After Moving my server Infrastructure from Self Co-Location Server to VPS Provider, I tested several providers. The first one is DigitalOcean and pick their “middle specs” droplet with 4 GB Memory, 2 Core Processor, 60 GB SSD Disk and 4 TB Transfer and installing Zimbra Mail Server on top of Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit or CentOS 6 64 bit.
It seems that 4 GB memory is minimum requirement for Zimbra on DigitalOcean droplet but I got some bad experiences with the performance. 4 GB memory may suitable for Zimbra with less than 50 users but not stable enough to handle more than 100 users, even if disabling anti spam, anti virus and some services (I have separate clusters for anti spam and anti virus on different geographical locations). Upgrading to better specs (8 GB Memory, 4 Core Processor, 80 GB SSD Disk and 5 TB Transfer) helps me overcome this obstacle but I don’t think it’s a good choice because cost me twice than before 🙁
I’ve trying Vultr for some others purpose, mostly for website hosting but also facing some problems with the performance. The bad news is that VPS several times inaccessible, although not all servers experience the same problem. It seems that my instance problem caused by host problem. Another problem is slow network access from Indonesia, due to their nearest location are on Tokyo, Japan.
I’ve also trying Linode on Japan location and experienced similar slowness network speed, so I still used DO for a while, until find a better solution in terms of server performance and low latency from Indonesia.
When Linode announced availability of Singapore data centers, I give it a second try. For similar specs and pricing but with bigger SSD disk than DO (4 GB RAM, 4 CPU Cores, 96 GB SSD Storage, 4 TB Transfer, 40 Gbps Network In, 500 Mbps Network Out) Linode has better performance than DO. Linode 4 GB RAM are quite stable for Zimbra with about 200-300 users. The good news is that Singapore Linode has a decent network speed from Indonesia.
On the subsequent testing, I can even run Zimbra for about 50-100 users on Linode 2 GB (2 GB RAM, 2 CPU Cores, 48 GB SSD Storage, 3 TB Transfer, 40 Gbps Network In, 250 Mbps Network Out) by disabling some services like anti spam/anti virus and applying some tuning to the configuration. Disabling anti spam and anti virus doesn’t cause others problem because I’ve manage different cluster for anti spam/anti virus and allowing incoming SMTP transaction from my anti spam/anti virus cluster only.
So for now, I’m using Linode as my preferred VPS provider and have a better sleep at night because Linode help me guarantee better server availability and performance to my customer 😉
Note : If you don’t mind about affiliate link, here is my aff link for sign up to Linode
My Personal Experience Using DigitalOcean, Vultr and Linode
