New AdminAddict Venture - Feedback Please!

I wouldn't say it's quite exactly a "web hosting business"... It's just an extra venture for us to expand on here at AA. We want to build packages with the members and tailor to the specific needs of each and every client.

We likely won't be doing very much promoting outside of the community, either. We aren't going to oversell, and we aren't going to turn this into a huge commercial money-making scheme. It's all for you guys, and to help minimally fund AA and our projects; afterall, don't most of you guys love our huge contests?

I think plenty of our members know what a VPS is and really have the need for one. For those who are uneducated, it will be our job to help them.
Here's what we envision:

• Member opens support ticket with us
• They list and describe their specific needs
• We (AA staff) work with them devising a plan/setup (whether it be shared, reseller, or a VPS) and create the custom package with them.
• Offer a pro-rated price (lower than anyplace else!) and voila - we're all golden.

-


This venture is something that we have been talking about for a long time. We've been so close to getting it "launched" several times, but backed out. We know it's a big task, but we're ready for it, and we're doing it.

 

In terms of standard features that are included with each account (whether it be a shared or virtually dedicated environment), what would you folks like to see? We're open to any and all suggestions. Please note that we run cPanel/WHM.

 

Those Packages suck imo..

On my hosting although its not just for forums i get:

Unlimited Diskspace

250GB Traffic

20 MySQL Databases

20 Subs

20 Parked

20 Add Ons

cPanel

Tech Support : Free (extremely good)

free .com,.net or .org

hosted on 16 core Intel Xeon multiprocessor servers with 32GB of ram for $35.88 a year..

 

Your current web host is severely overselling. "Unlimited" disk space (along with data transfer) simply does not exist. The features offered with each account are a bit strange - the allowances simply do not seem logical.

Dave, I failed to see your edited post (with the proposed packages). Thanks for the suggestions - I'm taking a more in-depth look at them now.

 

How can ''Unlimited'' not exist?

I mean i know it doesnt as the host has to be a total limit but even if they did and it was coming the tiny bit close they would upgrade alot..

They also allow me to go over in Database's currently i have 21/20 (i dont use the full 20 just from different things) because fantasico added another one on how ever adding one from the cPanel didnt work, i went to their tech support and told them and they said its fine go over a couple which is pretty cool..

--

Are the resellers/hosting going to be with WiredTree?

 

All accounts will be hosted on our machines, by us. We have purchased our servers from WiredTree and they are connected within their network.

 

Overselling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Allow me to put this into perspective. Does a hard disk drive with an "unlimited" storage capacity exist? Is it possible to build a machine (or network of machines) with an "unlimited" storage capacity? The term "unlimited" would imply that a current configuration would not need to be upgraded at any point in time. Something like this simply does not exist.

There is always a limit. In order to continually expand, you'd have to upgrade constantly. Doing so does not constitute an "unlimited" service.

This is a rather excellent example of a web host overselling their services.

 

I love the idea guys. Might consider moving to you if all is well

 

Thanks! We like hearing this.

I'll be presenting the community with a more in-depth explanation and outline of our plans and goals over the next day or so. Stay tuned.

 

Folks,

In terms of virtual private server accounts, what would be an ideal hosting environment for your needs? Are there any exacting specifications and requirements that must be offered (or met) before making the move over to such an environment? I'd like to get an idea of what would "make or break" a virtual hosting package for those interested.

Thanks.

 

Honestly Cris I don't have enough knowledge to give input. What I do know is my site is, for the most part, humming along nicely on a Hostgator shared account.

It would be nice if when going to a vps that I do not have the same issues the person was having when they went to a vps where it was woefully inadequate. The person I'm thinking of has a band fan site/forum/blog. Sorry don't remember the username.

The 2 things I'm interested besides getting more consistent performance is

• a separate email IP so someone on a shared server does not get my site blacklisted (if someone else on the shared server sends so many emails it looks like spam), and
• root access so I can set the full text search length to 3 in the MySQL queries.

 

Yet so many offer 'unlimited' services it's not even funny. Unlimited is nothing but a myth, one very widely used myth!

Anyways, back on topic:

There IS a way around this, though it's a bit technical and tricky.
Buy the licenses in bulk
Setup the domain for the user, and not allow them any access (cpanel/ftp/etc) to the server itself. You have to setup the forum, their email, etc, and it's a more stressful deal, but I ran this by vB a year or so ago and they said that wouldn't violate the terms at all.

Just a thought, maybe a way to offer it as a 'premium' service?

 

Thanks for the feedback, Abomination.

A large chunk of the issues in which she was experiencing was due to the resources delegated to her virtual account. This will also depend greatly on the specifications and build of the hardware server that these virtual environments are created and hosted within. If a provider decides to delegate the resources of a single server unfairly and "favor-like" to certain accounts, the others will suffer greatly. This is bad practice.

As each container receives its own resources and operating system, you will indeed receive root access to your virtual server. It's common practice for a virtual server to come with at least one dedicated IP address, so you will indeed be receiving a few of those to prevent any of the problems mentioned.

Ugh, it's absolutely ridiculous. These providers somehow "spin" the truth and entice thousands upon thousands of individuals to flow with it.

 

I should have stated that I've got no clue what resources my site needs. I could describe number of users, number of active processes, %cpu, %memory used, disk space used, bandwidth, number of databases, subdomains, and all that other stuff, but the distinct impression I'm getting is until the account is all set up there really is no way to test all the variables.

Many of those stats (%cpu/memory/number of connections) on a shared server don't translate well to vps/dedicated server. If there were better resource use tracking on a shared server that would help.

Am I wrong?

 

You're correct.

The true test is moving an account over from a shared machine to a more dedicated environment (which is, in this case, a virtual private server). It's important to keep in mind that while a virtual private server is indeed contained within its own "dedicated" environment, it is still located on a machine that is home to a few (not more) other virtual environments. You can monitor the usage of each container independently, but it's crucial to watch the overall usage of the actual server, as well.

There are a variety of factors that come into play during such a migration. Each can be dealt with accordingly after a move is made.

 

This is going to sound weird but is it possible to adjust down the resources on a vps until the site being hosted breaks or becomes less than desirable?

Then add resources until it works well?

Is AA running on a vps? What resources does it have? Seems to run pretty good!

 

That doesn't sound weird at all! It's a completely viable question.

The resources delegated to a virtual account can be adjusted accordingly if and when necessary (or desired). Depending on how the hardware machine in question is configured in a virtual sense (usually by way of Parallels Virtuozzo), one can indeed "add" to an already existing virtual environment to produce a better end product. Each container is expandable, but doing so inordinately could end badly.

If you decrease the resources delegated to an account, that will possibly end up in the failure of a container (depending on the usage of the account in question). Never really a great move to make.

Nope, we're located on our own machine with the following specifications:

• Intel Core i7 920 Processor
• 12GB DDR3 RAM
• 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache HDD (Primary)
• 250GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache HDD (Secondary)
• CentOS 5.3 (running LiteSpeed Web Server)

We are connected to a 1000Mbps port (network speed), in addition.

 

Well no wonder it runs well LOL....

I meant turning up/down resources as an experiment only, my forum is not that big or that busy, at least at this time. I've been thinking about testing a forum via some small controlled DDos attacks to simulate users on a test forum with a copy of the database. It would be interesting to know how vB and IP test their software, I'm sure they do all those sorts of things in their testing protocols.

Thanks for the input!

 

In terms as what I need right now for my small forum,
500MB disk space
5 GB bandwidth
160MB RAM

Even though I have more than that on my current host, that's all my forum uses. HOWEVER I'd like more to expand upon..

So really, I'd be looking for:
10GB disk space (not important though)
100GB bandwidth
512MB RAM

*shrugs*