Need hosting recommendation/assistance - Australia/NZ

[NZWarriors]

Hi Guys and Gals,
I run a xenforo forum using the following stats:
~500k posts
~35k threads
~2k members
~10k pageviews daily
~500 concurrent visitors to the site during busy periods - usually once a week from march-october
~ We have over 100 addons installed, but currently utilising upto 60 odd at any given time.

My current host advises me that we are on a 'special' shared hosting package (that we get via sponsorship/their link on our footers in exchange). By shared i mean that there are only a couple of other businesses on the same server im assuming. They also told me its 4CPU, 16GB Ram, 200GB SSD.

Personally the host has been fairly good with us. No major issues and no downtime. However as the site is growing we are utilising more and more resources. I dont like opening up resource usage stats and seeing memory errors once in a while (when we are currently in a slow period).

As such I am open to moving hosts.

Budget is upto $50 a month. Ideally a VPS, with root access. Ideally with some control panel program so i can see resource and other stats.

The host needs a datacentre in Australia or New Zealand - that is a primary concern. Not interested in US companies which have high pings from Oceania.

Any recommendations of hosts/plans? Any additional suggestions?

Maybe some of the Aus based community members like @Mouth or @Anthony Parsons have any suggestions?

 

[eva2000]

you're in luck serversaustralia.com.au has 50% of dedicated and vps servers for today only for post Australia Day specials at https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/180628 but with 12 month committment

also check out WHT Au forums posted offers http://www.webhostingtalk.com.au/australian-virtual-private-servers-requests-offers-44/

if you need Brisbane specific location - check out https://www.binarylane.com.au/ (https://www.binarylane.com.au/suppo...015169-where-are-binary-lane-servers-located-) I use them for private VPN server

how much disk space and bandwidth you need, that will ultimately decide what you need

 

[Mouth]

Budget is up to $50 a day

Why does it have to be NZ/AUS data centre? The pings to west coast US are really quite good, and team it with a local CDN and you have really good user experience. You get a far more better server for your $ in this scenario.

For under $50 per day and local data centre, then http://www.sitehost.co.nz/hosting/dedicated-servers has some reasonable pricing. The DUAL XEON E5-2620 at $755 pm would be one speedy machine for you. SiteHost has a good reputation in NZ.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I don't host in Australia, I host in the US, as @Mouth outlined, cheaper. Hosting location has little to do with things if you're using a local domain TLD (.com.au). Yes, if using a .com, then you need local country hosting if targeting that country.

I would honestly be looking at your add-ons. Do you really need that many? Are those features being used? By add-ons do you mean template modifications that you've made into add-ons primarily OR are they actual add-ons utilising PHP? The latter will be the drain on your system, the former will have zero effect.

Based on those stats you provided, you shouldn't have such issues with SSD and maybe you just need 32Gb RAM instead of 16Gb, if having memory issues only.

I have the ServInt Flex Express V3, 32Gb RAM and 100Gb SSD, and with 600+ online and just under 50 add-ons, most of which are minute for impact, I have zero issue. Oh... and I have other sites on that server, including another XF forum which has a max of about 150 online the same time as my main one can have 600+ online... still zero issue.

I would see if you can increase your RAM and decrease your add-ons to essential only. If they're all essential and you have $50 budget per day... go see ServInt as you can set yourself up a tidy Flex Pro V3, which is an octa-core, choose SSD and for $500 - $550 a month you have yourself one hell of a server, for much less than $50 a day.

 

[NZWarriors]

Thanks guys, I contacted a couple of hosts and they are interested in providing me a free decent VPS/heavily discounted rate to use for my site via a sponsorship arrangement (footer logo of the host at the bottom).

The pings to west coast US are really quite good, and team it with a local CDN and you have really good user experience. You get a far more better server for your $ in this scenario.

That sounds like a good idea...however as Anthony noted...

Yes, if using a .com, then you need local country hosting if targeting that country.

Yes i have a .com hence geo targetting becomes an issue. 70% of my visitors are from NZ. 29% from Australia. Ideally, my site would be hosted via a datacentre in NZ, but they are so damn expensive over there.

For under $50 per day

Whoops that was meant to be 50 a month

I would honestly be looking at your add-ons. Do you really need that many? Are those features being used? By add-ons do you mean template modifications that you've made into add-ons primarily OR are they actual add-ons utilising PHP?

Most are addons that i actually need, quite a number of custom addons utilising PHP. About 10/60 active ones would be just template mods.

 

[Mike Edge]

discounted rate to use for my site via a sponsorship arrangement (footer logo of the host at the bottom).

I might be interested in this as well if you'd like to PM me to discuss it. My servers are located in Kansas City, Missouri but get great pings to down under, Asia and UK due to the premium bandwidth we use. It's 2am here and about to crash out from a long day of getting a client ready to move from vB, but be happy to reply to your PM in the morning.

 

[WSWD]

Budget is upto $50 a month. Ideally a VPS, with root access. Ideally with some control panel program so i can see resource and other stats.

Honestly, if you're getting memory errors with 16GB of RAM, you should most definitely not be on shared hosting, and a VPS really isn't a legitimate option either. Unfortunately, $50 with a control panel is going to be hard to come by.

If you want Kansas City, you can use some of the links I have below. Keep in mind that the usual bunch of Kansas City datacenters aren't necessarily the most reliable out there.

https://www.wholesaleinternet.net/dedicated/
http://joesdatacenter.com/dedicated-server-packages
https://www.datashack.net/dedicated/


You can also check out the high RAM VPSs at http://vpsdime.com/

Like I said, I still don't recommend a VPS with the usage you have, but this would definitely be within your budget, with a control panel.

 

[NZWarriors]

Like I said, I still don't recommend a VPS with the usage you have

What would you recommend for my stats?

BTW here are my current cpanel resource usage stats


I disabled a few addons when i started getting some of those memory errors/disabled the CDN i was using since majority of the traffic was from where the host was from(new zealand) anyway.

If you want Kansas City, just skip the middleman and go directly to the source

Yeah not interested in Kansas City at all.

You can also check out the high RAM VPSs at http://vpsdime.com/

That looks great...prices are so cheap...is there a catch? lol

Not really a servers person...could someone perhaps advise what kinda specs i should be looking for based on my usage/stats?

 

[Mike Edge]

Keep in mind that the usual bunch of Kansas City datacenters aren't the most reliable out there, but that's what you get with the cheapest datacenters and servers money can buy.
https://www.wholesaleinternet.net/dedicated/
http://joesdatacenter.com/dedicated-server-packages
https://www.datashack.net/dedicated/

Indeed, for cheap server rental you are correct. Co-Location is a big difference though here in KC. http://www.1102grand.com/ is a top notch data center as well as Mainmark. WSI is far better as well with co-location as they don't use a Cogent bleed like they do on their cheap rentals. Hurricane Electric has an awesome network infrastructure. Also Kansas City Power and Light is one of the most reliable power grids in the nation. So, even though we have cheap providers.. Just like any other city, we also have some top notch facilities and dependable power.

 

[Xon]

You are being heavily CPU limited. On paper those server specs should be more than enough for your user base.

Given it is a shared hosting environment, are they doing something horrible such as using preforking apache and mod_php?

 

[NZWarriors]

You are being heavily CPU limited. On paper those server specs should be more than enough for your user base.

Given it is a shared hosting environment, are they doing something horrible such as using preforking apache and mod_php?

Dont know buddy.

Using the following tool - http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/web-sites-on-web-server/
i found out that there are about 23 other sites on the same server

 

[WSWD]

What would you recommend for my stats?

The graphs aren't showing any RAM issues, and definitely nothing close to 16GB of RAM. Of course if you disabled some add-ons that could be why. It looks like a little over 2GB is about the average, with 4GB peaks or so. The entry process is what's causing the major issues, as well as CPU to a lesser extent.

So that said, you have to remember that with a VPS or dedicated server, the control panel, the OS, etc., are all going to count toward your resources. So if you are using about 2.5GB of RAM on average, you're going to need at least another GB for the control panel/OS, and that would be skimping. To cover the 4GB peaks, the OS, control panel, the minimum I would personally recommend is probably 8GB of RAM.

That looks great...prices are so cheap...is there a catch? lol

Ha ha ha! I know the owner somewhat personally (just from the industry) and they do provide a pretty good product. But you're right, at those prices, there almost has to be something going on...likely a bit of overselling. They do put huge servers together, with 192+ GB of RAM. But high RAM VPSs are usually hard to come by, which is why I personally recommend the dedicated server route. On the majority of our servers, for example, since we use SSD, we only use 32GB of RAM. Anything higher would drive the price way up, or would amount to lower disk space for each user. So a 16GB VPS, you're quite literally talking more than half of one of our servers. That's the case with most of the providers out there, and why your budget will perhaps not work with most VPS providers.

 

[Mike Edge]

What would you recommend for my stats?

BTW here are my current cpanel resource usage stats
View attachment 96447 View attachment 96448

Your being limited by Cloud Linux. You aren't using hardly any real resources at all.. Just a over selling host. We have several million plus post sites on shared hosting.. with a 1,000 of more online. 10k pageviews daily shouldn't be causing these sort of issues unless your host is overselling by a lot or they are using desktop grade hardware.

 

[NZWarriors]

The entry process is what's causing the major issues, as well as CPU to a lesser extent.

Yes you are correct in that regard. I usually get a prompt such as this when i goto resource usage. Limit 1 times...WTF??

which is why I personally recommend the dedicated server route.

Any dedicated hosting packages you can recommend for me?

 

[NZWarriors]

Some more stats

 

[WSWD]

Your being limited by Cloud Linux. You aren't using hardly any real resources at all.. Just a over selling host.

I don't necessarily agree with that. 4GB of RAM (perhaps higher with the disabled add-ons) is quite a lot for shared hosting. That's only 7 clients on a 32GB RAM box. And we all know that there isn't a shared host in existence who only puts 7 or 8 clients on an entire dedicated server. So any host that is going to let somebody use 4GB of RAM on shared hosting, is likely to be overselling.

Any dedicated hosting packages you can recommend for me?

Your budget is going to be the issue. $50 with a control panel is going to be very tough. Any of the commercial control panels are going to run you about $25 or so for cPanel and $10-ish for DirectAdmin, so that doesn't leave you much room for the server itself. I don't really know any dedicated servers in that price range outside of Kansas City, or Dacentec, but their location isn't really ideal for Australia.

 

[Xon]

Any dedicated hosting packages you can recommend for me?

Australian hosting is really expensive. Bandwidth costs are also fairly expensive.

Generally you don't need hosting in Australia unless it is an software application which is latency sensitive which XF honestly isn't.

A VM from Digital Ocean in Singapore, and Cloudflare as an inline cache/CDN would do wonders.

But the real issue is the control panel. Those cost per month.

 

[WSWD]

A VM from Digital Ocean in Singapore, and Cloudflare as an inline cache/CDN would do wonders.

But the real issue is the control panel. Those cost per month.

Even without a control panel, Digital Ocean isn't anywhere close to his budget, unfortunately.

 

[Mike Edge]

I don't really know any dedicated servers in that price range outside of Kansas City

Plus it takes a week to even get a server set up from Data Shack / WSI

 

[WSWD]

Plus it takes a week to even get a server set up from Data Shack / WSI

So I've heard...or longer!