Hosting Advice & Concerns..

Hi everybody i just want to say great community I love elgg.

Does anybody have good hosting advice?  I’m concern with the abilities to host an elgg site.. 

The two companies recommended by elgg seem to only allow a limited amount of users logged in at one time.  

In another post user Dhrupdescoop stated that a 100 dollar hosting plan would only allow around 50 users at once..  Our site is for a local university and has growing support in popularity.  We expect to have at least 200 users logged in at one time.. What company or hosting plant would anybody here recommend? I’m sure your all aware of elggs hosting limitations do to it using apache as php.. 


  • LOLZ ;-) you spoke my name ? ;-X

    Cheap Shared Hosting @ $5/mnth => abt 5 - 10 simultaneous on Elgg, after which they will shut you without warning - no matter how much "no limits.." Try getting 1TB bandwidth out of $5 Hosts - then see them dump you within 10 seconds LOLZ ;-P

    VPS Hosting @ $50 (maybe lolz) -100/mnth/ 2 GB RAM (Our older VPS from mid-2009) => abt 50 simultaneous users, after which.....

    Dedicated Hosting @ abt $100-500++/mnth you're safer => abt 100+++ simultaneous users.. after that hire a very very good server technician, who knows load balancing linux, apache,. mysql.. etc etc.

    @Olivia - If "..Dhrupdescoop stated'...'' it is most likey true. Better believe.... we are the biggest known Elgg-based website in the galaxy on **3 dedicated servers** - FBFK, @ 210,000 users and 100++ simultaneous -- spent months and months fine tuning performance.. it's an art as well as technology. still not 100% perfect....

    You want 200+ simultaneous onlines ? dig into your pockets for abt several hundred per mnth ++ expensive realistic tech techie/site support....

     

    Regards,
    DDS
    PS - never never question my techie statements...;-) If you wanna know why so -->  Chand.Elggalaxy.com


  • DhrupDeScoop what hosting plan do you use or have used for your many sites? What do you recomend? 

     

    Thanks for the responces everybody :) 

     

     

  • @Oliivia 

    1&1 since Sep 2009, after 4 other Hosts. I am not exactly 'recommending' them, but we're still with them tee hee... They're quite good for me - I tend be very techie-knee-deep and their tech support have actually taught me a few new tricks. If you want get into real details - 200+ online users will cost -- both hosting and server technician brains. I do not believe anyone can run 200+users without some heavy $$ hositng and consulting.

    ps- if you actually read thru Chand.Elggalaxy.com.. you'd not be posting here... ;-)

     

  • Thanks Dhrupdescoop! One final question.. You don't have to answere if you don't want two.. How much do you pay for Hosting on each site?  

  •  

    I'm sorry Olivia, since this conversation I have been pushing arvixe to give me a straight answer and after what DhrupDeScoop said, I pushed them a little more and finally got them to tell the truth.

    Looks like you have saved me the trouble of staying with arvixe, not only do they apply these limits you speak of, they lie through their teeth to cover them up. 

    I have not any issues YET but after speaking with them, it looks like I will, so now like you, I wait for DhrupDeScoop answer to your last question.

    and here is the proof that they lie

    Your Question: I was just advised on elgg discussion board that you have a limit on how many users are logged in to the system...is this true?
    Staff: Mourad Dmeiri


    03:23 There are currently 1 chat request(s) before you in the chat queue.
    03:23 Please wait, an operator will be with you shortly.
    03:23 Mourad Dmeiri: Hello, this is Mourad, how can I assist you today?
    03:23 You are now chatting with Mourad Dmeiri - Support
    03:24 stephen Dean: did you get my question??
    03:26 Mourad Dmeiri: no this is not true
    03:26 Mourad Dmeiri: we do not limit number of users
    03:26 Mourad Dmeiri: nor we can

    and now for the truth

    Posted on: 13 March 2011 08:19 AM image Hello,

    The limits do not mean that you can have only 10 - 15 members on your site. Also, more than 10 - 15 can be logged in at once. The limitation is when more than 10 - 15 users access a page at precisely the same time, any new connections made before the previous processes terminate will see internal server errors.

    In our case it would be a process limit of 20 per user, in extreme cases we can push that to 25 if it does not cause server issues.

    The business class servers have a user process limit of 40.


    -------
    Regards,
    Louis T.
    http://www.arvixe.com
    Arvixe, LLC

    ===================
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  • Want better answers ? 
    Try maybe -->
    Arvand Sabetian  Operations Manager  arvand@arvixe.com
    General Toll-Free: 1-888-927-8493 (9-ARVIXE)  General Local: 1-707-304-5520  Extension: 861
    Direct: 1-707-304-5520  Cell: 805-235-6414  Fax: 707-324-8333
    Tell him I sent you ;-) 

    The key is "..limitation is when more than 10 - 15 users access a page at precisely the same time, any new connections..."

    Typicallly - Shared Hosting would be catering for maybe 500-1000 user websites. Can one user "hog" the server with their stuff ? nope - no matter what 'no limits' - that is simple and good business etiquette. If you're paying $5 /mnth you gonna get $5 worth and so on...

    How much I pay for Hosting means diddley to anyone elses's server requirements !  Irrelevant for the scope of the real questions here. What I pay for my server and the perfomance gleaned from my server(s) is the sum, total of --> what server power is bought, the configuration (not possible with shared and VPS;), the technical expertise available for Linux, Apache. MySql, Load handlers, techie-know-how-ad nauseum and of course how much you can afford.

    You could pay $1000/mnth for server and still be an iceberg if you do not or cannot afford real server performance brains for support. The kind of knowledge that is not found on free forums such as here ;-)  [ experienced server talent will usually go for big $NN/hr - not for just anybody.]

    I think Olivia is maybe looking for a formula -- $cost/mnth = f (registered users, users online, disk space  used)  there is no such formula ;-)

    For example, the FBFK servers could handle up to 1000 simultaneous users, but at a cost - technical expertise, many many apache and mysql parms to study, monitor, etc...;-O

     

  • @Olivia: I'm wondering if the purpose of your site ("for a local university") wouldn't allow another approach. Maybe your university has it's own network already and it would be maybe better (even cheaper) in the long run to host your Elgg site on a server included in the present server infrastructure.

    As Dhrup already said for 200+ logged in users you surely need a dedicated server at least. Another question: is 200 users logged in realistic? The number might be lower depending on the overall number of users to be expected.

    Forget about any shared hosting offers. "Unlimited" is irrelevant as it only is offered for disc space and (theoretical) traffic. The important thinks like CPU power, and disk read/write bandwidth are limited - you are after all on one server with others. The CPU limititation also will break your neck sooner or later as you are not allowed to use all available CPU cycles to not block other sites. How to prevent that to happen with an Elgg site? Not possible as it is beast regarding CPU resources hunger.

    VPS might work for medium sites (~50 users at once?). The CPU resources are shared between less sites and you have a guaranteed "Equal share" of CPU cycles - more importantly you won't get kicked from the server if you use more - you can't block other sites only your own site will be slow then. Unfortunately, "Equal share" is not valid for disc I/O operations. If other sites on your server use a lot of disc read/write resources it will slow down (even stall) you site.

    If you can afford it use a dedicated server (or more than one). But the support/maintenance will cost, too.

  • ;-O

    "still be an iceberg" => 10% visible, 90% hidden, but still "all lost at sea" ;-X

    re: "VPS might work for medium sites (~50 users at once)" that's what we had on a (lucky) 2GB VPS before going dedicated(s).

    btw - shared will usuually (my guess) put several 1000's sites on one box, VPS maybe several 100's... that be why 1 site cannot hog the server (critical php, mysql) resources. e.g.  l could give people 'cheap' hosting on my servers, but as soon as you lock out other users/ sites - really hard rap on the tail-end.

    Volkswagon, Corolla, Charger or Ferrari ? choose and then you pay$ for it ;-P

  • @Olivia

    I've used (still using) Arvixe basic hosting plan. I have around 10-20 users logged in at the same time without a problem (that being 624+ users registered) 

    Arvixe does not have a strict limit, in fact out of any other provider, Arvixe allows a site to have the most number of visitors and users.

    Rodolfo Hernandez

    Arvixe/Elgg Community Liaison

  • @RJC -- you seem to have missed what SteviDean wrote (and he does *not work for Arvixe as you do;)

    "Looks like you have saved me the trouble of staying with arvixe, not only do they apply these limits you speak of, they lie through their teeth to cover them up. 

    I have not any issues YET but after speaking with them, it looks like I will, so now like you, I wait for DhrupDeScoop answer to your last question.

    and here is the proof that they lie..."

    If your site can handle 10-20 simultaneous users.. must be because your Arvixe "shared" hosting is "special" because you work for them... Sounds more like you're merely promoting them for that reason.

    There *are limits on *all Shared hosting.. the vendors just do not like to spell that out.. Just look for the posts here by Elgg site owners who have had their Accounts *suspended* lolz ;-)

    You RJC are quite lucky..;-X