A suitable VPS for up to 300 students taking a quiz within a window of 20 minutes?

A suitable VPS for up to 300 students taking a quiz within a window of 20 minutes?

by Luz Rodriguez -
Number of replies: 15
Hello, Visvanath!
I'm sure you get hundreds of questions like the one I'm about to make and I understand that you need some technical details in order to help people like me, however as a secondary school teacher with no knowledge about servers or databases it becomes a little (a lot) intimidating trying to find help asking directly to experts like you, so I will try and do my best:
Two colleagues and I have almost 1000 students and we think that in an quiz we may have up to 300 students taking it at the same time (not starting at the exact same time but within a window of 20 minutes). Right now we're using a shared hosting service trying to cope with this global emergency that forced us to take our courses online but it's already failed once when a deadline was reached for some activities and too many students were using the platform simultaneously, so the site was down for about an hour.
Another expert (I know the name but I don't know if it's rude to name him without his permission) recommended planethoster for beginners like me, so I've taken a look at their hosting plans, however I'm not sure if it's enough to meet our needs. Would you be so kind to help and point me in the right direction towards if the following specs are enough (or close) to what we need?
It's a shared hosting "The World" plan:
32 CPU
64 GB RAM
64 MB/s DISK I/O
It includes Litespeed + LSCache (I don't know what are those for)

I have no idea if it's good enough for $31.5 dlls/month but it's right on the edge of our limited budget, so I'm trying to find "the best" option for our students and pockets.

Thanks in advance.
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In reply to Luz Rodriguez

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Luz, where number of students are concerned, you can have a million on a 1GB RAM and 1 core CPU, the performance determination is always dependent upon number of concurrent, good thing about Planethoster is one can upgrade resources once you feel they are reaching limits so no harm giving a go.

if they recommended you LiteSpeed, its even better, standard planethoster packages are on Apache (A free web server), LiteSpeed (a commercial web server) upgrade will give you extra performance boost both in Static and Dynamic page renders, LSCache is of absolutely no use for you, as this cache plug-in of LiteSpeed is for WordPress only, wordpress being most popular CMS so you'll find plenty Cache plug-ins for that.


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In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by Luz Rodriguez -
Thanks, Usman. I really appreciate your answer as it gives me more confidence regarding making a decision.
I'm still reading and searching in these forums for recommendations to newbies like me who don't understand the technical details involved in Moodle's performance. Also, thank you for clarifying the use of Litespeed and LSCache.
So, according to your advice I think I'll be looking for options capable to handle about a hundred (maybe a little more) of concurrent users.
Thank you.
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In reply to Luz Rodriguez

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Luz, it could be bit more than 100 as well if you allocate some 512MB+ Cache size to your OpCache (I know in Planethoster you can, rest most hosting providers dont allow changing PHP settings), where you feel resource are hitting limits (usually happens in quizzes) you can make use of delayed quiz plug-in.
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In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by Luz Rodriguez -
Well, I don't know how to do it, but if it's possible doing it in PlanetHoster, maybe they can help me. I will also check out the plug-in.
This kind of advice coming from people like you is just invaluable.
Thanks!
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In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by Aruna IS -

I would like to try out planet hoster for moodle. I am looking for a lower-cost solution.  Is there any or discount link  or coupon code available? 

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In reply to Luz Rodriguez

Re: A suitable VPS for up to 300 students taking a quiz within a window of 20 minutes?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators

Hi

Hundred times, possibly. The reason is simple: This question has no clear-cut answer! You may ask an expert, an expert astrologer, I mean.
wink

Nevertheless, some random observations:

- As you have already found out, shared hosting is unsuitable for professional Moodle sites.

- In a VPS you have full control, provided you know how to control. Otherwise you'll have to go for a managed VPS, but they are in a different price range.

For me the tool is the Unix Shell and other text-based commands running in the Shell. I don't know whether GUI tools (CPanel, webmin,..) are good enough, I never use them.

And as I said earlier, in the case of VPS you can change your plan, if under or over utilized.

- 300 out of a user base of 1000 entering a quiz within 20 min is an unusually high proportion. May be the three of you, each takes a class of 330 students.

- 64 GB for 300 students taking a quiz within a window of 20 minutes is probably an overkill. The rule of thumb circulating here says "10-20 concurrent users per GB of memory". (I know, there is no basis for it. But we don't have any other "quick truth".) Which gives 15-30 GB RAM. Considering that this rule was meant for a narrower window. So, you might need even less.

But there is no point in arguing on this, what is the proportion of saving 10 USD/mon to the amount of time and effort of three teachers? Please feel free to follow the strategy I mentioned in a prev. post, if you are keen.

If you go for less RAM, you can reduce the number of vCPUs proportionately.

- The mere fact of _having_ more RAM does not make you server fast or handle more load, unless you configure it to utilize the RAM. Linux has the tendency to fill the RAM with all kinds of caches - for its own use, not necessarily the best use for Moodle.

- I don't know how much RAM/vCPU the Litespeed + LSCache will save you. Never used them.

P.S. In the original post Mohammed Nabil was looking a server for his friend. You need a different server. I hope the moderator will split your "piggy-back" sub-thread. I already gave it a new subject line.

P.P.S. This topic too belongs traditionally to the Hardware and performance forum.

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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: A suitable VPS for up to 300 students taking a quiz within a window of 20 minutes?

by Luz Rodriguez -

Maybe I'l try to find a good astrologer 😅

In the meantime, I really want to thank you for your reply. Lately, I have been feeling lost and overwhelmed (frustrated most of the time) with so much information on subjects that I don't know and that in these moments has become indispensable for my day-to-day work. You have given me so much to think about.

Unfortunately we can't afford a managed VPS (I don't have the knowledge or skills to control a VPS) at least in the price range I've seen them. Maybe I need to do a deeper research. Is there any chance you can recommend a service? I know it sounds silly but you'd be amazed on how little money a secondary school teacher makes in a small town from Mexico.

Anyway, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and honest opinion. You are very kind.



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In reply to Luz Rodriguez

Re: A suitable VPS for up to 300 students taking a quiz within a window of 20 minutes?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi, glad that the information helped. Yes, you are welcome to contact an astrologer for second opinion. smile

One basic thing in case you've missed it:
A VPS is do-it-yourself by definition (P as private) - as opposed to _managed_ VPS, which is out of the discussion, since you can't afford one. The DIY work is two fold: Moodle administration and system administration. Moodle administration is more or less independent of the hosting, you meet the needs of the user. But system administration is vastly different. On a shared-hosting you get a web interface from the provider which simplifies the work. 'Simplify' also means you can't do everything as in a VPS with genuine root (privileged user in Unix Shell) access.

For those who don't have the skill, most of the VPS packages offer a graphical tool, CPanel is the most common. I don't know how good they are, I never use them. The fact is, either way expect additional work. If that too is not affordable, time is money, you might want to rethink your strategy. May be a more powerful shared hosting is the solution - as you have been advised in another discussion (piggy-back, again). Or, reduce the peak loads the (synchronous) examinations create, as others have advised in this thread, you might be able to stay with the current hosting package.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: A suitable VPS for up to 300 students taking a quiz within a window of 20 minutes?

by Helen Foster -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Moderator note: Thanks Visvanath, thread split and moved to the Hardware and performance forum as suggested.

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In reply to Luz Rodriguez

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by James Steerpike -

Forgive my skepticism but this looks like an incredible deal. And I am using the word incredible in the sense of hard to believe. $31.50 a month for 32 CPU and  64 GB RAM?

Godaddy charges for a Linux 8 CPU / 16 GB RAM $70 a month for a 3 year commitment. A quarter the RAM and half the CPU for twice the price. And Godadd prices are typical. Hostinger is charging $30 for an 8/8 configuration. Look at DigitalOcean, Linode and AWS and the prices are much higher.

The specs are for a very powerful server but the price does not match. Either that supplier has found a way to cut costs massively - or they are cutting corners. My bet is they are overselling resources and hoping not all users turn up at once.

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by Luz Rodriguez -
Even I, who don't know much about the subject, understand that it sounds too good for the price, but with my limited knowledge, skills and budget it's the best option I've found. I think I'm going to give it a try hoping it'll turn out as good as it sounds.
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In reply to Luz Rodriguez

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by James Steerpike -
As a teacher funding my own Moodle myself, i sympathise.
I am a little puzzled by the 300 users on the quiz you mentioned earlier. You mentioned 3 teachers so each would have to start a test with 100 users at the same time in class. If it is an after class activity, it would seem unlikely nearly one third of your users log on within 20 minutes.
You know your own situation best but reducing peak load would make a big difference to your server requirements.
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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by Luz Rodriguez -
You're right. The 300 users taking the test within a 20 minutes window was an idea that came up trying to refrain our students from sharing answers, but after reading several forum posts and recommendations like yours I think we need to change our minds and find a different approach.
Thanks!
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In reply to Luz Rodriguez

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by James Steerpike -

With tests Moodle allows you to set multiple choice answers in random order.  Questions can also be in random order and by using a question bank you can randomly provide different variants of the same question..

It doesn't eliminate cheating but makes passing answers more difficult. For most occasions it is sufficient to allow a test to be done at different times.

How will students access Moodle? In class, on school or own device or at home?

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In reply to James Steerpike

Re: Vps vs dedicated server

by Luz Rodriguez -
Students will access Moodle from their own devices at home, but they almost all know each other because they were classmates (in different groups of course) in a small school before the pandemic forced us to close schools.
We are already using random questions from bank and also random order for answers when possible. Unfortunately, our students are teenagers who still don't take much responsibility for their compulsory education, that's why we make every possible effort to prevent them from cheating.

Thanks for the follow up.
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