I been on shared hosting for a while on cpanel. What do I need to know to run a MANAGED VPS or Managed Dedicated Server on Cpanel? Is learning the basics of WHM Cpanel the only thing I need to really learn if I get the managed option? Does the managed VPS and Managed Dedicated server interface look completely identical to each other?
When making the switch to a VPS or a dedi-box it is best to learn basic linux commands and structure. As when you advance in learning, you will begin using SSH a hell of a lot more. Learning WHM is mainly for control over gateways and clients. If you want a real experience of what it means to have a dedicated server or great command over your VPS read below and do a simple search on the terms - SSH commands -> backing up, cp, mv, wget, chmodding, and typical build commands*mk (FYI: I use putty when im on a windows system) - security -> close off certain ports, change your SSH port from default 21 to whatever ie: 5009, install mod_security, learn IP tables(takes time), firewall techniques and etc. - services! -> learn your services ie: MySQL - troubleshoot reboot etc via pid&ssh - WHM & Cpanel -> not every provider provides these, so try out demos of direct admin and lxadmin. fool around and so on... - DNS -> create your own nameservers and read up on basics. - Apache -> Gotta love it! - and the *nix file structure...ie: Home/Client/Domain/Public_HTML If you run into any problems or want a specific answer to a general question simply PM me and I'll gladly assist you. Cheers,
The hosts im interested in using for VPS have WHM & Cpanel. I know what SSH is and all, im a computer science grad. Not interested in learning the ropes of doing SSH though because I don't need to know all the technicalities. Plus I'm going to get a managed VPS so they would handle all the technical stuff if needed.
If it's managed, you should ask to what extent the management is. For quality managed VPS/Dedicated providers (WiredTree, LiquidWeb, etc), you should not have to do much more than know how to create domains, subdomains, emails, SQL databases via cPanel/WHM (since this is what you said you would be using). You obviously would need to handle all aspects of your own website such as coding and what not. They should, provided they are a quality provider, setup, secure, manage, troubleshoot all problems related to server hardware, software, and network. Like I said earlier though, you really need to ask the provider for a detailed explanation of what "managed" entails as it is different from provider to provider.
Well actually i plan on liquid web as my first choice, the one you mentioned. Which is probably the most comprehensive when it comes to managed.
With LiquidWeb you should be able to use your VPS/Dedicated as if it were shared hosting. But again, if you have anything specific that you require like custom installation of programs etc, you'll need to ask them if it's included. After all, I am not a LiquidWeb representative
My dedicated server is unmanaged. It was quite daunting at first. You'll need to learn to use WHM of course, I can recommend this page to learn everything you need. http://resellerstoday.com/webhost_manager.htm quite usefull website. I think its meant for resellers but works fine for this purpose. Also you will need to learn SSH. I know you said you didn't care for it. But its necessary. I doubt you'll wanna be bothering your hosts for meager tasks. But if you need to install like ffmpeg and mencoder with mp4box and stuff like that, I would contact your host to install it becuase I installed this before and its challenging but rewarding its own ways. Some usefull ssh commands I use regular to manage the box are, > /usr/local/cpanel/bin/dcpumonview which would show all highest CPU using scripts on the server to help you identify troubled scripts. > top Would show the cpu load. You will also want to change your SSH port from 22 to something like 39999. Else you will have hackers brute forcing your ssh login. Which can slow your server down. Specially if it starts hitting 10 logins a second which I've wittened. So to view your ssh log (to see who's trying to login) type. > nano /var/log/secure (this is for redhat systems) Next on the server. The root www folder is /home/ So you type. > cd /home/ You can then see all the subfolder of each website/account on the server. Good luck.
Thanks for the tips. Yeah I mean i know what SSH is andhow to use it, but you gave useful SSH tips that i could see a use for.
If you are going for a managed VPS or dedicated server and your intention isn't to sell or resell webhosting, then you really shouldn't have much of a need for having root access, and therefore won't have to know very much extra, if any. You just treat your hosting account like it is on a shared hosting account, except you know that you are isolated from other shared hosting accounts and have more dedicated resources at your disposal. Liquidweb and the likes should offer basic server management. They will probably use automatic cPanel updates and other automatic updates. If you go through a second-tier management system (a hosting company that resells VPSs or dedicated servers) you might get better quality management and you may get faster response to server customization inquiries. One example I will use, we resell VPS and dedicated servers, but manage them ourselves. We will periodically check these servers for outdated scripts and send notices out to the server owner when we find something. We also routinely monitor server performance, which (I think) we are better able to do because we have a smaller server list to monitor than compared to Liquidweb and the likes. I'm not saying one is better than the other. If you purchase directly from Liquidweb you cut out the middle man so the cost is smaller. I would say that as long as you are just hosting your one website (or multiple websites that you control) and as long as you keep all of your scripts up-to-date, you should be fine with a Liquidweb or other managed VPS. And you won't really need to learn anything extra because you can treat your account just like it was on a shared hosting server.
If you get managed server, the management service should cover a number of things that the web host will do for you. It is not a good idea to have a SSH access, because the company who manages the server is responsible for the administration. YOu;d better purchase dedicated server and ask for flexible management service plan.