I’m pretty new to the world of hosting one’s own site, so have few newbie Qs.
1) I’ve been trying to setup a vhost for our new site so I can keep the existing dev site separate. I’ve created an A record with our DNS host for our new domain, and then followed the instructions here (http://drupal.org/node/111238) to set up a vhost on our Ubuntu server, when I got this error message:
Syntax error on line 2 of /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/amherstmedia.org:
Invalid command '\xc2\xa0\xc2\xa0\xc2\xa0', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
...fail!
The error appeared to be for the ServerName, so I changed that to the dev site one to check and go this error instead:
- Reloading web server config apache2
apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
httpd not running, trying to start
(13)Permission denied: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:80
no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
...fail!
Any thoughts on what I can do to resolve this.
2) When hosting on one’s own server how do you protect against power outages, short of buying a backup generator, or is that the only solution? I was also going to use httpwatch.com unless any of you have better suggestions.
3) Is there a tutorial you would recommend for setting up a backup RAID for the server (Ubuntu 9)?
Cheers
Craig
Comments
More details would be helpful
Is your server a physical box? Do you own it? Is it in your basement/garage/bathroom/office/40k sq. m. data center?
If you are hosting a commercial site on a server in your house, you are not alone, but that doesn't make it a good idea.
If you are in a tier one data center, odds are that they have redundant backup power, and there is at least a fifty percent chance it will work when called for.
RAID is not, in and of itself, backup. It provides redundancy. The big blogging site that went down last year had a RAID mirror, and when all the data disappeared from one drive, the system dutifully removed it from the other drive as well. You had best have real backup, or you are liable to meet the same fate.
Response to 1, 2 and 3
1) Regarding the VHost configuration, can you post the actual contents of amherstmedia.org. Use the <code> tag to preserve the formatting in the post.
2) There is no end to the money you can spend trying to keep you site running when the power isn't. Up until this year, DOM didn't even have a UPS. Power outages and brown outs are really hard on RAIDs and servers and we've paid the price with lost data, corrupted file systems, corrupted database tables.
3) Unless you have new hardware I'm not aware of at ACTV, you are not going to be able to have more than 2 drives in the boxes you are using as servers. Without 4 drives, I'm not sure it's possible to do RAID5 which gives you both performance and redundancy. Running the 2 drives as a mirrored solution, has the issue highermath already described.
In Denver we use SurfRAIDs from Partners Data Systems connect via fibre directly to a server or via a fibre switch and managed with Apple's XSan. The last RAID we added was 30TB. Once you start managing terabytes of data, you start running into a whole new set of problems with file system support. We've had issues getting our Ubuntu servers to recognize Ext3 volumes that size. Because it can take hours to format volumes this large and days to move terabytes of data around, this solution isn't really for organizations operating with the 'try it and see what happens' approach to IT. You really have to have someone on staff, a reliable volunteer, or contractor who knows what they are doing. At $15K for 30TB, you need to be sure this is the direction you can support going as well.
For organizations that aren't ready for that, I'm now recommending adding storage for a video archive using something like HP's MediaSmart Server for users more familiar with Windows or an decked out MacPro running OSX Server for Apple users. Why a MacPro instead of an XServer. The MacPro can 4 2TB drives giving you 6TB of RAID5 storage. Unfortunately a decked out MacPro runs $6K. The HP EX495 is $650 plus another $800 for 4 2TB drives.
Both the HP and Apple solutions give you an easy to use UI for adding users and managing permissions and shares. The only real advantage of the Apple solutions is that it plays better with other Macs.