Advice on starting a new image hosting site

[Spartan]

I'm planning to start an image hosting website which will be designed and coded by myself. But I would like the professionals to guide me over what I should be aware of or do to handle security issues and related concerns.

Apart from that there are many doubts which I would want to clear before starting it.

Firstly, it will be a small image hosting site, I'm not planning to be ready for millions of images so I would go with small hosting packages.

I would prefer VPS to begin with but should I choose XEN VPS or OpenVZ?

How much RAM is preferred to begin with?

Which host should I opt for? I have tried KnownSRV and VPS6. KnownSRV provides a brilliant service but they are bit expensive as compared to VPS6. I'm not planning to make a profit out of this image host but I would surely try to generate some amount to pay for the server expenses.

Please give your inputs as in what I should take care of while coding the website? I know how to prevent SQL injections and other simple attacks. I have read on various forums that people try to inject shell script and stuffs via uploads but I don't know how it actually works. Is it possible to do so with images as well? If so, how am I supposed to handle it? (Sorry if I'm being a noob here, but prevention is always better than cure)

Also how do I provide hotlinking to only specific users/domains?

There might be many things which I may not be aware of or I can't think of them right now, but if you know something which you feel I should know then please let me know.

Thank you

Spartan Reviewed by Spartan on 2nd Aug 2012. Advice on starting a new image hosting site I'm planning to start an image hosting website which will be designed and coded by myself. But I would like the professionals to guide me over what I should be aware of or do to handle security issues and related concerns. Apart from that there are many doubts which I would want to clear before starting it. Firstly, it will be a small image hosting site, I'm not planning to be ready for millions of images so I would go with small hosting packages. I would prefer VPS to begin with but Rating: 5

[MrOSX]

My advice: Don't.

There is too many to be honest, too many people are opening them up because there is so many simple scripts to use now a days. But if you are serious you are going to have to go to town with the site, really advertise, add loads of custom features and you better get a decent SEO team on the job. Good Luck.

[Spartan]

Actually i am making this image host for my own sites and forums ,
i don't want it to go famous or something
i just don't want to rely on other imagehosts anymore

[Hx]

Well, if your just going to make an image host for yourself then a vps should be fine, but if you plan on it being for the masses a vps wouldn't be enough, well companies such as knownsrv will probably suspend your account for high loads the moment it picks up a little bit of traffic. My advice would be start of with a dedi if your planning on it being for the masses, i heard ovh offers cheap dedicated servers for the price of an vps. So it might be worth looking at ovh for servers.

[MrOSX]

If it is just for your forums, then I would go with what Hx said, just a VPS but do look at ovh servers because if they can provide a dedicated server for the same price as a vps then it may be a lot more cost effective as you would most probably be able to host your site/forum on the same dedicated server. Good luck.

[Spartan]

Well, if your just going to make an image host for yourself then a vps should be fine, but if you plan on it being for the masses a vps wouldn't be enough, well companies such as knownsrv will probably suspend your account for high loads the moment it picks up a little bit of traffic. My advice would be start of with a dedi if your planning on it being for the masses, i heard ovh offers cheap dedicated servers for the price of an vps. So it might be worth looking at ovh for servers.

If it is just for your forums, then I would go with what Hx said, just a VPS but do look at ovh servers because if they can provide a dedicated server for the same price as a vps then it may be a lot more cost effective as you would most probably be able to host your site/forum on the same dedicated server. Good luck.

Thank you for your suggestions
No I'm not at all planning it to be for masses, but I'm planning to setup an adult image host and according to the various responses I read across this forums, OVH does not allow adult stuffs. Also they terminate your account in 3-4 DMCA. I'm not planning to host copyrighted images but you never know someone else can upload it too. I will be responding to DMCA complaints but I do not wish my account to be terminated.

One more thing, is this the place I should be looking for to buy dedicated servers at cheap price?

http://www.ovh.ie/dedicated_servers/index.xml

These prices are quite high as compared to VPS hosting. Please point me to a correct link as all OVH sites are offering dedicated servers at quite high price (when compared to VPS at other hosts).

[acoza]

If you're gonna have DMCA issues and would like a host that offers great bandwidth and hardware deals, and cares very little for DMCAs, PM me.

[Spartan]

Can anybody Suggest me What RAM and CPU cores on intel xenon 2.5GHZ processor required to bear a 2k daily traffic for image host to load super fast thumbnails ?

[acoza]

What's important to you are hard drives. You'll be set with a Intel Atom CPU. You barely need it. 2GB of RAM will do. More RAM is always better. And a 2TB HD, 2x2TB HD in RAID1 if you want redundancy. Get a 100Mbps unmetered port, and bam you're set. Install NGiNX and bam! You're ready to take in and serve files!!

I have 14 servers in this configuration. I scale by stacking them. Stacks of +2TB storage and +100Mbps bandwidth. I host about 25 million images.