I currently have my web server and SQL Express / MySQL server on the same server. It is on a VPS. I have been having problems with my hosting so I am thinking of separating the web and db server into 2 VPS servers.
Does anyone recommend this? I am worried that changing my setup from a local DB server to a remote one will degrade performance heavily. They will not be on the same network, but will reference each other via an IP address. Anything I should be aware of?
If ther VPS is maxing out it's processor resources then separating them may be a good idea. Genearlly if the DB servers have quite high load then separating them from the web frontend will improve performance. If the load on the DB is very low, then you've probably got other issues (like programming efficiency or similar things).
Get a shared sql server account and/or shared mysql - you'll be happier unless you truly need control for some reason - Virtualizing databases doesn't work as well as many other things - generally file i/o is an issue even though it doesn't particularly show up in test results - http://www.bitshop.com/Blogs/tabid/95/EntryId/29/Can-I-virtualize-SQL-Server-Is-performance-good.aspx