Posted by Tom Schnetlage on March 21, 2011 at 11:06pm
Berkeley Staff Assembly (BSA) is looking at purchasing a year's hosting services with DreamHost, as a low-cost provider that is capable of handling Drupal. I am told there are other campus Drupal-based sites that already use DreamHost for hosting Drupal-based websites. If you are part of a campus group that is using Drupal on DreamHost, or know of a unit that is doing so, I would like to hear from you. I'd like to know about your experiences with DreamHost generally and what challenges you might have had in installing and operating Drupal on their servers.
Thank you,
Tom Schnetlage
Manager, Software Support
Social Science Computing Laboratory
350H Barrows
2-6597
Comments
PHP Modules
If you want to use drupal 7 you need php 5.3.x
If you want to use drupal 6 you are best off with php 5.2.x
If you want to use CAS make sure that Dreamhost has these modules compiled into their php cgi or mod_php:
curl, openssl, dom, zlib, and xml
If you want to use LDAP Integration to connect to campus LDAP servers (to get user's real names etc) make sure they have the php module
openldap
I've been using Dreamhost
I've been using Dreamhost shared hosting for the Cal Hiking and Outdoor Society site (http://calhikes.dreamhosters.com) and for my own Drupal site for some time. I've manually installed D6 at least 4 times on Dreamhost, and use Drush extensively.
I haven't run into any issues other than general service issues many years ago.
I find the control panels and systems to be a breeze compared to most of the many other hosting services I've worked with.
You have your choice of PHP 5.2 / 5.3.
PHP 5.2 configure command:
'./configure' '--prefix=/usr/local/php5' '--datadir=/usr/local/php5/share' '--localstatedir=/usr/local/php5/var' '--enable-sockets' '--enable-fastcgi' '--enable-bcmath' '--with-pear=/usr/local/php5/lib/pear' '--with-mysql=/usr' '--enable-calendar' '--with-mhash=/usr' '--with-kerberos' '--enable-force-cgi-redirect' '--with-config-file-path=/etc/php5/cgi' '--with-config-file-scan-dir=/etc/php5/cgi/ini.d' '--with-imap' '--with-imap-ssl' '--enable-trans-sid' '--with-gd' '--with-xml' '--with-xsl' '--with-ttf=/usr' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' '--enable-exif' '--with-xslt' '--with-xslt-sablot=/usr' '--with-dom-xslt=/usr' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr' '--with-png-dir=/usr' '--with-zlib-dir=/usr' '--with-pdo-mysql' '--enable-ftp' '--with-curl=/usr' '--with-pspell=/usr' '--enable-mbstring' '--with-mcrypt' '--with-mysqli' '--with-openssl=/usr' '--with-gettext' '--enable-pcntl'You do have access to customize your php installation, add your own modules, override the usual apache directives in .htaccess, etc.
Another note: I've also
Another note:
I've also gotten Dreamhost approved as a UC Berkeley vendor, and have begun the application for offsite hosting (for a berkeley.edu domain name).
So far, no issues with Dreamhost specifically.
Dreamhost for http://www.eastbaypen.org/about
Our volunteer and non-profit site has been using Dreamhost, but we have had performance problems since almost day one. Being all around beginners, this has been a struggle. Recently one of our people called Dreamhost help, and we were informed we were using too much memory, and needed to optimize our site, or to add VPS services for fifteen dollars a month.
Being Drupal beginners and very low budget, we are struggling with this.
Joe Jackson
jcjackson@joe-jackson.net
Cheers and Regards,
Joe Jackson
Not necessarily the main slowdown
There are some basic optimizations that need to be done on any site - private server, Drupal-optimized hosting, or not. But it's true that many shared hosting accounts will be bogged down by an out-of-the-box Drupal installation.
I've not run into memory problems, but I have also done some tuning.
Drupal Out of the box optimization suggestions?
Howdy,
I'm running the Alameda County Beekeepers Assn site (hive.alamedabees.org) with DreamHost and Drupal. I can't speak highly enough about DreamHost's communication, cPanel, and support - however, I've had a great amount of trouble getting my site to work consistently. I have asked a lot of questions, made some adjustments, but basically backup frequently and ssh to clear the cache (through Drush) whenever I try and make site updates.
If you could pass along any sort of laundry list for beginner drupalers to help optimize site performance with DH I would .. well, pour your a really damn good beer.
John - Berkeley
Some generic basic
Some generic basic performance boosters off the top of my head:
What are the symptoms you're experiencing, and under what conditions do they occur (I don't remember from the other thread)?
There are lots of writeups on the web, too. Some of them get into more nitty-gritty stuff that may or may not give you big gains, depending on what your particular problems are.
When I have more free time, I'm still glad to take a peek at it for you. There are ways to identify just what the problem is, but it can take sleuthing. It's not always easy to guide someone through it.
And for the record: Maybe
And for the record:
Maybe DreamHost is dropping the ball and you need to move.
But first, make sure it's a server problem. If it's your particular installation, you may end up simply moving your problems to a new host.