Server Recomendations

[dshade69]

I am currently hosting my gallery on a shared host which has served my needs until now but I want to start planning for the future.  Right now I only have about 20 users, and maybe do about 4-5gb of transfer a month.  I plan on eventually opening up my server to more people and of course will want something a little better for my gallery...

Which brings me to my question.  What would you recomend for a dedicated server?  Mainly what speed cpu, single or dual, and how much memory to run say...probably 40-60 (though not all of them would be frequent users).  I do allow direct linking of images (for livejournal, etc) and that probably accounts for almost half of my bandwidth.

Thanks,

Cory

[dshade69]

Does nobody run coppermine on a dedicated server?

[Joachim Müller]

There are a lot of people who run a dedicated server to host their coppermine install on, but I guess most of them don't visit this board on a regular base, but only to look for support if they have troubles.
There's no saying what your needs will be, as it depends on so many factors. I suggest you stay with your current hosting package and make up your mind about a dedicated server or an improved hosting package when the need arises (i.e. the current setup doesn't work for you any longer), as you will be able to tell by then what your actual numbers (in terms of users, bandwidth etc.) are.

Joachim

[dshade69]

The problem is that I intend on building the dedicated server myself (probably a 1U server) and given my budget I will probably buy parts as I have the cash rather than all at once.  I was looking at the possibility of a duel opteron system but of course if that would be overkill then why spend the cash on it?  Also since i'm on shared hosting I really have NO idea what the memory requirements are like for coppermine. 

Oh well, hopefully someone that runs a dedicated setup will run across this post and have some ideas...i'm really just looking for some general stats of what does for them and about how many users they support.

[Joachim Müller]

like I said: even if a user who has experience on running a dedicated server comes across your question, he/she won't be able to answer your question, as the hardware requirements differ heavily, depending on your coppermine setup and what you're trying to accomplish. You can trust me, I'm in real life a network admin and I'm in charge of running several servers, so in fact I do have experience on running a "dedicated" server. As long as you're not more specific on your requirements, nobody will be able to help you. Buying parts of a server system every now and then for future use is not an option, with hardware cost dropping all the time. Instead, I recommend that you buy/use a regular workstation pc, set it up as server and start playing with it (set it up as server, configure it, run stress tests etc.). What is needed to run your own server is basically not hardware, but know-how and experience, and you will get that only by constantly working with your server.

Joachim