[Theforum] Hosting

[Isaac Forman]

As many theforum members will be aware, evolt.org's hosting must undergo a
transition within 7 months (deadline is January 2003, courtesy of the
ever-generous Dan Cody).

I'd like to kick off this thread to check out our options and requirements.

evolt.org has the following services:

 - various lists (modified mailman, running on linux)

 - browsers.evolt.org (bandwidth-hogging archive)

 - some database-backed sites (weo, feo, etc)

 - dir.evolt.org (PHP-based directory)

 - members.evolt.org (linux afaik with lots of modifications and extras)

What was (again courtesy of Dan) a massive bandwidth provision will
undoubtedly change. As such, bandwidth usage may well become a critical
aspect.

A few quick things:

 - the total of these services are using approximately 100GB/month

 - BEO (browsers.evolt.org) is using about 85% of this

 - it may be a good option to share the services amongst a number of hosts
(less impact if one server goes down, allows us to restrict the BW-flow of
BEO, etc).


VARIOUS LISTS

I'm not sure of the data usage of the lists. However, the system in place
(Dan's mods of mailman) serves our purpose and I (personally) see no need to
change it. So, for this, we'll need a Linux box (Dan's was running RedHat),
AFAIK. Our most valuable service. Uptime needs to be a priority.


BEO

Using 85% of our bandwidth and likely to be a big future cost. Could be
throttled somehow or kept on a less-essential box. Also could use specific
sponsorship (hardware site, training provider, etc) to reduce the cost to
the community (free up donations to be used on other stuff). IMHO, it's the
least critical of our services.


VARIOUS SITES

Currently using our CF-based CMS, on Linux, with Oracle as the database.
Depending on our options, it may be feasible to shift this to
Win2K/SQLServer if an opportunity presented itself (Oracle being much more
expensive). Need to find out required space and approximate bandwidth
used/month.


MEO

AFAIK, it's on Linux with a lot of tailoring and extra services (ChiliASP,
CF, etc). Member accounts would use a lot of hard drive space. Would require
a lot of maintenance. Could become a (cheap) paid (or
donations-very-much-encouraged!) service.


DEO

Not sure of details, but could run on the same box as MEO I'm sure.


Thoughts?

isaac

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