Web Hosting, Web Scaling

Question

I have a simple web application to conduct online exams for the college students. All questions are multiple choice questions. Around 5000 users will be taking up the exam. My backend is mysql and using PHP as the front end. I want to know the hardware configuration for the servers that will be required to host this application and work seamlessly for the required no of users.

I am also looking out for cloud solutions. If I choose Amazone EC2 instances, can some body give me advice on what type of EC2 machine I should go into for this application?

Answer 1

It is impossible to tell the exact specs of the servers that will be required to run your setup, because there are too many variables. However, it is definitely a good question: when I was a student at university, it happened that a professor tried to do this, and didn't do testing: on the exam date, the system got overloaded and the exam had to be cancelled!

Start with testing what you already have. You can use something like the ab tool or JMeter. It will simulate the requested load for you automatically, so you can check how your actual server performs, and act accordingly.