"Wordpress optimized" VPS hosting

danielhm

Context: currently running a WP site in the OVH public cloud on the Sandbox instance (£11.99/mo) plus a bunch of management (Prometheus exporters, it's a Docker Swarm manager, etc).

Load average is usually around 0.6 and CPU sits between 10 - 25%. However, at times, the CPU steal skyrockets to 20%+ which can cause the load to go towards 2 which is not great as performance noticeably deteriorates.

What does "good" VPS/VM hosting look like these days for Wordpress?

Does anyone where have a better offer (needs to be in the UK):

• OVH s1-8
• 8 GB ram
• 2 shared cores (lscpu says "Intel Core Processor (Haswell, no TSX), 2095.076 Mhz"
• 40 GB SSD

Must be really reliable and production friendly with solid availability is a must. For what it's worth, this is more important if you can demonstrate it. Otherwise I will just end up overpaying and using a classic DO/OVH/GCP/AWS VM but paying retail which I don't want to do

Aside: tempted to run 2 VPS using TiDB so would also be curious to know how 'redundant' we can get within the same DC - separate physical host at a minimum, of course - but may try out two different providers who are physically close to each other.

seriesn

What's up boss,

When you mentioned better offer, would you be interested in upping your budget a bit for the same specs?

danielhm

@seriesn said:
What's up boss,

When you mentioned better offer, would you be interested in upping your budget a bit for the same specs?

Good question.

$ uptime
 15:31:44 up 83 days, 17:48,  4 users,  load average: 0.03, 0.31, 0.41
$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7786        1618         327         203        5839        5815
Swap:             0           0           0

How would you suggest I gauge if I need the same specs? I'm thinking probably CPU I need 2 shared cores but can probably get away with 3-4GB RAM?

chip

@danielhm said:

@seriesn said:
What's up boss,

When you mentioned better offer, would you be interested in upping your budget a bit for the same specs?

Good question.

$ uptime
 15:31:44 up 83 days, 17:48,  4 users,  load average: 0.03, 0.31, 0.41
$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7786        1618         327         203        5839        5815
Swap:             0           0           0

How would you suggest I gauge if I need the same specs? I'm thinking probably CPU I need 2 shared cores but can probably get away with 3-4GB RAM?

you've got nearly 6GB thats cached their and it looks like your using just shy of 1.7GB so i would go with 3-4GB which is double what your actually using (giving you room to grow)

and from that processor usage you dont seem to be doing much with a 15 min average of 0.4 so half a core of whatever it is

do you have the processor information?

chip

danielhm

@chip said:
and from that processor usage you dont seem to be doing much with a 15 min average of 0.4 so half a core of whatever it is

do you have the processor information?

chip

Where is best to get it? All /proc/cpuinfo says is:

 cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 60
model name      : Intel Core Processor (Haswell, no TSX)
stepping        : 1
microcode       : 0x1
cpu MHz         : 2095.076
cache size      : 16384 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 1
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 1
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq vmx ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm cpuid_fault invpcid_single pti tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid xsaveopt arat md_clear
bugs            : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit
bogomips        : 4190.15
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 60
model name      : Intel Core Processor (Haswell, no TSX)
stepping        : 1
microcode       : 0x1
cpu MHz         : 2095.076
cache size      : 16384 KB
physical id     : 1
siblings        : 1
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 1
apicid          : 1
initial apicid  : 1
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq vmx ssse3 fma cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm abm cpuid_fault invpcid_single pti tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid xsaveopt arat md_clear
bugs            : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit
bogomips        : 4190.15
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

chip

@danielhm said:

@chip said:
and from that processor usage you dont seem to be doing much with a 15 min average of 0.4 so half a core of whatever it is

do you have the processor information?

chip

Where is best to get it? All /proc/cpuinfo says is:

I suspect... and i may be very wrong that it's an intel Xeon E5 or E7 so not bad... but they are 6-7 years old

also it doesnt look like it's you that's massively using the processing power maybe someone else on the same node is being cpu greedy?

commercial

For my WP optimized hosting, I'll go on some specialised hosting, pro or reseller plan ...
I'm a fan of Litespeed, both as server and cache
The spec are goods in your budget (SSD, DDOS Protection DNSSEC 70MB/s I/O 5GB RAM 100% CPU etc)

seriesn

@danielhm said:

@seriesn said:
What's up boss,

When you mentioned better offer, would you be interested in upping your budget a bit for the same specs?

Good question.

$ uptime
 15:31:44 up 83 days, 17:48,  4 users,  load average: 0.03, 0.31, 0.41
$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           7786        1618         327         203        5839        5815
Swap:             0           0           0

How would you suggest I gauge if I need the same specs? I'm thinking probably CPU I need 2 shared cores but can probably get away with 3-4GB RAM?

You got plenty to spare with 4GB Ram. Ryzen up with some Nvme baby .

vero

@seriesn said:
Ryzen up with some Nvme baby .

That's what in my home PC resides, but it shouldn't in a server. Not desktop computer parts at least, IMO.

seriesn

@vero said:

@seriesn said:
Ryzen up with some Nvme baby .

That's what in my home PC resides, but it shouldn't in a server. Not desktop computer parts at least, IMO.

Care to share what an Epyc cpu can do that a Ryzen can't sir?

vero

@seriesn said:
Care to share what an Epyc cpu can do that a Ryzen can't sir?

Appear in server products section on AMD official website.

seriesn

@vero said:

@seriesn said:
Care to share what an Epyc cpu can do that a Ryzen can't sir?

Appear in server products section on AMD official website.

Righto sir, but that really doesn't answer the question. Why would one spend double the money on a rome 7272 and not on a ryzen 3900x?

vero

@seriesn said:
Righto sir, but that really doesn't answer the question. Why would one spend double the money on a rome 7272 and not on a ryzen 3900x?

Would you mind not calling me "sir", dear milord? It feels weird..

The question you ask should be directed to people, who make buying decisions for data center equipment. I'm pretty straightforward: I see word "desktop" - I know that's for PC, I see word "server" and I know that's for data center use. Could I use my home PC as server? Sure I can. Would I? Never.

danielhm

@vero said:
The question you ask should be directed to people, who make buying decisions for data center equipment. I'm pretty straightforward: I see word "desktop" - I know that's for PC, I see word "server" and I know that's for data center use. Could I use my home PC as server? Sure I can. Would I? Never.

You speak with a lot of confidence for a topic you couldn't even convince a 3-year-old that you have a basic understanding of.

If your entire answer to this is "I buy my CPUs based on how they're branded" then AMD have absolutely nailed their branding because they have you convinced on that alone to the extent you'll willingly over pay on only that basis.

atwhu

Funny discussion - "lowend"talk members frowning upon "desktop" components in a server.
Intel used to be better in segmenting the market with their non-xeon CPUs not supporting ECC, but as far as I can tell, AMD did not use this trick, so there's 100% feature parity (except for the number of memory channels - if you need a lot of RAM, Ryzen is out of the game).

vero

@danielhm said:
You speak with a lot of confidence for a topic you couldn't even convince a 3-year-old that you have a basic understanding of.

At least I'm not using sandbox server for really reliable operation.

Get Ryzen, what are you waiting for?? With AM4 socket, desktop chipset and hopefully ECC ram. Which is 128GB max. Enough for the most.

vero

@atwhu said:
Funny discussion - "lowend"talk members frowning upon "desktop" components in a server.

Oh, that's where this came from.. Guess I'm not lowend enough yet.

Thundas

@vero said:

@atwhu said:
Funny discussion - "lowend"talk members frowning upon "desktop" components in a server.

Oh, that's where this came from.. Guess I'm not lowend enough yet.

I'm waiting for your "premium server grade hosting service" sir.

vero

@Ahfaiahkid said:
I'm waiting for your "premium server grade hosting service" sir.

Do you have a VIP card?

seriesn

Anywho, I am here to hawk my service and make a couple of bucks.

Sooooo, @danielhm let me know if you would like to take us out for a spin .

danielhm

@vero said:

@danielhm said:
You speak with a lot of confidence for a topic you couldn't even convince a 3-year-old that you have a basic understanding of.

At least I'm not using sandbox server for really reliable operation.

You think that's worse than someone who just looks at the label and draws all conclusions with zero further research. Are you even capable of looking beyond what a product is called, or is that just too much for you to handle?

Don't answer that, it's rhetorical.

@seriesn said:
Anywho, I am here to hawk my service and make a couple of bucks.

Sooooo, @danielhm let me know if you would like to take us out for a spin .

Yep - will probably sign up direct unless some offers from you appear in the meantime

vero

@danielhm said:
You think that's worse than someone who just looks at the label and draws all conclusions with zero further research. Are you even capable of looking beyond what a product is called, or is that just too much for you to handle?

Don't answer that, it's rhetorical.

After all you really think I know what rhetorical is??

That was entirely my opinion on product that was presented as server part. Not taking into account the actual place this discussion occurred in. We live in a world of marketing and actually you was just hooked up a moment ago by someone. I don't say that's bad. But you are making decisions based on what you're thrown at - no selection at all, that's obvious. I believe Ryzen will feel enormously fast after your sandbox. Best of luck.

seriesn

@danielhm said:

@vero said:

@danielhm said:
You speak with a lot of confidence for a topic you couldn't even convince a 3-year-old that you have a basic understanding of.

At least I'm not using sandbox server for really reliable operation.

You think that's worse than someone who just looks at the label and draws all conclusions with zero further research. Are you even capable of looking beyond what a product is called, or is that just too much for you to handle?

Don't answer that, it's rhetorical.

@seriesn said:
Anywho, I am here to hawk my service and make a couple of bucks.

Sooooo, @danielhm let me know if you would like to take us out for a spin .

Yep - will probably sign up direct unless some offers from you appear in the meantime

Well our birthday is coming up in 3 weeks

deank

The only difference in server CPU and desktop CPU is ECC support which I think desktop Ryzen actually supports, which makes the point moot.
I mean, look at the spec sheet. Both CPU are virtually identical apart from a few instruction sets and amount of PCI-E lanes.

Now, when it comes to mobo, it does make a difference between server grade and desktop grade.

Desktop grade has RGB which boosts performance. Me thinks it's a placebo effect but seems to work on kids.

danielhm

@vero said:
That was entirely my opinion on product that was presented as server part. Not taking into account the actual place this discussion occurred in. We live in a world of marketing and actually you was just hooked up a moment ago by someone. I don't say that's bad. But you are making decisions based on what you're thrown at - no selection at all, that's obvious. I believe Ryzen will feel enormously fast after your sandbox. Best of luck.

Yes, you didn't say it was bad. In fact, you didn't really say much at all. There was nothing substantial in your series of replies what-so-ever, no technical insights, data, experience or even anecdotes. You might as well have said "I prefer AMD because it's easier to spell".

Also - my decision making is far from "obvious":

• I said I would probably sign up
• You have zero knowledge that I am already using @seriesn customer and have been extremely happy, so of course they are a strong contender to me for other products. Posting this thread was more to see if anyone has any suggestions about how to spec a VPS that was more optimised for WordPress in some way - which it doesn't look like at all.
• If you are even vaguely active in this forum, @seriesn is by far one of the most recommended provided by users here. That's a big factor in why I will most likely be going with them.

@seriesn said:

Well our birthday is coming up in 3 weeks

Fantastic

vero

@danielhm said:
Also - my decision making is far from "obvious":

• I said I would probably sign up
• You have zero knowledge that I am already using @seriesn customer and have been extremely happy, so of course they are a strong contender to me for other products. Posting this thread was more to see if anyone has any suggestions about how to spec a VPS that was more optimised for WordPress in some way - which it doesn't look like at all.
• If you are even vaguely active in this forum, @seriesn is by far one of the most recommended provided by users here. That's a big factor in why I will most likely be going with them.

VPS optimised for WordPress.. Perhaps some RGB?

You are free to go with whoever you want. I just expressed my opinion about some desktop parts. It's not against @seriesn or you. I'm glad you're doing well both together.

seriesn

@danielhm said:

@vero said:
That was entirely my opinion on product that was presented as server part. Not taking into account the actual place this discussion occurred in. We live in a world of marketing and actually you was just hooked up a moment ago by someone. I don't say that's bad. But you are making decisions based on what you're thrown at - no selection at all, that's obvious. I believe Ryzen will feel enormously fast after your sandbox. Best of luck.

Yes, you didn't say it was bad. In fact, you didn't really say much at all. There was nothing substantial in your series of replies what-so-ever, no technical insights, data, experience or even anecdotes. You might as well have said "I prefer AMD because it's easier to spell".

Also - my decision making is far from "obvious":

• I said I would probably sign up
• You have zero knowledge that I am already using @seriesn customer and have been extremely happy, so of course they are a strong contender to me for other products. Posting this thread was more to see if anyone has any suggestions about how to spec a VPS that was more optimised for WordPress in some way - which it doesn't look like at all.
• If you are even vaguely active in this forum, @seriesn is by far one of the most recommended provided by users here. That's a big factor in why I will most likely be going with them.

@seriesn said:

Well our birthday is coming up in 3 weeks

Fantastic

Just wanted to add couple of quick things. Depending on your use case and budget ofcourse,

The more you cache, the better it is. Redis/LSCache would make your life easier.

Having access to multiple shared cores that allows you to burst when needed would be an ideal budget friendly option.

There's really no such thing as "wordpress optimized" hosting since each use case is difference. All I know is bunch of my family members survived reddit's hug of death even on some of the "smaller" 2GB servers.

Thank you for being a member of the family and vote of confidence boss . See when we turn 4

Daniel15

What does "good" VPS/VM hosting look like these days for Wordpress?

The main thing you should do is have a lot of caching. Use WP Super Cache and configure your web server to directly serve the cached HTML files (bypassing PHP altogether). Here's an example Nginx config based on what I use: https://gist.github.com/Daniel15/c6dce3639f85749e2f5de013d4019d6b

If you configure caching correctly, the server specs don't really matter as much, as WordPress is only actually hit for dynamic content and for access to the admin panel. Majority of the pages hit by end-users should be served directly from cache.

danielhm

@seriesn said:
The more you cache, the better it is. Redis/LSCache would make your life easier.

@Daniel15 said:
The main thing you should do is have a lot of caching. Use WP Super Cache and configure your web server to directly serve the cached HTML files (bypassing PHP altogether). Here's an example Nginx config based on what I use: https://gist.github.com/Daniel15/c6dce3639f85749e2f5de013d4019d6b

If you configure caching correctly, the server specs don't really matter as much, as WordPress is only actually hit for dynamic content and for access to the admin panel. Majority of the pages hit by end-users should be served directly from cache.

Completely agree. Currently I'm using CloudFlare workers to do exactly this so this way it'd cached at the edges closest to the users. I only want the VPS in the UK because of what you said, I'm in the UK (and so are most of my users) so the latency is better for the stuff missed. At $5/mo for 10 million requests per month it's an absolute steal IMO (or 100k/day for free). However I'd had to configure it carefully so it doesn't e.g. cache an in-session admin homepage for all users.

What I was probing for is to know is whether someone had any general suggestions about CPU/RAM ratios, CPU types, whether to go for a dedicated CPU or more shared cores, or generally accepted best practises for WP hosting. Appears not in this case, so good to have that confirmed.

Thanks both!

seriesn

@danielhm said:

@seriesn said:
The more you cache, the better it is. Redis/LSCache would make your life easier.

@Daniel15 said:
The main thing you should do is have a lot of caching. Use WP Super Cache and configure your web server to directly serve the cached HTML files (bypassing PHP altogether). Here's an example Nginx config based on what I use: https://gist.github.com/Daniel15/c6dce3639f85749e2f5de013d4019d6b

If you configure caching correctly, the server specs don't really matter as much, as WordPress is only actually hit for dynamic content and for access to the admin panel. Majority of the pages hit by end-users should be served directly from cache.

Completely agree. Currently I'm using CloudFlare workers to do exactly this so this way it'd cached at the edges closest to the users. I only want the VPS in the UK because of what you said, I'm in the UK (and so are most of my users) so the latency is better for the stuff missed. At $5/mo for 10 million requests per month it's an absolute steal IMO (or 100k/day for free). However I'd had to configure it carefully so it doesn't e.g. cache an in-session admin homepage for all users.

What I was probing for is to know is whether someone had any general suggestions about CPU/RAM ratios, CPU types, whether to go for a dedicated CPU or more shared cores, or generally accepted best practises for WP hosting. Appears not in this case, so good to have that confirmed.

Thanks both!

With wordpress, the more core the merrier

Daniel15

@seriesn said: With wordpress, the more core the merrier

Same with anything built on PHP really, given each request is almost always single threaded. Vertical scaling (adding more resources to an existing system) works pretty well with PHP given its nature of each request being mostly self-contained (apart from APC).