Server Recommendations and a Test

[frankenstein897]

Hello,

First I want to introduce myself. My name is Chris and our store currently runs on CRELoaded B2B 6.4.1a. We are seriously looking at moving to AbleCommerce as it seems like a much better platform plus, I know Windows better than Linux. With that, the test part of this post is to see the kind of responses I get so that I can gauge the support community as I will be spending much time here in the near future. I don't want to move from a community that lacks good participation to another one. I am looking at a good community when switching to a new store.

My question is this. We have a VMware environment that is running on a Xiotech SAN. What I have read, everyone suggestions running the SQL on a separate server. I see the logic and agree with that. If I do that I will be running the SQL server and the Web server as VMs on Vsphere. I am planning on 8GB RAM and 4 Virtual CPUs for the Web server and probably something similar for the SQL server. Does this sound like I am on the right track? Overkill? Underkill? Our store currently only gets 600 visits a day with 10K hits a day (average). So, we are fairly light but, we plan to ramp that up and I don't want to have to re-architect this within a year. Anyone else want to give their infrastructure setups so I can compare?

Thanks,
Chris
Network Cables Online, LLC

[frankenstein897]

Interesting responses.

I am planning on using Windows Server 2008 R2 with SQL Server 2008 R2 on a separate server. Anyone else doing this?

[AbleMods]

Your specs seems extraordinarily high for a 600 visitor-per-day site. Especially since SQL is running in a separate instance.

I run multiple AC7 sites on a single Proliant DL360 G3 server running Server 2003 with SQL 2005 Express in 4Gb RAM. I get about 2,000 unique visitors and roughly 60,000+ hits per day. My site performance is fine by my standards.

Site performance is based on a variety of factors, so it's incredibly difficult to predict your particular experience based on specs alone. You've certainly got a good hardware platform, I see no reason why you wouldn't see top-speed performance for quite a long time using the equipment you've spec'd. Load up 250,000 products and yeah, it's gonna be a different story. Again, all depends on your particular experience.

Running SQL on a separate box isn't just a suggestion - it's legally required to maintain PCI Compliance when accepting Visa/Mastercard transactions online. Plus the performance boost is staggering compared to running it local to the IIS web server.

Community activity is always a dynamic beast. Some weeks it busy every day, other weeks not. This is a tough time of the year for a lot of site owners. We're doing taxes, reconciling all of last years work, updating catalogs and doing version upgrades.

[frankenstein897]

Thanks for the update. I think I am going to be happy with this shopping cart. So far, I love working on Windows again. Life is too short to be "hacking the command line" as with Linux

At least I did get a response. The CRE Loaded forums are a dying beast. The platform is just too buggy and requires so much customization.

I got the eval working on Win 2008 R2 and on a seperate server running SQL 2008 R2. So, I am really happy with that. A little learning curve for me but it already seems much easier to work with.

Thanks for the reply.

[AbleMods]

Glad to hear you've made progress.

The forums here are chocked full of good information, the difficulty is finding it sometimes. The search feature for this forum leaves a little to be desired

I've also got some good information on my blog at http://www.AbleMods.com/Blog/ as well as more technical information on my support site http://www.AbleMods.com/Support/

Able has a large Wiki library of information too at http://Wiki.AbleCommerce.com/. There you can find some real goodies like source code for a payment gateway and shipping gateway, data class design etc.

[frankenstein897]

Great site man. Thanks for the info. I am excited to start working on this more. It won't do everything we need but it does most and will be a better platform to work from. I am supprised they are using a PHP based forum here

[frankenstein897]

Hey, I just noticed you are out of Indy. I am currently in North Carolina but lived in Indy for 34 years. Technically our shop is based out of Brownstown, IN down in southern Indiana. I still have lots of friends in Indy. Good to see a friendly "face" ...Not that anyone else isn't friendly

[WylieE]

Interesting responses.

I am planning on using Windows Server 2008 R2 with SQL Server 2008 R2 on a separate server. Anyone else doing this?

Yup. No problems here. We get about 11k unique visitors a day.

*However*. SQL Profiler is your friend and you may find a few additional indexes to be highly beneficial. Plan on spending a little time in performance tuning.

[AbleMods]

Heheh we're all friendly here in Indiana. Yeah I've lived in Indianapolis for about 10 years and central Indiana all my life. Hoping to move to central/southern Florida this summer or fall if our plans work out....tired of these Midwestern winters

[frankenstein897]

Yeah, that was one of the reasons I moved as well. NC is a little better but not as nice as FL. Thanks for help again, I will be browsing your sites as well.