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I like to know a strategy on server disk space utilization specifically with regards to Photo Albums since I'm having issue with it right now. In our setup, Remote Storage to S3 has issues. On v1.2, for some reason the photos were not uploaded to S3, I am running v1.3 now and Mark helped me clear something in the database so ES will push those photos off to S3 but it's not deleting the uploaded files in the webserver. So, my server is disk space is almost full.

With that said, I think diskspace is also one of the most important resource to consider in deciding what sort of hosting account we should consider. And with our inputs, it might help Mark and his team to work on a better Remote Storage workflow.

Thanks!

Hello Kabeer,

If your site is growing really fast, start off with a VPS. DigitalOcean is pretty affordable and it has good setup too https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=95858ea7236e . If you need help tweaking your VPS, we do offer a service for this and we can set the server up for you. You can contact us at https://crm.stackideas.com/ for the customized service.

If disk space is a huge concern for you, you could consider Rackspace cloud servers. (It's a little pricey) but you can add an additional disk (non ssd) at an affordable price.

Personally I am a big fan of VPS options like Linode and DigitalOcean.

I usually go using digitalocean as a prototyping then as the site grows I always ends up going with softlayer. What I don't like with DO is you have to recreate the site allover again and transfer it to another server (shut down + create image + destroy droplet + recreate new BIGGER droplet and make sure it's same IP) taking around 15 to 30 minutes of downtime while in SL just do it in an instant.

Anyway, I highly suggest going VPS cloud, a dedicated server is faster but cloud brings more flexibility and more advantages as you grow big. For example, you want a bigger hard drive. In a dedicated server, you will have to ask for the hosting to add more HDD by hand taking a longer downtime while in VPS it's more like a 3 to 5 minutes upgrade. The nightmare starts when you want to upgrade ti bigger RAM and faster processor because there will be no easy way to do it.

For an option of VPS, I strongly suggest Softlayer.com but then again there are other cheaper options (it's just something that I get used too and I'm a partner too). if you need help in setting up and optimizing a joomla site in SL, feel free to give me a buzz. I'll do a free server optimization/migration if you happen to get an account there.

Hi guys
Thanks v much for your suggestions. Looking at all the replies I guess VPS will be the best option. A related questions is do the Linux Operating System and control panel comes with the VPS or do I have to install OS and then configure cPanel and then install Joomla? I assume OS and cPanel comes with it (and only Joomla has to be installed and configured) but just wanted to make sure.

Now as a next step I have to decide which provider I should choose. The first priority is performance and the next is of-course price. I have just explored DigitalOcean, Linode, GoDaddy and HostGator. DO and Linode have similar pricing and seems quite good in terms of what you get in $20/month plans. Whereas Godaddy and HostGator pricing on similar plans starts from $49 and $90.

What's really the differentiator between DO and Linode in comparison with Godaddy and HostGator? Is it just the brand or the performance?

@Ken - I just checked Softlayer.com but couldn't find the pricing. Could you pls provide the link to see VPS pricing?

Cheers!
Kabeer

DO doesn't offer cPanel which is a resource hog, and really kills the sense of getting a VPS. I suggest getting just the one having LAMP/LEMP stack and without any bloatwares. by then you can just optimize your server for performance. I also highly suggest never go hosting with godaddy (an instant nightmare support). If you are starting anew, I would suggest getting a single node/droplet/cloud

As you grow, you may opt in to nginx/apache + maria/mysql
then add more failovers or instances in the future (different memcache + cdn + load balancer)

As per softlayer, http://www.softlayer.com/virtual-servers
(contact me via email at hacksider@gmail.com as soon as you get your username, I'll be very happy to assist you in everything!)

I have used Linode, and their support is amazing. I always get a reply within 5 - 20 minutes but I don't really like their interface and the vps seems much slower to me (Maybe it's just me).

I personally would go with the following options:

1. Rackspace (If you have more budget to work on)
2. Digital Ocean
3. Linode

Also, if you are going to get a vps solely for a single site only, please try to not install any cpanel / web admin stuffs as Ken mentioned above, they are normally resource hogs.

As Mark says, Linode support is best in class.

Mark when was the last time you tried Linode? Because they recently upgraded all plans to SSDs and doubled RAM on all plans... making them more competitive than Digital Ocean.

Here is a blog update of their recent changes:
https://blog.linode.com/2014/04/17/linode-cloud-ssds-double-ram-much-more/

Hello Jannik,

It was probably about a month or two ago. I think the problem is not really related to their hardware but their "network" in general because we are connecting from Asia and most of the time we get around 250ms - 300ms and the speed is fine for us. For Linode's network, for some reasons we are hitting around 400ms - 450ms . So you could imagine, every time we try to download something large from our VPS, it takes us about 1 hour

Ah ok out of curiosity were you hosting in Tokyo or in US?

Hello Jannik,

They are all in the US Most of our customers are either from Europe or America It doesn't make sense to host them on Tokyo haha . I belive you will be very angry waiting for the site to be loaded.

haha yeah makes sense

Yep, I am currently testing http://asmallorange.com/ and they seem to be pretty fast too.

Kabeer Khan wrote:

Hi guys
Thanks v much for your suggestions. Looking at all the replies I guess VPS will be the best option. A related questions is do the Linux Operating System and control panel comes with the VPS or do I have to install OS and then configure cPanel and then install Joomla? I assume OS and cPanel comes with it (and only Joomla has to be installed and configured) but just wanted to make sure.

Now as a next step I have to decide which provider I should choose. The first priority is performance and the next is of-course price. I have just explored DigitalOcean, Linode, GoDaddy and HostGator. DO and Linode have similar pricing and seems quite good in terms of what you get in $20/month plans. Whereas Godaddy and HostGator pricing on similar plans starts from $49 and $90.

What's really the differentiator between DO and Linode in comparison with Godaddy and HostGator? Is it just the brand or the performance?

@Ken - I just checked Softlayer.com but couldn't find the pricing. Could you pls provide the link to see VPS pricing?

Cheers!
Kabeer

I've had great luck with:

- Digital Ocean Droplet
- ServerPilot (to manage DO) to quickly get things up and running (like setting up a database)
- Install phpMyAdmin (ServerPilot and DO have great tutorials)
- Set up a Google Apps account for mail
- Update your DO DNS settings to include Google's MX records (1 click setup)
- Create a Mandrill account to handle all transactional emails
- Install the cron function (DO has a tutorial for that)
- Done!

Thanks for sharing this Justin

@Justin - the points you have provided are quite helpful. Do you know how to integrate Mandrill with Digital Ocean for transactional emails?

Cheers!
Kabeer

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Hello Petar
I can't see anything in your reply. Do you want to submit your reply agan?

Kabeer

Hi Kabeer,

I was just subscribing to this feed - there was no post

You guys are playing in a league way above me...

For those in US that may need help occasionally, I would suggest KnownHost Managed VPS SSD + LiteSpeed. Not the cheapest but you can sleep at night. Extremely Fast and scalable as site grows. Managed = support to help with upgrades, security, optimization, etc. When I first started with them, they did most upgrades, etc. After being with them for years, I now handle 95%... But they are still there when I need them (which is usually on Holidays, weekends at 2am, etc.)

I agree with Jannik on SSD servers. SSD is very forgiving on database optimization. I switched a year ago and saw a huge increase in Joomla's performance. You have to be careful that your joomla db, cache, etc can all fit into memory. With SSD, things are much more forgiving. Litespeed also is a good upgrade...

On the other hand... I have been running all of my sites on Servint and for the last few years I have had no issues and their support is awesome too.

I'm running on SSD VPS accounts and for large sites I normally set up 2 SSD accounts - One for the files one for the database.

Also, I make it so that the database server can only be accessed from the files server.

For CDN I usually use nonumber extension to push all of my files to CDN network

Servint SSD VPS is fully managed as well…

Petar Elez wrote:

On the other hand... I have been running all of my sites on Servint and for the last few years I have had no issues and their support is awesome too.

I'm running on SSD VPS accounts and for large sites I normally set up 2 SSD accounts - One for the files one for the database.

Also, I make it so that the database server can only be accessed from the files server.

For CDN I usually use nonumber extension to push all of my files to CDN network

I was also customer of RackSpace for over two years with a product called cloudsites but that turned out to be a nightmare after a while.

The biggest issue was server response time which kept increasing over time to the point where it was not manageable at all.

Their support was not able to figure out the issue or provide a solution.

I have not tried their dedicated or manage servers.

Kabeer Khan wrote:

@Justin - the points you have provided are quite helpful. Do you know how to integrate Mandrill with Digital Ocean for transactional emails?

Cheers!
Kabeer

Once you have your domain pointing to DO there's not much to do, other than address the following in Mandrill:
- Verify Domain
- Create an API that you can use to set up SMTP in Joomla (using Mandrill's SMTP and API Credentials settings)
- Create CNAME records in DO based on Mandrill's DKIM and SPF recommendations
- Set tracking return

EDIT: CNAME should be TXT for DKIM and SPF

@Justin and anyone else I'm very happy with free Joomla component CMandrill which allows me to send all Stacked product e-mails (and others) through Mandrill. I use MailChimp to create professional looking templates and assign them appropriately.

Thanks for sharing Eileen

Hello Justin, Eileen
Thanks for sharing the valuable info,

Cheers!
Kabeer

Hello guys
Today I thought I will give it a try for this VPS hosting myself since I have a good linux server background but was new to this concept. And after a couple of hours I could manage to sort out my multiple websites on DO VPS server.

In addition to that I have used the CMandrill component from Compojoom to integrate it with Mandrill to send transactional emails. And I could then integrate Mailchimp to pump a template to Mandrill, and then could see it under CMandrill component within my Joomla website (to send newsletters and or send beautiful registration emails).

So I guess I am all sorted with this VPS stuff now. And thanks v much for all your support and guidance. I didn't even knew about DO, Mandrill, CMandrill and integration with Mandrill & MainChimp prior to raising this question on forums here.

For the benefit of Joomla community I will shortly publish a whitepaper on all the steps I have taken to host multiple websites on DO's VPS and integration with Mandrill and Mailchimp for sending transactional emails.

Cheers!
Kabeer

Thanks for sharing this Kabeer