VPS and wow!

[trilogy33]

We've just recently moved up to a VPS from shared and oh my God what a difference!
Speed. Wow I've missed you.
Posting lag has all but vanished.
Seem to be better broadcasted now that we've moved away from the dross IP that we had.
Google search results have taken on a new shine, seemingly more targetted...seems we're being pushed further afield.

Bit vague with my descriptions here, sorry, but it's only been a few days and there's a marked improvement all round.



Questions welcome, although didn't want to name drop the host in the first post, unless I'm asked of course. And, no, I won't plonk a referral in. I do have some tact.

 

[Steven Moore]

Gratz, I may have to find a new host myself as mine is on a VPS and it has gone down in response time. Who are you with if you don't mind me asking?

 

[trilogy33]

I stuck with Site5 after their initial shaky start (Floris knows about this bad experience but that's all behind me now) and they've certainly pulled their act together.

We're based in the UK with, initially a UK target audience, so naturally we've a London 'box'.

What they call a "VPS Normal", which is cheaper than the Cloud variant, but I can see us wanting Cloud redundancy going forward.
Again, not dropping any links in, but check out VPS Normal Step 2 on their site. Of course depending on your requirements, you may have to notch it up a tad to cover memory/hd space/bandwith etc.

 

[Steven Moore]

Thanks, checked them out. Very descent pricing, I may end up ordering a VPS and paying a full year up.

 

[Floris]

http://mrfloris.com/blogs/why-shared-hosting-is-history-upgrade-to-vps/

 

[trilogy33]

http://mrfloris.com/blogs/why-shared-hosting-is-history-upgrade-to-vps/

I liked this post without even reading it first, which is very rare for me.
Why? Because it makes so much sense. The extra speed and just plain stability of a scalable solution, such as a VPS is a no-brainer and wins hands down. It grows as you grow - actually, it grows as you pay them more!
Why? Again...? Did I stay on shared and suffered the drag and "bad IP" I'll never know.
A repeated white page with some unidentifiable "error" such as the dreaded 500 Internal Server Error, will not help you. Your customers will see you are down and walk and possibly just keep walking.

A very quick reverse IP lookup will give you a good idea of those whom you are stacked with (read that as "stuck with").
Seems to me and forgive me but this is a pure guess, that if a bad IP is dragging your search/ranking performance into the gutter; then this is the best time to start looking to move.

However, on the flip-side, a VPS isn't for everybody...some people are lucky that their current shared package is, how can I say this..."stable". Stable means, not thrown onto an "idiot box" with in excess of 1,200 sites on it.
Here's the kicker: if you have a shared package that you're happy with, isn't a drag, isn't being pummelled into the ground when just 50 concurrent users are on board then great. The shared package will or should suit you for the "shared resources" - so that's, again, memory/space and bandwidth.

On balance, bandwidth and drive space are as cheap as chips nowadays, it's the physical RAM needed to support your users, your guests, their search queries and general page loading.
Forums, being natively hard on RAM, I'm more than certain that you should always first talk to your intended host and say that you're a forum, not a few static pages, not a blog, not a pet site with a run-a-dah-mill guestbook.

Looking back with much fondness and excuse the frivolity here but, I once tried to Tweet something from the site, on shared...The server fell over and died. It was then when I found out that the box I was on was made of cardboard.
I rest my case.

 

[principia]

Can you tell some details? users at one time, vps package (Ram, etc.)
Im running on shared server with 50users at the same time, max at 100 and have no trouble since the start of my XF forum. This costs me 3 Euros / month.
Im wondering about the bad stories of shared hosting, because i have never problems with mine (3 different in the last years - they are from germany)

 

[trilogy33]

Can you tell some details? users at one time, vps package (Ram, etc.)
Im running on shared server with 50users at the same time, max at 100 and have no trouble since the start of my XF forum. This costs me 3 Euros / month.
Im wondering about the bad stories of shared hosting, because i have never problems with mine (3 different in the last years - they are from germany)

Just to say, if you're happy with your current host and they provide a VPS package, then I'd be inclined to stay with them. Price isn't everything; if their support is top notch this goes a long, long way. Plus you also wouldn't have the extra downtime associated with moving host as well as migrating to a better package.
Sticking with your host, you stand a better chance of getting an accurate level of what you'll need. Talk to them and explain that you're looking to expand and get a "VPS recommendation". They can check your current usage stats, they'll know what they can handle and where to put you based on their current loads and the server location you wish to choose.

My migration, from one server to another, took around 2 hours for the new server's IP to take hold.
Plus whatever time it takes the host to backup your files, database and email forwarders etc. A 1GB* file structure example (with attachments) + a 5MB database*, shouldn't be more than an hour tops. If they're any good, they'll halve that time to around 30 mins. In just 3 hours, I was all set to rock and roll given *those figures which are deadly accurate.

1. Price is going to vary for whatever host you choose.
2. 50 concurrent users to 100 and upwards (remember whenever you share articles and posts, Twitter & Facebook etc.) this will jump your visitors total from subtle to quite dramatic depending on where, when and what you share.
A rough estimate: 1GB - 1.5GB RAM "should be" enough. But I'd ask your host, if they over-quote you, then they're doing their job correctly.
I say "should be" enough, but it all depends on your environment, your setup, your modifications.

Going forward with regards to bandwidth per month and total storage space, I'd take a look at what you're using now and times it by a factor of 10 to be on the safe side.
Hosts should be, at least nowadays be looking to match RAM to Bandwidth to Space. How configurable this is, is again down to the individual host.
Any modern LAMP stack should handle XF well, but if you stay with your current host, they'll already know what's required. This again is one job you don't need to go through like "what MySQL do you...?" and "is cPanel?" and "PHP version?" and so on and so forth...

Personally, I wouldn't wait for things to go awry before making an "escape plan". I'd have this done and prepared ready. You may not want to move yet, especially if you've no problems with your host and their shared plan.
The last thing you'd want, is to be in a panic when (notice I said "when" not "if") things start to crawl, user become bored, new users find other sites, losing you potential revenue.