Switching to linode

There are way too many variables there to make any reasonable guess about what size plan you'll need.

Linode gives you a Linux server with an internet connection. It's up to you (or someone acting on your behalf…) to install the software you need, configure it, maintain it, etc.

Wordpress is generally pretty easy to optimize. Forum software is a little tricker, since it doesn't cache well.

I'd probably start with two (smaller) linodes, one running your database, the other running your web server. That way it's easier to have more granular control over what needs to be upgraded.

Upgrading plans is very easy in the control panel. It does require your node to be shut down while its disk images are being copied to a new host (this only takes a few minutes, depending on how much data you have).

Check out the articles in Linode Library to get a feel for what you're looking at in terms of installation and maintenance.

~JW

@junwen21:

Because from what I can understand it seems like linode starts from scratch ?
There's a learning curve to be mastered - but it's NOT rocket science.

Between the Linode articles, the Linode Forum, Google and a little bit of brain sweat it's a doable project.

Just keep detailed documentation on how you setup/config YOUR site, and backup, backup, test the backup, and then backup some more, and you should be fine.

i wouldn't be surprised if a 512 could handle all of that.

it comes down to how many users will be hitting your system at any one time.

Thanks for your inputs everyone!

@JshWright:

I'd probably start with two (smaller) linodes, one running your database, the other running your web server. That way it's easier to have more granular control over what needs to be upgraded.

~JW

This is interesting, is it possible to "share the load?" Is this like running multiple VPS under one domain name? That does seem like a very attractive option to me. Is there a guide I read more about this?

and yeah the upgrading and copying files doesn't seem like a bad thing, unless it a day or something, but it's not, so it's good.

Thank you guys, I am thinking about buying the cheapest linode service to make sure I understand how things work before I make a real switch.

You don't need to copy the files yourself during an upgrade. Your linode gets copied automatically during the process.

I would use one linode for your web server, and another linode for your database server. They wouldn't be "sharing" the load, each one would be responsible for different parts of the process.

Thanks a lot, I'm slowly but surely learning alot about this VPS stuff. Pretty cool.

Anyways, here a few more questions I'd like to ask….

1) Which Linux distribution is good for what I'm doing? I'm actually new to linux so ubuntu is probably better overall? Is it possible to switch the distribution so that the server might seem a bit more "optimized" for what it's supposed to do? Or is ubuntu already at what I'm trying to run: (as posted initially) video streaming + downloading, php + javascripts + forum ? Can I copy over the stuff to the new distribution and stuff?

2) looking back at my webhost, is there any thing I should be aware about that I should not forgot? I've configured the email system to google apps, is there anything I should do about that? There's probably a guide on this, but I haven't found it yet….

3) So I'm probably going to start small, and scale what needs to be scaled, however how fast can I scale it down or up?

4) What do you guys think of this website? I plan on following this.

http://vpsbible.com/vps-setup-guides/ub … tup-guide/">http://vpsbible.com/vps-setup-guides/ubuntu-nginx-vps-setup-guide/

Ahhhh this VPS stuff seems very interesting, I hope you all will bear with me, I'm very nervous about this switch.

Thank you!

With different Linux flavours it really comes down to personal preference.

Ubuntu has the most up to date packages, and there is a lot of information on the web for setup/security.

Centos is rock solid and stable, but the packages tend to lag…. a lot. There is a lot of information and tutorials in the linode library for either of these two OS's.

Once you have a distribution installed, you can't simply 'SWAP' without re-installing and reconfiguring your software.

Just pick one and go for it, you will not notice a speed difference between well configured distributions.

Scaling the system is simple, your linode is powered down and migrated to another server and then rebooted, the average down time is about 12 minutes from shutdown to reboot.

@fiat:

With different Linux flavours it really comes down to personal preference.

Ubuntu has the most up to date packages, and there is a lot of information on the web for setup/security.

Centos is rock solid and stable, but the packages tend to lag…. a lot.

They do lag, you could argue either way whether that's a good thing or not.

However, if you want more recent Centos builds you can use the remi builds, or even newer remi test builds.

Or even Centos Plus.

More info:

http://blog.famillecollet.com/pages/Config-en

I've used remi to install mysql-5.5.9

… sometime soon (honest!) there will be CentOS 6 :-)

@fiat:

Ubuntu has the most up to date packages, and there is a lot of information on the web for setup/security.

Centos is rock solid and stable, but the packages tend to lag…. a lot.

I'd like to throw in Debian, which is my favorite distro for servers. Debian just as rock solid and stable as CentOS, and the current version (6.0) comes with packages which are nearly as up-to-date as the latest version of Ubuntu. In other words, you get the best of both worlds.

A few more benefits of Debian over Ubuntu: (1) Most of the tutorials written for Ubuntu also work with Debian with little or no change, because Ubuntu is based on Debian after all. (2) Ubuntu stashes a large number of packages in its "universe" repository, which is not officially supported. Packages in "universe" often do get security updates, but there's no guarantee. On the other hand, Debian officially supports all of its packages throughout the lifecycle of a stable release. (3) Ubuntu upgrades are known to break from time to time, especially in the first few days after a new release. With Debian, this never happens. You could even upgrade a few weeks before the official release and it'll probably work just fine.

YMMV, of course. Please don't start a flame war.

@hybinet:

A few more benefits of Debian over Ubuntu: (1) Most of the tutorials written for Ubuntu also work with Debian with little or no change, because Ubuntu is based on Debian after all. (2) Ubuntu stashes a large number of packages in its "universe" repository, which is not officially supported. Packages in "universe" often do get security updates, but there's no guarantee. On the other hand, Debian officially supports all of its packages throughout the lifecycle of a stable release. (3) Ubuntu upgrades are known to break from time to time, especially in the first few days after a new release. With Debian, this never happens. You could even upgrade a few weeks before the official release and it'll probably work just fine.

YMMV, of course. Please don't start a flame war.

I dispute your second and third points. It's true that "Universe" packages are community-supported rather than supported directly by Canonical, but it should be noted that that is the equivalent to all Debian packages. Debian is not a single company taking responsibility for the maintenance of all 29,000 packages. It's also true that Ubuntu upgrades don't always go perfectly smoothly, since if you're upgrading between LTS releases there's a two year jump in software versions that can cause configuration issues that the administrator needs to resolve, but to claim that the same thing is not true of Debian (also on a two year release cycle) is disingenuous: it has the same problems. It's not perfect.

In fact, Ubuntu gives you more flexibility in this regard; Ubuntu LTS releases are supported for five years (versus three for Debian). If there is a concern about kinks being worked out of a new release, there's plenty of time to wait.

Whoa.

A little bit outside my range of knowledge here… Thanks for the insight guy!

I think I'm going to choose ubuntu since there's a huge community to help out incase I do need help.

To be more specific, ubuntu LTS ( and not the 64 bit), does that sound alright?

And another thing… how hard is it to switch from a single VPS to multiple multiple VPS? As JshWright wrote, it's probably better to see where an area needs to be scaled, which sounds good. However I have absolute NO IDEA how to do that. There's a "web server" and a "database" how would I configure those? Also I hear having an email server is good, so somewhere down the road, can I "rip the email scripts" and place them inside this a new linode and run it there? How smooth is the transition?

Also can I have a VPS for just downloading stuff, like I said, I'll be running a video downloading and streaming, so I'd like to isolate that so I can get the most bandwidth and stuff out of that one linode…

THANK YOU !!!

Choose ubuntu lts (10.04) 32 bit, 64 bit uses more ram and you probably don't need it's benefits.

How "hard" something is all depends on your experience, confidence and set up you have.

In theory to move a database to a second vps you set up the vps, shut down your database, dump the database, restore it to the new one, change you web apps to point to the new server, start your new database and you're done.

Of course the more vps you have the more work it is to administer.

The linode library has tons of guides on how to set up for various scenarios or you could hire someone to do it for you.

Email most people tend to agree for small setups it's a good idea to out source to somewhere like google apps if you plan on sending and receiving email.

For just sending email postfix and exim are easy to set up the library has guides.

You can have a dedicated VPS as a content delivery server but you might find cheaper solutions from a dedicated CDN.

FYI bandwidth is pooled across linodes.

32 bit it shall be then.

Hey do you know any place I can ask for help setting up the server incase I do need it? I'm going to follow every step I can according to the guides.

Also, do you have a guide I can read on about moving from a single VPS to the 2 linode web and database server? I looked in the library but could not find any titled "web and database server" specific to what I want. I see "Multiple Web Servers with ProxyPass " but I don't eve know what proxypass….sorry, I hope that you guys will bear with me.

Thanks for letting me know about the gmail apps thing. Yes, I will be sending and receiving mail then so I use gmail.

As for dedicated CDN, any recommendations? This is the first time I've heard of it… Does linode have one?

Again, thank you for all your help, I am learning SO MUCH here..

Well you generally ask on the linode forum for help.

I dont think the library has guides on splitting services, however it's not hard you basically install the database server on one server, web server on the other as per the normal guides and then point your app to your new database server (using the internal ip address).

No linode doesn't have a CDN, check out amazon s3 and have a google.