Test & Improve Hosting Server

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

What is the best way to test the raw speed of a server using Linux & cPanel?

Using a website on the server is reliant on the quality of the website, so I would like to have a baseline to work to.

Also, any pointers on quick tweaks to improve server performance?

I have an 8gb RAM server with 6 vCPU's (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2660 v3 @ 2.60GHz) which hosts about 30 sites , mostly running WP, but also a few apps, all of which are really busy. not

 

[Kerwin]

What is the best way to test the raw speed of a server using Linux & cPanel?

Using a website on the server is reliant on the quality of the website, so I would like to have a baseline to work to.

Also, any pointers on quick tweaks to improve server performance?

I have an 8gb RAM server with 6 vCPU's (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2660 v3 @ 2.60GHz) which hosts about 30 sites , mostly running WP, but also a few apps, all of which are really busy. not

How much are you paying for your current server?

 

[WESH.UK]

What is the best way to test the raw speed of a server using Linux & cPanel?

Using a website on the server is reliant on the quality of the website, so I would like to have a baseline to work to.

Also, any pointers on quick tweaks to improve server performance?

I have an 8gb RAM server with 6 vCPU's (Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2660 v3 @ 2.60GHz) which hosts about 30 sites , mostly running WP, but also a few apps, all of which are really busy. not

Hi Paul

It pretty much doesn't matter if you use a single website to test it or what that website is because, essentially, there are many other factors involved too.

The tools you use to test it, how crowded the hosting company's network is, and even the time of day will all affect these things.

Cheap servers are often stacked into crowded racks and have very little bandwidth between them, so you could have an enterprise-grade server that responds slowly purely because it's on a crowded switch, sharing with 40+ other servers, and if its also on an "unmetered" connection that's also crowded, then that will also create a bottleneck.

There are plenty of variables outside of the server itself.

Did you choose a server so you could mess about with its configuration or purely to try to improve the speed of the websites?

 

[Kerwin]

If it were me, I'd ditch cPanel altogether. It is a reasonably heavy bit of software which you do not need. You can use SSH and the command line on a Linux server instead. You also save money because you won't have to pay cPanel licensing fees. This brings me to why I asked how much you are paying. You might be able to save a significant amount of money.

 

[KM-Tiger]

There is a linux command line version of speedtest.net, which will give you an idea of internet connection speed.

Beyond that the most likely thing to affect website speed is the speed of database access. There are configuration tweaks that can improve MySQL/Mariadb speed. You could run mysqltuner.pl which will give a report and suggestions.

As said, if you can ditch cPanel, do. Put yourself in charge of the server rather than the cPanel software.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

or the server alone under £50 a month ex cPanel.

I am thinking about moving away from cPanel back to Virtualmin. I do want a control panel (I know it takes resources!), but it helps managing things and also has other useful features. I also host a couple sites for clients, so need an easy(ish) way for them to get around.

Did you choose a server so you could mess about with its configuration or purely to try to improve the speed of the websites?

I chose the server for specs, supplier and probably a few other bits, but appreciate that the supplier could be like some others out there in their infrastructure setup.

A couple years ago, I used a reasonable AWS setup and that didn't appear to be much quicker, so I assume there is more to setup thank just hardware spec.

mysqltuner.pl

I will have a lool at that, thanks.

 

[Kerwin]

or the server alone under £50 a month ex cPanel.

I am thinking about moving away from cPanel back to Virtualmin. I do want a control panel (I know it takes resources!), but it helps managing things and also has other useful features. I also host a couple sites for clients, so need an easy(ish) way for them to get around.


I chose the server for specs, supplier and probably a few other bits, but appreciate that the supplier could be like some others out there in their infrastructure setup.

A couple years ago, I used a reasonable AWS setup and that didn't appear to be much quicker, so I assume there is more to setup thank just hardware spec.


I will have a lool at that, thanks.

You can get much better server specs for about £50 a month.

Intel Processors Server – High-Performance Hetzner Servers

Powerful Intel processors server ✓ High-performance ✓ Affordable ✓ 24/7 support ✓ Eco-friendly hosting

www.hetzner.com

Admittedly it doesn't use a Xeon so likely doesn't use ECC RAM but the rest should be a fairly big upgrade. You just need to add the cost of cPanel on top.

Edit: Use the free plan for Cloudflare CDN and you'll be in a really good position.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Thanks.

 

[WESH.UK]

A couple years ago, I used a reasonable AWS setup and that didn't appear to be much quicker, so I assume there is more to setup thank just hardware spec.

There is indeed. AWS outsource there hosting to many of the Paragon Internet Group hosting platforms too. (Loads of bad reviews about those)

We wouldnt dream of offering a server for £50... Consider the cost of the server itself, then the data centre cost to run it, software costs and staff costs, then add in profit margins, and then ask, how much exactly do you think that server really cost the hosting company?

That CPU family has 10 cores, so it sounds like you're likely paying not for a VPS server, not a dedicated Server, especially given that price too.

Be worth asking them exactly what your CPU time allowance is, and what connectivity your VPS has, and what physical hardware it's actually running on, because a VPS is really not ideal for live production where performance is desirable. It's an operating system, inside an operating system, inside an operating system...

 

[webhostuk]

or the server alone under £50 a month ex cPanel.

I am thinking about moving away from cPanel back to Virtualmin. I do want a control panel (I know it takes resources!), but it helps managing things and also has other useful features. I also host a couple sites for clients, so need an easy(ish) way for them to get around.


I chose the server for specs, supplier and probably a few other bits, but appreciate that the supplier could be like some others out there in their infrastructure setup.

A couple years ago, I used a reasonable AWS setup and that didn't appear to be much quicker, so I assume there is more to setup thank just hardware spec.


I will have a lool at that, thanks.

If you feel things are getting slow.. for cpanel server you can have cloudlinux & litespeed combination.. with some optimization and image compression techniques used for wordpress, things can considerably get much faster than you see it right now. Wordpress websites do require some sort of optimization to improve performance. Its not always the server to blame.. Whats the network speed for your server?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

AWS outsource there hosting to many of the Paragon Internet Group

I never knew that!

Whats the network speed for your server?

Do you mean bandwith?

I will say, with similar setups on AWS and this VPS, the results appear similar - OK speeds, but not lightening!

 

[webhostuk]

I never knew that!


Do you mean bandwith?

I will say, with similar setups on AWS and this VPS, the results appear similar - OK speeds, but not lightening!

Yes .. upload download limit, most provider offer 10Mbps or 100Mbps network speed, we offer our customers 10Gb/s.

Drive also matters are they SSD or NVme ... NVme VPS servers offer fastest read/write, which make sure many other task on the server like backup / data-transfer is done quit quicker than standard HDD or SSD.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

It is NMMe and not sure of connectivity - will check!

 

[webhostuk]

It is NMMe and not sure of connectivity - will check!

NVMe is pretty good .. In that case individual site optimization and litespeed & cloudlinux should help alot in server performance.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

litespeed & cloudlinux should help alot in server performance.

Thanks for this.

I think the first step is looking at Litespeed and then jumping to Cloudlinux, if necessary.

Is Openlitespeed a good place to start/try?

 

[webhostuk]

Thanks for this.

I think the first step is looking at Litespeed and then jumping to Cloudlinux, if necessary.

Is Openlitespeed a good place to start/try?

As of now never used Openlitespeed will check it.. thank you for sharing.