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Looking for ways to bring down memory requirements for a LAMP install.

SITE_INFO: 10-20 pages, 2-5k pageviews per month -- it's a small, low load site.

OS: If it matters, I plan to use CentOS-5.5 (project requirement)

MISC: Drupal 5.X and integration of Active Directory SSO (project requirements)

DEV_HOST: Slicehost, Linode

PROD_HOST: Local VM

Question, just ask -- thanks!

NOTE: Yes, I know that there are better webserver stacks for low memory requirements, but the project requirements include Drupal and integration of Active Directory SSO require this stack based on my understanding, which are requirements for my project. Thanks, tried finding all this info, but no luck, which I find puzzling too.

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@Miles_Erickson: Yes, that's true -- but CentOS-5.5 is a requirement. It's also possible to do use htaccess on Apache to do Active Directory SSO integration and use frontpage/extension as a CMS interface, but these are the requirements I've been given. – blunders Oct 12 '10 at 19:56
There is nothing about Drupal that specifically requires LAMP. It even supports Microsoft IIS, which obviously supports Active Directory SSO natively, but you should be able configure LDAP authentication against a domain controller using any supported configuration. Who told you that you had to use Linux, Apache, and MySQL in order for this to work? It's obviously not a bad way to go -- the entire known universe can't be that wrong -- and you certainly can run Drupal on a 1/4 GB VPS without issues as long as you don't have a lot of traffic -- but your premise isn't necessarily valid. – Miles Erickson Oct 12 '10 at 20:02
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If you have to use a specific operating system and that operating system is CentOS, then just go with it. It can be made to work within your constraints, as long as you have a minimal amount of traffic. The minimum required RAM for a 32-bit CLI-only installation of CentOS 5 is 128MB. Do not install the x64 version, even if your VPS supports it. – Miles Erickson Oct 12 '10 at 20:06
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Just out of curiosity, why a cloud VPS for development and a local VM for production? The exact opposite would be much more typical scenario. – Miles Erickson Oct 13 '10 at 19:25
Miles_Erickson: Personally, I'd rather just do the whole thing on a VPS. It's fine though, that's the step-up they want. One thing I hadn't noticed before is that Linode is now about half the price of slicehost, and has been for months. No idea why slicehost is the same price... oh, well. – blunders Oct 13 '10 at 20:07

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Minimum system requirements? That's an incredibly subjective question. How much load are you anticipating? What type (if any) caching are you going to be doing? You're going to need to provide details if you expect any amount of detail in your answers.

I've run LAMP on as little as a 500MHz PIII with 128M of RAM. Worked just fine (for what it was doing).

I'd recommend starting out with Slicehost's smallest package. If you run into load issues, then upgrade. I've never used Slicehost, but if they're anything like Linode (whom I've been a customer of for ~6 years), it's incredibly easy to upgrade to a larger plan.

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Linode, is fine. Site is 10-20 pages and gets maybe 2-5k in page views a month -- it's a small, low load site. Beyond the tips on this page, chrisjohnston.org/2008/… ... do you have any other suggestions for setting up a light weight config? – blunders Oct 12 '10 at 19:46
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No, that seems like a good start. – EEAA Oct 12 '10 at 20:25
@ErikA: Thanks! – blunders Oct 12 '10 at 20:44
You're welcome. Good luck! – EEAA Oct 12 '10 at 20:46

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