you might want to run the Devel module and check your page generation times and query times.
As far as choosing a new host, I recommend AN Hosting. I host several sites there, and I don't have any problem serving thousands of visitors a day. I've got a review up here.
--
John Forsythe
Drupal Modules - Find the module you need for your project!
--
John Forsythe
Need Drupal hosting? You should read my review.
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volume
Thanks for your response - it's 300 visits a day, but it's about 7000 hits a day.
Hi John, I see a lot of
Hi John, I see a lot of reviews that absolutely can AN Hosting. Seems like yours and theirs are not in the same universe. (example: http://www.techtalk.net/2007/bad-wordpress-host-recommendation/ ). Any thoughts to help us make sense of it all?
Ron.
I can only speak from my own experience.
There are bad reviews for every popular host, just search Google for "brandname sucks" and you'll find them. I can only offer advice based on my own experience with them (it's the same advice I give to friends and family). It's up to you who you trust.
--
John Forsythe
Drupal Modules - Find the module you need for your project!
--
John Forsythe
Need Drupal hosting? You should read my review.
Drupal Modules - Search, rate, explore. Over 2200 module reviews!
Normally, Hostmonster or
Normally, Hostmonster or bluehost should work for you considering your traffic. But I don't know why you use over 6% CPU and RAM, that's not a small number in shared web hosting (probably your hosting server is a little bit poor).
So, I would like recommend you to try VPS hosting for your site. Usually, it can be get with around $30 to $50 per month. I don't think space will be your problem, and switch to another web host should be a simple task.
In VPS hosting, you can try midphase. That's what I use now, it's pretty good.
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Shared hosting can sometimes
Shared hosting can sometimes be an issue, especially if you get onto a server that has a lot of heavy users, that's one of the downfalls of a single-shared server provider. The same thing plagues VPS and Dedicated, you are restricted to the physical limits of the machine. I would concentrate on finding a provider than can scale with your growth and traffic demands, without affecting speed to your site.
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best hosting
I think http://www.lethost.co.cc is best for you.
They provide free hosting as well as paid hosting. I am very happy with their service and their uptime is 99.99%
Moreover if you will choose for free hosting you will get 300 MB space and 10 GB monthly bandwidth.
hostgator
I hosted in lunarpages.com before and they do the same thing with yours. They suggested to move to a dedicated or VPS server but I figured it out that my traffic is not that heavy to move to a more powerful server. So I ask hostgator first if they can host my website with 150,000 page views a month. So, they said yes. And now I am consuming only .3 - .7 percent of their server load.
Hostgator I think is using a more powerful CPU's because when I logon to my account there's an information that they have 8 cpu's on their server that I am hosting.
So, I will highly recommend http://www.hostgator.com
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