I am 90% percent sure about signing up Linode. Make it 99%!!

I have resovled almost all confutions about VPS which are currently in my mind! But some remains..

1. I have seen on some thread that Linode 512 may be sufficient to start and their will be no problem for at least 6-9 month. Since My resources is going to be low. I am now confused about choosing LAMP or LEMP?

I dont know which will be better, for me? Apache is the thing, I know something about it. But I am totally blind about Nginx. Does Apache consumes RAM a lot in compared with Nginx. OR should I choose Apatche since most plugins are developed in keeping mind Apache, Like cache plugins.

2. Should I pay month by month or pay for a year. Since I am new and not sure abut my ability to survive on Linode. Suppose I pay for a year in advance, After 3 month if I do not wish to continue with Linode, Will i get refund of the 9 months (which i have not used). Or their is only a 7 days money back to all plans(durations).

3. Is their any way to mirror/clone (/or something similar) woedpress blog with my current host Dreamhost (shared hosting). <<failsafe>>

4. Which OS should I opt. Stability, Security, easy to configure is in my mind. I have planned to install Ubuntu but confused about version:

Ubuntu 10.04 since it is LTS and wide availability of tutorials
Ubuntu 10.10 due to available tutorials on linode and else where
Ubuntu 11.04 New fresh and have support upto 18 month from now.

This topic helped me a lot in deciding plan: viewtopic.php?p=33265

_________________
Anand Kumar,
Blog: http://www.netrival.com

I'll just answer question 2: Yes, you get a pro-rated refund, but minus the discount you receive.

Example, with a 512 prepaid for one year:

512 normal monthly cost: $20
512 discounted monthly cost: $18
One year prepay: $216
Refund if cancelling after 3 months: $216 - $20*3 = $156

In other words, if you cancel before the time is up, you get a refund as if you had never gotten the discount, since cancelling broke the benefits of the prepay to linode.

Go with what you know. A well-optimised Apache setup will work fine on a 512.


Go with 10.04. LTS, lots of support and stability are what you need on a server.

_________________
/ Peter

Just sharing some thoughts:

Does Apache consumes RAM a lot in compared with Nginx

Yes. When I used to run Apache stack, my memory usage was around 300MB immediately after reboot. Switched to nginx, and it went down to 90MB.

BTW, these numbers are from 3 years ago and the server machine was old. My sites are not high usage websites - just personal sites, 4-5 Wordpress installations and a forum.

At this moment (on Linode), my server ram consumption = 70MB.

Like I said, it really depends what you are running. I barely get ~500k hits per day so YMMV.

OR should I choose Apatche since most plugins are developed in keeping mind Apache, Like cache plugins.

Possibly. If you want the easy way out, Apache is still the way to go. Custom routings and permalinks can be a pain in nginx - this may have changed since, of course.

Just be prepared to spend some time initially configuring things.

Should I pay month by month or pay for a year. Since I am new and not sure abut my ability to survive on Linode. Suppose I pay for a year in advance, After 3 month if I do not wish to continue with Linode, Will i get refund of the 9 months (which i have not used). Or their is only a 7 days money back to all plans(durations).

Skipping this because I've done year-by-year payments. Which is dumb since I've been with Linode for years and am still paying the regular monthly prices ~_~;

3. Is their any way to mirror/clone (/or something similar) woedpress blog with my current host Dreamhost (shared hosting). <<failsafe>>

Not for free.

Your best bet may be to use the Export feature. Then move the directory over, install WP, then Import the XML file into the new database.

4. Which OS should I opt. Stability, Security, easy to configure is in my mind. I have planned to install Ubuntu but confused about version:

I stuck with the latest Ubuntu release because of the regular updates. Used to install each piece of software individually and it was a pain to keep up with updates. Then when I switched to some other distro, I always had to hunt for third party repos in order to keep up to date with certain software.

Now, I just do the whole "apt-get update/upgrade" step.

In terms of stability and security, I've not had any issues for the past 3-4 years since I started using Ubuntu. You should never depend solely on a base OS setup - you need to take the proper measures to secure your server. The Linode Documentation site has some guides for this.

Hope this helps.

M.

Then choose Apache. When you will need nginx, you will know it At least, you should read documentation and be ready to solve some issues, when you will migrate from Apache to Nginx.
Also, nginx can be front-end for Apache (if I'm not mess 'front' and 'back'), and it can help you very much.


You can pay per month and after 2-3 months (or early) take decision.


Use Debian

500k hits/day, for 4 or 5 personal websites?

What forum software are you running?

Thanks for suggestion! I will think on It! Since I do not have any credit card but have some debit cards, which got failed during transactions. I have recently tried with my Visa and Mastercard Debit cards. I will arrange CC and will make payment. and of course it (CC) cannot be arranged every month.

I am now 99.5% sure that I am going to signup. You guys added Extra .5% confidence. Thanks for reply. Keep it on for me.

I have recently attempted to signup using my debit cards, but failed to do so. Both are VBV (verified by visa) and Mastercard Secure code (MSC) enabled. Since It is mandatory in India. What should I do?? Does Linode Payment System is compatible with VBV and MSC??

Why Linode and other Webhosts (majority) do not have VBV or MSC enabled? Does Visa and Mastercard takes royalty for that? I have seen a lot of people have same problem and asking for support, in various forums. If you enable this it will be comfortable for people like me who do not have CC but debit cards.

Make me 99.9% sure!

_________________
Anand Kumar,

Blog: http://www.netrival.com

Oops, sorry. I don't know how that "k" got in. I was referring to a mere 500 hits/day. At one time, the forum had a total of 3k users online (according to phpBB), but these days, we barely scrape 100.

[quote]What forum software are you running?[quote]

phpBB.

Just a quick disclaimer: The 300mb to 90mb was from 3 years ago. For the past 2 years, all I deal with are 4-5 Wordpress installations and an almost dead forum. So the memory consumption I mentioned in my original post may not be the best gauge of how much savings you're getting today.

My point, as before, is that in my experience, nginx has been outperforming Apache since the first time I switched over

I used to handle a quarter to a third of a million DB-driven pageviews per day off a dedicated server with the same RAM and much slower CPU/disk than my Linode. Properly tweaked, you can do a lot more than most people think if your machine is pretty much dedicated to LAMP/LLMP/LEMP (without crap like SpamAssassin sucking up all your RAM)