What kind of server should I be looking at?

[FZRaven]

So I'm looking to start a site in the next few months, I hope. I've run some small sites before, but nothing that is really that intensive. In the past I have gotten away with shared hosting, but for this I know that will not work.

I'll be offering streaming of HD materiel, along with many high resolution pictures. I don't expect my customer base to be all that large, I'm hoping for maybe 500+ members (ya I dream a lot). I know at some point in the future if the site gets big enough I'll need to start looking at CDN, but I'd like to start off with just one dedicated server. Right now I'm looking at a Dual Xeon 5660, 30 GB Ram, 4 x 300 GB SAS HD, RAID 10 with 10TB on a gigabit port. The question is how many users should I be able to stream to with this kind of setup? I'm looking at using flowplayer with pseudostreaming for now.

Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

[jordanmcclements]

How much is that sort of set-up these days?

[rickvidallon]

I will not even begin to advise on a server setup, whether it is VPS ( Virtual Private Server), Cloud or Dedicated. You should speak to a specialist. I would recommend you call Mr. Scott Butts at hosting. c o m Caveat ~ I don't get a nickle for referring Scott or Hosting. c o m . I only recommend them because I have used them for 7 years and they are better than ANY hosting company I have ever worked with to include: Crap Daddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, Rack Space, Fat Cow, Blue Host, One & One, Host Gator and a parade of others. While they are a little more expesnive than most, try to remember what your parents used to say (You get what you pay for). Period.

[alphaomega]

How much is that sort of set-up these days?
At wholesale price for me in Australia $7000.00. So to purchase one of these servers without the NAS one would look at $10000. Then is the question of placing it in a data center, data traffic and so on. Not cheap.

[erima]

I have done a lot of work with clients streaming video within the financial community.
One of the most overlooked aspects of a successful video site it the network that your server is going to be sitting on.
First, never order using an online form - talk to a live representative and make sure you know exactly how the server is provisioned.
Is it on fiber? Is there redundant data connections? Power? 24/7/365 monitoring? Security? Access control?

The server you mentioned should handle at least 1000 users. There are tools that you can use for capacity planning and load balancing when you get above that number but consider that at 1000 users you will probably have 6 - 10% utilization at any one time so the processor speeds will not be the problem but a congested network can kill you even if you only have 25 or 30 connections.

When it comes to reviewing data centers ... search the forums, search the reviews, and do the leg work. It just isn't worth it to make a mistake. You might save $50 or $100 a month only to find that you've wasted $1,000's or even $10,000's in customer satisfaction if the network doesn't perform.

One site that I am considering using for a similar project is iWeb.com.
My specifications are:

Bandwidth
100Mbps, 10,000GB Included, $0.25 x GB add.
CPU
2 x Xeon Quad Core 2.26GHz Nehalem H/T
RAM
RAM 32GB DDR3
Required Hard disk
3 x 15K SAS 6GB/s 300GB
Optional Hard disk
15K SAS 6GB/s 300GB
RAID
RAID-5 Hardware
Edit APC Port
APC Remote Reboot Port
Edit KVM / IP
KVM Over IP on demand over a 24 hours period
Operating system
Enterprise Linux - CentOS - 64 bits
Control Panel
None / SSH Only
Server Management
Managed Level 3
Edit IP
Up to 6 usable IP addresses

The monthly cost is: 619.00 - you will probably want to add a control panel if you are not experienced in system administration and I would recommend adding server management.

I've given you one provider that I am considering ... you need to have at least 3 well researched options. You can save a lot of money or you can save a lot of headaches ... but you can't do both.

Good luck!!!

Eric

[SnerdeyWebs]

Investing this much on a "dream" as you say is rather risky. It would seam wise to control the budget with something that will handle the initial setups, testing and beta traffic etc.. have some beta testers to get kinks worked out, measure traffic. Using a data center that allow sites/servers to grow with ease :)

Asking questions is right direction, project scope and requirements. Consult with a few centers and seek the complete package, support, ease of communication and not just be another number. You're dream is big and serious, it requires packaging the right deal together.

Best of luck, it's our dreams that make us unique.

[jordanmcclements]

It'll not be cheap whatever way you look at it....

Have you checked out the cloud server options?

It might be better in that you can add extra space/cpu/bandwidth etc. as and when you need it without having to move to a new server...?