An online shop outgrows shared capacity when checkout, catalogue search and admin imports compete for the same cores. A dedicated server makes sense then, as a sizing decision, not as a status symbol. Buy for the load you have measured, and leave a margin for the sale day.
When a shop needs bare metal
- CPU stays busy during campaigns, feeds or imports.
- The database and media on one host need predictable disk latency.
- A review or contract asks for single-tenant hardware.
- You have someone, or an agency, to patch the system and handle restores.
A quiet catalogue belongs on web hosting or a small cloud server. Dedicated is for load you can show in a graph.
Hardware levers that matter
| Part | What decides it | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | PHP or application workers plus the database at peak | Paying for cores that never saturate |
| RAM | Database buffer, application workers, cache | Starving the database to save a module |
| Disk | Database and session latency | Putting bulky media on the fastest disks |
| Redundancy | RAID level and rebuild behaviour | Not noticing a degraded array |
| Network | Payment callbacks, TLS, sale-day traffic | No plan for bandwidth peaks |
Checkout is the part to protect
Checkout writes to the database and calls payment providers, so it suffers first when the machine is saturated. Test it under load before a campaign, not during. Cache the catalogue pages so visitors browsing do not compete with buyers paying.
Backups and failure
- Keep database backups off the machine and test a restore.
- Watch the RAID state; a degraded array during a sale is an incident.
- Write down who is called when the server stops, and in what order.
- Keep a runbook for restoring to a fresh server.
The choice between cloud and metal is explained in dedicated server vs cloud server. Security for a new machine is in the first 24 hours. Specifications are on the dedicated server page.
Frequently asked questions
How much RAM does a shop database need?
Enough to hold the working set of the database in memory, plus the application workers. Measure it; do not copy a number.
Is NVMe necessary?
For the database and sessions it helps a lot. Media files can live on cheaper storage.
Do I need RAID?
Redundancy protects against a single disk failure. It is not a backup.
Can I start on cloud and move later?
Yes. Most shops do. Move when measured load justifies it.
