running my own server

[Pooge]

I am about to purchase the lease for the Vbulletin board. I am wondering what kind of server space i should exspect to use. i have a T1 and a computer that i plan to dedicate as a server. Any recomendations on hard drive space and memmory i should exspect to need? and is a T1 gonna be sufficiant to run a BBS?

THanks for the help, im new to this, but i learn quick

[Steve Machol]

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

(1) Web space - For the PHP scripts and images of vBulletin.

(2) 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 2.2.x consists of:
1. PHP scripts and image files in the zip file you download = 1.65mb in size once zip file is extracted and uploaded to your Web site account.

2. MySQL database space which holds the actual vBulletin data:
- On initial install the MySQL database space used is approximately 2mb, and that is mainly the database table structure and initial data in the database tables.
- 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.

[Pooge]

so I could easily run this off of my server at home on my T1 is that correct? My best friend runs an ISP so i can get hosting through him should i need it. for now i should be ok running it off my pc server on my t1 though, is that right?

Doug

[mafo0]

T1 is pretty fast, and many major networks use it . How many members will this forum be for, aproximately?

[dzeanah]

so I could easily run this off of my server at home on my T1 is that correct? My best friend runs an ISP so i can get hosting through him should i need it. for now i should be ok running it off my pc server on my t1 though, is that right?

Yep.

I'm running a decent-sized forum on a 1 Mbit SDSL line -- you've got 43% more bandwidth than I do.

I've got a bunch of posts that lay out the specs of my server, just look for my past posts. Suffice to say, if you're not serving a lot of images and you turn gzip compression on, you'll do great with a T1. And vB will scale really well too.