I am looking at running suitecrm on a synology nas for our start up business and want to ensure high performance / snappy response times even as our database grows to a large size. I have earmarked the DS918+ as a potentially good starting option and was originally thinking of running 4 x 4tb wd reds in raid 10. Is this a good choice? Should I consider SSD instead of HDD for storage? In the short term our database is likely to remain quite small so maybe I am already getting ahead of myself. Any advice appreciated.
Having looked into this a bit more im likely to go with the HDDs and use the ssd cache option that is in the 918+. Ill also upgrade the ram to the max 16gb. Id be surprised if this doesnt give us more than enough performance for the foreseeable future
If I was in your position, I would be more interested in getting a good VM architecture than with hardware performance. Moving to a larger server is easy when you use VM’s.
Thanks for the advice. I have read a little on running the crm in a VM, some of the benefits cross over to the NAS itself. Such as snapshot backups, as the nas can use the BTRFS file system. Also fault tolerance is taken care of if using raid (probably 1 or 10). Bearing this in mind would you still recommend running the crm using a VM? Is the performance hit negligible as I would want to ensure high performance.
Also can I ask what the consensus is on mysql vs mariadb. From the small amount I have read mariadb may have marginally better performance vs mysql.
You might like to read this one too
https://pgorod.github.io/Architecture/
I don’t think you will want to imitate that, but it does explain some nice points about the different kinds of fault tolerance you want (or need). It also sheds some light on the way to scale SuiteCRM by splitting the DB and the web server into 2 different machines.
So, back to your questions:
The performance penalty of running in a VM is, in my experience, completely negligible. However, my experience doesn’t cover everything 
and I know that if you’re really pushing your hardware, at some point a difference from running in a VM or bare metal will emerge. Still, I would opt for VM and treat performance issues at the application level which is where they usually are (and I say this specifically for SuiteCRM installations).
About MySQL and MariaDB, both will serve you well. I use MySQL, if I was starting an install today, I would probably want to try out MariaDB.
I still have yet to purchase the NAS. What would be the easiest / fastest way to set up a test / demo instance of suitecrm to play around with?
You can play with live demos without installing one. There’s one by SalesAgility and on by Softaculous which allows admin access.
To install your own, what are your preferences? Linux, Windows? The easiest to install in my opinion is Ubuntu 16.04 server.
You can have that on AWS or Azure, of course. You can also have it inside Windows with WSL or Hyper-V, even on a simple PC/laptop with Windows 10.
I did try the demo on the suitecrm site but after a period of time I was kicked out and getting a 403 forbidden message. Its now let me back in but the changes that I made are gone.
Im still considering installing it on the NAS, I plan to get the nas anyway for other purposes and also like the idea of having the crm on premise. For linux I was looking at Centos, for no other reason than I read it can be a good choice. Although if you are suggesting ubuntu as an easier install perhaps it would be wise if I go with that instead. Also whilst I like to think I am capable, I do wonder with my lack of knowledge and experience if I will quickly encounter problems and maybe I am better off paying someone to do the installation for me.
Alternatively like you say I could always forget about the NAS and head straight to AWS or similar. Would there be any major benefits in doing so?
I am looking to the purchase the items in the next few weeks: The current plan is to go with the following.
Suitecrm 7.8.18 LTS
Ubuntu 18.04
Nginx 1.14.0
Php 7.1
Mariadb 10.1
Synology DS918+
2 x 500gb 860 evo (raid 1)
16gb ram
Couple of questions.
- Is there a reason why nginx is not listed on the compatability matrix?
- I assume its fine to use ubuntu 18.04?
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Deciding that a certain software is “supported” is a tough call. We don’t have the resources to test all these things extensively, in all the cross combinations of OS, PHP versions, DB, SuiteCRM, etc. Anyway I know that many people use nginx and I guess it’s coming near the point where it will enter the matrix.
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I assume it is. The most tested version by far is 16.04. I don’t expect any special problems with new Ubuntu versions, but I am just guessing, didn’t test.