Fetchie website hosting expertise

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May 2019
3:51pm, 15 May 2019
31,384 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
I don't know if there's another thread for this already, but this is to supersede the "SERIOUSLY FETCH, SORT IT OUT..." which as Fetch said is really unnecessarily shouty and while it used to be useful for bringing something urgently to Fetch's attention, we have much better ways now (the Help/Feedback page when site is up but with probs, or Facebook / Twitter if site is actually down). Anyhoo…

Specifically, I think there must be many Fetchies who know about, and possibly could even offer(?! At mates' rates?!) resilient and performant server hosting?

I have some knowledge, but mostly work with large corporates where £1,000,000 a year is the cheap option, so might not be a very good sounding board, but will chip in what I can.

Does anyone else techie want to chime in?

I'm thinking that web hosting nowadays should be able to offer (at no extra cost - or implied in the service)
:-) High availability - system should be across multiple servers (or preferably virtual servers which are distributed across dozens of physical blades, power supplies, disks, network boards etc. or other hardware)
:-) Scalable performance - when hit with high volumes (e.g. end of month or other peaks like large file imports or something) that system shouldn't grind to a halt but should scale flexibly to accommodate the peak.
:-) Zero outage maintenance - for planned changes e.g. operating system or database version upgrade, hardware upgrades, patching etc. should all be possible without taking the system down.

I've got one mate who runs some smaller websites, so I'm going to start asking him. But harnessing the power of Fetchies, anyone got any top connections?

:-) G
May 2019
3:53pm, 15 May 2019
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Homer
I may be like you HG, only really at corporate stuff
May 2019
3:59pm, 15 May 2019
31,386 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Actually, hope Fetch doesn't mind me suggesting Fetch-sourcing some quotes. I don't think he would.

Yeah Homer, banks and financial institutions tend to be concerned if the price tag is less than 7 figures. I don't think that would help Fetch much! :-) G
May 2019
4:06pm, 15 May 2019
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oumaumau
Therein lies the problem though HG, I think Fetch is really a fixed cost hosting sized operation. You can have any availability/throughput you want or need at a cost.
For instance a friend runs an Amazon hosted service - they had a large import to do over a weekend, so ramped up their resources to cope and were promptly served with a 25k bill Monday morning...
Ian seems pretty 'cost-sensible' I'd be surprised if there's much better available for the cost - also bare in mind the strength of ongoing relationships in terms of support/maintenance timescales.
May 2019
4:58pm, 15 May 2019
21,849 posts
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fetcheveryone
For anyone interested, here's the package we began with at Positive:

positive-internet.com

Our current machine has 64Gb of RAM though.

I pay bi-annually, so the rates are a bit better than those stated.
May 2019
5:33pm, 15 May 2019
31,387 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Thanks for that Fetch. Was going to be my next question.

oumaumau - yip, agree, and there may not be anything better but just thought we could put the feelers out. I'd rule out AWS (Amazon) and Azure or other "cloud" platform services exactly because of the lack of control over costs, which vary with usage. But I think a more "modern" hoster will be offering their "servers" as virtual, which has more inbuilt resilience.

Having said that, if they are carp at managing their virutal environment, then you still suffer - just not from disk failures and upgrades to your specific machine's OS, but general infrastructure supporting the virtual environment, and the maintenance of the software on it. And actually additional risk of c*cking up the virtual instances too.

Just spent some time with a pal who hosts a few dozen wesites for various different clients and he's not optimistic about finding anything cheaper and better. But I'll dig a little further. :-) G
May 2019
5:35pm, 15 May 2019
31,388 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
One more question Fetch, approx number, type and duration of failures over say last 2 years?

e.g. 4 - 1 disk, one OS, 1 power, 1 hoster's own internet etc. Usually fixed within 30 mins, but one either completely out or almost unusable for users for 2 hours, one 12 hours etc.

If you'd rather fmail me that stuff obv. It's just for beating up any potential providers I converse with. And by the way, my name is Bob and I'm enquiring on behalf of my own website bobnoone.com :-) G
May 2019
6:24pm, 15 May 2019
21,851 posts
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fetcheveryone
In all honesty, I haven't kept a record - but much of the recent issues we've faced have been exacerbated by the fact that we were on a 32-bit OS, which limited the amount of system resources that could be utilised. Today's work moved our database onto a 64-bit system, although there's still work to be done there to transfer everything fully into the new system. Lots of data.

And that's one of the key factors for me. Moving to any other third party server requires the transfer of not just a lot of data, but also a lot of expertise that both me and the folks who manage our server have built up over a 12 year business relationship. Yes, they don't always get it right, and neither do I; and sometimes hardware failures make fools of us all. But despite this, I do really trust their on-the-ground support team. They've always talked to me on a level; they were very understanding when the Hearst rug disappeared from under my feet; and by-and-large, it's felt like a safe place to be.

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm not looking to change our server just now. But I am very grateful for the sentiment and support from Fetchies, and I hope that we'll see some decent server performance from here on.

Brb, something's flashing ;-)
um
May 2019
6:30pm, 15 May 2019
933 posts
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um
HappyG - I posted this the other day on the podcast site :
- hosting services : last time you sent details (2+ years ago?) your server deal seemed very attractive (ie cheap), and I'm sure the very occasional downtime is more of a pain to you than us. But you could consider getting a free quote from (eg) Amazon or other main stream players to see if there's any good reason to think of changing (if the effort to record server, storage & internet traffic isn't too onerous) - at least to check what's out in the market. (athough I suspect Amazon, like Google also has a 'start cheap/free and get sucked into £££ later' marketing approach)

Fetch's rate still seems attractive - but if it's no issue to Ian (and no embarrassment caused with the current service provider), it would seem to make sense to get a few comparative quotes, or to see what 'near high availability' would cost. But (and I also come from a large enterprise background), most suppliers have the business model above ... start low/free & add on £££ later when the client starts having 'extra needs'.

Ian -besides the hw spec etc, do you have any limits or costs on network traffic? Or is it grouped under 'data'.

But happy to help in any way ...
um
May 2019
6:37pm, 15 May 2019
934 posts
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um
X-post with Fetch's ...

Ian - repeating the offer of a 'sounding board' if ever you want to bounce ideas of people, rather than any direct action. I'm sure there's a few more knowledgeable people out there.
Or even a small 'test group' if you want any changes bltzed by a small audience before full release.

And I know we're used to 24x7 access, but I'd suggest we could all survive any planned downtime for maintenance, db upgrades etc. Just means (as others found today) a walk, a longer run, a surprise trip to the pub etc etc

So - happy to help - but NOT WANTING TO INTERFERE if it's not needed or wanted ;-)

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