Consolidate to VPS?

[triumph]

Right now I have multiple smaller hosting accounts with different providers that I use to host my sites. They are all reseller accounts as well. One of the reasons I did it was for multiple seperate IP addresses, as well as just a level of financial and structural redundancy. I figured if something went horribly wrong with one provider I would still be okay with the other.

Now I am looking at getting a single VPS solution and I am wondering if I should still keep alternate accounts with other providers to hedge my bets, or if it makes sense to go with just one provider with a more robust solution. They also provide additional IPs for a very nominal fee, it seems, so that is no longer an issue for me either.

[monaghan]

If you want multiple IP's then check that they are on different subnets, many providers will give you sequential IP's.

If the provider is good, then a single VPS is not a problem, if the server hosting the VPS is oversold and the other hosts get busy, you'll slow down your whole group of sites.

Can you manage a server ? A VPS is almost the same as a full server, you need to setup, secure & manage the box, the control panel will only do so much, the rest is manual and down to you.

[triumph]

Is there any good rule of thumb for how many different accounts a provider has on a box versus the hardware? In other words how do I know if they are overselling it before I start using it?

[monaghan]

An easy way to tell is if the host uses XEN, this doesn't allow you to oversell.

Virtuoso is the other main offering, this does allow overselling, but you'd have to ask the supplier how they split up the resources as you don't see the rest of the server. Some oversell, some don't, I'd have thought the non-oversold ones would be more expensive, but this is not neceserally the case.

[brian]

Originally Posted by triumph

Right now I have multiple smaller hosting accounts with different providers that I use to host my sites. They are all reseller accounts as well. One of the reasons I did it was for multiple seperate IP addresses, as well as just a level of financial and structural redundancy. I figured if something went horribly wrong with one provider I would still be okay with the other.

I used to have all my sites hosted with a single reseller account with a single provider - then 3 years ago, their server was hacked and removed from the datacenter - only, the hosting provider wasn't told.

Loss of data, loss of online presence, something of a nightmare.

I would personally never host too many important sites with a single provider again.

Different IP ranges is also a decent prequisite for link campaigns for SEO purposes.

[triumph]

Originally Posted by monaghan

An easy way to tell is if the host uses XEN, this doesn't allow you to oversell.

Virtuoso is the other main offering, this does allow overselling, but you'd have to ask the supplier how they split up the resources as you don't see the rest of the server. Some oversell, some don't, I'd have thought the non-oversold ones would be more expensive, but this is not neceserally the case.

A couple of the ones I have been looking at use Virtuouso. I don't have a problem with overselling, it just depends on the degree. Do most or all VPSs burst left over resources? If so do you know how that allocation is usually managed? First come first serve?

[triumph]

Originally Posted by brian

I used to have all my sites hosted with a single reseller account with a single provider - then 3 years ago, their server was hacked and removed from the datacenter - only, the hosting provider wasn't told.

Loss of data, loss of online presence, something of a nightmare.

I would personally never host too many important sites with a single provider again.

Different IP ranges is also a decent prequisite for link campaigns for SEO purposes.

That is what I have been doing now. I have sevral reseller accounts now, and I am expanding it out. Also gives me a means to test different hosts. I have decided I am going to treat each site on its own and have a single hosting account for each major site going forward. Small low threshold accounts and sites might get lumped on an account, but otherwise each on its own and resourced based on its needs.

This may not give me the most efficient cost/benefit, but as you mentioned there are other considerations.

[brian]

Funnily enough, I have quite a lot of reseller accounts - I thought it would work out better financially to host sites in clusters like this.

However, recently I've come to realise that I could potentially cut my hosting costs by around 30% if I'd had hosted most of my sites as single shared hosting accounts - as many of my reseller accounts are only hosting 2-3 sites, which makes them not very cost-effective.

[monaghan]

We have a few customers who are essentially shared hosting, but have a few sites so we allow them reseller access but on a small shared package price plan. Seems to work well for them.