HW requirements

[(Toni)]

Hi ,
I am trying to figure out what is needed so my xenforo forum work smootly.
Ater I buy licence, install xenforo on my pc and try learn as much as I could,
I will begin with migration/installation of xenforo to some hosting site and
make it available to public access.

I don't have any 'old' users and I will not invest in advertising my forum so
initially there would be no users and they will slowly come as they hear for the forum .
So , what can you suggest for the first few months after forum goes live ?
On one hosting site I see this as a cheapest configuration :

Virtual server
1/2 core
512MB RAM
10GB HDD
100GB bandwith

Do you think that would be enough ?
Would that configuration enable xenforo to open forums quickly or no matter that
almost no users will be there in the first month that configuration is to weak ?

 

[TPerry]

Honestly, you requirements could be better met with a quality shared hosting environment. Then, once you grow you can look at moving into the VPS/dedi range.

 

[(Toni)]

Thanks but is there some minimum HW config for Xenforo to run at all ?
I mean, my laptop where I will do instalation and test before I go to hosting is
4GB RAM, I3 CPU and SSD disk . So would that gave me reliable statistics
before I go to hosting and make forum available ?
For example if everything loads in reasonable amount of time while on my laptop ,
could I expect the same on the configuration above which is the cheapest available ?
Or , to have the same results , I would need to go to hosting with
some configuration that's stronger that the one above suggested ?

 

[Paul B]

There is no minimum hardware requirement.

As far as XF is concerned, the server requirements are:

• PHP: 5.2.11+
• MySQL: 5.0+
• PHP extensions: MySQLi, GD (with JPEG support), PCRE, SPL, SimpleXML, DOM, JSON, iconv, ctype
• PHP safe_mode off

 

[TPerry]

it will run on a 1CPU 512mb setup - as long as you don't load it down with add-ons. That's the issue, there is no "simple" answer. I personally wouldn't run it on less than 1GB RAM. If on a VPS, 10GB will be tight once you get the OS installed - but it can be done with monitoring of the system.

Are you talking a baseline install with no add-ons or what?

 

[Pierce]

Concurrent users, is also another factor...

If it is only one user you could probably run it on a toaster(I think they put Linux on a toaster right?)

But if your concurrent climbs then that's a factor.

80k page views a day is one concurrent.

Unless it's squeezed into 10 minutes...

 

[Robust]

I don't know how much you're paying there but Linode can offer you 2GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 24GB SSD storage, 2TB transfer for $10/mo. DigitalOcean can do 1GB, 1 vCPU, 20GB SSD and 1TB transfer for $5/mo.

If the specification in the OP is still cheaper than that, then it could work for a few registered users, a couple active at a time with decent loading speeds.

 

[(Toni)]

Well that's definitely cheaper and better HW configuration than those I was considering.
The thing is :
* do I need to take care for the db installation/backup and OS installation or is that provided by Linode and DigitalOcean
and included in those 10 and 5$ per month ?
* location of those servers is not in the country from where majority forum members will connect . Could this be an issue ?

 

[TPerry]

* do I need to take care for the db installation/backup and OS installation or is that provided by Linode and DigitalOcean
and included in those 10 and 5$ per month ?

NEVER EVER EVER depend on the service providers backups of either your DB or your file structure. You want to make sure it's valid - run your own backup process and store the data off-site.
Sorry about shouting that, but WAY to often I see issues because of the very fact that an admin "banked on" the providers back up and then ended up under a pile of Brontosaurus dung when they were bad.

* location of those servers is not in the country from where majority forum members will connect . Could this be an issue ?

Could be... normally you want your server presence as close to your targeted audience as possible.... but with CDN's now it's not as important.