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What does Drupal need to run without "lag" and long loading times?
Could someone make an overview of server resources required by Drupal or does such an overview allready exist (not server requirements like PHP, Apache, MySQL, diskspace...)?
When looking for a shared hosting provider for Drupal-websites, it is important to find the server resource limitations of each provider.
Therefore I want to find out what server resource limitations may be relevant, and which values are recommended for Drupal.
Many of the cheapest shared hosting providers may run smooth with static websites. Also you always have the risk of ending on a server crammed with accounts, unkind support representatives...
The resource usage highly depends on the amount of visitors at any given time, size of database, amount of nodes, amount of modules and of course the types of modules installed.
Top 3 factors...
Database latency is the number one performance killer for Drupal sites. Some hosts have notoriously overloaded database servers. Since you're typically looking at hundreds of queries per page, a few extra ms delay can add up to 10+ second page loads.
Second to that is the PHP memory limit. The default on most hosts is 16mb, which is enough for a basic Drupal site, but if you're going to start installing dozens of modules, you need a host that lets you increase the memory limit (either via php.ini or the .htaccess method).
Finally, watch out for CPU usage limitations. Most hosts cap this at 5%-10%. Some hosts are really brutal about enforcing this. Others are more lenient.
All of these things are a bit difficult to verify without signing up and testing it yourself, and sometimes depend on the server and datacenter you end up with.
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John Forsythe
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