[GLLUG] How much can I host?

[Benjamin Minshall]

Seth Bembeneck wrote:
> I’m trying to get a handle on what I’m able to handle in the area of web 
> site hosting.
> 

The content that you want to host makes the difference.  Are you hosting 
static HTML?  Images?  Linux mirrors (lots of large tarballs)?  PHP? 
Database backend?  How many hits per day?  KB per day?  Many, many, many 
factors play into this.

PHP/Perl/etc will require a substantially more powerful server than 
static HTML and images would in a hit-for-hit comparison; although, on a 
low traffic site nearly any machine could handle the load.

>  
> 
> How can I tell if I’m trying to host too much on my webserver? Any thing 
> that I should be looking for?

If the hard drive light is on all the time or if top reports CPU usage 
hovering at 1.0, if it takes a long time to get a page to load, etc.

> 
> Webserver specs:
> 400mhz cpu
> 256mb ram
> 12 GB harddrive
> 

This should be fine for most applications.

>  
> 
> Also is there any way to tell if I’m overloading my bandwidth? I have 
> 386kbs up/ 1.5 down.

I don't really think you can "overload" bandwidth, but you could max out 
your connection's upstream capabilities.  Try installing webalizer or 
similar web traffic analyzer that reports average KB served/hour and 
other such stats.  You can calculate from those stats if you're 
consistently at your connection limits.

Unless you're doing _tons_ of dynamic content, I'd say it's just about 
impossible under normal conditions to overload a 400MHz web server with 
384k outbound; a 386 could flood that connection without trouble.

> 
> Is my understanding that when hosting, the upstream is more important 
> then the downstream?

Absolutely.

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