Do I Need A Dedicated Server?

[BeachLife]

I have around 30 websites running on an old dedicated windows server. It has done it's job very well up until now, but is around 8 years old and I figure I should change it before it dies.

The websites generate between 5 and 15Gb usage per day, and are a strange mix of ASP with SQL Server, and WordPress/MySQL. I need up to 4/5 IP addresses also for SSL.

Do I need a dedicated server for the above? I could just go for another Windows Server (I know I'm running WP on Windows but whilst I am reasonably proficient in MySQL/Php I know next to nothing about Linux/Apache, and not likely to learn soon), or am I better off separating the WP sites onto dedicated WP hosting (about 15 of them), and running the remainder on a Windows VPS?

Any help offered from the experts here would be much appreciated.

 

[martin-s]

You'll only need a single IP for SSL if you're on Windows 2012, due to SNI.

 

[BeachLife]

You'll only need a single IP for SSL if you're on Windows 2012, due to SNI.

That's very useful to know, thank you. Any practical drawbacks in using SNI for ecommerce for multiple sites on the same IP?

 

[monaghan]

A half decent VPS these days will probably offer you better spec than your 8 year old server

Does the server meet your current needs or do you need something bigger & better?

Best bet is to ask your current provider for an upgrade deal and see what's on offer.

 

[BeachLife]

A half decent VPS these days will probably offer you better spec than your 8 year old server

Does the server meet your current needs or do you need something bigger & better?

Best bet is to ask your current provider for an upgrade deal and see what's on offer.

The server meets my current needs, but speed increases would be welcome. It is with 1&1 though..

The current server is an Athlon 64 3200+ with 1 Gb Ram! The entry level Webhostingbuzz server will comfortably woop its ass.

 

[philiporchard]

We've just gone over to this:

https://www.fasthosts.co.uk/cloud-servers

With 24gb ram, 1TB storage, 8vCPUs.

Seems pretty reasonable.

 

[davedevelopment]

That's very useful to know, thank you. Any practical drawbacks in using SNI for ecommerce for multiple sites on the same IP?

Just that a few older browsers/os combinations don't support SNI. You can see a list on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication), but for example any version of IE on Windows XP does not support SNI.

 

[nick-harper]

I was in the same situation a couple of months back, running a 4 year old server that was ticking over but I was still paying 4 year old prices The support had gone a bit down hill too so moved to a company that specialises in Dedicated Servers solely, I have found the difference in the newer hardware much better with plenty of room to manoeuvre if I ever need more sites / memory without constantly being on the edge!

What you could do is get a dedicated server with something like ESXi or Xenserver, create a Windows VM and a Linux VM. Move the wordpress over to Linux and put cPanel / WHM onto it and separate them off from the Windows / ASP sites.

 

[BeachLife]

What you could do is get a dedicated server with something like ESXi or Xenserver, create a Windows VM and a Linux VM. Move the wordpress over to Linux and put cPanel / WHM onto it and separate them off from the Windows / ASP sites.

Thanks. Is there much of a learning curve in getting a Linux VM running well, and securely?

 

[nick-harper]

Thanks. Is there much of a learning curve in getting a Linux VM running well, and securely?

I have just used cPanel / WHM so it is pretty much point and click and web based. It has been OK so far with a plugin called Config Server Firewall which basically blocks all of the chinese from trying to hammer the server with password guesses etc. It is a pain to get started if it blocks customers but you can whitelist.

With Wordpress, it is always good to have it up to date though with the various plugins etc.

 

[monaghan]

If you have understanding of server management and you install a mainstream server distribution such as CentOS and apply the updates when released, then it's fairly straightforward. If you don't have experience of managing and running a secure server, then it will be a much harder exercise.

Windows runs PHP very well these days, so if you are familiar with IIS and Windows it's probably not worth the effort of building and managing VM's unless you have a specific issue and need to move WP off IIS.

 

[BeachLife]

Windows runs PHP very well these days, so if you are familiar with IIS and Windows it's probably not worth the effort of building and managing VM's unless you have a specific issue and need to move WP off IIS.

Cheers, that's exactly what I needed to know.

 

[mtalk]

Why not go for fully managed VPS hosting , I use WebHost UK for many years and pretty happy with them.