DNS On 2 Separate Servers, Control Panel On Another
May 18, 2007
I've setup two servers with Webmin on them. One is a master nameserver, and the other is a secondary nameserver.
I've setup a third server with DirectAdmin, and ofcourse, DA installs everything for you.
When I add a domain on DA.. it asks me to do all the DNS stuff there too.
Now, from what I understand, if I add a domain to a server, I host its DNS on that server too. Correct?
But then again, I've also seen many installations where the DNS servers are two completely different, even geographically, servers. And the main http/mail/db server(s) are different too.
I indicated that I've basically been using my webhosting company as "file storage".
1) I create all my files in .html using notepad
2) My files are limited to .html, .jpg, .gif, (and a couple of .js and .css) files.
3) My domain is not connected with my webhost; I use the nameserver zoneedit.com and I use URL forwarding and mask/cloak the domain the address bar (using multiple domains) as follows:
domain1.com --> forwards to [url]
domain2.com --> forwards to [url]
domain3.com --> forwards to [url]
4) For uploading files, I go to ftp://123.456.78 and drop/drag/copy/paste files into the window using my browser
5) I'm able to password protect the subdirectories as I choose.
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I called my webhost, Hostik, and told them that I was unable to do anything on my web console. I can't change a password, create a user, or even access my usage/bandwidth quotas.
They told me that I'm on an "old server" using the windows-based console (probably C-Panel / Control Panel) and they're in the process over the next three months of transfering everyone over to "Plesk".
So, they set me up with a new Plesk account, while keeping the old one in place, so that I could move/transfer my files to the Plesk account.
When I went to Plesk, I realized things are not the same:
1) In my Control Panel / C-Panel, I had a unique IP URL Address - [url]
2) In Plesk, it seems there's a set IP URL Address - [url] - that everyone shares.
3) I was told that in Plesk, many people use that IP URL address and that I'm supposed to place my files into the "httpdocs" folder.
Appearently, this is a system of shared hosting whereby many people have the same IP URL address (different from what I had before) and it recognizes each account by the login or something, so the "httpdocs" folder would identify my domain.
I was then told that in Plesk, I must have my domain affixed to the Plesk account.
In other words, I can no longer do what I was doing before, having my domain separated in another location and using URL forwarding from an outside nameserver.
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So, my original question is what's the difference between Plesk vs. C-Panel/Control Panel?
Perhaps I answered most of it above.
Is it correct that I can't do things the way I've been doing them so far if that's the case?
It might be that Plesk is not for me and I may need to find a host that gives me my own unique IP URL Address. However, I was informed that not many companies are doing that as most are switching over to Plesk.
In addition, Hostik does not offer multiple domains.
In response to this thread, David recommended I try synhosting.com
synhosting.com has "Multiple Websites". I assume this means mulitiple domains. Correct?
What's my best option at this point?
1) Find a host that has C-Panel / Control Panel (if any there are)?
2) Use a service such as synhosting.com and move all my domains over to them?
3) If I do use synhosting.com, am I required to move my domains over to their nameservers?
4) I have my MX Mail records pointing to Fastmail.fm for my email virtual domains. Would I still be able to do this if my domain is dedicated to a webhost and opt not to use their email feature?
5) Should I get rid of this old-school thought of using my web host as "file storage" and stop this practice of using URL forwarding and cloaking?
I'm more of an application programming guy than network/internet guy so excuse any ignorance on my part.
I am currently using shared hosting on an IIS server.
I running SMF Forums and a business on the IIS server. I have a payment system that I've programmed tied into the MySQL SMF database. This payment system uses ASP.net. I'm a .Net programmer. SMF is also being currently ran on the IIS server, and it does ok.
I'm really wanting to start running my forums on a separate Unix Server.
So my question is, can i run my ASP.net scripts on my IIS server that access the MySQL database on a separate Apache server? The Apache server and IIS server would have different domains (I'm guessing that'd be required).
I think this is possible, but wondering what others think. All I should need to do is change some connection strings on my Web.config on my IIS server to point to the new SQL databases.
I know this is not an awesome idea, but I'd like to try it. A friend and I want to share (home) servers. We both have fairly decent upload and we both have nice (dual core, 1GB RAM+) servers, so that's good. Another thing I'd like is failover for when one of our servers go down (I've got that part covered with my own DynDNS client). We're both running Windows servers.
Since I cant really use a load balancer in this situation, we'll be using round robin DNS. Now here's the questions:
How do we keep our MySQL servers synced? Should I use rsync or something else for files? How do we handle PHP sessions across servers?
If you don't think the load balancing thing will work out, I'd still like to do synchronization and failover. My friend is in another state by the way, we're not neighbors or anything so we can't just run some cables from one house to the other.
here's my current setup has my stuff running on 2 separate "self contained" servers (eg; each runs their own apache/php/mysql):
Main site/server: content: mostly static content (no mysql, very little php). currently has about 4tb/m traffic. in the summer it could push up to 6tb/m hardware: P4 2.8ghz. 1gb ram. this server has no problem handling the load. only problem is bandwidth (i have to get it off the current host)
Forums site/server: content: running vBulletin. currently 400-500 peak (probably jump to 800 peak this summer) users active per 15 mins. hardware: 64bit dual Opteron 242. 4gb ram. it's absolutely griding that to a halt at peak times. it acts like 4gb memery isn't enough (it will run fine then eat through most of the 4gb. grind to a halt, then recover) personally i think it was setup/configured wrong but i've had multiple people look at it and nobody can find anything wrong in the apache/mysql settings.
What I want to know: what type of server setup should I start migrating to? should I keep both parts of the site separate? eg; main site on one server, forums on another server(s)?
what i've sorta been looking into is 3-server setup. (server1) main apache/php server. probably on unmetered (honestly don't think i'll find anything else that offers high enough traffic). run the main site and the vB php from here (server2) dedicated mysql 'read only' server (server3) dedicated mysql 'write only' server.
and have mysql read/write synced and have all 3 servers networked directly together. i have a friend running a single mysql driven site using this setup and it works really well for him.
is this overkill for me? should the current dual Opteron be able to handle the forums and i just need to hire someone smarter, or is there some other setup that would work better for me? i'm tight so i want to go cheap as possible, but I also realize i need room for summer traffic expansion that always hits us.
I tried contacting the live support from fatcow, and he was no help. It was probably just the guy i had but thats not the point. I think i am going to go with them but what control panel do they use?
I am tired of lxlabs. Bugs have been submitted, especially with Windows VPS, but lxhelp just ignores. If he could not fix, or doesn't have time to fix, he just ignores our requests without any reply.
So, I am looking for another control panel for Xen. I will need it to run on CentOS mostly. And able to create Windows VPS. I only know dtc, but it's built for Debian.
I am running vps business and i would like to have your guys advice of which control panel to offer to all om my customers.
Most people leave my services only because they need to have simple control panel for their vps. So im looking for any commercial control panel which i can provide with all of my vps servers. Also It should not use more than 30Mb of ram and and shold not be a cpu hog.
Right now iam looking at ServerCP (as they have a deal when you can buy 100 for 69 dollars) but it needs about 128Mb of ram to function and its just too much.
It is with fresh OS. I was wondering which FREE control panel should I install on it.
It is a 2.6Celeron with 512MB RAM (soon to be upgraded to 1GB) with Cent OS 5.
My concern is that if in future I am able to find a cheap directadmin external license then I would want to uninstall control panel and will use directadmin.
So i need advice on control panel: Which is FREE Can work for a website (dont need multi domain fancy stuff). Will only host single domain. Can install apache / mysql / email etc. Use apache NOT apache-light. I saw HostInABox but it uses apache-light which dont work well for my website features. Tested it in a VPS earlier. Can uninstall cleanly if needed so that I dont have to reload OS in future inorder to install DA.
How about webmin or ispconfig.
Do they install easily and uninstall cleanly? I am not an expert but am learning quickly.
I've done some searches but, didn't find what I was looking for.
Which of WHM/CPanel, Plesk and DirectAdmin requires the least memory to function in an adequate manner and what would that amount of memory approximately be?
If there is a significant difference between the three?
A contral panel like WHM costs extra about $5 and I want to save this, if I don't find out, why it makes sense for me. I know WHM and cpanel and I understand, that I need this for configuration as a reseller or customer to configure all, but with a VPS I have root-access. So why do I need a control panel with a VPS?
I'm just starting to explore the idea of getting dedicated server or good VPS for hosting websites of clients I do php/sql programming for. I want to learn the right way, so I downloaded CentOS iso's and installed the operating system on an old computer, learned how to use yum to install the server software, set up virtual hosts, etc. I would like to give clients ftp access though honestly most of their sites will be hooked up to CMS, but sometime might arise where somebody just wants hosting and not programming. I would like to do without a control panel and try to do as much as possible from command line. For limiting site's bandwidth i found mod_cband. Anybody have expreience with that? Does it work as it is supposed to? Now I'm wondering how to put a quota on how much space client can use on disk, but after much searching haven't come up with an answer. Anybody have any idea how you are supposed to do that? And also, haven't looked into the FTP end of things, as I can't really test that right now on development server, but is it possible to manage FTP accounts solely from command line and editing config files? Whew...I guess that's it for now.
And i like some free control panel,and to doesn't have high memory usage. And tell me the OS what type to have...I have at the moment CentOS. Also i need security,such block ddos attack or flood.
With Virtuozzo, there is the panel to restart the vps and view bandwidth and server resources etc.
For Hyper-V what is there for me, a customer of the service. ie hosts are telling me they dont have a control panel - so how could I restart the hyper-v should the OS crash?
i got a unmanaged vps and i do not know why i often see folders and files ownership belonging to apache instead of myself and i have to manually reset ownership via directadmin file manager or ssh in to do it....can anyone advise me how to fix this problem as in anything i can do to stop all these apache ownership problem...
Another thing about directadmin, i select all folders and files at once trying to reset ownership but i always get an error and have to reset ownership one by one wasting time....
I am planning to buy a vps from photonvps (dont know when)and i cant afford the cPanel so in order i will ask them to install a free one. I wanted to ask you what is the best for someone coming from shared hosting. It has to be very simple and easy like cPanel
Also if you can, in your posts include a demo or images of the panel you suggest.
I'm moving to another server in the next day. I've got a choice for an operating system (as I did last time). I thought I'd ask for opinions, thoughts, and experiences with the choices.
FreeBSD Fedora Core 7 CentOS
A little info about the sites. I host 2 Gallery sites, a fairly popular Drupal based site, a relatively static PHP site, and soon and osCommerce powered site. I use PHP and MySQL a good bit. The server is managed by Plesk 8.3 right now. Which takes me to my other question.
What other control panels are available that offer good feature sets and low overhead (resource wise)? I'm impressed with the look of Plesk, but the workings leave something to be desired. My server comes with Plesk unless I tell them otherwise. They don't offer an alternate control panel solution.
As far as technical knowledge goes, I work with Linux (SLES/SLED) on a fairly regular basis. So I'm not a complete rookie. But I definitely don't consider myself an expert.
