How does the switch over to a VPS from shared hosting take place?

Question:

I want to switch from my shared hosting to a VPS. How can this be done so that I have no downtime? What is the normal process?

Answer:

Normally we do this:

1. Set your DNS TTL to a short value. Normally 3 minutes.

2. Clone your site (files and databases) to the VPS.

3. Send you the raw IP of the VPS to check things out on. Depending on the way your site is coded this may not work perfect (ie. your code keeps trying to redirect you to the proper domain name).

4. If all is well, you contact us and tell us to switch it over

5. We do one final sync of your db and files (in case anything changed from the time we first cloned your site). This step is optional. Let us know if you want a final sync done. If you’ve made tweaks to the VPS copy of the site you will NOT want this done as it will overwrite your changes.

6. The site goes live. If anything is wrong, you let us know and we switch it back

We keep your DNS TTL to about 3 minutes so if something is wrong, your users will pretty quickly (in theory no longer than 3 minutes) start hitting the “old” server again.

Quick methods to move a website to a new host

Question:

How can I quickly clone my existing website to my new hosting account? I want to avoid copying all my files via ftp to my local computer and then re-uploading them – that would take a very long time on my slow internet connection.

Answer:

These command all require you to use the unix command shell but they are very fast ways to clone your website over. If you need help, send a message to support with the login information for your old host and we can do these commands for you.

To quickly pull your backup from your old host :

1. Make the backup on the old host

2. Move it somewhere in the public_html/www/”live” part of your site.

3. On your new server with us: wget http://server.oldhost.com/backup.tgz

4. remove the file from your old server. Don’t forget this step or you’ll have a copy of your site accessible to anyone who might happen to guess the name and location of it.

The second option is to use rsync to make a copy of your site and allow for updates without re-copying everything.

To clone with rsync, do the following: (again contact tech support if you need help!)

cd ~/
rsync -vaze ssh your_user@old_server.com:~/ .

this will copy all your files from the old host to your current directory.

The first run will copy everything over. When you run it over again, it will only copy over the changes. Useful if you want to move the site over, test it out and then do one final copy before going live (in case anything changed on the old server).

If disk space is un-metered, why do I have a disk quota?

Question:

If disk space is un-metered, why do I have a disk quota?

Answer:

Clients sometimes ask why there is a quota if space is un-metered. Disk space is un-metered but we still do keep (very high) quota’s in place to stop any out of control processes, etc. from mistakenly consuming the whole disk. Running a server without any quota’s at all is not a good idea because it is very possible for a single user to consume all the disk space if they have either logs or processes that get out of control.

Keeping a minimal level of disk quotas in place ensures that your server runs smoothly. If you ever reach your quota, contact support and we will promptly raise your quota higher.

How are docroot’s for multiple domain hosting configured (document roots)

Question:

How are the domains on a phpwebhosting.com hosting account configured? Am I free to set the docroot / document root to whatever I like?

Answer:

The way our system works is that you sign up with a username and then add your first domain.

By default the first domain goes in:

/home/your_username/www

however you can change this if you would like.

Other domains you add can go pretty much wherever you like. Some people use things off their www like:

/home/your_username/www/site1
/home/your_username/www/site2

(this is not the best method to do things as your extra domains are then viewable as directories on your primary domain)

Other clients organize their domains like:

/home/your_username/site1
/home/your_username/site2
/home/your_username/site3

or

/home/your_username/sites/this.com
/home/your_username/sites/that.com
/home/your_username/sites/etc.com

It is open-ended and should work with just about any method you prefer.

Shared hosting versus VPS downtimes

Question:

How often should I expect downtime on a shared account versus a VPS?

Answer:

If you picked a random shared server, you could expect about one five minute outage every 5 months due to kernel upgrades. This is an average because there is no way to tell for certain when new (required – security related) kernels will be released. Think of a kernel update as a required security upgrade that needs a reboot to be installed.

On a shared server other outages are totally dependent on the machine itself and the hard to foresee mix of user websites loaded onto it. On a shared machine it is very hard to 100% stop a user with problems from affecting everyone else.

On a VPS you are in a much better position. You still have occasional reboots for kernel upgrades (we handle these automatically for you). All other parts of your server are totally private so you do not need to worry about other users causing downtime. As long as your own scripts do not cause out of memory and and other problems your VPS should run without issue.

Linux Shell Host – What are my options?

phpwebhosting.com is a great choice for a Linux shell host. After you sign-up, put in a request for ssh and it will be enabled quickly (all new accounts need to be verified). All common unix shell tools are pre-installed and, best of all, the admins will install more for you on request. You also have compiler access so are free to do any custom installs into your account space.

Your account is a normal unix shell – no restricted shells here. subversion and git are both available for revision control. Background processes are allowed as long as they do not cause a problem for other users. Crontab is also available.

Best Linux Host

What makes phpwebhosting the best linux host?

We try very hard to keep our accounts as close to a normal unix shell account as possible. The control panel allows beginners easy setup, but any client can also use the shell to enjoy all the power and enjoyment that linux provides.

We offer full compiler access and fast 8 CPU servers. We do not use CPanel or other pre-made hosting control panels. Sign up now and your account will be created instantly. Sign up for hosting here.