Moodle in English: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

Hi,

I've looked into all of the hosting options for my Moodle site and have decided that a managed VPS is the best option. (My site has outgrown the limitations of a shared server, I want an affordable option and I don't want to commit the time to learn how to manage a VPS myself).

I'm planning on doing a new install of the latest version of Moodle.

I've spoken to HostPapa and am considering using them but I thought I'd first check to see if anyone has any experience of using a managed VPS service for a Moodle site and, if so, whether you'd recommend the hosting provider.

Looking forward to hearing if anyone has any recommendations.

Pete

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Howard Miller - Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 3:51 PM

I'm not sure of the exact definition of a 'managed VPS' - I imagine it varies. My concern would be that it all has to be set up to properly support Moodle. Have you considered obtaining quotes from Moodle Partners (or similar) just to do the whole thing. Actually installing Moodle is the easy bit once everything else is right - and you won't get away with learning about file permissions / file ownership / cron and so on.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 4:52 PM

There is the "managed server", which usually means a dedicated (hardware) server running LAMP. The full LAMP stack, monitoring, network precautions, backup all are maintained. Not the applications. Everything Moodle-specific is yours. The cost is not comparable to shared web hosting, easily 20 times the price.

@Pete, otherwise, this is a recurring topic in the Hardware and performance forum. Run the advance search https://moodle.org/mod/forum/search.php?id=5 to find similar discussions.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Usman Asar - Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 6:08 PM

Pete, how many users do you have, to determine you've outgrown the shared host?

A typical shared host provides with 0.25% of 1 CPU core, 1GB of RAM & 1MB/s I/O, you may will be fine with business/enterprise shared hosting accounts with more resources to cater for your needs (like 4 CPU cores 4GB RAM). Before considering a VPS, do have look at another shared hosting (Planet Hoster), they provide 8 CPU cores, 16GB RAM and 16MB/s I/O, with SSL certificates and database converted to Barracuda format, it will save you more than getting a managed VPS and buying separate SSL on top. Only downside to shared platforms are resources cannot be taxed 100% of the time, while in VPS one can.

(Edited by Howard Miller to remove affiliate link - original submission Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 10:08 AM)

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 10:31 PM

Hi Usman

That is interesting. I have little to do with shared hosting, but if they mention resources I would expect a minimum limit (guaranteed) and a surge limit (not guaranteed). In your "typical" numbers 25% vCPU (1/4 vCPU, right?) and 1 GB RAM, are they averages, e.g. 32 core and 128 GB machine partitioned amoung 128 sites?

The PlanetHoster numbers - 8 CPU cores, 16GB RAM - they call it shared, not VPS? Are these guaranteed minimum or average?

N.B. We should be in the Hardware and performance forum!

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Usman Asar - Friday, 31 January 2020, 3:20 AM

Hello Visvanath,

32 core and 128 GB machine partitioned among 128 sites?

I am afraid, this is not the case, this much spec is partitioned among 500+ accounts (on 90% of the hosting providers), this is why those hosting providers who do offer Business/Enterprise hosting accounts, do mention (less accounts per server) and they are around 100 for Business class hosting. hosing comapnies can get away easily with this much allocation as may be 5% of the customers actually use their shared hosting, else if someone is very serious about their project, they would be opting for a VPS or dedicated, but nevertheless a good place to start with shared.

The PlanetHoster numbers - 8 CPU cores, 16GB RAM - they call it shared, not VPS? Are these guaranteed minimum or average?

These are guaranteed minimum (shared) allocated resources to your account, minimum starts with this configuration you can go as high as 1024 Cores, 2048 GB RAM and 2048 MB I/O, and you can isolate these allocated resources among your sites, like for example you can make 4 independent portfolios of 2 CPU, 4GB Ram and 4 MB I/O choosing between Canadian or French datacenter, or allocate all to one. but being shared you cannot keep taxing resources 100% of the time, where as in VPS you can keep 100% CPU usage all the time. more allocated resources means you can get your work done quicker without taxing the resources.

I just bought their minimum package for test, and so far I am impressed, as these resource allocation, site isolation, choice between datacentres even on one account, all sites with SSL included, is something I havent experienced in ANY of the shared hosts, as I test shared hostings with respect to moodle installations. Likely I will stay with them for a very long time.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Friday, 31 January 2020, 4:44 PM

Hi Usman

>> 32 core and 128 GB machine partitioned among 128 sites?
>
> I am afraid, this is not the case, this much spec is partitioned among 500+ accounts (on 90% of the hosting providers),

Understand. 128 GB for 128 sites means each site can have its 1 GB at the same time. Since on the average they use less the hoster would allocate more sites. On the other side, they should watch for and limit big consumers. That is where sophisticated partitioning schemes come in.

>> The PlanetHoster numbers - 8 CPU cores, 16GB RAM - they call it shared, not VPS? Are these guaranteed minimum or average?

> These are guaranteed minimum (shared) allocated resources to your account, minimum starts with this configuration you can go as high as 1024 Cores, 2048 GB RAM and 2048 MB I/O, and you can isolate these allocated resources among your sites,

Indeed unique, I must say.

> if you use my link you'll get further 10% off.

For transparency a "full disclosure" would do some good.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Howard Miller - Friday, 31 January 2020, 7:09 PM

I deleted the link in case anybody is looking. I'm assuming it was an "affiliate link" where Usman gains some benefit.

With my moderator hat on... yes, full disclosure is *required* as the impression may be given that this is an independent endorsement of a company when (on the face of it) it appears not to be.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Usman Asar - Saturday, 1 February 2020, 4:10 AM

sorry, I should have, disclosed, but the intention was not personal benefit but to let 10% discount claim by those who want to test, else I have affiliate links with hosting companies who give 50%, because I never consider them recommendable so never utilized their affiliate links.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Howard Miller - Saturday, 1 February 2020, 10:02 PM

Ok... but it's vital that we are 100% open about affiliate links and any other associations with companies we recommend. The other way lies a diminished reputation (for all of us).

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Deelip Kumar - Friday, 24 July 2020, 2:34 PM

Hi,

I would like to test Planet Hoster for my moodle installation. It would be great if you could provide a discount link for it if it is available.

Regards

Deelip

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Usman Asar - Saturday, 1 February 2020, 4:15 AM

Where other distros are used (Ubuntu, CentOS), one can expect on shared server, one account hammering the resources effecting other accounts on same server, but PlanetHoster uses CloudLinux (that i find out as I used their CPanel - Cpanel can only be installed on CentOS (niche of RedHat), CloudLinux and RedHat), that isolates resources to the extent that it wont effect other accounts even if you're putting load on your account.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Mohammad Nabil - Saturday, 25 July 2020, 2:41 AM

what about entry process ?
i tried a shared hosting , every thing was far below cpu and ram limtis , but
a 20 entry process limit was the problem that make me go with a VPS
i am right or , there is some thing or trick i do not know ?
( i am not an expert / server adminstrator )

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Rick Jerz - Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 9:59 PM

The other folks here are giving you good advice, I will add a few of my own comments.

I have had a GoDaddy VPS, various configurations, since 2011. I am not affiliated with GoDaddy. My current VPS is a Deluxe 4GB Gen3, with 120GB Disk Space. This particular VPS I have had for 2 years, and I purchased it with a 3-year contract, so at the end of this year I have to "buy again." GoDaddy offers discounts, so it is hard to say what someone would pay today, but I paid about $27US/month for this 3-year purchase. This server has not had any downtime in these 2 years.

This VPS is called a "managed" server, but what that means is that I got cPanel. Unlike some of the folks here who can install servers from scratch in their sleep, I need the help of cPanel because I am not a server admin, I am a professor. There is still a learning curve, even with cPanel, so when you explore companies, make sure that you understand what kind of support they provide. In GoDaddy's case, they know how to keep their servers running, but you are pretty much on your own. Many of these companies will not install Moodle for you, and DO NOT use the one-step installer!

Installing Moodle is realatively simple, but you need to make sure that you have the required server settings correct, for example, the correct php extensions.

So, I am trying to tell you that it can be done, but this is not to say it is simple. A lot of what I am saying depends upon your background and desire to learn.

All of this being said, you do have a low-cost entry. With GoDaddy, and probably with others, you can buy a one-month (or more months, whatever you need) server, experiment, wipe it out and start over, within your one-month. This is what I did two years ago. Install, experiments, wipe-clean, do it again. Yes, a one-month server is more expensive than a 36-month server, but it will give you a chance to learn what you are getting into.

(Others here, like Visvanath, will probably give you some of their thoughts about GoDaddy. Again, I am not affiliated with GoDaddy, and I love learning things from these folks. They are my experts! GoDaddy has been working for me, they might be the largest server company in the world (good or bad), and their product pricing is competitive.)

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Wednesday, 29 January 2020, 10:08 PM

Rick, since you asked for it: ;) Go Daddy! (Where to?)

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Ken Task - Thursday, 30 January 2020, 12:04 AM

Question has been asked many times. Those more technically oriented tend to throw some tech specs (all good info) and debates in such a thread, without asking some questions. So maybe any/all of us could provide better info if you shared some info about your hosting/setup?

I see by profile that your site involves 'free' elts course? That prep for the high stakes testing or the actual test and certificates?

Some info you could share and doesn't require anything more than Moodle Admin UX ...

*version of Moodle?

how many users?

how many courses?

how many test and their basic structure?

most used modules? Quiz a given but numbers wouldn't hurt ... other modules?

And info one might be able to gather through your hosting control panel (Plesk?)

Current hosting plan - maxes? and have you experienced any issues where usage of the Moodle has maxed out those limits?

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Pete Jones - Thursday, 30 January 2020, 12:03 PM

Thanks everyone for your comments and I'll answer all of the questions here.

Howard, re prices, the pricing that I've seen suggests that a VPS is going to be about 4x what I'm currently paying for hosting on a shared server in New Zealand, a managed VPS will be up to twice the VPS cost, and hosting with a Moodle partner will be at least twice that again (taking that option out of my price range).

Visvanath, thanks for your suggestion to do a search in the Hardware and performance forum - it's given me a couple of other providers to check out.

Usman/Ken, I've currently got a Moodle 2.6.2 site on a shared server with 1GB Ram and is has been known to overload probably due to the demands of other websites on the server. I've got 1000s of users but not all using the site at the same time. This number and the number of courses I'm going to have on the course are going to grow a lot this year - I've got big plans - so I feel that I want a solution that will support not hinder that growth, which means one that won't involve me having to learn how to manage a server and one that provides more dedicated RAM. I also want to build the courses from scratch on the latest version of Moodle, and my current providers can't/won't change the server settings to allow me to install it. The site is for people preparing to take the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test - a high stakes test - and is to help them prepare not take the test itself.

Rick, thanks for sharing your experience of hosting a Moodle site on a managed VPS, and I like the idea of signing up on a month-by-month basis before making a longer-term commitment as a way to try the service out. I'm quite comfortable installing Moodle as I've done a few installations now but it's the server settings that are new to me and that I don't want to spend time learning about and then managing.

I'm going to look at a couple of other providers' managed VPS options and ask them lots of questions about how 'managed' they are and what experience they have of hosting Moodle sites on them.

Thanks again everyone.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by James Steerpike - Thursday, 30 January 2020, 4:46 PM

If the costs given above don't faze you go for a managed server - although if you want your provider to keep everything up to date and fix all your problems for you, a generic host with cpanel won't really cut it. Moodle partners cost more for a reason.
If you have a few hours to spare and a bit of patience, firing up a LAMP server is not so difficult. For only $5 a month you can give it a go on Digitalocean. If it is too hard, you are down $5 and a frustrating few hours. If it works out you have a server totally under your control, great support through tutorials, unlimited room for expansion and a rock bottom price.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Ken Task - Thursday, 30 January 2020, 11:09 PM

Am curious ... in your quest to find the 'perfect moodle hosting provider' what questions will you ask of the provider concerning support of Moodle? (beyond installing - cause that's tip of what could be a very deep iceburg!)

Be forewarned ... sales types will promise anything and figure that the engineers will come to their rescue. Think I'd play 'stump the sales person'.

And ... it's the question not asked (may not know how to ask) that bites, sometimes.

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Pete Jones - Friday, 31 January 2020, 10:55 AM

Thanks Ken, I'll be asking lots of questions and will trial the service before committing to any significant length of time.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Ken Task - Friday, 31 January 2020, 1:46 PM

Usman and Rick can chime in ... but here's my honest 2 cents worth:

" .... ask lots of questions." Remember I mentioned one might know the questions to ask? .... well ...

Oops! The fact your current site is a 2.6 means you've never updated nor upgraded. And one will want to do updates/upgrades IF the next hosting is to be a 'forever home' for what amounts to a national (assume NZ) program.

Now as I understand what you've said you wanted ...

'turnkey' ... provider does it all, but you admin Moodle ... and that's it. Just inside the moodle ... nothing else.

IF I am right ...

If you were to ask provider, the following 2 questions ... assuming they will answer ... negative numbers are not good ... positive numbers are good ...

1. How will you (provider) install moodle 3.8.x?

IF they answer that you can install via Softac ... -100 if keeping score - remember, you want 'turnkey'.

** IF they use:
https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Installing_Moodle ... -80 - granted you won't care ... at first ... not until updates and upgrades roll around ... and they will come round ... besides ... you will be working in Education and there should be an expectation because of that!

** IF they use:
https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Git_for_Administrators ... +100

2. How will you provide updates/upgrades to the moodle.

** IF they say Softac or https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Upgrading ... -100

** IF they say they use: https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Git_for_Administrators ... +100

Questions for ya ...

if one is gonna stay in the pan, shouldn't you at least be buttered?

if one is gonna jump out of the pan and into the fire, shouldn't you at least have a fire retardant suite?

Those questions really for how you are gonna cook! [no offense ;)]

Let's see .... there are more ... like backups (database/site/courses) ... upgrades to PHP and/or MySQL when required ... and a biggy .. recovery from catestrophic lose of server.

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Rick Jerz - Friday, 31 January 2020, 2:37 AM

I forgot to mention some of my stats (which Ken and others said you need.)

I have around 500 students per year, and around 10-15 courses per year. So I run what I would call a small Moodle.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Usman Asar - Friday, 31 January 2020, 3:27 AM

Pete, I will suggest giving try to Planethoster's world account, starting at $7.50 with mariaDB 10 on Barracuda format, PHP with OpCache enabled, SSL certificate for your sites, everything that moodle requires. they do give 14-day money back, if you're not satisfied you have a 2-week peace of mind. Just in case if you feel like needing more resources, you can adjust as per need basis, though I think their default allocation would be more than sufficient for your needs, as I bought their service on Jan 29th, and first thing I do is test moodle installations, where on 1 core allocation on other hosts, it use to take 100% of CPU and on this account with 2 core CPU allocated, moodle installation of 3.8 barely touched 10% of CPU usage.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Rick Jerz - Friday, 31 January 2020, 4:31 AM

PlanetHoster looks quite good, Usman. It seems to have everything. But they do not appear to let you buy one month. Yes, a 14-day money-back guarantee, but I would love to buy only a month or two and give it a try. At this point in time, I don't need a full year. I am going to explore this with PlanetHoster, however.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Usman Asar - Friday, 31 January 2020, 5:31 AM

Rick, they do offer semi annually as well, if you use my link you'll get further 10% off.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Usman Asar - Friday, 31 January 2020, 6:07 AM

just asked them, they said if you open a ticket, they can do monthly as well.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Rick Jerz - Friday, 31 January 2020, 6:13 AM

Cool! 😎

Now I just need a little time. This could be a fun experiment!

Thanks.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Pete Jones - Friday, 31 January 2020, 11:04 AM

Hi Usman and Rick,

Planethoster seem to offer something way beyond other providers at that price. I'll be interested to hear how you go with it as it could be a more affordable option for people, like me, wanting to use a later version of Moodle but not being able to on a shared server.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by James Steerpike - Friday, 31 January 2020, 4:59 PM

Way beyond other providers at that price is not always a good thing. Maybe the provider is more efficient. Or maybe they are overselling and understaffing service levels. You can't tell in a few weeks, especially if your usage is growing. I have been burnt before.

The more you expect the provider to manage things, the more you depend on their honesty and expertise. Always have independent backups.

The question I would want to ask is how many customers is each technical person supposed to support. And how many hours of unpaid technical support will be given when I have a problem before they give up as too hard.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Rick Jerz - Friday, 31 January 2020, 11:15 PM

Yep James, even if I complete my experimentation one doesn't know for sure. But it is always good to know about some low-cost server companies. I know that you have had some good experience with DigitalOcean, and they are on my list, too. With all these solutions, I wonder about uptime, support, my own effort, and of course, does Moodle perform. Do you own a "Droplets" product from DigitalOcean?

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by James Steerpike - Saturday, 1 February 2020, 1:54 PM

I have been running a droplet for about year and have the lowest level of 1 gB of ram. At times I have had the whole class of around 50 on at once during a quiz. Sometimes there are connection problems when I do this but monitoring shows the server is coping and the connection is the problem. My server is in Singapore and classroom in South China and internet speeds to foreign sites can be variable.
I run a course backup (around 100 mB ) every night plus database backups and then export to Dropbox. This pushes my CPU over 70% for 5 to 10 minutes but it never fails.
My bill is $5 US a month plus GST as I pay through a New Zealand bank.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Rick Jerz - Sunday, 2 February 2020, 5:18 AM

Thanks, James. I am going to have to give this a try someday, as soon as I get a little free time.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Usman Asar - Saturday, 1 February 2020, 4:06 AM

Pete, its my 5th day with them, but if I have to change hosting on expiry of current hosting contract, I start looking out at least 6 months before, and in order to test reliability I start monitoring at least 4 customer's sites on the that host, so far got 99.9% uptime based on 4 months monitoring, so I am satisfied with the uptime they promise, where their performance is concerned, bare installation of moodle will spike the CPU and I/O usage to 100% of any shared host, and I have simultaneously installed 2 moodles with 2 CPU cores 4GB RAM and 4MB I/O allocated and CPU barely hit 29% at its peek, and this resource allocation is 1/4th of what I can allocate.

you can always wait 14 days (expiry of their full refund offer) and after that I can confidently tell if it's worth it or not, as I have had bad experienced in past with turnkey internet, the moment your refund offer expires, support's attitude change drastically.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Luz Rodriguez - Monday, 21 September 2020, 7:09 AM

Hello, Usman!

Would you mind sharing your experience with planethoster? I'm a kind of desperate teacher trying to find a reliable not so expensive alternative to host my Moodle courses. Right now, I and a couple of colleagues are using a shared hosting service trying to cope with this global emergency that forced us to take our courses online. However, we already had a first failure when a deadline was reached for some activities and too many students were using the platform simultaneously, so the site was down for about an hour. We're looking for something that can support our 900 students, taking into account that in an exam we may have up to 300 students taking it at the same time.

I hope that you or someone else from this community could guide us to find a not so expensive alternative, since it is an initiative that we are paying for out of our own pocket.

Thanks in advance.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Ken Task - Sunday, 2 February 2020, 12:03 AM

So, Pete ... have you given up on the idea of 'turnkey' ... ie, provider installs/sets up a moodle for you to use ... you just do inside Moodle ... nothing else?

Does Planethoster provide 'turnkey'? Is that 'turnkey' Softaculous or something similar?

And just one more comment ... big differences in 3.8.x from a 2.6.x ... so some re-learning will need to take place. Plus, if you had any addon's with your 2.6.x you might need to check if those addons are still compatible with 3.8.x.

Assume that old site will remain up while you check out Planethoster means a new domain name for new PH site. Which also follows, method of 'migration' will be backups from 2.6.x and restores to 3.8.x. That's why checking on addons is important.

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Pete Jones - Sunday, 2 February 2020, 1:04 PM

Hi Ken,

Thanks for your concern. I was and am expecting to install Moodle myself and I'm comfortable with that. I also know I may meet some server issues during and after the installation, and this is where I'll need support from the hosting provider.

I'm familiar with later versions of Moodle through working on other people's sites and am not planning to migrate my existing Moodle 2.6 site. I'm planning to install the latest version on a subdomain, and only point all students to it when it's ready. At this point, if there are any serious issues, I can simply direct students to the old site until I've fixed the issues. When I'm happy that the new site is working, I'll migrate my website to the new server without the Moodle 2.6 version.

Pete

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Ken Task - Sunday, 2 February 2020, 2:55 PM

Oh, am not concerned ...

So the subject line of this thread has morphed ... no longer a 'managed VPS hosting provider' ... but an un-managed ... where you, the OP does it all.

Hmmm ... we've come full circle me thinks.

"When I'm happy that the new site is working, I'll migrate my website to the new server without the Moodle 2.6 version."

Do you mean you'll change DNS to point to new hosting ... the 3.8.1+? (which by that time might already be behind a version)

Uhhhh ... if you do ... the 3.8.1+ site would have been developed with what FQDN and cert? While being developed moodle will use the config.php variable for $CFG->wwwroot. All internal links would have used that variable .... thus in DB. So, you'll have run search and replace to change all those.

If you follow your own history ... 2.6 -> 3.8 ... you'll wait another 12 versions before moving away from 3.8. Wonder what Moodle will look like by then?

Strongly suggest breaking that history ... do initial install of the 3.8.1+ using git - since you are now gonna manage it.

https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Git_for_Administrators

My 2 pennies!

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Saturday, 1 February 2020, 3:55 PM

Hi Pete

The current topic is a popular one, which always generates a long thread under the motto "what's good for the goose is good for the gander". Trust, you'll set your priorities.

From what I read, "I've currently got a Moodle 2.6.2 site on a shared server with 1GB Ram and is has been known to overload probably due to the demands of other websites on the server. I've got 1000s of users but not all using the site at the same time." as of now you are barely managing with less than 1 GB. I don't see why the next step need to be a high-end VPS. What we all agree is that shared (Cpanel, Plesk) mass hosting is OK for private persons. A professional, even a small, site needs a VPS for trouble-free maintenance. My point is, not to get obsessed with high power nor to start counting pennies.

@Moderation: Nice, if we could add this thread too to the "knowledge base" in the Hardware and performance forum.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Pete Jones - Sunday, 2 February 2020, 2:05 PM

Thanks Visvanath,

It's been a really useful discussion to have. I started it in case there was an avalanche of comments all saying don't move to a managed VPS (or don't use HostPapa), do this instead, but that hasn't been the case, and I know understand a bit more about the various options available.

I'm planning to sign up on a monthly basis for the first couple of months and only commit to a longer period of time when I'm happy that the set up is working for my site/students and that I'm getting the technical support I need.

Pete

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Cosette C - Friday, 18 December 2020, 10:25 AM

Pete -

Can I ask what you settled on and how it's going? We're looking to take over management of our moodle site again and looking at our options. Honestly, I think we're small enough we may go with a premium shared server just to not have to deal with a server.

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Ray Havlin - Friday, 24 July 2020, 10:06 PM

Pete

This isn't really a recommendation so much as a word of caution from someone like me who has got caught in an OS deprecation scenario with my VPS provider. (BlueHost)

I have no path forward and must either start over with a completely clean re-imaged VPS or simply take this opportunity to move to another provider that can maintain the OS.

The ONLY reason I had to go with a VPS (this was three years ago) was to get the maria barracuda DB capability.

Ray

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Re: Any recommendations for a managed VPS hosting provider

by Cosette C - Friday, 18 December 2020, 10:23 AM

Ray -

Can you explain further what issues issues you have had with your bluehost VPS? We have a VPS through bluehost, though we also have elearning manage our moodle site right now, but we're looking to take over our moodle site again either with bluehost or another company.

If you changed, who did you go with?

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