Tracking server questions (6)
Hey guys,
I just bought a Linode (8GB Ram, 6 Cores, 192 GB SSD) VPS server and installed the STM Stackscript. I'm hosting my landers on a CDN and the server is specifically for my tracker (Funnel Flux).
I just have a couple questions:
- Is the STM Stackscript (LEMP) designed for tracking servers or hosting servers? I presume this is a good setup for FunnelFlux right? I'm specifically interested in the redirect speeds since I'll be doing a lot of mobile redirects. The data center is in same location im targeting.
- I'm just curious, roughly how many thousand clicks can my server now handle a day?
- If I have any landers in the future with php, can I put them on my tracking server instead of getting another just for hosting? What would be the limit my server could handle with a tracker and php landers?
- Do i set my nameserver for my tracking domain to Linode and my nameservers for my lander domains to Rackspace?
- What about changing DNS providers from Namecheap to say Route53. Is that recommended even if i don't have multiple servers around the world? And since im not hosting my landers on my server, if i do change the nameserver, would it be for my lander domains or my tracker domain? A tad confused on this one 
Thanks!
Hello,
StackScript/FunnelFlux:
The stackscript is setting up LEMP stack on your server ( Nginx, php-fpm, MariaDB ). There is basically no different between tracking and hosting servers. The tracking application requires a web hosting environment. When your linode setup with the stackscript is done you have environment on which you can install FunnelFlux.
Performance:
As for the number of clicks that cannot be estimated exactly because it depends on too many factors. What I may suggest is when you have FunnelFlux installed you can just create a test link on it and run it through blitz.io or similar service to see how many clicks you will get without errors. Keep in mind that the stackscript is setting up the environment however it is not optimising it for your exact needs. You will have to optimise the nginx/php-fpm/MariaDB settings to fix the resources you have and the tracker you will be using. Also there are kernel tweaks which can be modified to squeeze all the juice from your server but all those require lots of testing in order to get the perfect setup for the server you have.
php Landers:
As the tracker is php based you may host any other php files on that same server. However note that each php execution requires resources and the more resources you use with php landers the less resources you will have for your tracker.
DNS:
The DNSes you should set on CloudFlare/DNSMadeEasy/GoogleCloudDNS/Route53 or similar DNS service. As those DNS providers have servers on multiple locations this speeds up the time required for a request to your domains to the answered and lowers the time required for your lander/tracker links to load. It is highly not recommended to host the DNSes on your server. Changing DNS providers should not cause any downtime for the domains you will be re-pointing so review those DNS provides I mentioned and just select the one that first your requirements and/or budget. The only free DNS service from those listed above is CloudFlare which should work perfectly well. They have some issues during 2015 but they are stating all those were resolved so should be safe to go with that one.
Unfortunately there is no unified setup which will work on any environment identically. You need to tweak the settings of the server you have in order to get the best results from the resources available on it.
Thanks for such a detailed reply Goshev! I ended up using Route53 for DNS. I will do the blitz.io test and report back in case anyone else with a similar server setup is interested.
In regards to optimizing the LEMP stack settings for my resources and tracker, im going to hire someone to do that for me but don't really know what to post in the job description. Would you mind going over that part some more please? Thanks!
Considering you will be using LEMP:
-- php-fpm config tuning
-- nginx tuning
-- If you will have any databases -- MySQL/MariaDB tuning
You may just put in the job description that you need a person who has extensive experience optimising the above services for high traffic websites. If s/he can optimise the services for any php application that is exactly what you may need. Those are kinda linked so all should be as optimised as much as possible for the resources you will have on the server you will be using. The logs will show you in most of the cases which part should be tweaked. Use any caching if it is possible on the environment you require. Anyone with advanced or extensive knowledge in setting up LAMP/LEMP environment will also know how to install/tweak caching services/php extensions.
Thanks bro, that will help alot!
You can setup DNS at Linode too for free. I don't know the performance benefit of Cloudflare/DNSmadeeasy/etc over Linode, but it does make it pretty convenient.
https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/dns/dns-manager
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