I wonder if anyone could recommend a VPS service that runs Windows (too)?
It might be cost-effective to just buy a Linux VPS and run Windows on it with VirtualBox. You'd take a performance hit, but maybe it wouldn't matter that much.
Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
51–60 of 137 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#52Linode. The only issue is my app creates subdomains on signup, and it takes about 5 minutes on linode to become active.
You can avoid that lag if you host your own stealth master and configure the Linode DNS servers as slaves. Having your domain distributed is just a NOTIFY and an AXFR away.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
WOW that's cheap. You don't say anything about service/support though?
The competition in this market is quite strong in germany, there are 5 major companys offering basically the identical dedicated server service. The servers are not virtualized, therefor you usually have to commit to longer running contracts or higher setup fees.
Would you mind enumerating what 5 companies those are?
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#54I can recommend http://hetzner.de/en for root servers in Germany. For example the EQ-4 package (for €49 per month): * Intel Core i7-920 Quad-Core with Hyper-Threading * 8 GB DDR3 RAM * 2 x 750 GB SATA-II HDD (Software-RAID 1) * 5 TB transfer; €6,90 for an additional TB * 100 GB backup space for free, nice control interface (incl. reboot), NS control, good support
Presumably compared to a VPS, they have no redundant PSU, no ECC memory, scaling up or a hardware failure will involve real downtime.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#55Linode. The only issue is my app creates subdomains on signup, and it takes about 5 minutes on linode to become active.
Use wildcard cnames, and have your application handle them internally.
You can even do this for MX records with Linode, thanks to their excellent support staff adding the functionality to their DNS interface when I asked for it. :)
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#56Linode.
I've got about a decade of experience as a sysadmin, and I can vouch that their staff definitely knows what they're doing.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#57I wonder if anyone could recommend a VPS service that runs Windows (too)?
Dare I say it, but if you need to run Microsoft in the cloud then Azure is probably a good bet these days. Also, if you don't already have MSDN and want to run a Microsoft stack you can get a BizSpark license and that comes with some good freebies.
We use azure for our webapp. Works great so far, although the azure-website for managing server deployments is not very good. Also, you can use powershell and the azure tools for VS2010 instead of the azure-website.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#58Linode for me.
Linode doesn't say how much CPU you get, where other hosts (like vps.net) tell you. Isn't that an important info?
From http://www.linode.com/faq.cfm#how-do-i-get-my-fair-share-of-... , they state that you get access to the full CPU of the box (if idle/best case), or access to your fair share of the CPU (if fully loaded/worst case). For the smallest plans this could mean 1/40th the overall CPU if under load. They only put accounts of the same size on each machine.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#59Linode for me.
Linode doesn't say how much CPU you get, where other hosts (like vps.net) tell you. Isn't that an important info?
Linode host boxen have dual quad core processors. Each Linode has access to 4 cores.
For their smallest plan (512MB/$19.95 a month), there are an average of 40 Linodes per box. So, on paper, you are "guaranteed" 1/20 of 4 cores. In reality (according to Linode staff), most host boxes are for all intents and purposes idle most of the time, so if you need to, you can max out those 4 cores.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you host your webapp?
#60Linode. The only issue is my app creates subdomains on signup, and it takes about 5 minutes on linode to become active.
If you really need that level of DNS control, you should probably be running DNS yourself. Linode lets you slave their nameservers to your master. So you get all the benefits of geographically distributed nameservers, but all the custom control of your own setup.