Estimating Server Load

[Mardawg]

I have been asked to set up a web server and leased lines in order to begin hosting several web pages. I know technically how to do this. My questions start with how to determine what will be the best equipment for my needs. I guess what I am asking for is a resource that can teach me how to account for these issues. I would appreciate any input though.

 

[fenris]

Well, my cousin hosts web sites on computers at his house (he started his own business, let me tell you he pulls in somewhere around $2500 CDN for doing almost nothing) and I have seen his setup. He currently host about 100 low to medium traffic sites. When he first started he was using a 128k ISDN, but now that he has more sites, that is the bottle neck to the system. The hardware that he uses is basically a p2-500 with 256Mb of ram (with a second identical machine for redundancy). He told me that even if he could get a T1 or cable that the bottle neck would still be the connection to the internet. he said that for a webserver, unless you are expecting 1000 or more hits per hour then you don't need a massive machine. As far as stress testing a machine goes there are programs out there that will do this. I believe that the apache web server has some built into it.

From what I have seen, I would say that the most important part of the webserver is the harddrive speed (7200rpm+) and the ram (256Mb+).


In order to properly determine what you will need, you first have to estimate how many hits per day you expect. That is the single criteria that you use to determine the equipment to use. Remember with the price of computing these days, don't worry about overkill ie being a machine or two that has far more computing power then you require.


Good luck...