Hosting Issues/thoughts

#1

Phase IV, the transition back to strolen.com. I come to find out that to trasition back to strolen.com I have to get a new hosting account because the nature of the technology is that your primary domain is the one you start the account with, in this case, rpgcitadel.com. Other then that, I can only do what I am already doing. So I have a reseller account, no big deal, I make a new account and just host the main site on another account that I still control.

Here is where the problem comes in though.

The last site was rather slim in what it did, and so the resource use on it was small to midlevel at the most. Limited user base also helped it so it was not a problem. Hit 6GB of traffic in the high months.

V2.0 is getting a little more resource intensive and the graphics are quite a bit bigger. Cache helps of course on that but there are still the unique views. The scary part is the scroll/codices. One Codex hit 241 queries (http://www.rpgcitadel.com/content.php?node=1215). That is a s**tload! SQL is memory intensive and if we get more of those then it is only a matter of time before the site gets flagged for resource usage. From some of the webhosting forums I have been reading about forums and resources they use, what the Citadel does is pretty comparable and if we start growing with the new version it won't be pretty. Thinking ahead a little bit because moving is a pain, would rather do it once on my conditions than be forced to later.

I will reenable the page cache program once I do some coding so that will help on non-logged in users which will give us more breathing room

So options are:

1) Float the boat and see if it sinks. It will probably be a little bit before anything is caught. As our user base slowly increases and more and more gets moved into Codices then the chance continues to increase. One day we might just have a "This account has been suspended" message. No, usually no warning since it is an automated flag when you exceed your allowed.

2) Do some magicaly query cutting which would mean, at the very least, removing the comments from everything but the King Codex submission and perhaps some more in there too. I haven't started digging too much in there so there might be more that I can cut before that with minimal impact.

3) I could get a VPS but that costs me upwards of $35 a month. I am paying $20 now for two accounts (rpgcitadel and the strolen.com account that is going to get removed). My wife has been waiting for a year for me to get rid of one of the accounts so to go to $35 is not really a happy thought. (yes, cue whip noises here) I already breeched that topic and my wife gave me the evil eye and some choice words. There is always Christmas presents from wealth relatives.

Not jumping the gun yet, but I am indeed stressed out and I need to take a hard look at the code and see if I can minimize some things before I actually figure out what I am going to do. Just needed to vent on what I have been stressing about all day.

Re: Hosting Issues/thoughts

#2

Figured I would mention it, not that you really care but it always helps to solidify my thoughts a little and there are always the appreciated PMs. ;)

In the past week I have been rejected by the site for maximum SQL queries. That is the error you see when it says that the password is incorrect (or whatever) and it cannot connect/find the database. Manfred posted the exact error in another thread. If you experiment at the same time and visit the forum the error you get there is more precise.

Now, not being able to access the site *really* pisses me off. Especially when I am not online a super lot I can imagine that it happens occassionally to others if I can catch it.

So, I have asked the computer Deep Thought what the answer to the Ultimate Question is and it responded to suck it up and get the Virtual Private Server.

We are hitting 10GB a month and that will continue to be steady for a little bit but will (hopefully) steadily grow and the current account only has a 30GB max transfer. So add my 10GB to the 5 other sites or so that I am hosting, even if they don't use that bandwidth I still have to allot them enough to be useable. I have given strolen.com 16GB and the rest is divied up amongst the rest. (AG, this is the reason I can't do what you proposed before.) So there is precious little growing room available anyway. Plus the stymied mySQL connections and an understanding from a site checking tool that there are 40 other sites hosted on the same box as mine which would explain the rejections. This server sucks and any shared server is going to hurt us because we are memory intensive with the queries.

The VPS that I am looking at would give us 500GB transfer, which is more the foreseeable future. Plus it gives me dedicated memory and I get root access to my own server so I can tweak the mySQL and apache settings to favor the site much more. Plus a ton of other awesome configuration options that I can fine tune since it is my server.

That also opens it up for others to benefit from the move too, obviously. This won't happen till after I test for my next promotion in the Feb-Apr time frame but my decision has pretty much been made. Anyway, frustrated and rambling. Going to watch a movie (Wedding Crashers).

Re: Hosting Issues/thoughts

#3

GRRRRRR.

I test March 17. So probably April with a new server.

About 10 minutes again tonight! $40 bucks looks cheaper and cheaper everyday.

Going to watch a movie (Be Cool)...how apt.

(And is still popping in and out as I try and post this!)

Re: Hosting Issues/thoughts

#4

Got my first "Approaching you bandwidth limit" for the account.

So I slimmed down everybody else's account to give this the extra bandwidth to make it through the month. Got a little breathing room, we hit abou 13GB download and I upped it from 15 to 18 so hopefully we can make it the rest of the week with that. Shouldn't be a problem. But that Guest number at the bottom has been nice and consistant at 10+ usually so we are starting to get more and more visitors. AG must be right, they are liking the new site and we are getting a little more busy then before. Hope we make it another couple months without being overrun.

Re: Hosting Issues/thoughts

#5

You are a victim of your own success. Do you want me to stop linking posts back to site (instead of copying and pasting the entire article, I often just drop a link)?

Re: Hosting Issues/thoughts

#6

I think the new index page definitely made a good impression. The influx of new users took off after you restructured it. Besides: The winter theme is simply wonderful.

Re: Hosting Issues/thoughts

#7

Winter theme is nice isn't it. :)

I never made the correlation between the new index page and increased activity. hmmmm

Glad everybody kept complaining...errr...commenting about it!

Re: Hosting Issues/thoughts

#8

Ordered the new server today. Went with www.hostforweb.com and just got another reseller account for now. Figured save some bucks until I had to make the move to a VPS. Gives us plenty of room to grow with 100GB transfer and 4GB of space. Will just be uploading through the week so that Friday afternoon I can upload the database one last time and do the transition over the weekend while I code.

This should be the last time as this host has all the upgrade options I could need so, unless they royally suck (which reviews have been the opposite), hopefully we found our new home.