godaddy i hit a 2048 I/O limit, and they just kills the pages to a 503 error. vs throttling me at max limit I/O
godaddy will not up my ram past 512mb even after i upgraded to 2048mb of ram. and adjusted php.ini errr .user.ini to allow for higher limit.
this is on a shared hosting plan of godaddy.
i am not wanting to go to deep into a VPS or dedicated server setup. $15 about all i can handle. per month. be nice to get below $10 a month
this is only for a test site setup.
Good question. What are the best webhost within a $15 budget per month, for independant Moodlers without losing out on quality of service and moodle requirements. Annual deals not included. There are plenty of surveys on the internet, but which one should we follow. Here's an example. Godaddy bottom of the list. Self biased opinions not allowed, that is for example those who have a financial interest with a webhost.
In fact let's have a moodler's nomination for the best.
http://b2evolution.net/web-hosting/budget-web-hosting-low-cost-lamp.php
hey John thx for a link picked up a couple more i did check out yet. what i have so far... *looks crossed eye'ed* been going at it for to long.
it would seem need min of 2GB ram and need for VPS (virtual private server) bare min for moodle site, wish there was a better comparison chart.
See my post: Re: Problems Installing on GoDaddy about how I purchased a GoDaddy VPS.
Incidentally, I have found that running a VPS takes a little more education than a hosted server. With GoDaddy, you are expected to know more about administering a VPS. All can be learned, but with GoDaddy, they do less hand holding.
It would be interesting to know if Ryan will take up this offer as it is now just within his budget, and he is already with godaddy.
But let's us also continue finding the best web hosts for moodle. One thing to worry about, reading from previous posts, is the claim that web hosts make in their advertising, and then fail to carry out their promised obligations.
I think you'll find a lot of different opinions about "best" hosting. Honestly, I don't think there's a one-size fits all approach that works. It's going to depend on the expertise of the person maintaining Moodle, and what the organization is willing to pay for "good hosting". So here's my experience.
We've used DreamHost VPS for years for most of our hosting needs. Until last December, that included Moodle. I finally got frustrated with the low-end hardware and ancient software and moved. Since then, they've upgraded the VPS offerings and PHP versions they support. The big advantage is that DreamHost can maintain the whole server environment for you. However, MySQL is still at 5.1.x, so they don't make a good Moodle host until that's upgraded.
Now we're using Digital Ocean VPS for our Drupal and Moodle sites. For $10/month, you get 1GB RAM and 30GB SSD storage, and for a smaller Moodle site, it'll work great on that. Of course, you can get more memory and storage by paying more. The biggest difference though is that I had to learn to install and maintain everything. It's a bit more work, but I have good instructions for installing now and an A+ rating on SSL Labs test, something I could never achieve with DreamHost's configurations.
We've also tried a number of shared hosting platforms (1&1, MediaTemple, BlueHost, DreamHost). None of them had consistent enough performance. Stuff would run great at times. At other times, it was incredibly slow. And we constantly hit limits for database access, disk space and processor usage. For me, it's worth the extra work not to have that headache.
Perhaps we need to be more specific in our question.
What is the best webhost for a small business starting up, using Moodle.
No students, but has a future target of say 200 paying students in order to be profitable.
The amount of ram 2gb, and vps that Ryan is asking for. Budget less than $15 month.
There will be plenty of quizes, tests etc
If we could get a few recommendations which many members agree are the best hosts for small business moodlers, perhaps we can award them with a badge.
posting updated list. will comment later on it. off to see what bitnami has to offer. if they let me do initial install of moodle. and then all i need to do is take over things and install a different moodle version. (see how they do it, so i can copy them). the cloud stuff is a bit complicated to quickly pickup.
Nice list. Now which three deserves the moodle award, Difficult choice.
below prices based on
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gave up on the cloud. to much hassle. to much time spending getting stuff around and keeping updated for server side. vs dealing with moodle.
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thinking back over the years. i do not see much of a "red5" or flash server talking on any of these pages.
Do check out prices for Contabo (www.contabo.com), they are German based and I have had heard very good reviews about them.
Another host WiredTree (www.wiredtree.com), they are fully managed with pro-active monitoring and as well have good market reputation.
i am having a very hard time keeping "family friendly" when i say godaddy. upgraded to VPS, a few calls, a few issues that came up via there godaddy site. and a few issues with hosting software itself... i just pulled the plug from them for a refund. not fighting a never ending battle with them.
Touché to that John.
You kind of get what you pay for (or is that deserve?). You should ask your self how much hand-holding you can reasonably expect for $10. We charge about $100 per hour for ad-hoc support and consultancy and this isn't that expensive in the scheme of things. So for $10 you would get about 6 minutes even if we throw in the hosting for free.
If you need a lot of hand-holding then you may have to pay for it.
But surely those who are paying $100 an hour are already established, and would certainly need to have a vast amount of customers ready and waiting to pay fees for enrolment.
What do you mean about hands being held, is moodle so difficult to handle that we can't handle it ourselves, that we have to spend a small fortune to manage moodle, as that would defeat the object as to what moodle should be all about.
Howard , you are confirming moodle competitors claims. Look at this as an example http://blog.capterra.com/9-cheap-alternatives-moodle-small-businesses/
So what about the small business man starting up, should he pay this $100 an hour, or forget about moodle?
Are you this established business man, Ryan ? Or do you have a hole in your pocket?
I wasn't speaking about Moodle per se. I was talking about the support you can reasonably expect to receive from a hosting company charging you $10 per month. Nothing whatever to do with Moodle - unless they say they support Moodle of course.
Moodle support is freely available in these forums and is generously provided by many. However, there will be those who wish to have a commercial contract for support and I was merely illustrating what you might find yourself paying for such an arrangement vs. the $10 a month for low-cost hosting.
Moodle is dead easy compared to some server systems but running a successful production server is not. Again, this is nothing to do with Moodle it's to do with running a web server and all the stuff that goes along with it.
But we are talking about a full functioning profitable moodle possibly costing a lot or not depending on which services you use, and if we listen to Moodle competiters, moodle ends up becoming the most expensive lms in the market.Even though it open source.
QUOTE from Capterra: http://blog.capterra.com/9-cheap-alternatives-moodle-small-businesses/
Whenever my uncle is offered something for free, he always asks, "Is it 'free' like a beer, or 'free' like a puppy?”
The implication, of course, is that not all things billed as 'free' really are. Some things, like puppies, require a lot of upkeep, food, vet shots, and newspaper-covered floors, and may end up costing you quite a lot of money, despite originally being 'free.'
This is the dilemma you face as a small business owner looking for an LMS to train your employees or to sell courses with. 'Free' open source solutions like Moodle tend to have hidden costs you only realize after implementing them (or, ahem, paying someone to implement them for you). The cost in time and resources for upkeep and maintenance is outdone only by the cost of hiring or contracting IT specialists to customize, install, and fix a system which, quite frankly, is probably more complex than most small businesses need.
Unless you yourself are a programmer with a lot of time on your hands, you may be interested in this list of some low-cost alternatives for Moodle that, while not free, are not 'free' either.
Running an LMS beyond the trivial is not free. I don't care what it says on the maker's name plate and I'm not even going to look at those stupid comparison charts because they are irrelevant.
Ignoring the functionality (which of course you shouldn't) Moodle is free as in 'freedom'. You can try with low-risk with as few or as many users as you like. You can set up a small site or a massive load-balanced, 'enterprise' configuration with no concern about licenses. You can extend it if you have the skills if it doesn't do something you need.
But you still have to run the servers it lives on, whether this be your own desktop or a massive server-room setup. Does that have cost? Yes, of course it does.
Is Moodle more than you need? Well I can't answer that but I can tell you that if it doesn't suit you haven't spent thousands on a lengthy license and you now need to pretend it's all wonderful to the boss
Hello Howard
Nobody is talking about trivialities, unless we simply want to have a look and test it. Those who use it are either funded educational establishments, or they are serious businesses seeking profit.
There is setting up a moodle for the boss of a company or a large established education establishment, and there is the setting up of a moodle for an individual small business just starting up with no current students. Let's say the individual plans to have 50 paying students in his first month.
Wouldn't you say that it is possible for such an individual to start up with a decent webhost running moodle with a budget of $10 a month? He she will always have the option of upgrading to higher upgrading as his business expands in the future?
Or how much should a starter budget for?
Of course... IF they know what they are doing. When embarking on such an adventure you have to take some responsibility. Even a supposedly simple cPanel type system requires a level of understanding. If you don't have that understanding and don't have the motivation to acquire it then what do you suggest?
I would suggest that every newbie starting up wanting should first of all look at the documentation provided here (free of charge ) follow the instructions and have a go at installing moodle, check out on all tutorials on how to use moodle, also read through this forum and use search for any problem they might have. If they can't find the solution to their problem on this forum, then they should ask the experts here.
$100 an hour seems expensive at first if you are on the paying for end, but any freelance ESOL teacher for example would expect this figure, and in fact any professional service would probably cost this. There's a big difference between freelance income compared to a fulltime hourly rate employment contract, as all self employed individuals should know.
I wish I hadn't said this $100 thing now
I just meant it to illustrate what you might be into if paying for commercial support versus DIY and getting help here. Most people with the willingness to learn some server basics and who don't mind searching/asking these forums should have absolutely no problems with installing and administering Moodle.
godaddy, still has me roughed up. it took credit card company to deal with them. and still yet another 15 days to most likely get refund actually back on credit card.
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SSL issues
problems goto https:://something.godaddy.com that was for VPS and get this in browser "NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID" godaddy i was not even able to get past there slow pages within 2 minute time to put in my own SSL. (one of issues with godaddy)
other issue, i was see'ing different certificates, from different providers when going to VPS pages of godaddy. clicking on above error code in browser, and then view certificate. .either i was getting hacked or they were. or something happening. do not know, do not care at this point. moved to www.1and.com and issues disappeared.
some links dealing with above.
below is for my own reference.
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www.godaddy.com vs www.1and1.com
godaddy => VPS => online chat only (no telephone support, slow email response) and chat is not avilable 24/7 even though it says it is.... 3 or 4 times i tried to use it. and one specific time while on call with godaddy techsupport via phone call. and person i was talking to, tried to get someone on it and no go.
1and1 => VPS => quick and fast to server person. 6 hour turn around for email support. though not the best. (seemed copied past response) but still there. and gave a couple solutions to try.
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my own issues. not wanting to deal with linux for some time... ((ssh, repositories, software packages available, overall command line statements to use))
having windows 8.1 PRO and finding the following...
gave me quick abilty to get a hack and slash test server on my own local computer up and going.
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SSH
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apache / mysql / php for VPS and local test machine is an issue...
apache 2.x, php 5.5 or higher, and for my not wanting to learn another database at moment mysql 5.x need to happen to get moodle running.
some were along lines lost 5 links. for repositories, and "yum" and some sort of "yum apt" or "yum art" notations. along with "composer" information.
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still some issues with www.1and.com parrallels SSL certifiticate. i hope will resolve itself, once correct domain name and SSL certificate get all put onto their servers. ((waiting game)) i am going to assume cron like scripts are happening. due to timing of emails.
did a search for "yum repo" on moodle.org forums in attempt to learn info, lots of posts from Ken Task! most of below came from one of his posts. figure copy/paste my notes here. maybe useful to someone else.
just my own notes as i went through various threads from current date back to approx january of 2014 back into the forums / threads.
software
repos
various links i picked up along the way
various commands picked up along the way.
various commands picked up along the way.
Ryan, if you are (or want to do everything from scratch), thats encouraging though but taking a lot of work at your end.
Why not start from Digital Ocean or Linode?
they both are cloud services and will give you distribution of your Choice (Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, Suse, ArchLinux and so on), there you can start from mare $5 (at digital ocean) and $10 at Linode for a server that will pave your way to learning things. Good thing is, their payment system works on the basis of HOURS, so for example you have fired up a droplet/node and down the line you want to take the break, just make backup image, delete the Node/Droplet and you wont be charged for your resources any more, whilst in normal VPS cases you will pay upfront for whole month weather you are using it or not and no VPS starts from $5 as far as I know.
Where I mentioned Droplet/Nodes, these are just terms used by each, Digital Oceans calls their VPS's as Droplets and Linode calls theirs as NODES -- Just so that you wont get confused.
and repeating Rick's suggestion, start learning from Moodle, then you can expand yourself to other parts (Like Self Managed Servers and Hardware), If I've to tell (in no way I am pulling your enthusiasm from learning everything right now) Moodle itself will take lot of your time for its features, for last more than 1 year I have dedicated myself into learning more about Moodle and customizing it, but I still can't say I am 100% up and ready for Moodle, Once I am, then I will move towards Linux and setting up/managing servers myself, so far I am relying on people managing servers (Shared hosting / Managed hosing).
www.1and1.com linux VPS package, 4 cpus, 2gig ram +1yr SSL = $70 upfront $10 a month for 6 months. after 6 months it is $20 a month. not knowing any better the plesk software ordered on top of already given parallels software for managing the VPS. *shrugs* a few bucks more a month, but to late now. i used it, i learned, it, cost is not much more than a book or like. will more likely change things at a later time possibly then again, maybe not.
as far as all the commands. and links. www.1and1.com VPS does not offer much. and need to find third party repo's (repositories) to upgrade AMP (apache, mysql, php). by default the repo's are not put into 1and1 default OS packages that can be installed.
managed parallels / plesk panels for VPS is not really managed at all. the equivalent of about 20 various activities / resources in moodle. WAMP from www.wampserver.com gives more options, by just linking directly to config files. and reading in line comments of the config files. if i can figure out were the settings are and how to easily bring up a "file explorer" via what windows has. with a WYSIWYG editor ((atto / tinymce)) editor for some text file settings. through file explorer. it would be golden to me. needless to say www.1and1.com only give "minimal" install of the varius linux OS'es and nothing extra. so i am needing to go through and finding various SSH commands, basic programs, to get things up and running to make it easier to adjust things / find things, and overall maintain the VPS. i may not be cracking down on security, but enough to work with it.
a week maybe a little more of effort now. = less effort / down time later. the better. i know at this stage it may require a full "re-image" other words , format and reinstall of OS, and reinstalling software and set settings. a little effort now so, it does not happen later the better.
a lot of what i posted in last couple posts of mine. were "repeats" over and over again. when i went through moodle forums searching. it is the "basic" need to know. i am also dealing with the "waiting game" of things transferring over from godaddy to 1and1, also waiting game for 1 more day, so my satellite account resets monthly usage. running right on 100 to 200mb i am guessing before they put me on dial up speeds. to many moodle + youtube videos this month, and reviewing / finding various moodle courses.
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were all this is heading to..... or rather what lead to this thread....take your pick.
i been creating a ((moodle -> course -> activity -> database))
i got through about 200 to 250 records of the download/upload, and just initial installing of those plugins (nothing more than that, when i began getting issues with godaddy.
i know, i will need to physically / manually (grunt work) upgrade, install, moodle upgrades and third party plugins. and at most the auto check for version (within moodle currently), is going to give me a reference of what i need to check. with that, i need a way to easily FTP / SSH / other. of files and folders to and from VPS account. due to (auto upgrade / auto install) *shakes head no* is a no go (within reason).
me needing to learn about Linux of a LAMP package is a requirement. i over estimated things of what to expect. (moodle has spoiled me) no big deal. needed to learn, just taking a little longer than i care for. and some of these plugins for moodle require a bit more knowledge setting up some stuff in VPS. and what requirements that are needed for specific software installed within the VPS. we all been there done that in some shape and form. over the years. does not matter if windows, moodle, linux, apache, mysql, php, email server, jabber server, chat server, flash/red5 server, bios version, hardware versions, driver versions, a basic plugin for moodle, etc... same stuff just different day, each thing having there own quirks.
Ryan, you have me (and probably only me) a little confused. If you are desiring to have Moodle on a VPS, why are you messing around with all those CentOS/Apache things? Why not concentrate on getting Moodle installed on your 1&1 VPS, and leave much of the server stuff alone? All of those "various commands" should not be needed (for at least a good while) on your VPS. That's what you are buying... the need to not do all of those things yourself.
Yes, on Window 8 you will probably need PUTTY to that you can SSH into your server and perform some takes more efficiently.
I have never had to do any YUM stuff with my GoDaddy VPS. I have, however, had to tweak some settings to accommodate what Moodle likes (wants) to see, mostly php configuration items.
To set your mind at ease, I have never had any problem with GoDaddy refunds. They will happen. I too have experienced the frustration that you have with GoDaddy's online chat. Of course, this is not my favorite way of getting support, but I can understand that this might be the best that I can do for under $20US/month, with a free 1yr SSL. With chat, it's kind of a slow guessing game because one has to be smart enough to ask questions the right way, and sometimes I am not that smart. I'd like to say "fix my VPS!!!", but it doesn't work that way.
So did you end up buying your VPS from 1&1? Let us know when you have your moodle up and running. I wonder if 1&1 will help you get Moodle up and running on your VPS, including the required settings. Don't do any "one-click" install of moodle, I recommend learning how to install from scratch, which actually is not that hard.
I am running MAMP on my Mac, which allows me to do a lot of experimenting in a non-Internet-connected environment. I did the install, along with one fix from Usman, and it is running fine. This is my "experimental" moodle, and I like developing quiz questions in this environment and then moving them to my production moodle. I have also installed more than one copy of moodle on my VPS, again in order to experiment. I do not have any experience yet with WAMP under Windows 8. On the Mac, PUTTY is not needed because the Mac (internally UNIX) provides Terminal, which is equivalent (and built in) to PUTTY.
It is good to see you trying to educate yourself as much as possible. When I started with Moodle, I too tried to read everything that I could. Now I have found that although education is always good, many of the things that I thought that I would have to worry about are not necessary.
I encourage you to keep at it. Make sure not to rush. Experiment (especially with your VPS and Plesk). I assume that if you do have a 1&1 VPS, that you can "reprovision", or completely reset your VPS, at any time. I found this helpful. Experiment, mess things up, reprovision, and try it again. Keep accurate notes.
Rick, YUM is CentOS command, whilst sudo apt-get is Ubuntu's. so I assume your VPS with GoDaddy is on Ubuntu?
and Definitely yes Putty needed for Windows Platform
Usman, thanks for your reply and question.
My GoDaddy VPS is running CentOS. I got to thinking about my installation methods on my VPS, and I realized that I actually do run one "YUM" command, which is "YUM update." I do this near the beginning of my VPS setup just to make sure that the latest OS pieces are installed. If I forget to do this, it seems that some problems can crop up (I forget which ones, however.)
When I first started with a VPS four years ago, I didn't know this command. I recall "chatting" with goDaddy, to upgrade some components, and they said that they could do it for me for $50. I agreed, and everything worked well. Now that I know how to do this myself, I don't need to pay the $50.
Do you have any experience running "Powershell" on your PC? I have wondered if it might be the Microsoft equivalent to PUTTY? Or do you find that it serves some other purpose?
Now I understand the difference between yum and apt-get. Thanks.
PowerShell is just like command line interface for Windows Servers / Windows PRO, the only draw back in Windows Operating system which people see (other than the cost of Windows License) is the heavy User Interface of the operating system itself, and this is where PowerShell comes in, whole O/S can be controlled with it (minus the GUI) so giving less memory resources for just the operating system, though people still are using the GUI but then there are people like you are comfortable with CLI therefore making the Windows IIS grabbing 2nd biggest market share of the WWW servers.
Though I haven't used it myself in practical environment, as I am not running Windows Server edition, but PowerShell can be used to connect to windows based server only remotely, and not the Linux. (as per my knowledge, future versions may be able to)
As you are now more than averagely comfortable on Linux, why not start using DigitalOcean or Linode? or as a matter of fact, do check out prices for VPS offered by contabo.com.
I hope am not reading this in-correctly ... are you saying you've run yum update only once ... before installation of Moodle? Have you run it since?
If not: Wow!
You might want to: cat /etc/redhat-release to see what version of CentOS you are still on. Then check CentOS site to see what version is their currently release that matches your series ... 6.x, 7.x.
Linux distros are NOT like Windows (30 day window and 0 day releases) NOR Macs (whenever) but release fixes for issues as soon as they are available. Recently (within the last year) some important updates/fixes for openssl - which relates to Moodle sites running under https - HeartBleed, POODLE, and the latest Freak.
Am not a security expert but they are indeed serious and do require an OP's attention.
'spirit of sharing', Ken
Well Ken, yes, only once. I will probably run it again at the end of my semester. Yep, Wow!
I am still a novice at these server things, so I am always cautious not to break anything. On the other side of this, I do regularly (about every 3-4 weeks) update my Moodle.
I did the "cat" command, and found that I have "CentOS release 6.6 (Final)".
I am making sure to add this yum update high on my list of things to do at the end of the semester. Thanks for mentioning it to me.
issues
satellite internet connection, limited broad band up and download speeds. and then limited overall amount of gigs per month.
if i go over $25 bucks a month, i would be better off just upgrading satellite connection. for a test server at home and having full control over the test server. if i lived in town with cable/DSL like connection i most likely would not have started this thread.
SOHO (small office / home office) jumping the gun there. this is for a test server that can handle moodle. i am not about to drop $50 let alone $100 for a dedicated server.
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so far my experience has been with godaddy.com and will be calling credit card company monday. to deal with godaddy crud. this is not issues with moodle. just overall issues with godaddy. heck i never was able to get moodle uploaded when i upgraded to VPS with godaddy because of issues with there server hardware / software junk.
i moved on to www.1and1.com
doing some re-images of VPS last night. found
have yet to re-image and try following.
have ubuntu re-image going on now. (has taken approx 30 to 50 minutes) for other 3 times. they denote takes up to an hour (guessing automated timed script) then takes me some extra time going through all the menus / options of the control panel/s
so far different OS = slightly different control panel options per OS
i have yet to put much effort into www.1and1.com account. php5.4 and more preferred php5.5 is going to be an issue. if i can get past that hurdle. hopefully additional settings for apache (or like) along with needed installed modules/plugins for apache/php are there. and/or can be configured. it should be good enough. and at cost of 1/3 to 1/2 cost of godaddy. so far 1and1 control panels and resource monitors actually work and in real time (within reason).
I agree with you Howard, Moodle is easy compared to server systems, once you know what you are doing.
$100/hr is not a bad rate either for computer support. One either pays for it or invests their own time in learning.
I have been with GoDaddy for around 8 years, and I would agree that it hasn't been easy. What GoDaddy does well is configuring their servers and maintaining uptime, but they clearly do not support Moodle, or MS Word, or other application products. This is not their business. If one needs Moodle support, then look elsewhere.
When I moved from a hosted server to a VPS, I felt lost. Yep, many calls into Godaddy, some helpful (if you catch the right person at the right time), and some were "we don't support moodle" to "we can charge you $50-$100 to do some configuration on your server."
Now, I am very pleased with my GoDaddy VPS. It is reasonably priced, and my server has been working without any downtime for nearly three years! Along the way, I have had to learn much. I have an interest in these things, so I kind of enjoy the learning. For awhile, I had two identical VPSs from GoDaddy, one for production and one for experimentation. I learned a lot doing this, but nothing has been free. (Incidentally, I pay for my server myself even though I work for a university, using Blackboard.) So I can appreciate when (Howard) says $100/hr.
I have yet figured out how to run a real server. GoDaddy does their thing, and now I simply install Moodle on it. I do keep careful notes, because my "server" knowledge seems to disappear quickly when everything is going well.
For a small business, a Moodle partner would be a much easier path to take.
Ryan, if this is just a test site, then rather than going for a VPS all the way, start from a shared/power package, for that I will recommend going for a Business package $7.50 by HostWinds (www.hostwinds.com), you can as well test them for a month using coupon code ITLIVE99OFF getting 99% off for first month, I haven't seen any resource graphs with them so I am sure they will be giving enough resource allocation towards their business accounts that could be handled by an entry level VPS as well, and one month will be enough for you to see if they really work for you, other than that you can give a try to HosterPK (www.hosterpk.com) they have corporate packages for $20 a month, they allocate 400% CPU, 6GB Memory (Physical), 9GB Virtual and 8 MB I/O towards per account and they are as well fully managed like HostWinds.
Can these links be managed in English. Why I ask is that I first had a russian host, and had some difficulties in communication and management of the control panel. And a couple of lessons at school in German many years ago is not going to help me now
