DavidWSnow wrote
I too was looking at HostMySite's VSP, but am concerned about how well DNN will run on 256MB of memory while running DNN SQL Server express.
How fast is your DNN site running in this environment?
/DaveS
Great question. I was totally unsure of how much memory I would need so I went with their 1GB plan and have SQL Server Workgroup. I'd love to hear from others how small or large a footprint DNN can really run in. I can tell you that I am running nothing but SQL Server and DNN and I've seen my memory usage go up to 600MB or so. Right now, my IIS site is stopped and total memory usage is 493MB with the top process being SQL Server at 355MB. I'm no SQL expert but I've read that SQL Server will use all the memory it can unless you limit it. I believe it will also release memory when other processes need it.
So, can DNN run in 256MB with SQL Server? I don't know. My site is not live yet because I'm doing upgrade tests there but the performance is fine.
There is another way to go if you get the 256 MB account. I think you can add shared SQL Server there for $10/month or so. That way your site only runs DNN and you don't have to manage SQL server. You could use the shared SQL for your live site and use a local SQL Express for test sites. If SQL Express gets too big, shut it off and your live site will still run on the shared SQL. Maybe a good compromise? I wanted full control of SQL so I paid more for the larger account.
If you are OK with shared everything, then I have a 6,000 user 60,000 page view/month site running on a cheap shared account at websecurestores.com. It's fast and always up, except the occassional 10 minute maint. outage. Very good support too. I'm only going dedicated because their pricing model doesn't support my goal of running hundreds of portals on one DNN install.