I was a bit surprised to see how much memory IntoVPS's Webmin OS templates used. Sure you can tweak them and perform optimization but it just seemed high to me compared with other VPS providers I have used so I did some testing and put together some numbers. All OS installs performed using IntoVPS's OS templates, usage numbers from Hypanel.
Base OS at idle, no-updates or additional installs: Centos 5, 32-bit: 7 MB Centos 6, 32-bit: 39 MB Ubuntu 8.04, 32-bit: 8 MB Ubuntu 10.04, 32-bit: 2 MB
These are great baselines. Gotta love that Ubuntu 10.04.
If you choose either of the 2 Webmin prepackaged OS template you get: Centos 5: 418 MB, 455 MB with the latest Webmin/Virtualmin updates Ubuntu 10.04: 410 MB, 648 MB with the latest Webmin/Virtualmin updates
The Ubuntu install uses more memory than the non-burst level allows which may result in overage fees and strain on the VPS. Centos give you less than 100 MB of wiggle room before you end up in burst mode. Start hitting a database and dealing with mail and you have one stressed system.
So what can we do about this? Install webmin/virualmin yourself! The fine folks at Webmin provide an installer script that will take care of everything for you for Centos 4-6 and Ubuntu 8.04 and 10.04. Find it at http://www.webmin.com/vinstall.html
Here are the numbers after doing a base install, running the script and making sure Webmin/Virtualmin is updated. Centos 5, 32-bit: 256 MB Centos 6, 32-bit: 318 MB Ubuntu 8.04, 32-bit: 391 MB Ubuntu 10.04, 32-bit: 369 MB
As you can see these number provide a lot more headroom for expansion and growth and for simple sites that get a lot of traffic you can really maximize the value of IntoVPS. Of course you can further optimize these containers and get those numbers down even lower but this should make the job a lot easier than starting super high.
I'm no linux pro and your results may vary but if you are just starting out, do it from scratch. This processed help me learn a bit more about the VPS and get more benefit out of it as well.
And thanks for this great post and suggestions. First of all, please note that there are no overage fees based on memory usage. You just risk having random processes from within your VPS killed.
I think my colleagues that worked on the webmin templates configured apache to have more processes running in order to server more http requests. The idea was that tech-savvy users know hot to tweak apache, while less knowledgeable users will have a default installation that can server more requests. No gain in having a lot of free memory while your web sites are crawling :).
We'll run some tests on improving the webmin templates and get back to you.
I made some tests on the Ubuntu 10 with webmin template and most of the ram is used by clamd and mailman. Since these services are not needed by most of the users we will disable them by default (you can enable them in webmin is you need them) and the start ram usage will be ~240-250mb.
We will see if there are any other optimization's we can make, if not we will update the template from Hypanel as soon as we can.
My opinion is that if enabling clamd is a click away in Webmin web interface it should be disabled by default. Most users have a low incoming email messages flow (and may also use gmail or other external services) so that disabling clamd by default makes sense.
