Just checked. Neither my existing server or this new old server has raid.

Worth paying $40-50 more a month for a RAID HD and 4 more GB of RAM to 8? The uptime has been fine without Raid and 4GB….

Just because it hasn't happened before doesn't mean it won't. The question you have to ask is can you live with say 5-6 hours+ of down time? And then will everything from a backup get restored? Is it possible you lose more than $600 (annual cost) in income from that amount of downtime?

Statically is HDs are #1 failed device, by a HUGE margin. It's also the most time consuming to recover from. Especially if not everything is backed up.

That's NOT to say RAID is a backup. It's not. RAID is for hard drive failure and to minimize downtime from when one fails.

Worth paying $40-50 more a month for a RAID HD and 4 more GB of RAM to 8? The uptime has been fine without Raid and 4GB....

Do you think these specifications make any real difference. Current package is newer than the older package and the only thing I see is the Xeon X3430 chip, but the price differential is double. Worth saving money?

Current Package:

CPU: Intel Xeon X3430 @ 2.40GHz x 4
Memory: 4G
Raid: No
Disks: 250 GB x 2
Bandwidth - 6TB per month
10 IP addresses

Vs

Downgrading to Package:

Intel Xeon X3220 @ 2.40GHz x 4
4GB of RAM
2 x 250GB hard drives
6TB of monthly bandwidth
10 IP addresses

WP Engine has a different way of counting "visits" so there counter is much higher than that. 

Any thoughts on pricing? These specs are for an older dedicated server around $130 a month.

For a low end server sure.

 

I'm concerned you use a 120K/month figure to highlight what the server can hold. What was the thought process behind this number? I'm way over that, so I'm trying to look for some specs that can allow traffic to grow without needing to change/add an additional server.

 

Based upon what I see typical Wordpress based sites and the type of hardware you are using. It's not speed daemon. Wordpress by default is a CPU pig. Which means it's CPU bound first.

 

What scales to X does not scale to Y. You typically need hardware, and software configuration changes. Including use at the application level which means the plugins you use.

 

Finally, is switching servers as easy as snapping the fingers and having the host do so w/out any downtime? I just don't want to lose hours or a day in the process, as well as data.

No off hours and on a weekend is the smartest idea.

Thx, S

Thanks. Good question on managing the server.

Any thoughts on pricing? These specs are for an older dedicated server around $130 a month.

I'm concerned you use a 120K/month figure to highlight what the server can hold. What was the thought process behind this number? I'm way over that, so I'm trying to look for some specs that can allow traffic to grow without needing to change/add an additional server.

Finally, is switching servers as easy as snapping the fingers and having the host do so w/out any downtime? I just don't want to lose hours or a day in the process, as well as data.

Thx, S

Linode, Amazon's EC2 and my service HostCube are some options.

Though with the first two you have to manage (or find someone) to manage the server.

The hardware spec is ok, but it that IMHO is only one factor. It's not the only thing to consider. The question always comes down to:

- Who is going to manage it? System Administration? You? Unlike shared or most Virtuozzo VPSes someone keeps the software updated.  A dedicated server does not.

- Is it enough resources? I donno the amount of CPU usage you have now. It should be able to handle most 120k visitors/mo with ease.

- Is there a control panel?

1 Million a month? You more than likely will need multiple servers and/or redesign back-end parts of your site.

pingdom.com is an option to monitor at the basic level.

For those of you who love hardware, know about servers, and enjoy the subject, what do you think of the following specs for a dedicated server?

Intel Xeon X3220 @ 2.40GHz x 4
4GB of RAM
2 x 250GB hard drives
6TB of monthly bandwidth
10 IP addresses

What do you think would be a base case dedicated server spec? How would you measure the capacity of the server as well as its uptime reliability?

Obviously more RAM, a faster processor, larger HD, and more monthly bandwidth is better, but I'm trying to figure out what is "good enough" at handling say 1 million pageviews a month, and what would a reasonable pricing range be?

Thanks!

Sam