How much memory is enough for a Windows 2008 VPS?

Question

From the system requirements for Windows Server 2008 (on wikipedia.org):

• Minimum: 512 MB RAM (may limit performance and some features)
• Recommended: 2 GB RAM or higher

I'm going to have my website hosted on a Windows 2008 VPS and I was initially planning to use a hosting plan that gives 512 MB RAM (to save some money), but now I'm worried, do the same system requirements apply to Windows 2008 running in a VPS or are there differences? My website has very little memory requirements but I'll be using MySQL which should use some of this memory, should I get at least 1 GB of memory?

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

When MS says minimum memory, they just mean bare minimum performance. On other hand their recommended memory is also on higher end. For me basic rule that has worked is double the memory that is in munimum category and you should get a decent performance.

Another point as you said, your website will not be a memory hungry application. I believe MySQL should also not be memory hungry. You should stop unnecessary services on your instance too. I guess 1 GB will be sufficient to power your server and fetch decent performance.

Answer 2

You have to measure. These guesses will serve you no good.

I'd hire a 512 MB first, stress test it and if proved that RAM is the bottleneck to achieve the required performance level, then bump up the contract to 1 GB and measure again.

Don't know if all hosting providers will allow you to upgrade at will, but it seems like a natural requirement to me so you shouldn't have trouble finding one that can do it.

Answer 3

512MB is way way low. 1 GB would be the absolute minimum. My 2008 Web server is using 1 GB of ram running IIS7, a mail server, dns server and mysql 5.1.