# Server Hosting 2017



## Mike Bobbitt (3 Apr 2017)

Folks,

Our current server hosting arrangement runs out before the end of the month, so I have been looking at some options. My notes are a bit of a mess at this point but I wanted to start getting info out there and get a discussion started. This is an opportunity to review our hosting envirnment and make changes if appropriate. I will be going into further detail in the coming days, however my initial investigation has uncovered 4 major options:
[list type=decimal]
[*]SALY (Same As Last Year)
[*]Move to Canada
[*]Lightsail
[*]VPC and upgrade
[/list]
There are other small variants within these which I will explore as the list narrows. I will edit this post with details and updates on each option as they evolve.



*Option 1: SALY (Same As Last Year)*

Situation: No Change. Same servers, same environment as we are currently using. The "all in" cost including server hosting, traffic, etc. is about $300 / month for hosting. Some details:



*Front-End Server*

EC2: m3.large
7.5 GB RAM
2 CPUs, 2.5 GHz
160Gb disk based storage
64-bit architecture
Network: Moderate / 500 Mbps
Upfront price: $421 / year
Hourly: $0.035
EXPIRES: 29 Apr 2017

*Database (not up for renewal yet)*

db.m3.large
CPUs: 2
RAM: 7.5
 Net: Moderate
Reserved instance, high utilization
Database Storage: 20Gb
Upfront cost: $673 / year
Hourly: $0.048
EXPIRES: 12 June 2018



Pros

We know what works, minimal effort.

Cons

Stuff that's broken stays broken.




*Option 2: Move to Canada*

So yeah, we are currently hosted in the USA. Amazon recently opened a datacenter in Canada, but it is about 10% more for what is otherwise the exact same service.



Pros

Privacy laws, and stuff

Cons

They only offer m4.large in this datacenter, bigger than we currently have
Overall cost is +10% over US hosted servers
Migration to new datacenter required




*Option 3: Lightsail*

Lightail is a cheaper/low overhead offering: https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/



Pros

Lower cost

Cons

May not handle current load
Inability to grow
Server rebuild required




*Option 4: VPC and upgrade*

Make use of the integrated VPC to re-architect a more efficient (and therefore cheaper) solution.



Pros

Reduced cost for equal resources 
Increased networking functionality (mostly stuff we do not need at this point)

Cons

Increased platform complexity
Server rebuild required


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## sandyson (8 Apr 2017)

Is the site in the black or the red?  i.e. are we the membership paying our way or does the financial situation demand a change?
The site works fine for me.  It is sometimes a little slow but this is not an air defence situation and therefore most acceptable to this user.  What are the needed or desired technical changes?


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## GAP (8 Apr 2017)

If it's not broke, don't fix it.


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## Mike Bobbitt (17 Apr 2017)

Folks, after quite a bit of review, I have decided that Option #4 is probably the best choice. It is a fair bit more effort for slightly more performance/less cost, but it moves us in the right direction. It will certainly introduce a bit more pain in the short term while all the kinks are worked out, however long-term it will provide the most efficient and cost effective option.

Starting next weekend, I will begin building the replacement server alongside this one. I expect it will take a week to get ready and is planned to come online around the first of May.

We currently have 60 active subscribers (thanks!) for $1,800 per year in subscription funds. The server hosting cost is about $300 / month, so we are half way there already.


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## Fishbone Jones (17 Apr 2017)

$$ Inbound.


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## Kat Stevens (17 Apr 2017)

Ditto


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## Rifleman62 (17 Apr 2017)

Funds fwd.


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## Mike Bobbitt (17 Apr 2017)

Thanks all, the support helps out quite a bit!


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## TCM621 (17 Apr 2017)

Funds down range 

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk


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## the 48th regulator (17 Apr 2017)

Booom,


Funds sent



Aragh!!!!!!   :camo:

dileas

tess


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## Scott (17 Apr 2017)

Pony up, folks. Help keep this place going!


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## kev994 (18 Apr 2017)

Subscribed! Thanks for your efforts, the OUTCAN thread alone has saved me well over $30 a year in frustration.


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## Mike Bobbitt (24 Apr 2017)

Update: Work on the new server has begun in parallel. On track to have a cut-over later this week or early next.


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## Fishbone Jones (25 Apr 2017)

Did you get all the cash required, without spending your own cash?


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## Mike Bobbitt (25 Apr 2017)

recceguy said:
			
		

> Did you get all the cash required, without spending your own cash?



We got pretty close. I haven't had to pull the trigger on the "big" purchase of the reserved instance yet. Although I'm kinda doubling costs by running two server infrastructures while things are cut over, I hope this period will be short. Having said that, I just discovered that I may have to scrap and rebuild the new server ("right" this time). I am learning lots at least.


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## SeaKingTacco (25 Apr 2017)

Come on folks! Pony up- Mike should not have to dip into his own pocket.

While I prefer not to subscribe (for my own reasons) to do write a cheque periodically that (at least) equals the cost of an annual subscription.

 Maybe you don't have the cost of a full subscription right now- $5. $10. It all helps!


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## MOOXE (25 Apr 2017)

I have been in this same situation, but the opposite way. My site was slowly losing members and I would downgrade as time went on. Had to pay for two servers during the transition. I used unmanaged servers which are much cheaper. At my peak I was paying $60 per month back in the early 2000's for a Celeron config with a few hundred GB hard drive. Currently I am paying for an unmanaged Core 2 Duo E7400 2.80Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 500GB HD, 100mbit unmetered connection for USD $10 per month. Unmanaged meaning, if anything goes wrong, I have to fix it.

What I did to offset the cost was add Google Adsense to the site in April 2006. I am sure Mike is no stranger to it and without even looking I bet its been debated here. Ads suck, but tech has advanced so far that you are tracked more ways than one, everywhere. We're all used to ads, and I bet some of you reading already have ABP installed. Anyways, I implemented Adsense in a way that was unobtrusive yet present in areas you had to scroll through. Tech savvy users could block it, but the vast majority of visitors seen it. To date (25 Apr 17), Adsense has generated $4818.15.

Since I started using Google Analytics in 2008, my site has had 700,000 unique visitors. My sites daily activity between 2008-2013 was between 500-1000 and from 2013 onwards its been 200-350. 

I know Army.ca is probably 10x as busy if not more. With Adsense installed, cash would just deposit itself into a bank account. I would estimate the bill would be half way payed for and would not impact user experience.


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## Mike Bobbitt (26 Apr 2017)

Thanks MOOXE, that's good insight.

I'm actually already using Google's DFP (AdSense), which I guess underscores the effectiveness of ad blockers.  For those who are willing, I've attached a screenshot of how to disable your ad blocker, just for Army.ca.

Note: Subscribers never see ads anyway.

I did take this opportunity to review the ad settings, and I believe I have made some changes to help increase ad effectiveness and revenue. (There will not be an increase in ads, just a change in priority to in-house ads.) I'm also going to look at my AdSense settings, as I'm sure some simple changes there could help.


Cheers
Mike


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## MOOXE (26 Apr 2017)

Mike I disabled ABP prior to posting that to check if you had any ads. I still didn't see any ads. Where are they showing up?


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## Mike Bobbitt (26 Apr 2017)

MOOXE, the ads are top and bottom of just about every page. See just above the footer (starting with Army.ca Conduct Guidelines) for example.

Also a quick progress report: Firewall is in place and working on the new server. I didn't lock myself out, always a bonus. Patch to support new server confiuraton has been installed "here" on the live server, so the forums will automatically work on the new server.

Next up is to build a database server in the new network infrastructure and migrate to it. Could be some downtime involved in that but I will keep it to a minimum.


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## Mike Bobbitt (26 Apr 2017)

Thanks for your patience all, the bulk of the server migration is now complete. I did not intend to have it done until next week, but today I realized the interim architecture I had was generating much higher traffic costs due to some routing that needed to be in place between the old and new systems. Short version: waiting was going to cost me, probably a lot.

Please let me know if you discover any problems. It was a significant change, so we are likely to have some rough spots. However as an upside, the new infrastructure is [slightly] more efficient, secure, and cost effective.


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## PPCLI Guy (26 Apr 2017)

Donation sent - thanks for everything you do Mike.


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## McG (26 Apr 2017)

Mike,
I found a part of the site that is still down: http://army.ca/wiki/


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## Mike Bobbitt (26 Apr 2017)

MCG said:
			
		

> Mike,
> I found a part of the site that is still down: http://army.ca/wiki/



Thanks. Put in a quick fix, but logins to the Wiki are not (yet) working.


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## McG (6 May 2017)

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Thanks. Put in a quick fix, but logins to the Wiki are not (yet) working.


And it seems down again.


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## Kat Stevens (7 May 2017)

Been getting lots of "can't connect" and "server too busy" messages lately.


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## Gunner98 (7 May 2017)

Donation sent.

Mike, thanks for your efforts at keeping this site a daily oasis for so many!


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## Mike Bobbitt (8 May 2017)

MCG said:
			
		

> And it seems down again.



Wiki is fixed again, thanks.



			
				Kat Stevens said:
			
		

> Been getting lots of "can't connect" and "server too busy" messages lately.



I'm tracking a variety of issues here... unfortunately it's not one cause or problem but several (php module crash, server hang, and server overload). Looking into each as time permits, hopefully I can get at least one off the list this week.



			
				Simian Turner said:
			
		

> Donation sent.
> 
> Mike, thanks for your efforts at keeping this site a daily oasis for so many!



Thanks, it is greatly appreciated!


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## McG (8 May 2017)

Mike Bobbitt said:
			
		

> Wiki is fixed again, thanks.


Thank you.  Now you probably want to lock it against edits until you relink to site profiles.  It appears to be filling with a lot of spam.


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## Mike Bobbitt (10 May 2017)

Thanks. It will be easier to roll it back to a previous version than to fix it. And by "easier" I mean only a couple hours of work vs. many hours of tedious rollbacks. Thanks, random Internet jerks. :-*


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## Scott (11 May 2017)

A reminder that donations and subscriptions help keep this place going.


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