Server Load And Traffic Streamlining

[anthony]

For now one full month after dropping the search cloud terms that used to show on the bottom of all pages, now clearly shows a better demographic result, less non-relevant traffic for the server to deal with, and well... hopefully now more longevity for this server before needing upgrade.

Basically, dropping those terms ditched our traffic range from 5k - 10k daily to 5k - 7k daily. This has rounded out the new visitor to returning visitor ratio from 75 / 25 to 70 / 30. 5% is quite significant in the scheme of traffic for return, as most websites are around 75 / 25 - 80 - 20, so getting it below those figures allows more targeted and relevant traffic, thus the right people on the site and not the wrong.

Seeing these current changes impact on overall server load, I think we may have bought ourselves beyond the million post mark now, and possibly well into the 1.25 - 1.5 million range before needing upgrade. If the traffic doesn't change too rapidly with the growing posts, then all should be well which keeps things as cheap as possible overall.

 

[BigBear]

Extremely helpful analysis!

 

[anthony]

It's always pretty much a balancing act.

 

[BigBear]

I've been in IT for almost 25 years now. I GET balancing acts!

 

[anthony]

Then this stuff may interest you... we use the Flex Express at present, which is the entry level dedicated package. It hums along with little issue: [DLMURL]https://www.servint.net/v_dedicatedservers.php[/DLMURL]

We use 32Gb of RAM due to search functionality used here, which is ElasticSearch, thus allows far better searching than MySQL does, and obviously decreases a lot of queries to the DB as an independent search database. This single change really allows this forum to function on a smaller CPU and basic HDD.

I have three realistic options at the next upgrade interval, being:

1. If the read/write becomes the focal issue of increasing the CPU and RAM from access times, then I could use ServInt's new SolidFire SSD cloud storage system, which introduces both automatic RAID + SSD read / write under a single cost. That will change here to about $340 a month, as there are additional costs for IP's and WHM, from memory, rounding out the $11 difference.
2. Change to the Flex Pro V3, which is a far superior CPU than the current, introduces RAID1 and also upgrade to the 15k SAS drives for half the SolidFire cost with more than double the storage, rounding out monthly costs at $360, or
3. Flex Pro V3 with the SolidFire entry level, thus giving pretty much a server that would not require any further anything until probably the 5 million post mark. That would put the monthly cost around $410.

Option 2 is the most likely, however; shifting to cloud SSD that delivers multiple RAID options, redundancy, performance, so forth, is very tempting for overall performance. It will really come down to what the traffic is like at upgrade time and whether it has increased significantly with the new content, or whether the usage is still around the same, and just the content here has increased. If the latter, then the cheaper solution wins. If the former, I think performance must be factored, though shifting to 15k RAID1 will still do that anyway.

Maybe they've just gotten rid of mechanical drives by the time we need to upgrade here!!! :coffee:

 

[BigBear]

As a suggestion, people often price themselves out of the market. Suppose that when you see the upgrade requirement getting near, you push monthly up to the expected level several months in advance. That way you can try to verify that the support exists before committing the money.

Users harassing me... as if they should be my first priority... LOL. More later.

Bear

 

[anthony]

Yes, I do factor such things already. Members don't see unsightly medical ads or such plastered all over the site... if the support didn't exist, then I would simply have to turn that way to keep the site online, or shut it down... either or.