title: How do you 'spec' a web server to support a given application?
body: <p>I am having real trouble trying to get decent answers to my questions from VPS and dedicated hosting provider's sales people. I have a fairly simple set of requirements - how do I select a server spec / package and be confident that I have got it about right? Are there metrics to use - number of Http requests per minute for example? are there other benchmarks? How do you approach it?</p>
  
  <p>Initial requirements are:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>must support a private ASP.NET application supporting upwards of 200 users (possibly up to 1000). user activity will be largely continuous throughout the working day</li>
  <li>the application is more intensive than your average 'website' (but not unduly so)</li>
  <li>users will be uploading and downloading large files</li>
  <li>requires a MS SQL Server database - (would workgroup edition suffice?)</li>
  <li>must support another 5 public domains with low traffic levels and little to no database activity</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Follow Up:</strong>
  Thanks for the responses guys. I have got access to a system I can configure for profiling, so can anyone recommend any profiling / load testing tools? </p>