I'm looking for a host to replace my current host for the following:

1. A very low traffic web site. Environment plans are Apache+PHP+Tomcat+Mysql for right now. This may change in the future.

2. IMAP POP3 and SMTP services + some sort of webmail package.

3. Funambol sync server for synchronization between my blackberry and personal computer. Runs on Tomcat+Mysql

4. Possibly an rsync server for offsite backup of my more important files. 100 megs of data or so?


Most of this is purely for personal purposes and I do not expect to get a whole lot of traffic. I've seen that Apache and PHP can be hogs with I/O tokens, but I'm not sure what sort of usage people are seeing when they report issues.

Anyway, if anyone can give me an idea of what I should be looking at for a plan. I was almost thinking that two 256 plans might be a good idea, so I could split the services up a bit, but I don't really have a good understanding of the IO token system yet.

Thanks,
Brian

to put it into perspective for you, i started out on a 64mb plan which has been upgraded a few times and im no longer sure what i have now BUT..

When i was on the 64 this is what i was running.
Apache
Mysql
Postfix (Mail Server)
Courier (Imap and Pop support)
Php
Proftpd

and i never had a hicup with tokens or resources. I was even reselling and making some money from it..

I upgraded to a 96mb plan when i wanted to run Tomcat as well, just to aleviate the ram a bit, but still havnt had an issue
I now host about 7 sites, all low traffic but none the less.. i provide the above services for all of them, and i havnt had a problem from it.

_________________
ServerAdmin - www.our-lan.com
"Diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy whilst looking for a really big stick"
"In my experiece, any attempt to make any system idiot proof will only challenge God to make a better idiot"

aside from tomcat, you could easily run everything else on a 256 plan... that's my server's setup. i have never taken the time (at least as I recall) to optimize the http or mysql config files (maybe i am using mysql_small though.. honestly i can't remember). I ran all of that back when it was a linode 80 and things were just peachy, so it's great on the 256 of today.

the only time i did run tomcat was when it was a linode 96 (?? i forget if that's what it went to) and it honestly was very sluggish even when i killed most of the other services (a lot of io_wait as you'd expect). i'm not sure how well it would be on a 256 plan. otherwise.. i guess 2x 256 plans do give you redundency (espec if you have them located in different datacenters) but I think you'd have better sucuess running tomcat on a linode 512. Actually, I just read the tomcat faq page: "In a nutshell - if your computer has less than 128MB of ram - you will probably have trouble."

unless someone else here has a similar setup and replies, i'd suggest grabbing a linode 256 get things going, and see how she handles with tomcat up and running... if it's not too hot, kill apache/mysql/mail and see how it goes. if it's ok, then grab a second linode 256 and run tomcat on that. otherwise, upgrade to a linode 512 (easy to do with a support ticket).

Hope that helps ya.

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http://www.knehcsa.com

Tomcat on a Linode 96 was most likely sluggish because lack of RAM caused it to swap. Excessive swapping is also the most likely cause of i/o token problems - I have never has token problems unless I was doing something that caused me to start swapping really heavily.

knehcsa's suggestion is your best bet. A Linode 256 ought to be able to run your proposed setup at low traffic levels without breaking a sweat. You always have the option of upgrading if it proves necessary. Just keep an eye on your swap usage for the first few days.

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/ Peter

Well, I'm quite happy to hear that. I was a little worried about how much I was going to have to spend before, but it seems it was not really warranted.

Thank you very much for your input. Once I get my tax return in I'll most likely be setting up a linode 256.