VPS a bit sluggish

[Goodfella]

So currently im hosting 3 websites on my VPS, none of them which are pretty active. However i find it that sometimes they run a bit slow and i just dont understand why.
My internet speed is about 97/mbs. I would be interested in possibly moving one of my sites off of the current server (my new project).

The new project is not very active yet but I would just like to prepare for it as best as I can. Would you be able to recommend any affordable hosting for me (I would preffere a VPS, but if you think shared will do for the time and upgrading to a VPS wont be a pain in the future, i may give it a shot).

I have also looked at unmanaged plans, how hard is it to manage a vps? Currently i have all the access to my vps however "I" only use cpanel. How much work does my current host do behind the scenes? I never open support tickets or any of this.
Are they just there if something major happens they get it up and running, or does server management require more work say on a daily basis, weekly, biweekly?

My current server stats are the following:
1GB Ram
XXGB SSD Storage
24CPS Equal Share
XXXGB of bandwith


For the same price I have the option to get rid of the SSD storage, use regular raid 10 storage and increase my ram to 2gb. Would this benefit me? Basically no ssd but a extra gb of ram.

Thank you,
Gf

 

[Chris D]

You may want to first talk to @MattW.

He's doing all sorts of awesome stuff with regards to troubleshooting, optimising servers and I believe he provides hosting too. Here's some great feedback (ignore the first paragraph of the first one! )

https://mattwservices.co.uk/threads/feedback

 

[Goodfella]

You may want to first talk to @MattW.

He's doing all sorts of awesome stuff with regards to troubleshooting, optimising servers and I believe he provides hosting too. Here's some great feedback (ignore the first paragraph of the first one! )

https://mattwservices.co.uk/threads/feedback

Thank you for the recommendation. I have heard and read a lot of possitive feedback about MattW. Will definantly get in touch with him.

Thanks once again!

 

[m1ne]

Unmanaged is easy after the initial setup. I'll help you optimize it for free if you'd like.

 

[rainmotorsports]

Personally I'd drop the SSD for the extra ram. If you only need 1GB of ram your probably not beating up the drive all that much either. But while more ram can help, a properly tuned server will help more in the long run. Good luck.

I have a unmanaged VPS with no control panel that has been running 170 days straight without being touched. The exceptions were increasing an upload setting in php.INI and doing updates for the bash vulnerabilities. I know more now than I did when I first set it up. Always hated being Linux blind. But really it can be learned.

 

[TPerry]

I'm running all my sites on a server that has regular SATA HD's in it (in RAID 10).
They are running in VPS containers and work fine (would they do better with SSD - yes, if they were busier I'd possibly upgrade).
Memory would be more important.

As for after the VPS/dedi gets set up, the main thing is keeping up with the updates as they come out (ShellShock ring a bell?) on the VPS/dedi so that you don't leave any vulnerabilities for easy intrusion. Some updates can cause "problems" that you may have to work through, but usually there are several around here on the forum that are willing to help out.

 

[Goodfella]

Unmanaged is easy after the initial setup. I'll help you optimize it for free if you'd like.

I may take you up on this, how hard is the initial setup?

I'm running all my sites on a server that has regular SATA HD's in it (in RAID 10).
They are running in VPS containers and work fine (would they do better with SSD - yes, if they were busier I'd possibly upgrade).
Memory would be more important.

As for after the VPS/dedi gets set up, the main thing is keeping up with the updates as they come out (ShellShock ring a bell?) on the VPS/dedi so that you don't leave any vulnerabilities for easy intrusion. Some updates can cause "problems" that you may have to work through, but usually there are several around here on the forum that are willing to help out.

About how offten are these updates released, is it hard to update? Would you be able to recommend a reliable yet affordable VPS i guess ill give unmanaged a shot.

Personally I'd drop the SSD for the extra ram. If you only need 1GB of ram your probably not beating up the drive all that much either. But while more ram can help, a properly tuned server will help more in the long run. Good luck.

I have a unmanaged VPS with no control panel that has been running 170 days straight without being touched. The exceptions were increasing an upload setting in php.INI and doing updates for the bash vulnerabilities. I know more now than I did when I first set it up. Always hated being Linux blind. But really it can be learned.

Which hosting provider are you with?

 

[TPerry]

About how offten are these updates released, is it hard to update? Would you be able to recommend a reliable yet affordable VPS i guess ill give unmanaged a shot.

It varies. I normally log in at least every other day to check, and usually it's no more than every week or so - unless there is something major that just was found out.
As for how easy:
CentOS = yum update
Debian = aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade

I've been using RamNode for various things for a while. I currently have 2 VPS's with them - of which only 1 is actually being used for a DNS server. I just haven't gotten around to figuring out what I want to do with the other one since it's only a 512mb one.

 

[rainmotorsports]

Which hosting provider are you with?

I am with @WSWD wswd.net paying for their 20 dollar a month budget vps (2gb of ram) at the moment. The node I am on has been up well past 240 days (he randomly checked for me once). I can definitely recommend them on uptime.

I do a lot of my test builds on Digital Ocean since I can pay by the hour and also run VPS's on nfoservers.com which is a gaming host with prices somewhere around what WSWD, DO, Linode and other providers charge. However you end up on a random CPU all of which are modern Xeon's but it can range from a 3 gen old 2.something Ghz cpu to the latest Xeon's available so the cpu performance can be all over the place. WSWD has me on an E3-1270v2 which is actually the CPU we run on our gaming rack which performs better than whatever I seem to get from Digital Ocean and close to what I got from NFO on my second try... lol.

 

[m1ne]

I may take you up on this, how hard is the initial setup?

Very easy, I've done it countless times. I assume you just use a LAMP stack? I'd recommend using Plesk instead of cPanel though, it really locks you down. You can get a Plesk license for about 4 euros.

 

[Goodfella]

It varies. I normally log in at least every other day to check, and usually it's no more than every week or so - unless there is something major that just was found out.
As for how easy:
CentOS = yum update
Debian = aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade

I've been using RamNode for various things for a while. I currently have 2 VPS's with them - of which only 1 is actually being used for a DNS server. I just haven't gotten around to figuring out what I want to do with the other one since it's only a 512mb one.

And if i was to find someone to manage updates for me lets say on a monthly basis, how much would that cost me?

I am with @WSWD wswd.net paying for their 20 dollar a month budget vps (2gb of ram) at the moment. The node I am on has been up well past 240 days (he randomly checked for me once). I can definitely recommend them on uptime.

I do a lot of my test builds on Digital Ocean since I can pay by the hour and also run VPS's on nfoservers.com which is a gaming host with prices somewhere around what WSWD, DO, Linode and other providers charge. However you end up on a random CPU all of which are modern Xeon's but it can range from a 3 gen old 2.something Ghz cpu to the latest Xeon's available so the cpu performance can be all over the place. WSWD has me on an E3-1270v2 which is actually the CPU we run on our gaming rack which performs better than whatever I seem to get from Digital Ocean and close to what I got from NFO on my second try... lol.

I have heard good thing about Linode but will look into WSWD =D.

Very easy, I've done it countless times. I assume you just use a LAMP stack? I'd recommend using Plesk instead of cPanel though, it really locks you down. You can get a Plesk license for about 4 euros.

What would you guys recommend being the best setup (server config wise) to run xenforo?

 

[m1ne]

I'd personally get a VPS from somewhere recommended at LowEndBox.com, install Plesk with PHP 5.5 and MySQL 5.6 and use Zend Opcache and Cloudflare.

 

[Goodfella]

I'd personally get a VPS from somewhere recommended at LowEndBox.com, install Plesk with PHP 5.5 and MySQL 5.6 and use Zend Opcache and Cloudflare.

Is cloudflare a Litespeed alternative? Im sorry for all these questions that may sound dumb, im comletely new to servere management. A real Noob as some would say.

 

[m1ne]

https://www.cloudflare.com/overview
It speeds up delivery of scripts by serving them from a Cloudflare server nearest to the users location.

 

[Goodfella]

https://www.cloudflare.com/overview
It speeds up delivery of scripts by serving them from a Cloudflare server nearest to the users location.

Thank you will take a look into this. So if I do go with a Unmaged VPS you could help me set it up and get it going?

 

[rainmotorsports]

And if i was to find someone to manage updates for me lets say on a monthly basis, how much would that cost me?

I have heard good thing about Linode but will look into WSWD =D.

What would you guys recommend being the best setup (server config wise) to run xenforo?

Literally the security updates are logging in through SSH and typing Yum Update (assuming its CentOS/Fedora/Red Hat) and then going back to bed. The exception would be if something broke. It can be some decent money to pay someone. Tech's often start around 20 an hour so figure 1 hour a month. I would just have someone on call for emergencies and nothing else.

Linode is alright. I am kind of picky. I can't say that WSWD has actually impressed me. But the owner has gone out of his way to fix problems for me and the uptime speaks for itself. I don't like most VPS providers. Plenty of crap out there but quite a few good ones that people here can recommend.

You are probably going to get some recommendations to run NGINX instead of Apache. For simplicity I would stick with Apache. Swapping MySQL out for MariaDB or Percona Server, though if running a control panel (which adds to your cost) swapping these otherwise drop in replacements can be a bit of a pain. Xenforo and most plugins should be perfectly fine on PHP 5.6 if you happen to run any other major scripts I would think about 5.3 or 5.4. Its definitely recommended to run a newer PHP unless your also running other things on the server which would have issues.

 

[m1ne]

Absolutely. If you need help choosing a VPS, let me know. After setup, all you will need to do is run "yum update" every so often.

 

[Goodfella]

Literally the security updates are logging in through SSH and typing Yum Update (assuming its CentOS/Fedora/Red Hat) and then going back to bed. The exception would be if something broke. It can be some decent money to pay someone. Tech's often start around 20 an hour so figure 1 hour a month. I would just have someone on call for emergencies and nothing else.

Linode is alright. I am kind of picky. I can't say that WSWD has actually impressed me. But the owner has gone out of his way to fix problems for me and the uptime speaks for itself. I don't like most VPS providers. Plenty of crap out there but quite a few good ones that people here can recommend.

You are probably going to get some recommendations to run NGINX instead of Apache. For simplicity I would stick with Apache. Swapping MySQL out for MariaDB or Percona Server, though if running a control panel (which adds to your cost) swapping these otherwise drop in replacements can be a bit of a pain. Xenforo and most plugins should be perfectly fine on PHP 5.6 if you happen to run any other major scripts I would think about 5.3 or 5.4. Its definitely recommended to run a newer PHP unless your also running other things on the server which would have issues.

Will read up on both NGINC and Apache. I am a bit familiar with MySQL, dont know any MariaDB or Percona =/. I would just be running Xenforo with a few addons and then sometime in the future maybe Enhanced Search.

Absolutely. If you need help choosing a VPS, let me know. After setup, all you will need to do is run "yum update" every so often.

LowEndBox is down for me so if you could let me know of a few VPS's that would work for what i need that would be great.

 

[m1ne]

Nginx comes packaged with Plesk ready to serve static files.
Where should your server be located?

 

[Goodfella]

Well my targeted audience is international so I would like something with a location that would work well for all.