Server setup to host short affiliate videos?
 

What kind of server setup it would require to host the kind of short video clips those affiliate programs give as a advertising material? So, not tube, just video here and there, and that even some people can watch the clips at the same time without the site jamming.

My current VPS setup (for porn):

4x about 2 Ghz processors
Ram 3 GB
Storage 120 GB
Bandwidth 3000 GB

Is this enough to host videos or should I skip it until I have better server setup? And what kind of setup it would be? Some minimum setup, recommended setup (reasonable budget wise), etc.?

Do:
[Your # of files] x [average size per file in MB] x [# of times you want them to be viewed monthly]

Ex:
25 x 50 x 2500 = 3125000MB/month

(*) That would exceed your monthly bandwidth.

It's pretty hard to tell as you haven't given an estimate of your expectations. You can try it and see how it goes.


Personally, I would try it with your setup only if you don't pay for overuse. Otherwise, I would start with a small unlimited VPS or dedicated (depending on what I have available) and scale from there.

You can get a 100Mbps unlimited VPS for less than 5$ a month if you manage it yourself.


Can you manage your servers?

Okay, thanks.

I currently have managed hosting. I have tweaked it myself, etc. so I probably could setup my own server by myself, but I rather don't. I am essentially consultant (not this kind), I wouldn't want to get too deeply involved into technical stuff at this level. I have enough on my plate already.

I thought more like hardware wise. That bandwidth is easier to solve, but your example clearly proved that I don't have enough bandwidth for videos with current setup.

My porn sites have just pics at the moment and that setup runs it well enough. I just thought that how much would adding some videos change that situation. I have no idea how much those demand from the hardware.

My current setup pays about 65 $ per month.

To serve files, usually the issue is never hardware.

You'll hit a wall in bandwidth well before you hit one in hardware. Just be sure you serve static files and that the server isn't used for anything else and you'll be ok with a small setup.

Hard to tell without more info about your files and your expectations. I would start small and grow from there.

Thanks. I already have that mentioned smallish setup. The video files would be the kind of affiliate videos I mentioned. So, short videos, but the size kinda depends about the affiliate program (some have bigger some smaller).

My porn sites are strongly growing at the moment and I will up the setup as needed, but I just thought that can I run the videos with current setup or should I wait until I up the setup for other reasons (and it is profitable to do so).

So, to summarize this: adding videos is OK in the terms of hardware. Bandwidth may go over, but that is another issue and is just a matter of simple calculation.

Bandwidth is going to be your major concern, as mentioned. Keep what you have until you need more bandwidth, then add more bandwidth with your current provider.

There are more variables, but at least it gives a general idea of the server's potential.


Just don't take cloud hosting or non-unlimited hosting if you're unsure.

Like, let's say you pick the 20$ droplet here and exceed it by 10TB: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/


You'll owe them an overcharge of 205$.

With video your bandwidth can be eaten really fast without you noticing it.

depends on how much bandwith you will need.

the hardware part is simple the bandwith no as much.

Thanks for you all. I thought that the hardware would form the bottleneck in here, but it seems to be the bandwidth (with my current setup). The bandwidth I have available is not very much if you throw videos in the equation.

My current service provider hasn't yet replied to my question about the cost of additional bandwidth so that part is unclear, but if I up my plan to dedicated the available bandwidth will be terabytes instead of a gigabytes.

About these static files; what do you exactly mean in this case? I did put few videos with WordPress integrated media player (core component) and it seems to be streaming the videos. Does that count as not being static file if it is streamed?

A mp4 is a static file that can be served in your browser by "progressive download".

A rtmp feed or a HLS (Http Live Stream) is a true stream.

Streaming Vs. Progressive Download Vs. Adaptive Streaming

Storage and bandwidth pipe are your limiting factors. You don't want to be limited to a 10Mbps or a 100Mbps pipe. Try for a 1 Gbps pipe if you can. Memory and CPU are mostly irrelevant if all you are doing is serving video files.

OK, thanks. All the videos I have used so far have been mp4. I have avoided flash because of recent events and I haven't seen any reason to pick wmv instead of mp4.

About the pipe. The vps I use has 1 Gbps connection, though it is shared with other vps servers connected to the same connection. I don't know how many other servers share the same connection.

The vps I have is used to host few adult sites so far (pics and now few videos too). More coming soon. I have my mainstream sites on different provider, but I will probably move those to this adult one when I at some point get dedicated server. So the vps is used to host sites; not gameserver, etc.

Dude use a cdn for your video files.

Okay, worth to think for, but it is quite expensive and I still have to host the files. Better idea for mainstream sites with not so heavy content.

I monitor loading times (Pingdom) and so far everything is fine on my porn sites. I had troubles with smaller vps package, but I have already upgraded twice from what I started with.