Plain HTML server load

[tradewinds]

Hi,

For the hatchling plans, I know that if you're running wordpress or some other php/sql cms and a page hits the front page of a social bookmarking site like digg, odds are that the site would be toast.

I, on the other hand, will be uploading incredibly lean, pure html files with no images to boot. My site will virtually consist of plain text. How would such pages, given that they aren't as resource-intensive as database-served pages, hold up in a hatchling shared account if (by sheer luck) it hit the front page of digg?

Also, what is the limit for simultaneous http connections for hatchling plans?

Regards,

[drcarl]

I'd sure love to see the answer to this, too. What kind of hosting plan IS needed to be in place when someone gets lucky enough to have a big hit? Is there an outline on this?

Ok here is the deal with that. With the Shared Plans, you have unlimited amount of bandwidth. Really the only limitation that the Shared Plans have is a Processing Limit of 25 explained here. http://support.hostgator.com/article...rocesses-limit

[GatorJacob]

To further explain above:

With flat HTML files, you should be fine with a fairly decent flow of users, as long as your code is up to date and compliant. Even though you won't be using PHP processes, if the traffic is heavy enough through Apache there is a chance at overloading as well. This rarely happens though, as the traffic would need to be huge and non-stop.

If you're running any type of script that calls to a database, it always helps to have caching plug-ins installed, such as SuperCache for WordPress. This will help dramatically with hits from Digg and other social media networks.

There aren't any limitations with regards to HTTP connections per say. There are a few factors though.

One would be our process limit. This is 25 per user. This means that at no time can your user exceed 25 processes. If you hit this limit, you will get connection refused issues, and your website will be thrown offline with an "Internal Server Error 500" page. When your user goes below 25 processes, connections will be allowed again, and so on. The processes include cPanel connections, Apache connections, MySQL connections, FTP, and so on. Everything you do on the server runs under your user, so be aware of that.

Another factor is MySQL connections. These are included in your 25 process limits. If you're pages require a good number of database calls, and it gets a hit from a social media site, this is going to increase the CPU usage significantly.

Most users are unaware and surprised when I tell them that Hostgator.com is ran on shared limitations! This includes the 25 process limit as well. What does this mean? It really means that it's all in the coding.

If your code is lean and green, you'll be great. Your connections and processes will complete so quick you'll be able to sustain a higher flow of traffic.

If your code is big and slow (with a lot of add-ons, plug-ins, etc), there might become issues if your traffic dramatically increases.

If you know that you are going to have a big traffic surge, there are a couple of things that you can do to relieve the stress on the server. One would be to install a caching system for your script. Another is to put a flat HTML file in the place of the script. This will reduce system calls and will allow the connections to flow much better and faster, thus allowing you to handle more traffic.

Our servers are Dual-Quad Xeon E5520 Nehalem processors (2.26Ghz), with 12GB of RAM, running dual RAID5 / RAID10 arrays separating I/O on 100mbps links. These are beasts, and it takes a lot to overload these servers.

I hope this helps answer your questions!

(I'm going to bed! Night )

[striddy]

Originally Posted by GatorJacob

Our servers are Dual-Quad Xeon E5520 Nehalem processors (2.26Ghz), with 12GB of RAM, running dual RAID5 / RAID10 arrays separating I/O on 100mbps links. These are beasts, and it takes a lot to overload these servers.

Wish my reseller server had that horsepower.

[alemcherry]

HTML pages are very very light, it takes only a very small fraction of even basic php pages. I guess you should not have any problem with reasonable traffic spikes, if you are using all HTML pages.