Hey all,
Critical Update: We have the room booked for THIS Tuesday, not the next. I'll have to reschedule to Tuesday June 2nd. I am incredibly sorry for the schedule disruption. I won't be able to make the meetup on that date, but Leo Horthy has graciously donated his time to run things in my stead. Thanks Leo!!
For June, Shawn Smiley has generously donated his time to talk about setting up a VPS (virtual private server) for Drupal. This is quite a good subject and very relevant to what I think most of us do with Drupal. It should be a fun and educational experience!
The meetup in June will be at our new location (El Toro Library). It was such a good location, I think we really lucked out with it.
This time there will be pizza (and water)!
Where: El Toro Library
When:Tuesday June 8th at 7pm PDT
Comments
Pardon, but why is this also
Pardon, but why is this also under Bay Area?
Drupal evangelist.
www.CoderintheRye.com
This is in Orange County and
This is in Orange County and I've moved it from the Bay Area to the OC group. I've also tagged it with LA Drupal's "Greater Los Angeles Area / Other" category.
This sounds like a really
This sounds like a really great topic. Which VPS provider and Linux distro will be used in this presentation? Will it be recorded?
I did something similar at SANDCamp using Linode and Debian and am a big fan of bringing advanced Drupaleros away from shared hosting and to VPS servers.
I'll be using Rackspace Cloud
I'll be using Rackspace Cloud Servers running Ubuntu as my platform. But the guidelines should be applicable to any VPS platform.
I'd really be interested in
I'd really be interested in seeing a mercury setup: http://getpantheon.com/partner/linode
I'm also concerned with understanding the long term effects of moving from shared host to VPS.
--
mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
In my experience, if anything
In my experience, if anything goes wrong you're basically on your own unless you have a managed server. The only exception that I know of is if the server is at RimuHosting, which is as close as you can get without paying for managed hosting.
I hope that this presentation is recorded. There needs to be a screencast out there for the Drupal community that demonstrates basic security and best practices.
That's also been my
That's also been my experience. But figured there might be someone that know of some nice tools that help automate / analyze / maintain servers. But mostly wanted to underscore that hosting your own server is not for the technically timid.
I personally am still hesitant to have a VPS - due to the nature of the risks involved. I can't afford downtime.
I believe there are a variety of hosts beyond rimu that offer varying levels of hosting services beyond shared hosting - but less than VPS. Media Temple comes to mind - (not because I recommend them, but just because I know they offer). I think Hostgator and others do too. Again, not recommendation. ;-)
--
mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
Well then...
Let's hitup one of our regular attendees who works for MediaTemple- Jordan Schwartz. He's a system architect (i think) but should know about some of the offerings & what's offered.
I'm with you on being hesitant to move completely to a VPS, as well, Mike. But Dreamhost just deleted all of my databases without ever notifying me so I think they're pushing me in that direction. Been wanting to convert completely to a VPS for over 1.5yrs so I think it's a sign. ;)
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
In Rackspace managed cloud
In Rackspace managed cloud server, you can let them manage it for you. However, you have no freedom in configuring your server at all as far as I know.
With RimuHosting, if you need help, you can pay for a support ticket. Do not know if RackSpace Cloud Server has that, (have not asked for custom support for that yet).
Drupal Expert - where to find?
I'm new to this area and working on a project that needs a Drupal expert or 2 freelance. Can you help me get started? What is best bet? Many thanks!
Noel
Come to the meeting tonight
Come to the meeting tonight and ask around.
Lots of great questions and
Lots of great questions and comments here. This is also something I've been struggling with trying to find some middle ground between very restrictive shared hosting and dedicated hosting. We're currently considering using the managed VPS services of ServInt for our next Drupal site. I'll be sure to let everyone know my impressions of them if things work out that way. On the shared hosting side we're currently using Web Hosting Buzz's Business Class hosting which has been reasonably stable for the last few months. Though they did have almost a full day of downtime about a month ago due to some sort of disk corruption.
Mike is certainly correct in that an unmanaged VPS (or dedicated server) is definitely not for the technically faint of heart. I have a 5 page step-by-step set of instructions that I wrote when setting up my VPS. This is the basis of my presentation this evening.
I'll post links to my slides and the step-by-step instructions later tonight after the presentation.
Here are the links to the
Here are the links to the detailed instructions and presentations (in Google Docs):
Detailed instructions: http://tinyurl.com/2uey8mb
Presentation: http://tinyurl.com/2wcfkhm
PDFs of the above files will also be available on my website at www.shawnsmiley.com
another semi-managed vps. I
another semi-managed vps. I don't know if anyone has any thoughts on Dreamhost, but they recently launched a vps variant. It's not exactly managed. It more of a shared/vps hybrid. You have control of the memory that you want and you are charged for what you want. However, you do not have to set any of it up. You can, if you choose, set it up but if not then it resembles the same setup as the shared hosting they offer. I have had ups and downs with Dreamhost, but I like that there tech support is local.
Just thought I would mention it. I have not used it yet, or I should say that I have not setup my VPS custom yet. That is a weekend job that I don't have time for right now.
Dreamhost has a horrible
Dreamhost has a horrible track record when it comes to stability and security. I wouldn't use them for anything other than for a site that they're hosting for free (via their non-profit hosting offer) and even then I'd probably use it as a warm site for backups.
This discussion at YCombinator News is a good take on Dreamhost's "PS" offering:
Ask HN: Dreamhost VPS
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=963623
This, for example, was actually from one of the commenters who came to Dreamhost's defense:
Dreamhost is a company that's built on overselling their shared hosting services. It's ironic that their hybrid VPS offering is called "PS" as though it's an afterthought.
DreamHost VPS was a no-go for me
I tried it, and returned to shared hosting. It started when I found that my scripts were being terminated. They claimed I needed more memory so I doubled it, but still had the occasional script termination.
Suddenly, my uploaded audio files were truncated. I complained, and was told it must be my script. So I reproduced the web site on a shared hosting account, and it worked fine there. Since I couldn't wait for their resolution, I moved the site back to shared hosting, which still has a problem with occasional script termination, but at least the audio files were uploaded correctly. Then they offered to move me to a different VPS host, but I had already migrated back to shared hosting. I plan to move to another hosting service, as soon as I can identify one that will be better than what I have now.