Advice with hosting, please

[Shamil.]

I wasn't really trying to comment on your servers or anything. Just the setup you gave (eg 1.5GM RAM, cPanel, 50GB Disk Space, 200GB). This setup on quality hardware/software WILL run more in cost.

AFAIK Q9550 IS a desktop based cpu. Whereas the x3360 would be the server counterpart. Companies do use them as servers, but they are of lower end/budget server providers.

Nothing wrong with them...

I should clear the ambiguity, and should have re-read what I had written.

The budget VPS servers are running the Q9550, the optimised VPS nodes are running Dual Xeon E5620 with 24GB DDR3, RAID-10 15K SAS again. They were provisioned in July of last year.

[KevinL]

I should clear the ambiguity, and should have re-read what I had written.

The budget VPS servers are running the Q9550, the optimised VPS nodes are running Dual Xeon E5620 with 24GB DDR3, RAID-10 15K SAS again. They were provisioned in July of last year.

Cool at least you upgraded them from before Those Xeon's probably run real nice compared to your older hardware from last month

I shouldn't really be placing them here, but for a XenForo optimised VPS server, here's the specs.:

1.5 GB RAM
CentOS x64 (5.5) Operating System
80GB Disk Space
2000GB Bandwidth/month
LiteSpeed Web Server
2IP Addresses
Q9400/4-core CPU

For an additional $15 per month, I offer cPanel (cPanel sell it to me for $15).

[Shamil.]

Cool at least you upgraded them from before Those Xeon's probably run real nice compared to your older hardware from last month

They're much smoother. All containers on the server have reported a performance increase, and capacity increase. They were placed in live production this year. Unfortunately, some people just don't want to move from the older Q9550 node - even after offering a 5 minute downtime transfer time. :/

The XenForo VPS are on a different node to vBulletin VPS, and those run the Q9550. Only the main company website runs the Q9400. Earlier this week, we became a cPanel NOC Partner, so cPanel costs less.

[Bo Peep]

I am sorry to be so ignorant, but what specs would I need to run my forum plus the attached main British Genealogy site so it would work properly and without forcing me into bankruptcy?

[Shamil.]

I am sorry to be so ignorant, but what specs would I need to run my forum plus the attached main British Genealogy site so it would work properly and without forcing me into bankruptcy?

Before you do anything, can you login to your server via SSH, and run these command

free -m
uptime
top

? This would help.

[Bo Peep]

I do not have access, but I will contact Global Gold.

[Shamil.]

I do not have access, but I will contact Global Gold.

Okie.

Hang on... no admin/root access to VPS?

[Bo Peep]

I never needed access as Global Gold transferred the site from the previous server and set everything up. They probably thought that as I have no idea what I am doing, it was safer They were probably right, too.

I am not like you guys - I am just a humble genealogist. I bought the forum after it had been online for a couple of years, had it upgraded by vBulletin and then moved to a new server by Global Gold. It worked well, membership grew, the forum members loved it and I was happy. I know nothing about the software or server requirements which is why I am asking for your help.

I apologise if this all seems very dumb to you, but that is the way it is.

[Shamil.]

So you went with the upgrade?

[Bo Peep]

The vBulletin software was upgraded to 4.0.7. by the vBulletin tech staff. I paid a designer to give the forum a new look and now I need to make a decision about a server.

[Shamil.]

The vBulletin software was upgraded to 4.0.7. by the vBulletin tech staff. I paid a designer to give the forum a new look and now I need to make a decision about a server.

Unfortunately, without more information I simply cannot advise you on either way. What I can say though, is that the site is loading quickly at its current configuration, whatever that may be, as per above. If you're not comfortable with the price, you can look at other options, or stay with Global Gold.

[Bo Peep]

When I get the usage information from Global Gold, I will post it here - if that is alright. In the interim, may I thank all of you for your input and advice.

[Bo Peep]

I have ben sent this information from Global Gold:-

[[email protected] ~]# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2048 641 1406 0 0 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 641 1406
Swap: 0 0 0

[[email protected] ~]# uptime
10:50:22 up 326 days, 3:34, 1 user, load average: 0.59, 0.42, 0.41

[Bo Peep]

More stats from Global Gold.

Month Unique visitors Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
Jan 2011 80466 139682 1105413 6973859 62.21 GB
Feb 2011 77516 128664 1112802 6171305 64.46 GB
Mar 2011 43729 68686 532931 3302601 31.02 GB

[KevinL]

Hello

It looks like you are just using large quantities of bandwidth. I would suggest staying with them but having them somehow adjust your bandwidth up.

You might also want to consider using a CDN. It might cut down on your bandwidth usage a bit.