Server hosting and number of sites

[Falcon21]

Hello, I am new to web hosting, I would like to ask how many e-commerce sites can a normal server support without compromising too much on the performance? assuming the databases will be on the same machine.

Thanks for any input.

[morganlefay]

Guess it all depends on your hardware..pipe...and usage?

MLF

[JPnyc]

That's impossible to answer. It depends on how much traffic they each get. Beyond the space required to store files and databases, you have to know how many requests they'll be handling, which also brings the pipe into play as morgan said.

[Falcon21]

Hmm, I agree, it is pretty much depends on the usage. Heavy e-commerce site may obviously need a dedicated server I guess. Maybe I need to think more about it. Thanks.

[JPnyc]

Exactly, for example, we have some servers housing 3 forums, and others where a single forum load is balanced across 3 servers.

[Terr]

One thing to watch out for with E-commerce sites is the infrastructure to support the necessary level of security. For instance, you may want seperate IPs (multi-homed machine) when using SSL. If all the databases are on the same machine, you should be taking steps (e.g. PHP's safe_mode) in order to keep customer's sites isolated from one another.

That said, like others have noted, it really "just depends". One thing that may be worthwhile is to put on a good stat/logging package so that you have the information necessary to make the right choices, so you know in advance if one site or another is starting to grow and will soon need a larger metaphorical pot.