Tech Need advice on server setup hosting mp4s

[abshard]

I have 4 cheap identical servers at ovh, all 4 currently have same data on them and i'm using round robin dns to serve mp4s. Each one is capped at 500mbs and I'm using average of 400mbs on each. My problem is I'm running out of hard drive space.

What would be the best solution?

Turn the 4 mirrored servers into 2 sets mirrored servers each set with half the data? Then change half of the video urls in my script to the new url for the new server set. The reason I would split the videos now is because of bandwidth limits on each server.

Or is there something else I can do with nfs shares and not have to change any urls in my tube script? Keep half the videos on each set of 2 servers but link them with nfs shares and not have to change any urls. And I need to utilize the 500mbs bandwidth on each server.

Which would be a better solution or is there something else I can do?

[blackmonsters]

Hmmmm,

Dropping 3 servers and using a CDN service for all videos and images might be an option.

https://www.akamai.com/us/en/cdn/

[abshard]

I'm currently paying about 320 per month and using close to 2gbs bw, I think cdn would be considerbly more expensive.

[VRR]

Originally Posted by abshard

I'm currently paying about 320 per month and using close to 2gbs bw, I think cdn would be considerbly more expensive.

Not necessarily. It boils down to which regions you want the CDN to serve and who you go with.
If you are looking for anything but Europe or North America it will be very expensive, but since you use OVH I suppose you don't.

I am not sure if the solution you propose won't turn into a nightmare from management perspective, especially when you need to scale. Also, as you've probably already found, some videos are more popular than other and you could easily be running out of bandwidth on one server while another sits there doing almost nothing. Round robin is only so good. If you don't go the CDN route, is it possible to get two bigger servers than these 4 (In terms of storage and bandwidth)? It would probably buy you some time to think of a long-term solution and would cost roughly the same what you are paying now.

[Ferus]

Easy way:
Split it up with two set of servers, and use nginx to loadbalance the content
https://www.digitalocean.com/communi...load-balancing

Cool way:
Software-defined-storage. Scale out the servers, to keep datasets spred out

[wankawonk]

Honestly I think you should be looking at a cdn...mojohost and holacdn are good.

If you really want to use your own servers you should get an origin server service (like s3) and then set up nginx proxy caching on your bare metal servers.

[3xmedia]

Originally Posted by wankawonk

Honestly I think you should be looking at a cdn...mojohost and holacdn are good.

sure, but the price might be an issue as CDN is still quite expensice for free tubes. OP says he has 2Gbps BW available, uses 1600Mbps which is about 520TB/month, and pays $320/month. even with a cheap CDN, that BW would cost him several thousand.

[2MuchMark]

Originally Posted by abshard

I have 4 cheap identical servers at ovh, all 4 currently have same data on them and i'm using round robin dns to serve mp4s. Each one is capped at 500mbs and I'm using average of 400mbs on each. My problem is I'm running out of hard drive space.

What would be the best solution?

Turn the 4 mirrored servers into 2 sets mirrored servers each set with half the data? Then change half of the video urls in my script to the new url for the new server set. The reason I would split the videos now is because of bandwidth limits on each server.

Or is there something else I can do with nfs shares and not have to change any urls in my tube script? Keep half the videos on each set of 2 servers but link them with nfs shares and not have to change any urls. And I need to utilize the 500mbs bandwidth on each server.

Which would be a better solution or is there something else I can do?

Have you asked OVH?