Recommended Server Hosting? (Dedicated or VPS)

Business and Project Management Discussions
#1

This is a business and technical question, and not about Java at all, but since there are a lot of experienced game developers here…

What experience have folks had with VPS/Dedicated server hosts? This would be for hosting a game server (not a Web server). Here are some I’ve researched so far:

http://dreamhost.com/ (VPS & Dedicated options, reasonable prices)
http://www.linode.com/ (VPS with many tiers, reasonable prices)
http://www.rackspace.com/ (Everything under the sun, expensive)
http://mediatemple.net/ (A unique Dedicated-Virtual platform, reasonable prices)
http://order.1and1.com/Server (Lots of options, prices seem average)
http://www.alchemy.net/ (Standard hosting fare, just-a-little-cheaper pricing)

Without getting into all the technical points of interest (unless you’d like to), Linux hosting with shell access is a must. Does anyone have general experience with any of these (or others)?

#2

I’ll start with my experience with DreamHost, who I’ve used for many years for shared and VPS hosting. They give full shell access, even for shared Web hosting (but not root except for VPS/Dedicated) and run Debian. Their tech support is the finest I’ve ever dealt with… unfortunately I’ve had to contact them on a number of occasions due to technical issues (but I’m not sure more than other hosts). They’re very open about any technical issues, and don’t try to brush anything under the rug. So, I recommend them in general as a hosting company, but I still find myself interested in other options.

I’ll probably never get rid of my DreamHost account entirely, but many folks mention mediatemple and linode as more stable/reliable services. Any thoughts?

#3

I’ve had amazing experiences with both Linode and Slicehost. I would definitely recommend one of those. I’ve run game servers on both of them (Large minecraft servers.) Slicehost is a little pricier, but it’s also a little bit faster. If I were to choose one right now, however, I’d probably go with Linode, because the speed difference was not very noticable, so I don’t think it’s worth the extra price of Slicehost.

#4

JGO runs on Linode. Their control panel is simply the best in the world. You can even login to the linux native terminal, without SSH. I never really hear complaints about Linode, except that they dont provide cheap additional diskspace.

#5

Thanks for the input on Linode, RylandAlmanza and Riven. SSH access is a must, and Linode appears to fully support that. I’m a little wary of their proprietary Lish shell. I do a fair bit of bash scripting, and will have to make sure Lish is fully compatible. Any experience with this?

Here’s another technical concern. I’ve found that companies that focus on Web hosting don’t understand the need for uninterrupted uptime. It’s not a critical failure if a web server goes away for a 30 second reboot now and then, but even momentary downtime is a major failure when hundreds of players lose their sockets. Any comments on Linode uptime?

(PS. I was literally just clicking around the Help looking for details on the Appreciate/Medals feature, when you posted, giving me the answer in your signature, Riven.)

#6

You only use Lish when you want to. I never do.

I only have to reboot my VPS when I screwed something up, like misconfiguring Apache, allowing a zillion child processes, causing the server to swap itself into oblivion.

#7

I never used Lish either. I can vouch for their uptime, though. They have amazing uptime, and I can’t remember a single time that my servers went down unexpectedly (I only had my server for a few months, so you might want to get someone else’s experience as well.)

#8

We use Slicehost (now part of Rackspace). Very good, except lacking a little in options for configurability (we would ideally specify a different combination of CPU power, memory, and disk space).

Cas :slight_smile:

#9

I use VPSLink (plan Link-2) to run my game Reign of Rebels.

It’s cheap and does the work. The Control panel is okay and you have root ssh access.

#10

Thanks for the input, princec. Slicehost was on my list, but I lumped them in with Rackspace when I saw they were now associated. Similarly, I think DreamHost is to Alchemy as Rackspace is to Slicehost, but not sure if that’s entirely accurate. Is there a reason to favor Slicehost over Rackspace, or just based on options/price of either?

Thanks for pointing me to VPSLink, teletubo. I had not found them before. (By the way, is Reign of Rebels still down for maintenance - it looks keen, but there’s no link in your post, and I know exactly how you feel about peaking at 3 concurrent users online at once…)

The most important component for my server is RAM (and uptime and low latency). Sadly, I’ve been able to run my server comfortably with -Xmx128m for some time now.

#11

I run an AWS micro-instance, which is no-frills and bulletproof. It’s very pay-as-you-go, but the light usage I put it through results in a bill that’s about half what I used to pay for Slicehost/Rackspace.

#12

That’s really interesting. I would never have considered a “cloud” hosting platform. I just figured it for web and other intermittent/transaction-based services, rather than persistent server instances. I’ll have to do some research.

No-frills is a-ok with me. All I want is CPU/RAM on the Internet.

#13

If you’re interested in low latency, these are some Ping time samples from some different countries I’ve gathered the past few days:

http://pastebin.java-gaming.org/40465052e

The VPS is located in Seatle.

(PS, just updated my game :slight_smile: )

#14

I wouldn’t suggest anyone else but Linode for a VPS. I have been with them for about 2 years on and off now as my wallet allows and I love everything about their services.

#15

I appreciate all the responses. It sounds like Linode is the general preference. They’ve been at/near the top of my list for some time. Seeing how DreamHost just randomly rebooted my VPS again last night (where I run the Island Forge beta game server), I’m eager to try something new.

Since DreamHost isn’t here to defend themselves, I will note that they have a 100% uptime policy, which they stand behind. They calculated that my server was down for 3 hours, so credited my account for $0.50 (yes, 50 cents).

#16

I don’t really care for my money back when shit happens. I prefer to pay more, for the shit not to happen :slight_smile:

#17

Well put! My motivation exactly.

#18

Was with hostrocket for years until they got hacked into oblivion. Then jumped ship to DreamHost for a year or two but never got round to uploading anything. My account lapsed… The next place has to be somewhere that will let me run java stuff so I can crash test some of my gaming projects.

#19

DreamHost shared Web hosting is certainly not the place to run anything Java (they don’t even offer/allow Tomcat for servlets, if you’re into that sort of thing). You need their VPS (or Dedicated) service to run your own server code, etc.

#20

Ah, excellent, just the kind of advice I was looking for. And I didn’t even have to ask ;D