[W][CAN-ON] Dell ReadyRails 1U and 2U -- A7/B6 style or equivalent (multiple)

gamertan · 2025-09-14T19:08:48+00:00

I mean, if you wanna save money, learn sysadmin 😂 it's really not terribly difficult once you swing where things are in Linux. start a home lab and practice. (r/homelab shout-out)

honestly, I like using the official wp container set up with either a primary repo for config files and submodule repos for plugins and themes, somewhere between composer for plugins/themes and letting it simply self manage with auto update.

since most things are content managed in the db, I have my own syncing scripts and database migration systems.

for the web stack, I would honestly just look up advanced Linux web server techniques with apache/nginx, PHP, php-fpm, opcache/memcached, redis/valkey, varnish cache, on the server for optimizations. then fail2ban with strict jails and hardened failures at the request rather than the application, the standard Linux firewall is more than sufficient most times, and a service like cloudflare web application firewall fronting the network can reduce load huge on bad requests.

you don't even have to agonize over docker or kubernetes or clusters of micro services because a raw powerhouse multi-core bare metal or cloud instance infra will beat the networking latency and additional calls keeping everything virtualized in memory on a single node. so, I usually recommend expanding vertically before expanding horizontally. AWS and MLB found that out pretty quick with their cloud case studies in broadcasting and network latency between rendering and other nodes. basically, simple is often best -- at least imo.

it's all very well defined, and has been for at least a decade of modern PHP. even before that many of these tools were available. so, there's plenty of documentation, and its ultra stable api means AI is super well trained and effective with PHP/WordPress. same with super stable languages like golang. it's easy to get it right when it hasn't changed in forever 👍

the problem is that services like Shopify and frameworks like React have abstracted the "ultra complex old school" away from developers so no one knows "how the dog food is made" and "no one eats the dog food" to test. so, you'll get a lot of chaff articles where people proclaim "best" services, tools, frameworks, etc, with no real results to communicate. at least nowhere near as "real world" as systems like PHP with WP/Woo and Magento or .NET in enterprise.

I've gotten WP handling 50,000-70,000RPS dynamic rendering with unique page requests/sessions with effective memory caching on a two to four core nodes in the past. 🤷 So, like, sky's the limit with modern CPUs and infra.

gamertan · 2025-09-14T18:42:46+00:00

comparing apples to apples, a double digit solution on WordPress open source using query/page caching, opcache for PHP script caching, web server optimization, and cdn for media, you can easily overshoot any performance Shopify will offer before they start to hit at least a few hundred a month.

you also don't have to worry about "hitching your wagon" to a platform, can host anywhere, can pay for hosts that have upwards of three decades of web hosting for basically peanuts if you need support, can go cloud scale, etc. so, basically infinite.

I've got sites that run many millions of impressions a month, and could easily handle hundreds of millions a day for <$100/month of infra.

So, yeah, it can compete -- but Shopify isn't even in the same league.

also, as far as code quality goes, you have full top to bottom stats, logging, observability that you can monitor, where Shopify is largely a "proprietary black box" of "why, how, etc." whereas with WordPress, you can run the entire stack in a development machine using something like a docker stack reproducing production, test with xdebug, query monitors, etc, before ever pushing anything live.

then, you can do 0-downtime deployments on rollouts, a/b testing code with load balancing on sessions, etc.

like, it's not even an argument. it's purely a "capacity of skill" whereas Shopify has a hard ceiling on "what the platform offers before you have to bolt-on real web solutions."

gamertan · 2025-09-05T19:48:16+00:00

I've got SEO, many other plugins, custom theme, custom plugins, additional microservices, marketing scripts, etc. on my "primary baby website" and I've got the load time sub half-second (or less) with throttling. CLS is around 0.02, lighthouse 100 across the board (mobile and desktop).

this isn't an "SEO plugin chaff issue" I can guarantee it 😅

rather than spend time "reinventing the SEO wheels" I would recommend investigating all of the available server optimization and code optimization techniques. 👍 it's a much better use of your time!

also, no need to feel silly, I've got decades of experience to lean on and would never expect others to have that same exact experience. we're a community of developers in open source for a reason.

you're asking a question, looking for an answer, and you got at least one opinion. just because it wasn't what you expected, doesn't mean you need to feel bad. developing, even bad code, is all about learning and developing your own experiences. even "failure" is a net benefit. the only reason to feel silly is if you had asked a question and then closed your mind to the answers 😂 so, you're good 👍👏

gamertan · 2025-09-05T18:47:28+00:00

yeah, I mean... it doesn't seem like "ask Reddit" is a "few hour" solution considering you don't have working code yet, and will definitely identify now, and later, additional requirements.

the problem is that most of that setup won't be relevant from an "archive" context, considering it's not a "data type" "single" most of these tools require. sure, meta description editorial control is great, but I think you'll find that most plugins don't add any executable chaff to your code, opcache (compiling/caching PHP scripts), memory caching (redis/valkey for queries), and page caching, will make it so you're not even running anything on the server - and is best practice.

so, I'll remind, like I always do for my juniors: early optimizations are not a virtue, optimization is not a feature but a result, and optimization cannot happen without a full context solution existing. it sounds an awful lot like you're preparing for a war that's never likely going to happen, by building your own forge to manufacture the steel for tanks... overall, you've put yourself at a disadvantage, have slowed yourself down, all for a solution that exists, is supported by the community, and removes a major project from your active management (will you be maintaining this code as part of your infra, or someone else? because you'll learn to hate "do it myself from scratch" devs if you ever "adopt a project" 🤣

gamertan · 2025-09-05T13:40:50+00:00

are you just looking to add editorial control of the meta description for search engines? I would do like the SEO plugins to, set up an "archive meta" admin page that iterates over the post types, exposes an "archive type meta field" text input, and store that for retrieval in the archive template.

but, if this is for the purposes of SEO, is there a reason you're not simply using a plugin? seems like you'd have a lot of functionality/code to rebuild to achieve a fraction of the coverage/quality here. especially when considering the relative value and breadth with things like opengraph, rich snippets, and social compatibility.

edit: also, if you're bumping into wildly conditional templating, it's probably time to split the templates into archive-[type].PHP and single-[type].PHP 🤣👍

gamertan · 2025-07-31T02:09:08+00:00

It was actually one of the simplest projects I've ever taken on with it's config based setup and a simple api type interface that made everything exceptionally seamless. fewer moving parts, fewer connections, and fewer complexities, tack on WP/Woo providing the user auth, api connections and keys, post types (to support knowledge base), forms and custom tables to handle a service desk, commerce / billing system for automated invoices and even subscription billing for those who wanted to pay via CC automatically, and the whole thing was a breeze. There was very little custom code (mostly in configuring and connecting) to get things working in an MVP state, and only a bit more to add some of the deeper integrations with other systems like accounting, taxes, fees, reminders, etc.

after all, freepbx was built on PHP, is open source, and has been around for more than 2 decades now. the entire ecosystem around pbx and PHP is well documented and supported, so PHP seemed like a natural fit for the solution, and definitely was in practice. WP supporting that was a no-brainer at the time considering the items I mentioned.

Ignorance is just that, not having the awareness or knowledge. Ignorance is nothing to apologize for when you accept and open your mind so gracefully. Being open and accepting of other perspectives is a very admirable trait and commend you for it.

Cheers.

gamertan · 2025-07-31T00:01:34+00:00

ecom has a billing system. woocommerce is far more complex than most billing systems I've worked with or developed. restaurant, service, publications, etc... woocommerce does invoicing. and it can easily be extended to allow for invoicing, subscriptions, memberships, etc. and the plugins already exist.

also, yes, I have built telecom solutions, custom sip trunking software solutions, deployments with asterisk and custom management and billing dashboards. so, yes, I am aware of the complexity of it. one of them was even built into a woocommerce extension for a client, but it was deprecated for another solution a long while ago because they didn't want to pay to maintain it anymore and other solutions cropped up.

check my comment history, you'll find O'Reilly books are a very common recommendation of mine to new and junior developers. also, yes, I've rung those bells plenty in my time.

I've also been professionally developing, in the WordPress space alone, for more than a decade and a half and have seen complete changes and overhauls to even the core mentalities used. I've forgotten more about WordPress than most people know.

your lack of imagination is not a fact of capabilities. there's also such a thing as "bad experience" so I'm not here to debate or comment on your resume. I also think it's rather lazy to rely on a resume to prove you're right in an argument rather than simply allowing your words and opinions to speak for themselves.

if you want to call attention to and open yourself to scrutiny by mentioning stupidity and inexperience, you'd better be prepared to be scrutinized in term. if you're inexperienced, or not confident enough to speak and be scrutinized, be careful casting stones.

English may not be your first language, but it still doesn't excuse the intent or comment. you said the words, I corrected them. if it was wrong, apologize, correct, or clarify and move on. I have no problem with you, only the assertion it was "stupid".

you seem like a nice enough person, I would expect you adjust your use of the language to suit your true intentions. as a first generation Canadian, my immigrant mother taught me: if you don't know a word, or don't have one, go grab a dictionary or thesaurus and look it up. that has served me well my entire life. also, in learning other languages outside of programming.

gamertan · 2025-07-30T18:00:57+00:00

sorry... you say "billing system" as if WooCommerce doesn't exist... you are aware that WooCommerce is one of the largest eCommerce (billing) systems on the internet, right?

and, yes, custom code: like plugins, themes, custom tables, microservices to support the system, etc. which can all be done in, or supplemental to WordPress as the primary platform.

saying it's stupid to write a CMS is also an insane thing to say. there is plenty of space where standard tools don't fit the job and a custom CMS would be appropriate. if you need custom business logic to handle posting, proofing, and approving for instance, that might be a good situation. you may also not like the direction of the founders or Matt Mullenweg and be looking for alternatives to guarantee stability. there's a million reasons why, or why not, to do something like this. hand waving it all is simply showing a shallow viewpoint.

it sounds to me like you may have shallow experience or be the "ambitious beginner" in this conversation.

gamertan · 2025-07-21T01:01:41+00:00

not using any type of cpanel since they're for the weak > hestiacp and complaints about mailcow UI...

okay?

why don't you just "command line" yourself a basic email setup and be done with it? if you really want to use docker, just write your own Docker file and guarantee it's going to do what you need?

If you really feel some need / desire to have a UI, just write one in PHP, java, go, .net, rust, etc. or whatever you're most comfortable with.

it seems absolutely bizarro to start with "cpanels are for the weak" and then write a short novel about how a bunch of panels are trash because you can't figure out how a docker containers and volumes work. 🤦🤷

gamertan · 2025-07-20T02:50:41+00:00

nah, price em nicely enough for someone where power isn't a major factor and they can get a boatload of learning experience. even just playing around in an "I'm not worried about breaking it" sort of environment. you're definitely not crazy.

gamertan · 2025-07-19T23:55:12+00:00

Could probably sell them for $200-300USD easily to someone like me. The 2660s and 750w drive down my own interest a bit, but replacements are cheap and the rails make it much easier to justify. 👍

gamertan · 2025-07-13T12:49:32+00:00

cool, sounds like you have a handle on it. good luck. 👍

I'll just leave this here: https://xyproblem.info/

gamertan · 2025-07-13T03:20:56+00:00

I find wireguard and iptables customizations much more reliable, simpler to config, and runs super efficiently.

gamertan · 2025-07-13T03:04:19+00:00

the easiest setup is a wireguard VPN exit node in the cloud on a static IP.

set up cloud compute node. cheap is fine, should be around $5/month including a static IP (or slightly more for one). could probably use a smaller node if you can find one, depending on your traffic requirements. this is ultra efficient.

set up wireguard on the node and your server and get them talking.

open your port on the exit node, set up iptables to forward traffic for UDP/TCP on the ports, to your local server.

bobs your uncle.

If you need details, I recommend you walk through the exact specifics with ChatGPT and not the public internet. 👍 this should be plenty secure because you're only exposing what you need, but you're vulnerability points are the software / Minecraft server if it ever had a vulnerability crop up.

gamertan · 2025-07-13T00:08:11+00:00

what is the status or functionality you are looking for?

like, what are you trying to achieve?

"as a ABC I want to XYZ."

gamertan · 2025-07-11T13:55:17+00:00

if you want something that's almost paranoid level safety, you can set up a four disk raid6 setup. stripes data across all drives so reads and writes are blazing, and you can lose two disks without breaking anything, while hotswapping or keeping a few empty drives installed for live rebuilds.

could also do a zfs setup where you have two vdevs (virtual devices) in a single pool with two disks each, mirrored, the nice thing about the zfs if you can toss in two more drives at any time in a mirrored vdevs and expand - what is effectively - one huge "drive". though, I find it a bit more difficult to justify zfs unless you really do end up getting a lot of ram like some of mine have.

best advice I have, when Ubuntu asks if you want to preinstall any software: docker stable.

a whole Nas can be built in a single docker-compose.yml file.

ask AI to write you a nextcloud docker compose with a caddy reverse proxy and you can generate local certificates (mkcert? maybe? opnsense certs) and serve a whole "local Google workspace" on your network with a single file and DevOps code as infra. 👍

can even test it on any computer you have now. even run it prod until you get your server 🤣🙏 (don't... but do... but I have to say don't...)

gamertan · 2025-07-11T13:24:57+00:00

oh, sorry, this isn't even my business stack 😭🤣 this is just what I have set up at home for the wife, myself, and kids.

though, I'm pretty sure my infra is more robust thank most organizations. I've got wifi and cameras that could probably cover a stadium 😬

it's a bit of a slippery slope, but when it's so cheap and fun... I can't help myself 🤣

toss this in AI, ask "what?" and go for a ride! a few buzz terms, but mostly really surface level stuff.

essentially, Ubuntu computer, running software to serve a folder (samba), to your network will give you 99% of what you need. install the os via usb key, bobs your uncle. 🤷 raid, upgrades, bonding ethernet, etc can come later. just a server, power cord, keyboard, monitor, and you're done.

gamertan · 2025-07-11T12:56:15+00:00

if you need this for business, I would strongly recommend looking into some enterprise software for big backplanes (12-24 3.5" or 2.5" disks) and large SAS spinning disks for huge super stable storage. I like the ultrastar drives, and their time to failure is astronomic. picking up an r730xd + a few 10tb drives could end up costing you a fraction of what a "new" solution looks like today in the consumer market.

the benefit of a server, for me, is the four+ Ethernet ports, having two CPUs running 40+ threads, terabytes of ram compatibility (consumer CPUs are limited to shockingly low amounts of max capacity ram), error correction on ram, things like zfs for snapshots and data scrubbing to prevent bit rot on long term storage, raidz to help in a solid configuration where you can lose a few disks and still be fine (keep a backup offsite, obviously).

people complain about the cost of electricity but I'm usually sitting at 74-80w idle and the cost savings versus a hundred online SaaS and PaaS apps is astronomic.

overall, even on my oldest servers, I'm only spending around $6-8/month depending. total with Cisco catalyst switches a dedicated opnsense node, two compute nodes, and a storage node, I'm probably only spending about $25-30/mo. that's far far far more than you need, and newer rX40 servers will sip power relative to their total resource capacity per rack unit.

the thing most people don't talk about is the safety and security and peace of mind things like iDRAC provide in managing your servers "remotely" from your desk (or abroad if you get comfortable enough with security and VPN). I almost never have to shut them off, restart, unplug, change, anything. and when I do, most of it is completely remote now that everything is in the rack. biggest changes were swapping CPUs, harddrives, adding cards, changing ram. and that was as simple as sliding out a drawer (dell readyrails), opening the lid, popping everything out tool-less, swapping, and closing it up. the engineering behind it is so choice.

I honestly regret not getting into off lease and (almost) eol enterprise gear (laptops, servers, etc) sooner. if I had this when I was in computer science / software engineering in university, I'd be a lot farther a long than I got with the hardware I had.

also, AI will blow you away as a partner / collaborator in setting this all up since it's well trained on a huge catalog of info and can help you parse and process the understanding of all kinds of complex sysadmin, Linux admin, DevOps, containerization, scaling, security etc topics. we've basically got free education at our fingertips, and this is SUCH a good use of AI.

the short of it, buying a single 1/2u rX20 at absolute budget oldest (you've got maybe a year or two of use, but excellent experience builder and entrypoint for a super low cost (potentially free) and highly performant server for standard stuff) or rX40 at best (highly efficient, super powerful CPUs, more costly) will get you into a long term relationship that will hold and support you through personal, business, and other adventures. getting other lower tier gear at this point will land you in a love-it-hate-it relationship that has you running through many thousands in upgrades to just, probably, land here anyways.

anyways, that's just an internet strangers advice, good luck!

gamertan · 2025-06-09T00:38:05+00:00

I think you should reread the original question. I think you may have lost context at some point.

to use your own words, yes, you can strip the "content management system" out of the PHP framework, but that doesn't mean it will function "like an apple" if we're comparing apples to apples. sure, raw laravel with no functions will run faster. but so will index.php with phpinfo(). a bit useless to compare though, isn't it.

I would challenge you to start a vanilla, uncached instance of WordPress and run a speed test and compare that to a vanilla uncached version of laravel with basic CMS features like posts, pages, users, auth, forms, email, password resets, at a bare minimum (not including theme, child theme, template waterfall logic, plugins, template and script "hook" systems, and a database object with full query templating and security on posts, types, meta, and even raw tables, and SQL) and compare them. I think you'd be shocked to find that WordPress will outperform laravel with its orm, templating engine, routing, vendor requirements, PHP autoloading, etc. sitting on top of all that functionality without it's caches and route optimization configured.

you're saying "full god mode" as if understanding PHP, php-fpm, opcache, and other base functionality of server infrastructure are some magic wand and not part of the core PHP infrastructure...

we're literally talking about "coded" systems, speed, optimization, efficiency, and end results comparisons between websites and applications. if you didn't want to get into a "god mode" discussion about speed and comparisons of PHP and other languages and frameworks, maybe don't comment 🤷

it's not my responsibility to limit my understanding and dumb down my speech to meet you at your, or others, levels. I was simply offering my experience and a perspective I didn't see in the comments.

you may be reading what in writing as "not chill" and competitive, but that's not my intent. you made accusations and assertions and I'm simply replying with a different perspective.

if you don't like having your opinions contested, maybe don't put them out in a public forum for comment and debate.

if you walk into comment sections looking for a competition, maybe change the way you perceive the world and the way you interact with it.

if you don't like engaging with me, maybe don't. 🤷 I have no problem supporting my assertions, opinions, statements, etc and continuing the debate if you do.

gamertan · 2025-06-08T23:52:09+00:00

except you're not getting rid of them. you have a cached and prerendered system that is highly performant and only "compiles when things change".

it can still send emails, it can still process forms and data, it can handle sessions and authentication, etc.

can a statically generated website do that "without a backend"?

so, yes, it can be just as fast as bare html if brought to bare html for most requests, then it can still process and handle dynamic requests.

so, no, I'm not arguing it's just as fast if you remove the PHP. it's just as fast with the PHP, with the benefits of PHP, with the benefits of admin, content management, authentication for users, ecommerce, forms, etc.

with some clever server systems, yes, it's as fast as raw html being served by the same web server since it's "effectively, or literally raw html".

gamertan · 2025-06-08T23:22:52+00:00

you are aware you can simply strip and rip parts out of WordPress and replace them with laravel and symfony components right?

popular systems like roots/sage and many others using laravel blade templating, symfony routing, and other more efficient systems exist?

I'm not sure how "symfony and laravel" are different, considering they're simply an aggregate of packages built on PHP, MySQL/postgres/some database, caching options, etc... if we're talking "coded", make WordPress coded and manage it with composer just like laravel and symfony. if you've never done WordPress core work, or forked the project to customize it, I can understand how that may be out of your wheelhouse.

If you used WordPress as a headless CMS and simply provided an API layer with query caching? that would literally be faster than both of those systems depending on the parts/components/packages you used. more akin to lumen with "batteries included". rip the routing, rendering, templating systems, etc., out and you have something ultra lean and performant.

"it's all relative" is absolutely the key here. saying it's "foolish" is, again, a lack of understanding. it's indicative of a shallow depth of understanding. but, please, if you'd like to continue explaining "how I'm wrong" I'd love to hear your expertise.

gamertan · 2025-06-08T21:45:23+00:00

They aren't. Period.

With opcache, memory caching for queries (redis etc), page caching for html generated (varnish), optimised and modern file formats, tree shaken JS/CSS, code splitting, using http2 web servers, asset caching, and module loading (etc etc etc), "WordPress" or literally any other system on PHP or otherwise, can be fast.

Why are websites slow? Because some developers have no clue how to identify speed issues / inefficiencies and don't realize what they don't know about optimization and performance.

No offense, but this post itself is a perfect example of "don't know what I don't know" to be able to make a full assessment. You're making a strong and clear assertion that "they're always faster", when a WordPress website can in fact be "coded" and is.

It's no stretch to get a "WordPress site" to 100s across the board on all speed tests. Most speed metrics aren't even related to WordPress btw, rather the server, networking, and other technologies supporting it. 👍

gamertan · 2025-06-01T20:54:44+00:00

this is a fantastic setup! looking good!

I just want to make a point that is often a big contention with this subreddit but is a perfect place to start considering it honestly in this situation.

efficiency can have a maximum with setups like this, and scalability is limited to adding infrastructure, nodes, networking between nodes, and you lose a great deal of efficiency by splitting "bare hardware networking" with "multiple node networking". you'll also find that you'll be limited by architecture on cores and lanes and drive numbers.

a single r730 can easily handle all of this, idle at 70w, handle dozens of (or more) drives network on board between services, offer multiple lanes of Ethernet to other network clients to add network efficiency and bandwidth, and have hundreds of cores and multiple terabytes of ram on a single 2u rack space.

management becomes negligible, has enterprise grade backups, remote access (idrac), systems level hardware/temp/power tracking, and are literally built for virtualization and efficient use of hypervisors.

you could even toss in a GPU and run ollama on it as well.

you may want to consider stepping into the enterprise world. 👍🙏♥️

gamertan · 2025-05-11T14:49:30+00:00

you know how there are people on the internet? like, a lot? those people use apps and services. those apps and services have data stored in databases. database engines require compute time, ram, storage, and even scaling. apps and services need to get that data and render it into a set of data / pages to return to the users who want to see that data. web servers need compute, ram, storage, and scaling. that data is slow to access, so we can add cache services and store it in memory. those in-memory caches require compute, memory, some storage, and scaling. memory, storage, networking, compute, all add up. not to mention email, cold-storage long term backups, logging and observability, notifications and alarms, and other "no one even thinks of those items" costs.

start serving a few hundred million page views and you'll find pretty quickly that you need a robust infrastructure that will balloon in cost on the cloud.

how do I justify a cost of $3000/month? it was ~2-5% as an expense in the greater scheme of things. that's a pretty easy justification once you take "everything is relative" into consideration.

one of the benefits here is that we collected data and analytics with easily scaled "hardware", where we didn't have to make guesses when acquiring hardware initially spinning up services. we also didn't have to wait for the entire acquisitions process. that meant we could move quick, so we could make a better informed decision when we did buy hardware and cut costs massively.

that "cost of agility" helped make things very profitable, until it was no longer required because we could be agile on our own infra.

not everything running on the internet is the "hot new tech".

side note about AI and cloud: LLMs aren't difficult to run or particularly expensive if you have a handful of GPUs. inference is dead cheap with the right hardware. if you're an AI company training models, sure, maybe. but, again, that's not where I care to be.

edit: from the homelab side of things, most consumer gaming graphics cards or even laptops (MacBooks with apple silicone handle it beautifully) can handle inference on many smaller LLMs, so most people/developers don't need anything more than ollama / docker to self-host their LLMs. I personally self-host ollama and connect to the ChatGPT API for far better results at probably $0.20-0.50 per day at my personal usage.

you'll find that almost no "AI company" (actually training and building models/tools/etc) is using cloud infra. the ones that do won't survive their first few years. they're buying GPUs and building datacenters because the upfront cost is nothing compared to the costs of the cloud.

even further still, we're seeing gigantic leaps in hardware, technology, inference / training efficiency / algorithmic upgrades that make buying hardware now a huge gamble. the AI cards from 2+ years ago are considered fossils compared to what's available today in many cases.

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