API server specs

Question

I created a simple API for my project I'm working on. The API is basically used for user authentication and to execute user actions within a panel (example: http://api.mydomain.com/loginUser?username=user&password=pass; returns true if correct info, false if not). I'm preparing for ~500 users max to probably use this, for now.

The current API server specs are: CPU: 1 Core RAM: 2 GB Disk Space: 60 GB Bandwidth: 4 TB OS: Latest Ubuntu

My question is basically, can this server handle hundreds of users a day? I can easily purchase a bigger server if necessary, but if not, I won't. If I need to get a bigger server, what would your suggestions be? I was also thinking I could buy a lot of these small ones and do some sort of a round-robin type thing. Any ideas?

Please use https for requests including a password. – toppledwagon Oct 08 '13 at 23:29 — toppledwagon, Oct 08 '13 at 23:29
Run a load test on it from another server and find it... ? – Wesley Oct 08 '13 at 23:55 — Wesley, Oct 08 '13 at 23:55

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 08 '13 at 23:06

There is really not enough information here to answer your question definitively. The best approach is to take an educated guess, then measure the results. Big enough? Ok, done. Not big enough? Add more. Repeat.

You've inadvertently hit on a key topic in asking about round-robin however. Two small(er) servers are better than one large one if only for the ability to do rolling upgrades or maintenance. However, make sure you have spare capacity to make sure you can survive in a degraded mode where one node is unavailable.

Good luck.

API server specs

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