in reply to WEB host for Perl/CGI based site

Will this processing occur frequently, or is it a once-per-day kind of deal?

You *might* get away with this in a shared hosting environment if you only need to run it once a day, and you don't mind doing it at 4am. But even then you're quite likely to find your account disabled due to its excessive resource requirements.

This kind of application is really not well suited to a shared hosting setup because you will potentially be bringing hundreds of other websites to a halt while your code runs. You simply can't expect 1 GB of RAM and multiple CPU-minutes in a shared environment.

Here's what I suggest, depending on your needs.

1. If you need to do this processing once a day (or similar)

Why not run the processing on your own machine each day then upload the results to the webserver? Then you can use standard shared hosting. Of course, if the result set is very large this might be problematic too, but most providers will give you more leeway on upload bandwidth than on CPU and memory.

2. If every hit needs to do this processing, and there will be hits throughout the day

You can't use shared hosting. You can't use virtual private servers either. You need to get a dedicated server - a real physical machine with a CPU and memory that are yours and yours alone. Then you can do whatever you want with it. The provider will only care how much bandwidth you use.

This will cost you though - I think the cheapest dedicated servers start around $100/month.

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Re^2: WEB host for Perl/CGI based site
by vit (Friar) on Jan 16, 2008 at 17:32 UTC
    Thanks thparkth
    Every hit needs to run perl processing of the data file before the response is uploaded to the page.
    What are dedicated servers? How to arrange it?
[reply]
      Dedicated servers are servers you rent or lease in someone else's rack in their data center. You get a particular class of machine and a particular amount of bandwidth. You can have it administered by the data center people, or you can be the only one with root access.

      An example of dedicated managed servers is [htttp://rackspace.com|Rackspace]. They specialize in managed dedicated servers. It's all they do. The admin for the box would have access to your data, but Rackspace hosts for the US Marine Corps and many other highly sensitive organizations.

      I'm not sure who to recommend for dedicated, unmanaged servers (ones you'd manage yourself with no other root users).

      Another option is server colocation. That's what they call it when you buy the server, ship it to the hosting company, and they put it in their rack. You're paying just for rack space, power, and bandwidth. All the people do to your machine is physically secure it and reboot it by power cycle when you ask. They still have physical access to your machine, so it'd have to be someone you trust. Hurricane Electric does lots of colocation.

      Perlmonks itself is hosted at Pair Networks. I've yet to use them myself, but I hear good things about them. Their site says they do both managed dedicated hosting and server colocation. Their site does a pretty good job of describing the packages they offer, too.

      There are lots of other companies you could contact about either dedicated hosting (managed or unmanaged) or colocation. The above are just examples with which I'd be comfortable doing business.

      For the ultimate in security, you really want to employ your own sysadmins and network techs and run your own data center.

[reply]
        Thanks a lot mischief,
        Actually couple more questions.
        Let's say for the beginning I start using yahoo or some other small business-like hosting to see if I get traffic at all.
        Am I right that I do not need to do web server installation and will I be able to create my directory configuration?
        Also could I run my Perl/CGI script there like I do at my home and will I be able to work remotely with my scripts and data files there?
        In other words I do not need their software, web creator, etc. I need to do it on my own. The only thing I need is a server and flexibility.
[reply]

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