How many users can I expect to be able to allow to use my vBulletin with these Specs?

[quddusaliquddus]

Hi ,

If I have the following specs in my hosting plan:

2,000 MB Secure Disk Space

20GB Bandwidth

How many people can use my vBulletin forum simultaneously and how long will it take before the diska space runs out (in a forum with average traffic)?

Thanks

Q

[hitmancode47]

You should be able to run a fair community, cant give an exact number, but if you meet all the vBulletin minimum & Recommended specs, then you can run it quite well.

It all depends on what your server is like, etc

[quddusaliquddus]

Im intending to use:

http://www.unitedhosting.co.uk/

which is dedicated to hosting vB websites.

[Wayne Luke]

With vBulletin there are 2 different types of disk space usage:

• Web space - For the PHP scripts and images of vBulletin.
• MySQL database space - Which is separate from Web space, and you need to make sure your host gives you enough space in that department.

When you use vBulletin, you have to take into account both web space and MySQL database space. vBulletin 3.x consists of:

• PHP scripts and image files in the zip file you download = 7.0mb in size once zip file is extracted and uploaded to your Web site account.
• MySQL database space which holds the actual vBulletin data:

1. On initial install the MySQL database space used is approximately 3.6mb, and that is mainly the database table structure and initial data in the database tables.
2. Once you start posting, adding threads, members, polls, private messages, attachments, avatars etc, your MySQL database space is the one that grows and should be your main concern - MySQL disk space.

How much MySQL disk space is used is highly dependent on the type of forum you run, and factors such as:

• Your average allowed attachment and avatar size
• How many attachments and avatars you have stored in your vBulletin database
• How many private messages you have stored in your vBulletin database from members
• How many posts and threads you have and the size and variables you have set for your searchindex
• How many members you have
• How many forums you have
• And so on and so forth

For example, one installation we have seen had 5,800+ members, 40,000 threads, 662,000 posts, 70,000 private messages and 8,000 attachments. The total MySQL database size was 940MB - which comes to around 140MB per 100,000 posts. Please note that it does vary from forum to forum, so your mileage may vary.

[quddusaliquddus]

Thanks.

[maplr4ever]

1. You have a really crappy plan. (sorry, but 2 GB space plans do suck very much. my site and many others won't fit on it.)
2. How much space for your MySQL db?
3. Switch to GoDaddy, NetworkSolutions, 1&1. more for the money, and you can run a large community.

[Wayne Luke]

3. Switch to GoDaddy, NetworkSolutions, 1&1. more for the money, and you can run a large community.

Personally, I don't recommend any of these providers.

GoDaddy has limited software on many of their servers and we're constantly getting complaints about their support.

NetworkSolutions doesn't optimize their servers for dynamic applications and that will limit your growth.

1&1 limits you to a 100 megabytes per database which will last a busy site about 3 days before you have to move your vBulletin to another company.

If you're looking for a decent host provider, visit the Hosting Options forum here or at Sitepoint.com. Or you can visit webhostingtalk.com.

[RichM]

My forum had 800k posts and 22k members. Its database uses 400mb of disk space, and all of our files use around 100mb. We always encouraged people to store attachments remotely. - If you don't think this one through properly, then you could easily end up using a lot of disk space.

As for bandwidth, we used at least 60GB a month.

And just incase you're interested, my host is www.asmallorange.com

They are not the cheapest, but they don't oversell, and they do provide a very good service.

[Silver_2000]

Dont forget that shared plans often suffer from shared LOAD issues. Both CPU and IO tend to contribute to load on VB sites. Once you have a number of people hitting the site your site will be contributing to the shared load on the server. If your cohorts on the server arent nice neighbors you will see slow downs before you run out of disk or bandwidth, due to high loads.

years ago when my sites were on sharde hosting or VPS's it was common for server load to hover around 10 - which means your members will click and wait. and wait and wait

[Extricate]

A rather out of the box question, how much users are you expecting?
For example, if it's a larger subject (as for example; graphics in general) then you should be expecting more users than when it's aimed at one particular subject. Also, are you capable of increasing the storage size later on?

I've been with HostGator for some time now (a year or-so); unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited hosting - plus it's rather cheap.
Yet as with almost all larger hosting companies - don't expect support from them.

But perhaps that discussion is for another time and another thread.