I have previously written about how DreamHost’s CPU minute restriction limits their otherwise generous bandwidth/storage allowance. In the June (or was it May?) issue of their news letter, they have decided to abolish this very restriction that seems to be the biggest complain about this otherwise very high quality web hosting service.

So “guess” what?! We’ve changed our “cpu minute” “policy” “for the better!” We no longer HAVE any limits on “cpu minutes”. Maybe it’s just semantics, and maybe it’s just “crazy overselling”, but as long as your site or scripts aren’t causing problems with the server, you are IN THE CLEAR!

Let’s say you’re not IN THE CLEAR though.. don’t worry! We’ll work with you! We’re adding a BUNCH of new servers to help “get” the average load per web server down, and we’ll work with high-load people to get their usage down or their butts onto a new server that can handle it. What a sweet web host.. let no one accuse US of “crazy overselling,” and we won’t accuse THEM.

Please ignore Josh Jones’ sarcastic tone :)

What does that mean to DreamHost users?

• If no one really visits your site, or you have not discovered the world of “dynamic content”, this announcement means pretty much nothing to you. You are no where near DreamHost’s abuser radar. Take easy. Build some traffic.

• If your daily CPU usage is approach the old 60 minute limit (for example, 3,000-4,000 visitors a day on a typical WordPress installation), then this is a good news. DreamHost will no longer automatically trigger an email to inform you that you have exceeded your limit.

  However, it is still a good idea to optimise your site. Consider wP-Cache for your blog, or don’t use WordPress at all. Just in case a sudden traffic surge pushes you into the next level…

• If you occasionally gets DDoS’ed, Digged or Slashdotted, then DreamHost might actually actively assist you to optimise your site. They also reserve the right to temporarily disable your site, or move you onto a semi-dedicated server until the effect dies away. From their updated CPU minute FAQ,

  Once your site starts to adversely affect the shared hosting server you’re on though, we may have to take action. If your site is just causing the load to creep up on your machine, we’ll try and contact you and give some suggestions on how to make your site less resource-intensive. If your site (or just a particular script) is causing the entire server to become unresponsive, we may have to take immediate action and temporarily disable whatever was bringing the machine down. Hopefully the problem was just a one-time thing that can be fixed! If it turns out to be an ongoing issue, we may need to move you to a different server eventually.

  That sounds fair. Instead of getting dreaded account suspended email straight away, at least they are working with their customers to provide a temporary solution.

  Now, how to get onto Digg or Slashdot is another matter though…

• If your site is constantly getting hammered with high CPU usage, then DreamHost might want to negotiate a deal with you to have you upgraded to a higher plan (Crazy Insane CPU for $30 a month?) or even suggest you to move onto a dedicated box. As DreamHost does not provide dedicated at the moment, we can only speculate that it means “please find a new host because you are too costly”.

  From the same FAQ it states:

  If, even after moving you to a new server, your site is still causing problems, we may try and work out some sort of agreement where you get a close-to-empty server all to yourself in exchange for upgrading to a higher plan. But again, this is all on a case-by-case basis!

  Yes — it will be on a case by case basis because we can imagine those who use that much CPU time are minorities.

So, after all, it is not an “unlimited CPU time” announcement. After all, those dual Xeons still have the same 1,440 minutes everyday. DreamHost is here to tell us that the old “hard limit” has gone soft, and they are willing to work with their customers to provide the best solution. If your web site runs silly scripts that hog CPU and cause other sites on the same shared server to perform badly, then there still is a chance that they will force you to leave. Rare, but possible.

Conclusion

Would I change what I have written about the dark side of DreamHost? No. It still holds true, and it holds true for all other shared hosting as well. There is no way to use up all the storage and bandwidth if you are running heavy CMS scripts. You are hogging the resource that was supposed to be shared. Not kicking you out is not playing fair with many other customers on the same box, and DreamHost here is being generous by moving offending site to a less crowded server.

And I have to state it again. When I wrote my previous article, I did not write it with an intention saying “DreamHost sucks”. I have never received CPU minute letter myself. I wrote it to warn those potential budget hosting customers — don’t think the host is going to satisfy your needs because it provides sufficient storage and bandwidth, because you also need to watch out how CPU intensive your website is. DreamHost wasn’t actively stating out this limitation previously in the sign up process, but although the hard limit has now been abolished, web hosting customers still need to understand that soft-limit still exists — they are getting a shared hosting account, not a dedicated box.

I have to applause DreamHost for having such open discussion on their blog site. It is not say, “hey now you can use whatever you want”, but helping their customers to realise why such limit exists and what is their approach to offenders.

Is CPU overselling possible? With virtualization, SAN and real-time server migration, it might become a reality to hosting companies. Maybe I’ll discuss it next time.

Update: Someone in WHT received a warning on CPU resource over-usage, and it is after DreamHost’s announcement of abolishing the CPU minutes. Oh well.