change in direction, as i was going through searches on moodle, i was wondering...
what software due you folks use on your VPS? any suggestion besides AMP? (apache, mysql php)?
Ryan, PHP has to stay no matter what, as application server technology cannot be changed in a flick, whole code has to be changed, whilst others can be changed in database and web server.
for web server, you can have choice of running IIS (Windows Platform), nginx (Engine-X) and LiteSpeed (Drop in replacement for Apache) also Lighttpd (Lighty) but its almost at end.
whilst in Database, you can have PostgreSQL, MariaDB (drop in replacement for MySQL), Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server, but for MS-SQL Server, your O/S have to be windows and ideally IIS as web server.
If I have a choice of running, then it will be CentOS, LiteSpeed and Maria DB.
In your other post, I have seen you've been getting into Ubuntu and CentOS together, don't do that altogether, you may get confused in commands (Yum vs sudo apt-get), where Ubuntu is a popular distribution, but in terms of web servers, CentOS is considered more popular for its derivation from Redhat and Fedora core and you'll find the versions numbers matching the fedora (with a small delay in CentOS as when Fedora's new version comes out, guys at CentOS have to update the kernel a bit so it takes few weeks).
hey Usman, awesome post! just what i was looking for, it made things click!
as far as litespeed and mariaDB.... i am going to have to pass on for now. to much extra stuff, i know apache, mysql better. just from WAMP on local desktop machine ran over the years. i have seen a few posts / threads over last month or 2 on moodle about issues with lightspeed, so i am not really wanting to get into the ugly details with it just yet. (putting it off for a later time) Maria DB. first time hearing about it. so i am going to back away from it.
i picked up most of your posts about centos and fedora in other threads / links. Centos being a bit behind (not bleeding edge) but a little behind in the times. but more stable. and ubuntu being more on cutting / bleeding edge. Centos seemed like wiser choice to me, for web hosting server OS.
yum apt-get, sudo, zypper?, wget, curl i did also pick up last night as well. and some difference and common structure of these commands on different linux OS's. ((partially reason for denoting centos in post/thread so as not to confuse folks within reason))
===================
an attempt to change thread direction.
*hmmss* the original post was meant to stay in... (looking for a better hosting provider) thread. and i thought i had a different reply typed in (was having issues with moodleHQ adjusting stuff for spammers at time. so did not realize it, until now)was hoping for some other software information installed on VPS. besides basic AMP like applications. to make life easier dealing with VPS (virtual private server). example coming across www.webadmin.com or some editor. or some program name. example notepad++, putty, etc... something overall that made life easier. these applications i really did not come across / find. assuming they are more personal taste of folks. but still
Surely CentOS is widest used O/S for web servers as World's Popular CPanel as well only runs on CentOS only, besides its enterprise rigidity comes from RedHat and Fedora.
Of course you can skip LiteSpeed and MariaDB, as I mentioned, they both are drop in replacements, means you can switch to either, without even knowing, and all commands that work in Apache and MySQL works exactly same in either, so changing to either you wont even know it had happened in background apart from performance Boost of course, and at this stage I won't even recommend LiteSpeed for its not FREE Like Apache is, you have to get licenses according to CPU cores for LiteSpeed. but whenever you are ready and want to see page rendering in half the time, LiteSpeed is most evident choice without adding to hardware.
and for testing, as I mentioned in other post as well, start with Digital Ocean, it will cost you $5 a month (if you are using your server 100% of time in entire month), else fire it up, learn by doing things on it, delete it, and you wont be charged, it will take time as setting up VPS from start everytime you want to use it, else $5 for a VPS is not a bad price to consider. The best thing about cloud VPS (both at DigitalOcean and Linode) is, for example you started with $5 VPS package, and after a month or so you feel needing higher specs (more CPU and More RAM), just shut down, resize and restart, in a minute or two you are upgraded to higher specs (same for downgrade).
notepad++ = use of NppFTP plugin for notepad++ for a SFTP connection to VPS, and ability to use notepad++ as a GUI editor.
- plugins -> NppFTP -> show NppFTP window
- right hand side of notepad++ NppFTP should show up.
- click (gear) icon
- click "add new"
- "connection" tab
- host ip / domain name. = (your IP address) example 846.54.51.23 ((this is fake ip address))
- connection type = SFTP
- port = 22
- standard FTP and port 21 = no go (not secure) you should not be able to connect with standard FTP port 21.
- username = root
- using root not very secure, suggest making a different username with like root privileges, and securing up root user all together
- password = yourpassword
- initial remote directory = public_html
- no idea why this. but *shrugs*
- "cache" tab
- i still need to read up on this. and may make for a faster "searching" through files and/or maybe editing a settings file.
- "connection" tab
- click the "connect" button (near the gear icon from earlier
===========================
FileZilla ((ftp program))
- file -> site manager
- click "new site"
- host = (ip address / domain name)
- port = 22
- porotocal = SFTP - SSH file transfer protocal
- login type = normal
- user name = root
- password = password
- TIP: left hand side of this popup window, if you single left click the "site name" and pause for a couple seconds you can rename the site. so you can better know what the SFTP account is for.
- click "connect" or click "ok" to save
if you use quick connect option in FileZilla sftp://domainname.com and port 22 are required. (( the sftp:// is the important thing. )) along with port 22
=======================
cgywin = linux on windows without having to deal with some sort of virtual software. has been around for ages. and still seems active.
===================
rsync ((linux program))
i bring cgywin up due to use of "rsync" i have yet to set things up for rsync between my own VPS and cgywin. in creating a backup of my VPS. from understanding rsync is much faster and preserves folder/file permissions dates/times vs FTP programs that do not. and possibly this is suppose to be faster?
a search for "cygwin rysnc vps" should bring back plenty of HOW TO / tutorials.
====================
vi or vim = ssh program to edit text files (kinda funky)
vi somefile.ext
TIP press ESC key and then :wq to save edits and exit,
TIP press ESC key and then :q to just exit without saving.
rather annoying use of arrow keys to move around the SSH command window and not able to use mouse.
nana and pico are some other text editors for SSH from understanding but have yet to get them installed and try them out.
=====================
yum shell = this looks like an interesting little command for SSH
I HAVE NOT TRIED BELOW YET in SSH
--------
yum shell
remove php-xml.x86_64 php-pdo.x86_64 php-mysql.x86_64 php-mbstring.x86_64 php-imap.x86_64 php-gd.x86_64 php-common.x86_64 php-cli.x86_64 php.x86_64
install php55u-xmlrpc.x86_64 php55u-xml.x86_64 php55u-tidy.x86_64 php55u-soap.x86_64 php55u-snmp.x86_64 php55u-recode.x86_64 php55u-pspell.x86_64 php55u-process.x86_64 php55u-pecl-memcached.x86_64 php55u-pecl-memcache.x86_64 php55u-pecl-jsonc.x86_64 php55u-pecl-imagick.x86_64 php55u-pecl-geoip.x86_64 php55u-pear.noarch php55u-pdo.x86_64 php55u-opcache.x86_64 php55u-odbc.x86_64 php55u-mysqlnd.x86_64 php55u-mcrypt.x86_64 php55u-mbstring.x86_64 php55u-ldap.x86_64 php55u-ioncube-loader.x86_64 php55u-intl.x86_64 php55u-imap.x86_64 php55u-gd.x86_64 php55u-common.x86_64 php55u-cli.x86_64 php55u.x86_64 php55u-bcmath.x86_64
transaction solve
transaction run
--------
from understanding i am able to type errr rather copy paste above into SSH (each of the 4 sentences into a new line. and is suppose to help resolve more complex issues of trying to remove each thing individually and install each thing individually.
above is showing a https://iuscommunity.org/pages/UpgradingTheOldWay.html#upgradingtheoldway repo package of things to upgrade due to current 1and1.com VPS default OS installation is giving php5.3 version and i am wanting 5.5 version of php.
NOTE: above is for CentOS6.6
in windows 8, most likely in windows 7, windows vista as well. you are able to "mount" FTP sites into "file explorer" so the FTP site acts like a drive / folder on your computer. i really do not recommend this. "slow / annoying" as in using "file explorer" itself for other stuff on local machine at times due to trying to connect to sftp / ftp site for a folder and it just slows everything down has been my experience ((if working with local computers and not some VPS at some hosting company, it can be a different story))
- open up "file explorer"
- right click on "network" left hand side
- click "map network drive"
- click "connect to a website that you can use to store your documents and pictures"
- click "next"
- click "choose a custom network location"
- click "next"
- in "internet or network address" box. enter something like ftp://yoursite.com or ftp://ftp.yoursite.com or ftp://ipaddress
- follow through rest of wizard (clicking "next" a couple times if memory serves)
NOTE: i think there is way to use SFTP vs non secure FTP sites. but i do not remember how right off.
NOTE: you might be able to use something like ftp://username@yoursite.com or ftp://username@ftp.yoursite.com or ftp://username@ipaddress the username@ might auto include username for you. ((has been some time))
NOTE: if you need to connect to a different port besides port 21 or like, you should be able to do something like ftp://yousite.com:1080 ftp://yoursite.com:21 or ftp://ftp.yoursite.com:21 or ftp://ipaddress:21 the colon and port number allows one to assign a different port number
TO ABOVE NOTES: it has been some time since doing this in windows, and microsoft seems to love to change some things around over the years so above may or may not work.
TO ABOVE NOTES: like doing should be available for mac's and other linux operating systems as well. with similiar like notations.
another couple hours waiting for highspeed interent to kick back on...
(see attached file) working with REPO other words working with repositories in CentOS or other like linux operating system. and getting stuff up to date (apache, mysql, php) and the like.
Having learned Linux slowly in a DreamHost hosting environment, it was all Debian-based, so I chose Ubuntu as the distro. For Moodle, Apache+MySQL or MariaDB+PHP really is the only way to go.
Digital Ocean has pretty good documentation on setting up a LAMP stack. https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-apache-mysql-php-lamp-stack-on-ubuntu-14-04