

How many AWS micro instances you need to run to handle Show HN? - avaku

Assuming my website is not very computationally intensive, just grabbing small pieces of data from MongoDB and showing it... How many AWS micro instances I need to run handle the load from Show HN, provided my post gets to the front page? Any experience?
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davismwfl
Not trying to be a dick, but its a near impossible question to answer.

I run completely in EC2, my suggestion would be run 2 small instances instead
of micro's. Micro's are good to burst up some CPU cycles when you need it, but
don't do great at I/O, which is probably where you will have bigger issues.
Even small isn't great, but they will handle things a little better if you are
not CPU bound.

Only way to really know is throw some sample traffic at it and test. Test with
100, 500 and 1000 users making the appropriate number of request you feel an
average visitor would. Some people have posted in the past about the amount of
traffic they got from being on the front page, but I am sure your mileage will
vary with the subject area.

