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Hosting Issues

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Moderators: Admin, jshanman, shaninriel, Telivorn

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jshanman

Tue May 22 2007, 02:26PM

Registered Member #2

Joined: Thu Feb 08 2007, 03:23PM
Posts: 209

This thread is to discuss the hosting issues I've been having.

I posted the hosting issues news post after I received an email from my provider that my site is using to many server resources for a shared hosting environment. Their suggestion (of course) was to move to a dedicated hosting account for $99/mo which I cannot afford. This is why I posted the Make a Donation button.

With all the dynamic requests on the map, this site generates over 100,000 "page views" per day because every time the map is moved, a small request for data is made. I have not exceeded my bandwidth limit or my file space limit, both which are plenty high, but the number of requests per second the map generates is too much for a shared host server.

I've made several changes to the way the map works and have asked my host to review the results of the changes over the next few days and let me know if I can continue on the shared hosting service. I have 2 weeks to either reduce the load caused by the map, find another host, or pay for a dedicated host.

If the changes that I made to the map code are not enough, I also suggested to the hosting company that I move all the image tiles to several other small hosts to break apart the image request load, which is probably very significant. I am awaiting their response.

If none of this reduces the cpu/memory requirements of the map enough to host this site on the shared hosting plan, I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

The current cost of my hosting plan is only $3/mo, so I have no problem covering that cost. If I need to move to a dedicated host, that is when I will need help in order to continue this project.

For those interested, alot of new traffic is coming from Google, where I am usually in the top 10 results for lotro data related keywords. If/when we get the in game map working, this will further increase the traffic.

I will post updates in this thread as they come.

Silverlode
60 Man Lore Master Shandor
53 Elf Hunter Shanindor
54 Man Burgler Shandoc

Andeh

Tue May 22 2007, 02:49PM

Registered Member #248

Joined: Wed May 16 2007, 10:16AM
Posts: 28

Hope it works out ok :(

Elgar on Evernight
Founder of The Elder Circle

Elder Circle forums @ Lotropolis.com

elgadan

Tue May 22 2007, 08:18PM

Registered Member #280

Joined: Sat May 19 2007, 06:02PM
Posts: 11

jshanman wrote ...

With all the dynamic requests on the map, this site generates over 100,000 "page views" per day because every time the map is moved, a small request for data is made.

well, I'll try to make efficient use of my map-moves :)

Schreckofant

Wed May 23 2007, 12:57PM

Registered Member #91

Joined: Sat Apr 07 2007, 04:01AM
Posts: 9

depending on how much space you need for the data, I offer some of my webspace that has free traffic etc... i have no idea how that all works... (:
Would that be an option to move your server requests?

jshanman

Wed May 23 2007, 01:37PM

Registered Member #2

Joined: Thu Feb 08 2007, 03:23PM
Posts: 209

That won't work for the data requests because it has to query the database from my server, but you could be an image tile mirror. I just started looking for free space to store the image tiles. If I get 3-6 mirrors to store the image tiles, the tiles will load much faster, and it will take a large demand away from my current host. I would need direct ftp access to the mirror site or at least the directory where the images will be stored.

Silverlode
60 Man Lore Master Shandor
53 Elf Hunter Shanindor
54 Man Burgler Shandoc

Schreckofant

Wed May 23 2007, 05:30PM

Registered Member #91

Joined: Sat Apr 07 2007, 04:01AM
Posts: 9

so how much space do you need? my account has 37 mb left. enough?

elgadan

Wed May 23 2007, 09:33PM

Registered Member #280

Joined: Sat May 19 2007, 06:02PM
Posts: 11

jshanman: I was reading how your php script generates the tiles on the fly, and I would think that using a method like that would eat up huge amounts of CPU. It sounds to me like you don't have bandwidth issues, but CPU usage issues.

Can you clairify this: How often do you have to re-generate the tiles? If you re-generate every time you add to the map, which is presumably often, then you will be eating up alot of server CPU time. I have the following suggestions for you:

Method 1: Do several updates at once. Group your map updates so that the re-generation is less frequent.

Method 2: Generate your tiles on your private compter, and then upload the directory structure and files via FTP. This would be easy to do. If you have Linux or Windows, install apache and php and run your website locally once, and then upload to server. Perhaps write a script that will go through all the zooms and areas to make sure the entire map is generated.

Anyways, those are my suggestions from my understanding of the situation. If I'm off in left-field, let me know..

E.

instant

Wed May 23 2007, 10:06PM

Registered Member #143

Joined: Fri Apr 27 2007, 05:37PM
Posts: 26

If you use Google Pages you can set up accounts that each have 100MB free storage which allow direct access to images.

// instant - http://instant0.googlepages.com/lotroingamemap

jshanman

Wed May 23 2007, 10:39PM

Registered Member #2

Joined: Thu Feb 08 2007, 03:23PM
Posts: 209

elgadan wrote ...

jshanman: I was reading how your php script generates the tiles on the fly, and I would think that using a method like that would eat up huge amounts of CPU. It sounds to me like you don't have bandwidth issues, but CPU usage issues.

E.

You are right with that, but I haven't done updates recently and when I do an update, I disable the public map and explore it my self so it generates all the tiles before I re open the program for users. After it generates a tile once, it stores it as a jpeg so it never needs to generate it again.

Since I am probably going to be moving to a mirror system, I will likey generate all the tiles locally and just upload them to the servers.

I still haven't heard from my host, but I checked the stats and I have cut the page views nearly in half, so I'm hoping those changes plus the mirrored images will be enough...

I think they are concerned because this is the second time with this account that it's happened. Last time it was because my google maps world war program got posted on digg.com and slashdot within days of each other... I've also disabled that site for now as well.

Silverlode
60 Man Lore Master Shandor
53 Elf Hunter Shanindor
54 Man Burgler Shandoc

jshanman

Wed May 23 2007, 10:53PM

Registered Member #2

Joined: Thu Feb 08 2007, 03:23PM
Posts: 209

instant wrote ...

If you use Google Pages you can set up accounts that each have 100MB free storage which allow direct access to images.

Does Google pages allow ftp access? I created a page to see, and it seemed I could only upload 1 image at a time... That would take a very long time as there are thousands of tiles.

I just calculated (for the first time) how much space all the tiles for all zoom levels takes up. It is only 32MB. I'm guessing it will be around 50-55mb when all areas of eriador are explored. As expansions are released, it will easily be above 100MB.

Silverlode
60 Man Lore Master Shandor
53 Elf Hunter Shanindor
54 Man Burgler Shandoc

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