Do you happen to have experience with running Drupal on dedicated server of one of these hosting companies?

The Planet/ServerMatrix
Layeredtech
Liquidweb
transatlanticglobal/GNAX

What can you tell me about them. service, availability, performance etc...

Also, what kind of server maintanance should I expect when moving to self managed server (currently on Dreamhost shared).

Thanks,
-Nir

Comments

Arto’s picture

I've worked with LayeredTech for a couple of years and would definitely highly recommend them. If you have a couple of servers with them, you also get reseller discounts and special deals, which can allow you in on some truly excellent pricing.

LayeredTech leases their servers "unmanaged", but be aware that this actually includes a support level that many other hosting companies would sell as "managed". That is, while the basic deal is that they take care of the hardware (monitoring it and replacing anything that breaks), and you take care of the software, in my experience they WILL help you out with other issues as well, without cost, but those tickets are just given lower priority than paid work. (If you pay their hourly rate to have someone e.g. troubleshoot your kernel configuration, then of course you'll be given immediate assistance with that.)

Another company I have positive experiences with is Rackspace. They're a little expensive, though, at least compared to LayeredTech.

GNAX I've heard good things about, especially their backup service, but have little personal experience with them.

The best thing to do, as always, is to read the WebHostingTalk forums and see what people write about these companies, what the current problems are, etc.

--
Arto Bendiken -- currently working on static page caching for Drupal 4.7.

nbd’s picture

Arto, Thanks for the info.

Another question : I don't have Linux administration experience at all. I wonder how bad it will be to handle unmanaged server myself. Should I expect problems? I'm not going to change things often. Just want it to give optimal performance to an existing drupal site.

Arto’s picture

While managing a dedicated server is not rocket science, and you can find lots of tutorials about it, you should be aware of the time investment you'll have to make. Unless you're prepared to do that (and of course, it'll be very useful knowledge and maybe even fun, too), you could consider getting a control panel, such as CPanel, installed and setup (by the hosting company) to manage your server, but that will naturally add up in your monthly costs (e.g. LT charges $20/month for CPanel, if I recall correctly).

However, it sounds like your problem is really just about outgrowing the resources provided by shared hosting, and a dedicated server may thus be an overkill solution. You may want to consider:

  • Is it possible to optimize your site's performance, and stay with DreamHost? (On a higher plan, if necessary.) I host my own blog at DreamHost, and I like their offerings. So, for instance, is it possible to wait a bit to implement upcoming, much improved caching facilities currently available in Drupal's CVS version (the upcoming 4.8), or alternatively, investigate something like static page caching (link in my signature).
  • If the above isn't possible, then what you really need is something like shared hosting, but with a guaranteed resource allocation so that you can get consistent, adequate performance for your site. That means you don't necessarily want to make the jump all the way to a dedicated, unmanaged server. There is an intermediate solution called VPS hosting (for Virtual Private Server), that may fit your needs a lot better. Have a look at e.g. tektonic.net and linode.com, which are both well-recognized players in that field.

To me, it sounds like you might want to a) look into performance optimization, and/or b) upgrade from shared hosting to a VPS solution... but of course you may have factors involved that I don't know about, like the need for more bandwidth as well?

--
Arto Bendiken -- currently working on static page caching for Drupal 4.7.

nbd’s picture

I'm 100% positive that my site has passed the shared server stage. It should handle bursts of 10,000 users in one hour. That's a must so Dreamhost is not an option. It's VPS vs. dedicated managed vs. Dedicated Self Managed.

I looked at the following providers that I found in drupal.org and webhostingtalk.com

My budget is $100 /month

Here is a quick preview of the options

The Planet/ServerMatrix – starts $119 for Celeron
Liquidweb – starts $144 for VPS
transatlanticglobal/GNAX
DWHS - $100 2G RAM 20G HD 225G BW Vhost No root access, low BW
Lunarpages Dedicated $99 512M 80G 1000G - Intel Celeron!
Hosting.com Virtual private server $79 Pentium 4 256, 7, 1000G
Layered technology L1-INTEL-P4-2.8-A 100% dedicated $89 +$19 setup 80GB 1024MB RAM 1000GB BW

As you can see the best deal by far in terms of performance is Layered Technology. But it's totaly self managed.

Should I compromize on Celeron processor or low RAM or no root access? The best option for the long run is obviously Layered Tech. I don't mind spending a day or two learning how to setup if the server will perform 400% better eventually.

Am I wrong here ?

Arto’s picture

OK, I'd go with LT, but do reserve adequate time for configuring the server; it may very well take more than a couple of days to get everything right.

If you're unfamiliar with the multiple different Linux distributions they offer, Debian is a sure choice. One useful resource for getting started as a Debian sysadmin is the "cookbook" style site at debian-administration.org. Howtoforge.com (which runs Drupal, btw) is another good one.

Software-wise, I recommend Lighttpd as the web server (Lighttpd scales a lot better than Apache; but if the configuration looks more difficult for your sites, just go with Apache), and if you're setting up non-web services, very good choices are Exim (with SpamAssassin) as the SMTP server, Dovecot for IMAP/POP3 and PowerDNS for DNS.

The most important thing when running your own dedicated server is to secure it. The two starting points: run a firewall, and be sure to change your SSH port to a non-standard one (22 is standard; use something like 4567 or anything you want but the standard one). Look at the previously mentioned sysadmin sites for other tips on securing the SSH configuration and server in general. Reserve quite a bit of time for security and sign up to Debian's security announcement mailing list, as just running Linux is no guarantee for not getting hacked (something I know from own experience).

Best of luck, it's sure to be an interesting learning experience!

--
Arto Bendiken -- currently working on static page caching for Drupal 4.7.

nbd’s picture

Thanks for the excellent tips.

capmex’s picture

The following link might also be of interest:

http://buytaert.net/drupal-webserver-configurations-compared

mwu’s picture

can you discuss how you were hacked?

davidbyrnell’s picture

Check out www.micfo.com I have been turning people onto them for a few years the service is incredible 24/7 and they offer the works for cheap cheap cheap. Setting up Drupal with them has been a snap ;-P Seriously a great Host.

edrupalec’s picture

thank you for this useful thread. I've heard good things about rackspace. I was wondering if anyone has experience with them.

Drupal ecommerce, at http://www.drupalecommerce.com
http://www.drupalecommerce.com/troubleshooting
http://www.drupalecommerce.com/modulesexplained
http://www.drupalecommerce.com/47vs46
http://www.drupalecommerce.com/howto

DavidMoreton’s picture

I use Rackspace and moved there for my first dedicated server. They are not cheap but their support is excellent - they advertise it as fanatical support and it is amazing. They have helped me learn a hell of a lot about running a server and offer to talk you through setting up various services such as SMTP for the first time (although they might not necesarily support the mailserver you decide to use).
You get a webmin CP to help you configure a lot of stuff through web forms if you are a bit daunted by diving straight into the command line for everything. I've found that as I've learnt more and gained confidence, I've migrated from this to the command line for some things but others are quicker and easier through the web interface. They do have the advantage that their boxes are secure on setup and did I say that their support is amazing.