Virtual Hosting Question

[944pi]

Hi All,

I need to get a web application hosted php + mysql so nothing too special required. For this I am considering the VDS Pro package advertised on PH.

What I do need to implement though is a message queuing application to take messages from the DB and send them as SMS messages. This part is time critical.

I have written the DB -> SMS connector in perl and intended to run this on a cron job timed to trigger every minute. Is this something that a virtual hosting package could do?

Or is there a better way?

Thanks in advance,
Phil

[JamieBeeston]

We'll happily add cronjobs on the VDS Pro accounts, not a problem

J

[944pi]

Hi Jamie,

I'm already a customer of yours but just for domain name services. I have also recommended you to a colleague who has taken on a VDS Pro - and reports no problems (even bigger for you!)

The job I need to run on the cron tab will fire each minute to process the outbox of messages to send via sms. I'm just worried that this may consume too many resources for your liking!

Are you able to divulge the number of VDS Pro accounts per server?

Cheers, Phil

[JamieBeeston]

Hi Phil,

the number of accounts varies depending on the spec and load of the server.

We do have a new server due online in the start of Jan which will be a Dual Quad Core beast with 16Gb of Ram

Is the script an intensive perl application? if so, then you're correct, it may quickly turn your account into a 'problem' account simply as perl isnt CPU friendly..

You could try making it a PHP script instead, which is much kinder on the CPU..

What size of mailfile would it be parsing each time?

J

[944pi]

The 'outbox' is a db table so a command line PHP script would work and I'd be able to plug in to the SMS API that I'm using too.

The process takes rows from the DB and sends each one as an SMS. As the SMS messaging aspect is time critical and I was concerned about the volumes of SMS to send, I designed the perl script to be forked and run on 4 or 6 threads. I will convert this in PHP - probably even easier to control.

Essentially though this site should be on a dedicated box, but until I am sure of its potential a virtual host will be sufficient.

Thanks, Phil

[JamieBeeston]

You can but try..

If it takes up too much time / resources, then you'll just be asked to upgrade / migrate away..

if it doesn't, you're sorted

J