Allow to use lot of space and bandwidth

Hi

Im trying to figure out a good place to host my files - images/photos/video/data etc for my website -though the website itself would be hosted elsewhere. Looking just for a storage location - even for my blog's images etc. May use some server-side scripts though.

But is it true that DH wont allow users to pass the 5GB space mark or be banned for using too many resources - like resource abuse if one tries to use too much space/BW ?

Anjanesh Lekshminarayanan

DH has stated before that they have customers that are using the full space/bandwidth. You don't get cut off for simply using what they give you.

Are there restrictions? Of course--just like there are with every shared host out there. That's why it's called shared hosting... you have to share.

I think you'd find most people that have a problem is because they're hogging the CPU with inefficient coding, rather than just simple downloads.

I'd say this: If you can't stay within the resources that are available at Dreamhost, it's probably time to spring for a dedicated server. There's a 97 day money-back period, so it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

Yeah, I don't think we've ever heard of anyone getting any grief over disk space or bandwidth. The only things we hear about are cpu utilization and once in a great while, open connections.

Thing is, I may want to use 5GB or more space but hardly any bandwidth as I wont have many visitors initially.

I would be using another preferred-host (which is not economical for more space) to put-up my website.

Anjanesh Lekshminarayanan

Disk space is the easiest thing to use up without running into trouble. There are people that back up their computers to their hosting accounts.

In reply to:
There are people that back up their computers to their hosting accounts.

- Thats really interesting.

But does DH actually allocate 150GB ? Or does it rely on the fact that most customers will not use their resources ?

And for 2yrs L1 costs $191 - but the with $97 promo it's coming down to less than half the cost ! How does this really work ?

Anjanesh Lekshminarayanan

Just do it!

Both. Hosts oversell--but DH has the money and hardware to back it up.

The promo code deal is real. It's only good for the initial sign-up, so they count on people staying beyond the first year at normal price.

It is in the affiliate program and is only valid for first sign up, and to keep you stay they awarded up to 2.5 GB space/week and up to 40 GB bandwidth/week depending on your plan. Check this out.

As for performance issues, if you use dynamic pages on your site you may consider the design of your code. I just come up with conueries, that is amount of connections against queries for database. Look here for conueries.

Dino

In reply to:
But does DH actually allocate 150GB ? Or does it rely on the fact that most customers will not use their resources ?

Here's the current info from my account:
Total Disk Space Provided: 496688.000 MB ($0.10 / MB over)
3 Day Average: 50.1 GB
Currently Using: 44.0 GB
Estimated Average Usage: 48.3 GB (at end of billing period)
Estimated Overage Charges: $0.00

(the majority of my storage comes from computer backups)
I didn't have to ask to be able to use that much space, just started uploading stuff. Does DH actually have the storage on hand for every account to use it's full alloted space? No. DH uses NFS (network file server) for storage needs. As I recall they keep usage at something like 75% or something. It's a balance between making good use of the hardware they have and keeping the resources available to customers. When things start getting full they will simply add on new arrays.

The largest site on my account uses 2.5 GB of storage and will use something to the tune of 23367.027 MB bandwidth this month. DH has never complained at all about that usage. It's a MT blog, which creates all HTML pages, and only access the database to do rendering when rebuilding the site (for a new entry, or site redesigns)

Hope this info helps.

--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

Thanks for your reply. I guess there are too many of both sides. I was doing a search on WBT and some have reported that their a/cs got suspended after using 500GB or space ?

Anjanesh Lekshminarayanan

First off, I use in excess of 200gbyte of storage on my account. No problems so far (and I don't expect any).

OF COURSE they rely on the fact that most customers will not use their full resources at THIS point in time. The setup is such that it doesn't really matter, though; If suddenly 100 users decide to use all their resources, they can still add disks fast enough (and without interruptions in service). It certainly isn't a setup where a single server can only accomodate a tb of space or some such nonsense.

It wouldn't make much sense to "allocate" 150gb of space to any user if all that space is, essentially, free :)

(I am on a L1 plan with a 70% disk space increase/1 IP promo code :)

Do you have any actual links for that ?

500GB is more than is included in the L1 plan; if they used 500gb on those, they'd have had to pay overage fees. You also have to realize that these are shared servers; hitting your allocated space and bandwidth limits (and not violating the ToS by, for instance, hosting illegally copied materials) is not a problem, causing your servers to crash or using more than your fair share of CPU resources, however, is.

Thanks - this is something Im definitely going to recommend to my client - and maybe even I'll take this sometime very soon.

Anjanesh Lekshminarayanan

In reply to:
causing your servers to crash or using more than your fair share of CPU resources, however, is.

I think this point is very important. Most of the 'My account has been suspended' complaints we see on this forum are related to badly coded and/or mis-configured scripts using excessive system resources, which obviously causes problems for others on that particular shared server. The other common reason for account suspension is distribution of suspicious content. wink

I've never heard of someone having an account suspended for using too much disk-space or bandwidth.

Mark

People seem to either have trouble understanding *shared* hosting or get upset that their accounts were disabled and don't tell the full story.

As with any shared hosting there's limits on what you can do on the server. The commonly advertized limits are space and bandwidth. But there's also limits against running servers or other persistent processes. This type of software constantly runs on the server eating up cpu time and memory regardless if someone's using your site. There's limits on how heavily you can bombard your mysql server.

For instance, people often don't realize that wordpress (by default) access it's database and makes the server render a new page every time a visitor clicks a link. This is great for a small site, it keeps updates published with out difficulty. The problem comes in when your site gets hit up with a lot of traffic. If a default wordpress installation got farked or digged it would probably crash the server. That's not fair to the other people on your shared server, so all hosts limit your CPU time use.

So yeah, you could use only 500mb of space and get your account disabled for using to many resources. Perhaps part of the problem is that DH doesn't set specific limits on the amount of CPU time you can use, or the number of connections to the mysql server. DH starts to limit things when you're adversely effecting the server or other users.

DH also doesn't just shut down your account if you use up to much space. They may well disable the website that's causing the problems while they contact you about fixing the issue. Support is happy to help you work through the issues and 'streamline' you website. There have been a few issues where a site started using a lot of resources, or has a huge spike in bandwidth and support subsequently finds content in violation of the TOS and then shuts down the account without refund.

As far as reaching actual limits with storage and then getting shut down, I don't believe that to be true. There are specific overage charges, and if you don't pay those DH may shut down your site. IIRC charges must be paid on the first of every month.

P.S. I think I'm going to have to start working on writing less in reply to your questions, I'm starting to *look* like rlparker. smile

--Matttail
art.googlies.net - personal website

Speaking about excessive mysql access, I have a technical question regarding my php script. Currently, I'm using PHP as cgi as it is more controllable. But it dismiss the option to use mysql persistent connection which is only available when running PHP as Apache's module. So I'm now worried if my php script hit increases, the mysql conueries will be very high and it will burden the server. So if I need to keep it efficient I need to look for any alternative to php(cgi)/mysql persistent solution. Anyone ?

Dino

If you go over your disk usage or bandwidth dreamhost will just charge you. $1pm for every 10mb disk space and $1 or 50c per gb bandwidth depending on plan.

Even with that if you go over slightly you just need to wait a week and it increases by at least 1gb disk space and 2tb bandwidth. If it is a huge problem just upgrade the package to a higher one.

Why would they kick you off for going over when they have the opportunity to bill you more money.

More codes

Dino -

Post this as it's own message, probably best on the programming forum if you want a good and experienced answer.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!

anjanesh -

Upgrading plans is TRIVIAL so if the default L1 space is too small - upgrade. If that's too small you've got serious problems. Remember space does grow weekly - it's hard to fill it up - Mine grows faster than I can fill it.

And - if someone thinks that DH doesn't have the disk to back up what they "promise" - I've seen one disk volume with more than 6T available. Wow.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!

In reply to:
Upgrading plans is TRIVIAL

It is worth noting that you will not lose any pre-paid payments when upgrading plan types.

Here is a quote from the web panel...

NOTE: If you up/downgrade or change the rebill period:

* there will be no downtime for anything.
* feature changes happen immediately.
* your plan's billing start date changes to today.
* any pre-payment left over is credited towards the new price.
* there is no set up fee because this account is older than 97 days!

Mark

My answer was more terse.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!

In reply to:
My answer was more terse.

It was. wink

Mark

u win.

Wholly - Use promo code WhollyMindless for full 97$ credit. Let me know if you want something else!

Allow to use lot of space and bandwidth