Virtual Private Webserver Hosting

Ishbu

I've recently got into indie game development, but I've realized that my home server is going to be insufficient if I attract any kind of traffic whatsoever. I'm looking into alternatives for hosting. The right solution for me seems to be a Virtual Private Webserver, but I have a few concerns.

Will I be able to install whatever software I want? For my games I'll need the server to be able to run Java for Applets, Python/Pygame, and whatever C/C++ executables I come up with. My games are networked, so I'll need to be able to open multiple ports.

For moderate use what specs do I need? Godaddy and the like seem to offer 256mb standard/1024 mb boostable RAM. That seems low. Am I going to be able to run a game server hosting ~100-200 people at a time off of that?

39.95 a month seems to be the going rate. That seems a bit pricy. Are there any cheaper alternatives to do what I need?

Thanks.

CFlux

take a look at Amazon Ec2 I think it will do what you need and the nice part is you pay for what you use not a fixed monthly rate weather you use it or not. May prove more cost effective especailly early on when your traffic is unpredictable.

Jasconius

I am a rabid supporter of Mosso (http://www.mosso.com) which recently got rebranded as Rackspace Cloud. I use their Cloud Sites service and the performance and service I've gotten from then has been nothing short of stellar.

I would expect nothing less from their virtual server, which you can price pretty low, but they scale up automatically if you see traffic spikes.


You'd have to ask them about that custom EXE stuff, but luckily they have very good live-chat/telephone support.

BoGs

A virtual private server is what you will need if you want to run your own "kernel" you will be able to run the applications you want. Depending on the specifications and if you need a control panel (cpanel) you could probably get it for a better price.

Some of the vps I have used in the past and have been fantastic are(i have no affiliation to any of them):
KnownHost
AquariusStorage
HawkHost

I do not know what type of game you are making or how intensive it is for one person.... so I cannot comment on the amount of users you are expecting to connect. Check em out and see what is available.

DrFrylock

I have a Linode and it's great. The little one, about $20 a month. I host a couple of websites on there (recently converted them to WordPress instances) and a few other small projects.

Ishbu wrote: »

Will I be able to install whatever software I want?

Yes. It's a machine to which you have root access, it's just a virtual one.

Ishbu wrote: »

For my games I'll need the server to be able to run Java for Applets, Python/Pygame, and whatever C/C++ executables I come up with. My games are networked, so I'll need to be able to open multiple ports.

You can run anything you want, so that's fine. Understand, of course, that applets and such are running on the client machine, not your server. Your server and your clients don't have to be written in the same language.

For moderate use what specs do I need? Godaddy and the like seem to offer 256mb standard/1024 mb boostable RAM. That seems low. Am I going to be able to run a game server hosting ~100-200 people at a time off of that?

Depends entirely how efficient your game-server is. You also have CPU usage and bandwidth. If you're sending chess moves, that's one thing. If you're sending full-tilt 56kbit streams to 200 people, that's another.

39.95 a month seems to be the going rate. That seems a bit pricy. Are there any cheaper alternatives to do what I need?

Linode has a $20/month option that you can upgrade if you have capacity problems.

DrFrylock

CFlux wrote: »

take a look at Amazon Ec2 I think it will do what you need and the nice part is you pay for what you use not a fixed monthly rate weather you use it or not. May prove more cost effective especailly early on when your traffic is unpredictable.

The issue with EC2 is that you pay by the hour, so if you want to keep the server up and running 24/7 for a month, that's $0.10 an hour or $72 a month ($0.10 x 24 x 30) for the smallest instance, even if it's just sitting there idle. The nice thing is that it's very easy to allocate and deallocate more instances, but of course you're wholly responsible for making sure traffic goes to the right place and load is appropriately balanced, and so on.

Dinosaur Equals Gas

I just found http://vps.net/ which is similar to SliceHost and Linode. Although it's still new, which I think is actually pretty cool. The employees seem to take any suggestions you have that they should add and they actually do. It's pretty cool so far and the scaling I can do is impressive. I'd suggest checking it out. They also always seem to be giving coupons out for free months of service.

PeregrineFalcon

If your problem is strictly a bandwidth issue, you could look at FIOS or a similar large pipe into your house; but if it's a processing power issue you may end up needing a much beefier machine than $40/month buys you access to.

Have you done any load tests on your home server?

Also colour me curious as to what kind of game you've got rolling here.

Ishbu

PeregrineFalcon wrote: »

If your problem is strictly a bandwidth issue, you could look at FIOS or a similar large pipe into your house; but if it's a processing power issue you may end up needing a much beefier machine than $40/month buys you access to.

Have you done any load tests on your home server?

Also colour me curious as to what kind of game you've got rolling here.

It really more is a question of bandwidth than processing power - my home server has plenty of power. However, I also want to host it offsite anyway so that I can do true backups.

I've got a couple of games in the works...a turn based 2 player puzzle game (written as a Java Applet), an mmo platformer (written in Pygame), and soon a single player platformer.


To the people who suggested linode - that seems to be a good option. If I pick a lesser plan and choose to upgrade later, do I have to reinstall everything? Or will they just allocate me more resources?

DrFrylock

Ishbu wrote: »

PeregrineFalcon wrote: »

I've got a couple of games in the works...a turn based 2 player puzzle game (written as a Java Applet)

Unlikely to need bandwidth in any significant quantity unless you have thousands and thousands of players.

an mmo platformer (written in Pygame)

That may need bandwidth.

and soon a single player platformer

Unclear why you would need to talk to the server at all except to support downloads.

To the people who suggested linode - that seems to be a good option. If I pick a lesser plan and choose to upgrade later, do I have to reinstall everything? Or will they just allocate me more resources?

If only there were some kind of list of Frequently Asked Questions...it sounds like something that may have been asked before...

Ishbu

Thanks all, probably going to go with linode for now.