Recommendation for VPS host in Australia? My Revo site needs to fly!#

Hi there, if anyone down in Australia is getting good results with Revolution, I would be really grateful if you could let me know which host and package you are on.

I've got an Evo site on Netregistry shared business hosting but the service is becoming unreliable. What's worse is that I am testing a new Revo version of the site which is much more efficient but the server does not appear to handle it - php execution times to load cached pages are anywhere from 0.7 - 3 seconds which is not good enough.

Currently I'm looking at a low level VPS with Netregistry, Crucial and Micron 21.

And... this is a general question but is .5GB RAM going to be enough (for Revo) or will that leave me struggling? Current traffic is 300-500 hits / day but increasing steadily.

Hi Lucas,
I have a few preferred hosting companies, but I'm always keeping my eye out on the Whirlpool Forums on Web Hosting: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/116 as they are a mine of good information about hosting companies, with regular and up-to-date feedback. You can see which ones are troublesome, which ones respond to issues, and hear peoples experiences using different providers. (Don't forget to factor in that some people are just never happy!)

When looking at new hosting packages, always check it meets the Revo server requirements page (http://modx.com/revolution/developer/requirements/ and if in any doubt whether the package can meet these requirements, just email them. If your package can meet the minimum requirements, then you shouldn't have a problem with your traffic at all. 500MB RAM is ok for a webserver on a VPS, but if you get busy, you could find its not enough. Just make sure you can upgrade/add more.

My own experience in over 10 years of building websites has shown that good hosting companies can go bad, and bad can very occasionally become good, but of the good ones, only a few stay that way for a long time - so it pays to do your research as much as possible. Personally, I've been enjoying the hosting of VentraIP a lot lately, and also Netlogistics. But don't take my word for it - read the forums and get other peoples opinions too!

Hi crunch - thanks for the advice. I have already been trawling through Whirlpool and have approached some hosting companies based on what I've found there, but really wanted to hear from someone who has had good results with Revolution.

Will look in to the two you've suggested, thanks again!

Depending on how you plan to use the server and how it's configured a 512MB VPS may be perfect for your needs, or you may need something more powerful.

A great example, one of our providers offers a 768MB VPS on xen, however matching 768MB server with another provider using Virtuozzo runs "better" (better memory usage so it supports more accounts if we wanted).

The question of how to configure PHP also comes into play (DSO vs phpsuexec) which is dependent on if you plan to resell space on the server. You have more "issues" with DSO if reselling space vs phpsuexec, but the memory usage is even further reduced.

Anyways, back to your question of providers... Do you specifically want an Australia provider, or would a server in Los Angeles, California work for you? There are more options for LA, and the connectivity is respectable (from what I understand).

Oh, I almost forgot! Do you want a control panel (cPanel/Plesk) and what level of management (No/Semi/Full)? Root Access required?

You also might want to look into using an alternative web server.

http://www.cherokee-project.com/
http://nginx.org/

Some very helpful responses here, thanks all!

@AMDbuilder - I'm not looking to resell but really want a decent server that is going to run my Revo app smoothly, allowing for one or two additional but much smaller sites to reside on the same machine. It's just not happening on a shared host. What I'll do is start off with 512Mb as I can always upgrade if that's not cutting it.

And - there are really some amazing packages for those based in the US or Europe. I'm in Europe myself but the audience for these sites is 99% Australian. The server really needs to be down there.

Hello Lucas,

It sounds like a small 512/768MB VPS server should be just the ticket. I would recommend looking into Site5 (http://www.site5.com/vps/normal/ ), the offer a 768MB VPS server starting at 68/mo. I normally recommend WHM/cPanel, however you may find MultiAdmin/SiteAdmin easier to use.

I would recommend working with your current provider to determine your normal memory usage, as you may want to implement some serverside caching/acceleration to help with any traffic spikes.

Hadn't realised Site5 had a Sydney based server, thanks for pointing that out. Actually, their packages look quite reasonable - PM me if you have an affiliate link

To follow up, I went with Site5's 768MB VPS1 and Revo performance is much better than before.

However I've just asked to have APC installed for opcode caching, and the response from Level 2 support was that MODX 'will not run on this server and will likely run out of memory and crash during installation.'

Seeing as my site is running fine this does not seem right. Is this really the lower limit for Revolution or is he just plain wrong? If not, I'm keen to let the guy know!

Luke

I'm glad to hear things are running better!

The problem isn't going to be with MODX & APC, the two can coexist without any problems, however without reviewing the server stats, I can't comment as to if that configuration will present more problems (/consume more memory than you have).

You could try asking if a VPS2-3 would be able to run that configuration.