Cloud Hosting Specs and Installation

Hi

Is there anybody that can help me with a step by step process on how to setup a cloud server for nopcommerce.

I am struggling to get the performance I need for nopcommerce 3.1, so I am looking at cloud servers.

Should I go for 4x vCPU and 4GB ram, or will less be fine.

I am planning around 200 products, in future max 500

I need to get the initial page load down to 2seconds, currently around 10 seconds to open the homepage.

What is all the software I need to install, as I am planning a windows 2012 server edition (Which one should I use), MS SQL 2012, IIS7 or 8, ASP.Net 4.5 (MVC4.5), Websitepanel, Apache Solr.

I have only used shared hosting before, so to create and manage a cloud server I have no idea.

Please can anyone guide me into the correct side for installation and configuration of these applications and how to setup nopcommerce and the server environment for max performance.

Also how will I secure a cloud server?

Many thanks

Philip

pjhenning wrote:

Windows Azure Websites may be one of your alternatives.

https://www.nopcommerce.com/boards/t/18201/how-to-install-nopcommerce-on-azure.aspx?p=6#103399

Hi Phil,

You have got the software right, I believe.
Regarding the specs 4 CPUs and 4 GB RAM should be plenty. You might want to run it with only 2CPUs first to see how it is as 4 CPUs seems a bit too much for only one website.
Nop-Templates.com for example runs on 2CPUs and 8 GB RAM. But 4 GB should be enough too. Please note that it is also important where the resources, like the scripts and images are being served from. If you are running a global website you should definitely use a CDN service.

I hope this is useful!

I currently do not have any of the software.

As far as i can gather i only have to buy the windows server 2012, as the rest of the software seems to be free.

I am correct in saying this?

I have tried cdn before but no performance difference as i host in south africa and will only sell to south Africa customers. There are no cdn nodes in south africa.

Thanks

pjhenning wrote:

I thought that you have already had these softwares. If you don't have them, "Windows Azure Websites" is a more reasonable option for you. Because you don't have to purchase such necessary softwares  as OS and SQL Server. Fortunately nopCommerce ver.3.10 is available from Windows Azure WebAppGallery. So it is possible to install nopCommerce 3.10 from the cloud (Azure Websites) in about 10 minutes. The environment has already Windows Server, SQL Server, IIS and so on.

I am not the agent of Microsoft but this option seems more reasonable for you.
At first you had better set minimum environment such as 1 CPU and small memory. If you feel that the processing speed is rather slow. You can incease CPU and memory at any time.

Which is the correct package to look at? Is it the virtual machine or cloud option.

I am based in south africa and will only sell to south Africa customers so logically it sounds like a bad idea to host your website in a different country.

Your thoughts

Which is the correct package to look at? Is it the virtual machine or cloud option.

I am based in south africa and will only sell to south Africa customers so logically it sounds like a bad idea to host your website in a different country.

Your thoughts

pjhenning wrote:

Windows Azure is Microsoft's cloud service which is available all over the world. If you have a certain Internet connection and browser, you can use Windows Azure.  If you don't  want to open your site to other countries than south Africa, you can restrict acceptance of orders by noCommerce's configuration.

In more details, the following pages will be helpful.

https://www.facebook.com/AzureZA?ref=stream&hc_location=timeline

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/?CR_CC=200068478&WT.mc_id=AzureBg_Japan_SEM&WT.srch=1