What to Look for When Choosing Hosting Automation Software
What to Look for When Choosing Hosting Automation Software
If you’re a small web host, and especially if you’re a web hosting reseller looking to grow your business, the number of tasks you have to handle will quickly become enough to overwhelm even the most organized person. You won’t be able to grow past a certain point without software to automate at least some functions. In this article, I’ll take a look at some of the parts of your business that can benefit from software automation.There are several areas that can be well served by web hosting software automation. These can be usefully divided into the front end and back end, or, more functionally, into the customer-facing software and the business processes. This does not mean that each set of tools operates in isolation; they communicate with each other to keep things running smoothly.
For example, let’s look at the simple process of billing. Billing software creates invoices and bills customers automatically. Proper billing software keeps track of who paid and who is overdue; it also tracks account usage, and can add the appropriate fees to clients who have used more than their allotted storage or bandwidth. But if you really want to score with your clients, you should also be able to warn them when they’re getting close to their limits, and let them proactively upgrade – or pay in advance through their own control panels. So billing software may seem to be mostly a back end business process, but it obviously has customer-facing elements that can’t be ignored.
Granting that these functions are tied together, let’s consider how web hosting automation is handled. Particularly if you’re a web hosting reseller, you may find it easiest to use control panel software. This software usually offers a GUI interface for both you and your customers, and allows for the handling of most problems and changes with a few clicks of a mouse. The best-known web hosting control panels include H-Sphere, produced by Positive Software (http://www.psoft.net/); Plesk, produced by SWSoft (http://www.swsoft.com/plesk/); and the nigh-ubiquitous cPanel, produced by cPanel (http://www.cpanel.net/index.html).
What to Look for When Choosing Hosting Automation Software – Business Functions
So what kinds of functions should you look for in a control panel? For openers, you need to make sure it works with your operating system and the OSes of your customers. cPanel, for instance, doesn’t yet support Windows, though it does handle many flavors of Linux and FreeBSD. Plesk supports both Windows and Linux, while H-Sphere supports Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD.
Another point you might consider is ease of use. Lots of features are wonderful, but having too many of them can get to be confusing for both you and your customers. Obviously, you and your customers won’t be using the same control panel, but many companies (including the three I’ve mentioned) provide control panels for both the reseller and the customer. When you look at the control panels, consider the level of technical expertise of the people who are going to be using them, and strive to find the right balance between finely grained control and ease of use.
So what should be automated? Account creation is an obvious candidate. You will want some safeguards in place, though, to prevent spammers from taking advantage of this feature. Having your prospective customer type in a word that can’t be automatically read and typed in by a computer is one way an account creation program might protect against this.
There are also a number of administrative functions associated with account creation and account management. These include everything from creating packages, adding and suspending sites, modifying passwords, monitoring and logging bandwidth and disk space usage by account, parking domains for your customers, installing SSL certificates…the list goes on and on. A control panel should make these functions quick and relatively painless.
As I mentioned above, billing and invoice management is another function that a control panel should automate for you. Ideally, it should operate almost invisibly. Get this right and it’s hardly noticed; get this wrong, and it could easily cost you customers, to say nothing of the headaches you’ll suffer from complaints.
Credit card processing is closely related to this. Make sure that the control panel can handle not only your merchant gateway, but an assortment of them; after all, if you’re hosting ecommerce websites, you may not know what merchant gateway they’ll be using.
You will probably need to email your customers for all sorts of reasons, not just to send them bills or let them know they’re running over on their bandwidth. You may need to warn them about server maintenance, for instance. In that case, it helps if you can automate your email notifications.
You’re going to need some kind of help desk module. Any automation you can do here will probably speed things up and make your customers happier, assuming you can solve their problems in a timely fashion. Automated emails can help, but your customers will also want to know that there are real humans efficiently taking care of their problems.
While it may not be absolutely necessary to automate domain registration, it’s something that’s nice to have. If you have customers who want to register a lot of domain names, they’ll thank you for it. Check how well the control panel integrates with domain registrars. Even if you don’t have automated domain registration right away, you may find that you need some kind of domain management system.
What to Look for When Choosing Hosting Automation Software – The Customer Side
Your customers will probably want to manage their own accounts as much as they can. Think about it: would you want to be on the phone to your ISP for every little change? These can include simple matters like changing passwords, opening and closing email accounts, and more. Or, looked at from your point of view, do you really want to spend your time doing that kind of handholding? Of course you don’t. So here are some of the things you will want your customers to be able to do for themselves through their own control panels.
Let’s start with account management items that can be automated. Customers should be able to retrieve and change passwords in a secure way (why penalize someone for a faulty memory?). They should also be able to pay for their hosting plan; the easier it is for them to pay, the more likely it is that you won’t have to hassle them about it. Likewise, if any of your customer’s personal details changes (like phone numbers or postal addresses or such), you should not make it difficult for them to change those with you.
Other account management items customers should be able to do for themselves deal with the account itself. Make it easy for customers to upgrade or downgrade their hosting plans; cancel accounts; and add and drop web sites or plans that are attached to an existing account. Customers should receive confirmation emails when the changes they’ve requested have gone through.
Here I’d like to reiterate what I said in the previous section about account creation. Automating this process too much may become a security risk. Hackers can break into the system to open fraudulent accounts for distributing viruses and/or spam. So you do need some human oversight.
If you’re hosting online businesses, they’re going to be concerned with site statistics. If your customers are engaged in any kind of SEO, they’ll want to know how many hits they’re getting on each of their pages, how much time visitors are spending on their pages, where visitors are coming from – and especially if their visitors are coming from search engines, which engines and keywords they’re using.
Another item that falls under site management is something I’ve alluded to earlier in this article: a tool that lets customers know when they’re approaching their monthly bandwidth limits and maximum disk space. It’s a convenient feature that will keep your customers from being smacked with unpleasant surprises – and we all know an angry or unhappy customer can quickly become a former customer.
What to Look for When Choosing Hosting Automation Software – More Customer Management Features
We’re not done yet by a long shot. Many of your customers will have some kind of email address other than the one through their domain. Still, if you can provide them with a hosted email service that works as well as a desktop application, without the client side software, they’ll be more inclined to stay. That’s important in an industry in which customer loyalty is low to nonexistent. Especially if you’re pitching to businesses, your customers should be able to add, manage, and delete email addresses on their own.
A web site doesn’t really feel like it belongs to you if you can’t easily manage your files. Customers need a way to get them to your servers, and take down their own existing files. Make this as simple for your customers as you can and still maintain security; not everyone who puts together a web site is tech savvy, and they shouldn’t have to be.
Along the same lines, you might consider providing your customers with a simple HTML editor. Many web hosts don’t, but if you have a good one, you have a better chance of keeping your less technically-inclined customers happy. If you really want to get fancy, you can offer site builder wizards and web site templates that will get your customers well on the way to creating the site of their dreams with very little hassle. Some site builders include automated graphics tools, automated web blogs and forms, site navigation, style sheets, and much more.
Your customers may have database needs; especially in the case of ecommerce websites, they may need to manage their connectivity to a database, and even manage items in the database itself. Database tools vary a lot in price and capabilities. The kind of tool you offer your customers is going to depend very much on the market you’re targeting.
Again, if you’re targeting ecommerce websites, your customers will need ecommerce tools. They’ll need to be able manage their flow of goods through website transactions, and process credit card and PayPal payments. With this target market, having good ecommerce tools to offer your customers is not optional; it’s a must.
Finally, I’d like to address the issue of tech support. Sometimes you can set things up so that your customers are able to solve their problems without calling on you. If you can provide them with easy access to the kind of information they need to get things done, you’re making them more self sufficient – which is satisfying to both them and you. Aside from a good FAQ, good tutorials on the topics they’re most likely to need help with are a nice touch. When they do need to call on you for help, the more ways they have of reaching the person who can help them, the better. Email, live chat, and phone numbers should be available. After all, if you’ve automated everything properly, they’ll only be contacting you for the really important things that they can’t take care of themselves.
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What to Look for When Choosing Hosting Automation Software
Give Your Customers What They Want
Give Your Customers What They Want
Whatever may be said about attracting customers to your business (be it web hosting or anything else), it all seems to boil down to one thing: give your customers what they want. It sounds like a simple formula, but there are layers to it. With a recent offering from Monsterhosting.ca as an example, we’ll pick apart what it means.When you’re a writer searching for a topic for your next article, sometimes you get lucky. You go through news items and how to articles and several of them crash into each other in your brain in a way that both makes sense and creates something new. They illuminate each other, and perhaps even reveal some principles (or at least good ideas). That’s what happened in this case.
You might have read Monsterhosting.ca’s press release about the free live online courses the web host has begun offering. I not only read it, I visited the company’s web site (though I haven’t signed up for any courses yet). I think it’s a great example of a company giving its customers what they want. Let me explain how.
The first and somewhat obvious step in giving your customers what they want is actually finding out what they want. If you visit the home page for Monsterhosting.ca’s live online courses, you’ll see that web host polled its customers to find out what kind of courses they were interested in. There’s also a link you can click on to send an email with your own suggestions for more courses.
Put another way, Monsterhosting.ca is trying to solve a problem for its customers – in this case, lack of knowledge in certain areas. Or, put more broadly, the problem could be described as the need to learn what will help an online business succeed. There are a number of ways this need could be filled, of course; for a variety of reasons, Monsterhosting.ca chose this particular format.
How can you as a web host find out what your customers need? Well, one easy way is to ask them. Another way is to be receptive when they talk. Haunt web hosting forums and see what issues are raised, particularly if the person raising the issue owns the kind of site to which you’d like to cater.
You might even consider treating your trouble tickets as suggestions. By this I don’t mean you shouldn’t take them seriously! But once you’ve solved the issue, realize that the trouble ticket represents a need you may not have been fulfilling. Are you not supporting a script someone needs for their web site? Was your control panel a little too complicated for one of your customers? It’s food for thought.
Give Your Customers What They Want – Speak Plainly
The idea of complicated control panels brings up another thing to keep in mind when giving the customer what they want. People like to think that solutions to problems are simple; therefore, if you’re trying to offer something that solves a problem, keep it simple. Simple doesn’t mean skimpy; it means easy to understand.
For example, if the way you choose to give your customers what they want is by writing articles on topics of interest to them (an excellent approach, I might add), keep your language conversational. Depending on the topics you write about, you may have to resort to technical language or other jargon, but you should try to keep these to a minimum (unless you already know your audience can handle more). You don’t want to talk down to your readers, of course, but too much jargon – or a too-formal style of writing – is even worse. Keep it natural, and then don’t forget to edit it! That’s when you smooth out any problems. Strive to make sure your customers understand what you’re offering them.
On the home page for Monsterhosting.ca’s live online courses, the company makes it very clear what you’re getting. Each course is conducted online through conference software that lets you see the presenter’s screen. You listen to the presenter over the phone. You register for each course, which occurs at a specific date and time. Each course accepts a total of nine people, after which it is full.
But it gets even better than that. Click on the name of each course, and you go to a page that gives you the low-down on the course. You find out how long the course will last (most of the courses are either 30 minutes or an hour in length), read a one-sentence description, and bullet lists of course objectives and prerequisites. In short, you know what’s required of you, both in ability and time commitment, and what you’ll learn. The registration process looks as if it is very easy as well (I didn’t go all the way through it because I don’t have my own domain name, and that’s apparently required before you sign up – which, given Monsterhosting.ca’s likely goals for this offering, is not surprising).
Give Your Customers What They Want – Grab Their Attention
Remember, you’re trying to give your customers what they want, right? So you should give them the impression that you’re talking directly to them, and that it’s all about them. If you’re writing an article to attract customers with your wonderful content, make sure that first paragraph speaks directly to their situation. Let them know you understand their problem, without minimizing it, and that if they keep reading, they’ll find the solution they’re looking for.
Needless to say, it has to be real content if you want to get the attention of potential customers; you can’t just try to grab them and then not deliver. Word of mouth is a very powerful advertising tool, but it cuts both ways. If your offering is not up to what your customers expect, they’ll tell other potential customers.
So how does Monsterhosting.ca’s offer of live online courses address this? Well, the company is using perhaps the ultimate attention-grabbing tactic: it’s giving something away. The online courses are all free, and there doesn’t seem to be any limit as to how many you can sign up for. Remember, we’re talking about GIVING your customers what they want after all!
Of course this doesn’t mean that you should give away your MAIN products or services. The point to keep in mind is that any customer that does need those products and services, and is willing to pay for them, is likely to have other, related needs as well. If you can fill these needs well in a way that costs you little or nothing, so that you can give them away to your customers or potential customers, you’re ahead of the game. You’ve already proven that you can fill some of their needs; that’s the beginning of a trusting relationship. If they turned to you to fill some needs already, they’re more likely to turn to you when it’s time to fill other needs, for which you can reasonably charge.
Give Your Customers What They Want – Finish on a Positive Note
Filling a need…doing something for someone…solving a problem. These are all positive things. So after you do this for your customer, you should finish on a high note. For example, if you’re writing an article, don’t let it just sort of drag out and end with a thud. (Granted, that can be a real challenge; welcome to my world). You also want to avoid giving it a trite ending. How many times have you seen someone end an article with “So what are you waiting for? Start today!” That pair of sentences all but reek of marketing. Most people who are online can smell that a mile away. You’re not trying to market to your customers and potential customers so much as help them with their problems.
That being the case, ask yourself: what do you usually feel after you’ve solved a problem? I’ll bet you feel pretty satisfied. The way you end an article should leave your customers and potential customers feeling pretty satisfied as well. They should feel hopeful and optimistic about being able to tackle the original challenge that caused them to read the article or take advantage of what you offered in the first place.
I don’t have a colorful example from Monsterhosting.ca for this one, but if I were them I’d spend the last few minutes of every course on a quick summary of what was taught, and what the students should now be able to do thanks to what they learned. In the case of an article offering a solution to a problem, you should enumerate the benefits of using that particular solution.
If you give your customers and potential customers what they want and need, you’ll be on your way to building a trusting relationship with them. If you get their attention, they’ll listen to what you have to say – and if there’s meat to it, they’ll be happy to use it. Put all these factors together, and they’ll think of you the next time they need something you can provide – and those are benefits you can take to the bank.
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Give Your Customers What They Want
Protecting Your Customers from Spam
Protecting Your Customers from Spam
Everyone hates spam, and there seems to be no escape from it. As a web host, however, you’re closer to the front lines of this battle than your customers. In this article, I’ll detail some of the steps you can take to keep this unsolicited annoyance from getting out of hand.By some estimates, spam, also known as unsolicited bulk email, has already gotten out of hand generally across the Internet. Ferris Research estimated that the cost of spam to the United States economy came to more than $10 billion in 2003. That takes into account the consumption of computing resources, help desk personnel time, and worker productivity (after all, the few seconds spent deleting each of those emails adds up). When Intermedia.NET launched its new SpamStopper service, it cited 2006 research which estimated that spam “represents over 66% of all email sent, and more than 10% of lost productivity.”
The federal anti-spam laws have done little if anything to stem the tide. As Scott Chasin, chief technology officer for anti-spam company MX Logic notes, “Predictions of the impending death of spam are premature. While significant advances in anti-spam technology have made it possible to relieve email users of unwanted commercial email before it hits their in boxes, spam still makes up the majority of all email traffic — imposing a significant burden on the Internet and on the effectiveness of email.”
The situation may sound bleak, but it isn’t hopeless. You will need to be proactive in the battle, however, since there is no automated program that is 100 percent effective against all spam. Even if there were, spammers (and especially phishers) are clever; as fast as anyone comes up with ways to filter spam, they come up with ways to get around the filters. For example, when spam filters started blocking emails that contained words used frequently in spam, spammers just started using variations of the words or corruptions of them that would still get the point across.
Sure, you need to have automated programs guarding your customers’ in boxes, but you also need to engage in manual monitoring. Check uploaded files for common spam scripts, watch server loads, and keep an eye on your customers, especially new ones, for unusual behavior. Register your email with spam fighting sites, such as Spamcop.net or Abuse.net.
If you do find yourself with a spam problem on your hands, you need to have an action plan in place. Create one now, before you have to use it. Don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance (yes, there are still people who are ignorant of spam, or at least of how to handle it).
Protecting Your Customers from Spam – Know Your Customers
Bart Shaefer, CTO of iPost, pinpoints a major step any web host can take to keep spam from becoming a problem. “The first and most important thing Web hosting vendors should do is perform due diligence checks up front — before agreeing to provide service.” He should know how important that is; his company serves other firms that send legitimate opt-in-only mailings, and it handles huge volumes of email.
So how do you perform due diligence? You can start by doing the same things you might do to check a prospective employee — use Google or another search engine to see what you can learn about the person and his or her company. Don’t skip over doing a credit check; spammers often have no credit or bad credit. But this is just the beginning.
Check your customer’s IPs and domains against black lists; there are many public ones you can use. Be wary if a domain is not registered. Check for address and telephone number matches. Since customers can get a little touchy when you ask a lot of questions, make it clear why you’re going to so much trouble. Legitimate customers don’t want to be associated with spammers any more than you do!
One source you should go to when checking out your customers is the Spamhaus Project (www.spamhaus.org). Among other things, this organization maintains the ROKSO database: the Registry of Known Spam Operations. Spammers on this list have lost their accounts with at least three ISPs for spam-related offenses. These people are hard-core; just 200 “spam gangs” send 80 percent of the spam received by Internet users in North America and Europe, and most of them are listed in the ROKSO database, according to Spamhaus. To quote the organization’s web site, “The vast majority of those listed here operate illegally and move from network to network (and country to country) seeking out ‘spam-friendly’ Internet Service Providers (‘ISPs’) known for lax enforcing of anti-spam policies…These are the spammers you definitely do NOT want on your network.”
Google Groups is another place to check; specifically, search the news.admin.net-abuse newsgroup. But use it carefully. Many postings aren’t real; they’re forgeries designed to hurt legitimate parties, sometimes created by spammers in an attempt to shift the blame from those who are truly at fault. Also, make sure you don’t confuse spammers with those who have received spam and are simply reporting an offender.
Protecting Your Customers from Spam – Technical Preparation
Before I go any further in this discussion of ways to prevent spam from becoming a problem on your network, I’d like to mention the role of education. You may understand the importance of the steps you are taking to fight spam, but your staff and your customers may not. Start by explaining to your staff what kinds of checks to perform on new customers and why; they need to know what issues (such as bad credit and/or being on black lists) raise red flags.
Don’t neglect your customers in your educational campaign either. You can include articles on your web site that explain what spam is and how to fight it, either with your own tools or others. Make sure both your customers and your staff understand good emailing habits (as both senders and receivers). You should also make sure your customers know what to do if they are accused of spamming.
You might be reading this and feeling somewhat frustrated. “I have instant account activation; my customers appreciate it, and it reduces hassles all around. Now you’re telling me I have to get rid of it?” If that’s what you’re thinking, you need to take another look and decide whether it’s really working in the way you intended. Spammers use web hosts with instant account activation to get set up quickly, send lots of spam, and then go on their merry way. Is it really worth the convenience to risk being a magnet for spammers?
Another magnet for spammers is open relays. Don’t let your servers be used in this way. Make sure you have SMTP authentication turned on. Also, if you provide your customers with form mail scripts, use a secure one; if your customers use their own form mail scripts, make sure they’re using a secure one (or at least know what to look for).
Make sure you’re keeping up with the various tricks spammers use to avoid detection. According to a research brief from Trusecure, an information security company, “We are beginning to see more and more cases of ‘spam jacking,’ hackers who exploit poorly configured systems to take control of them and send mass amounts of spam. In most cases these organizations don’t even know they have been compromised, or that there are very simple mitigating measures that can be taken to protect themselves.”
Protecting Your Customers from Spam – Have an AUP
Another big step you can take to help prevent your web hosting business from becoming a victim of spammers is to have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). You could include a stiff penalty for spamming, although it may be questionable whether that will bother a truly hard-core spammer. Still, such a policy will help you keep your customers honest.
If you don’t yet have an AUP, Spamhaus has a resource that will let you generate one automatically (http://www.spamhaus.org/isp/create_aup.lasso). It also has a number of examples of good AUPs on its web site (http://www.spamhaus.org/aups.html). With these tools, you should be well on your way to writing a good policy
Not only do you need to have a good AUP; you need to make sure your customers are aware of it. For example, Shaefer notes that iPost confirms its “solicited mail only” policy verbally with every customer before completing a service agreement. If you choose to include any special clauses directed at preventing specific abuses, you might want to verbally confirm those as well. For example, one company’s AUP bans the use of its systems for “drop boxes” in spam sent somewhere else.
Finally, you need to enforce your AUP. That means you need to be proactive. “This does not mean instantly terminating a customers because of a complaint, because forgery is so common in spam that many complaints are misdirected,” according to Shaefer. “However, it does mean evaluating the accuracy of every complaint, investigating those that appear legitimate, and taking action if a pattern of abuse emerges.”
Dealing with spam is not an easy task. It isn’t going to go away overnight. But by taking these steps, you can reduce the problem for you and your customers to something more manageable.
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Protecting Your Customers from Spam
Maintenance Tips for Web Hosts
Maintenance Tips for Web Hosts
This article covers two important maintenance tasks for web hosts. The first two sections cover backup and recovery strategies. The third and fourth sections cover how to set up a new WHM cPanel server.Dedicated Servers – Backup and Recovery Strategies for Web Hosting Companies
What kind of backup recovery strategy should a company have for its dedicated server? Web hosting companies have been debating this architecture since their existence began. It is really a question pondered by the whole IT community. There are many right solutions, dependent on your company’s ability to handle downtime. The correct solution for you will factor in the amount of redundant protection you need against the overall cost.
Before we discuss the different options for backing up and recovering your dedicated server, we should mention that the server hardware, data center, and fiber connection are all critical to reliability. This article is specifically focused on strategies to backup and recover your server’s data.
At a minimum, you can create a partition in your hard drive and backup your server weekly or monthly. There is no cost to this kind of solution, but the downsides are obvious. If your hard drive crashes, you will lose your backup as well. This kind of solution is only recommended if you can afford to lose all of your data, which most web hosting companies cannot.
Next, you can contract a remote backup service to set up offsite backups. These backups can be run daily, weekly, or monthly. The cost of this solution is around $30-$50/month depending on the web hosting provider. This option gives you a solid backup in case your hard drive crashes. The downside is that recovery time will take 6-12 hours or more depending on how much data you have. The data has to be manually copied over, and this is a slow process. If you can afford the cost, this solution is part of an overall backup system, but it is not recommended as your only solution.
The next backup option is to have a second hard drive installed on your server and have it set up to do daily, weekly, or monthly backups. Most web hosting companies that provide dedicated servers will charge between $15-$30 for a second hard drive. This is a nice compliment to the previous solution if you have the budget for both. The recovery time is faster then a remote backup. But unlike a remote backup, if your dedicated server or the datacenter are down, then you cannot access the backup. For most small web hosting companies this is not a problem. If their entire server or datacenter are down, they have larger issues to worry about. We recommend this as a complimentary option with a remote backup.
Maintenance Tips for Web Hosts – Using RAID
Next, a web hosting company can use mirrored RAID drives. This option will cost $50-$80/month more, but it provides the fastest possible recovery in case of a hard drive crash. You can just reboot using the mirrored drive, and you are back in business. The cost is a little higher, but this is a nice luxury. The downside of this option is that if your server is unavailable, then you still cannot reach your data. Additionally, if the hard drive becomes corrupted it will also corrupt your backup. This is why we recommend mirrored drives as part of a larger solution that includes other backup systems.
Finally, there are mirrored servers. This entails the largest cost and is really not necessary, except for those web hosting companies that can tolerate no downtime at all. In this scenario, if the server itself dies you can have another server ready to take the load. In fact, if your company is large enough, you might already need this kind of solution for performance. Some websites require multiple servers to handle the performance, and it is load balanced across them. In this case, if a server dies the system still runs. This is the best solution but it is not always necessary. And, of course it is costly.
We recommend a weekly remote backup to provide you with a fail safe version. Even if the datacenter burns down, you will have a copy of your data. To this we would add either mirrored RAID drives or a second hard drive, depending on your hosting company’s needs. If you are more worried about recovery time from hard drive crashes, which is the most frequent hardware problem with dedicated servers, then go with the RAID drives. If you are more worried about the hard drive getting corrupted, go with the second hard drive.
We hope this article provides you with the information you need to adequately back up your dedicated server!
Maintenance Tips for Web Hosts – Step by Step Guide to Setting up a New WHM cPanel Server for Web Hosting Accounts
This is a guide to setting up a new WHM/cPanel Server to be used for web hosting accounts. It is intended for web hosting company administrators and dedicated server owners. For under $99 per month, it is easier than ever to manage and run your own dedicated server. You can have guaranteed uptime from your datacenter, and outsourced support starting at $30/month. All you need to do is set up the server and get going. Whether it is for a web hosting company or a couple of personal websites, an inexpensive linux server is powerful, reliable, and easy to setup.
WebHostManager(WHM) is a common linux based tool for managing websites on a server. cPanel is a common control panel to manage an individual website. It allows you to add email accounts, view stats, make backups, install programs, etc. These 2 tools are the most inexpensive set used commonly to manage hosting accounts, and you will find them very prevalent in the budget shared hosting world. It usually adds about $20/month to the cost of a dedicated server but provides most of the features of the more expensive tools.
Whenever you order a dedicated server from a datacenter, you will receive a welcome email with details of the server including the server name, ip addresses, and root password. This information will allow you to setup and configure WHM so that you can host websites and use your own custom Domain Nameserver instead of a raw IP address.
The first thing you need to do is the setup of WebHostManager(WHM). This includes configuring the default Domain nameservers, main IP address, and server contact email address.
1) Login to root WHM (http://:2086)
2) In the left margin, click Next to run the setup wizard
3) Agree to the end-user license agreement
4) Edit setup
a. Server contact email address: info@yourdomain.com
b. Default Cpanel theme: x
c. Default home directory: /home
d. Home directory prefix: home
e. Main shared virtual host IP: xx.xxx.xxx.xx (should be main IP of server)
f. Hostname: server.yourserver.com
g. Primary nameserver: dns1.yourserver.com
h. Secondary nameservers: dns2.yourserver.com
i. Leave everything else unchanged
j. Click Save
Next, you need to setup the system quota. To do this follow these instructions:
5) Click Next Step in left margin – system sets up initial quota. No need to wait for initial quota to setup…. Click Next Step again
6) DO NOT enable namesever. Click Next Step again
Now we need to setup the Resolver. This is specific to your datacenter and the information will be provided in the Welcome details for your dedicated server.
7) Resolver setup:
a. Click Continue
b. Primary Resolver: xx.xx.xx.xx (this is datacenter specific)
c. Secondary Resolver: xx.xx.xx.xx (this is datacenter specific)
d. Tertiary Resolver: leave blank
e. Click Continue
f. Click Next Step
8) Not necessary to enter a MySQL root password
9) Click Finish
Maintenance Tips for Web Hosts – Creating the Accounts
Initial setup is done, and you should now be able to login to root WHM. Now you can create the accounts needed to setup the nameservers that you want to use on this dedicated server.
1) Login to root WHM again
2) “Create a New Account” (this is to be the main account: yourserver.com). Do not give this account a dedicated IP…. It will use the main server’s shared IP address.
3) Under “IP Functions”, click “Show IP address usage”. If only the main server IP is listed, that means you have to add the additional IP address to the server. Click “Add a New IP address”, and enter: xx.xx.xx.xx-xx Leave subnet mask unchanged, and click “Do It”
4) Click Show/Edit Reserved IPs, and check an IP to reserve it, and enter a reason (i.e. dns2.yourserver.com)
5) Under “DNS Functions” click “Edit DNS Zone”, then select yourserver.com and click “Edit”. Use the main IP address for the first 2 lines and the next IP address assigned to the server for the third line.
a. Under “Add new entries below this line”, enter:
server 14400 IN A xx.xx.xx.xx (leave far right box blank)
dns1 14400 IN A xx.xx.xx.xx (leave far right box blank)
dns2 14400 IN A xx.xx.xx.xx (leave far right box blank)
b. Note: The above entries are DNS entries for the two nameservers being created, and the sever name dana.hostyourself.com. Once you’ve enter the three entries, click “Save”
6) If you get an “Error reloading BIND” error, go to “Restart Services” and click “DNS Server (BIND)”, then click YES to restart Bind.
That’s it! Now the server is all setup and ready to host cPanel hosting account with the nameservers dns1.yourserver.com and dns2.yourserver.com. Of course you still need to go to your registrar and register these 2 new nameservers and wait for normal propagation of 24-48 hours until the new nameservers will work.
If this is a server being setup for a dedicated customer, be sure to tell them:
1) IP addresses of nameservers so he can register them with his registrar
2) Root login information
3) Login info of main account you created for him
4) Tell him NOT to delete the main account, since doing so will also delete the DNS zones you setup above
5) New DNS zones should be added to the old server to help with DNS propagation.
If you follow these simple instructions once you get your server from the datacenter, then you will be ready to load websites and hit the internet. With cheap outsourced support companies available and world class datacenters providing under $99 servers there is no reason not to tackle the world of dedicated servers and web hosting for yourself.
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Maintenance Tips for Web Hosts
What is Managed Web Hosting?
What is Managed Hosting?
When I first heard about managed hosting, I thought it was more or less the same thing as dedicated hosting. In both forms of hosting, you have a server with your web host that is completely dedicated to your web site. Keep reading to find out why that’s almost the only thing they have in common.Dedicated hosting has long been an option for companies whose web presence is such that they can’t put their web site on a shared hosting plan without someone taking a big hit. Maybe their web site is really huge, with lots of interactive elements; or perhaps they get a lot of traffic, especially ecommerce. There might be any number of reasons a company needs a dedicated server.
While a dedicated server can provide a growing company with the space, bandwidth, and reliability it needs, there is a potential downside (other than cost). With most dedicated hosting plans, the server is effectively yours – which means you handle most of the server administration tasks. For those who are technically knowledgeable (or willing and able to become so), this might not seem like a large hurdle. But the fact of the matter is that the skills required to create and run a successful online business are not the same as those required to be a decent server administrator.
Managed hosting sprang up as an additional option for companies with a strong enough online presence to require a dedicated server. With managed hosting, most of the server administration is handled by the web host rather than the company that owns the dedicated server. The service has been described as “a glorified dedicated server armed with extended features and support.” As with a dedicated server, you get your choice of operating system, routing equipment, network connectivity and complete administrative control. But a web host that offers the option of managed hosting also takes care of much more than that for its customers.
What is Managed Hosting? – Taking Care of the Details
So what kinds of administrative tasks do web hosts that offer managed hosting take care of for their customers? The list is almost endless. Reporting and monitoring is one obvious item. Load balancing is another, and is very important for any business with enough traffic to require a dedicated server in the first place. The web host may also offer to manage your server’s security, storage, and databases. Application management may be another useful service offered by the web host.
This might not sound like a lot, but think about what’s involved. Looking just at security and application management, a good web host who offers this service will handle the provisioning, testing, and deployment of security patches and upgrades, among other tasks. Managing the storage means more than just keeping up with the backups; it also means making sure your site’s content is stored in such a way that its performance meets your (and your visitors’) expectations.
A web host offering managed web hosting won’t necessarily handle everything, however. Some companies that offer this service will let you pick and choose which tasks you want the web host to manage, and which ones you will handle yourself. Working out an a la carte managed hosting situation can be a good compromise between the complete server control you would have with barebones dedicated hosting and handing over full control to the web host.
Depending on the host, you may also have the option of choosing a pre-configured managed hosting plan. You might find that this option works out better for your budget. A web host might offer several managed hosting plans with different levels of services. Either way, a web host that offers managed hosting should be willing to go well out of its way to make sure the configuration and service meets all your needs.
After all, you may have needs of which you’re not fully aware – or, if you’re doing business in certain industries, you may be far too aware of these needs. I’m talking about new government regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. If you’re a corporation or a healthcare provider subject to these regulations, then you already know how much of a struggle it can be to keep up with the strict standards they call for in the areas of record keeping, financial reporting, and privacy. A web host that offers a managed hosting service may be able to help you with this challenge.
What is Managed Hosting? – What to Look For
Obviously, if you have the kinds of concerns I discussed in the last paragraph of the previous section, you will want to make sure that any web host that handles your managed hosting is familiar with the relevant regulations. But let’s put that issue aside for the moment. Regardless of your specific situation, if you need managed web hosting, there are certain things you should look for in a web host. Use these points to compare web hosts, and help you decide which company has earned your business.
The first point to consider is the speed and reliability of the web host’s customer support. As a preliminary test, try sending an email to the web host before you sign up. If you get a fast, helpful response, that’s a good sign. Most web hosts who offer managed hosting will assign you to a specific representative to take care of all your needs; he or she should be responsible for only a handful of clients, so that each one receives a high level of service. Ideally, this person will be your contact during all normal business hours for both sales-related requests and technical support; with a really top-notch web host, you’ll also have a second contact person for all other times.
The second thing you should find out is the web host’s flexibility. Remember, you’re not there for the web host’s convenience; quite the opposite. Therefore, if you want to open a managed hosting account with a web host, the host should be willing to let you pick and choose from a wide range of services, and not force anything on you that you do not want or need. That flexibility should also cover how you pay for your web hosting; you might find it much more affordable to pay on a monthly plan rather than be tied into a yearly contract. A good managed web host should offer this option.
The third point almost goes without saying, since it’s the whole reason you’re looking for a web host: connection to the Internet. Your web host’s connection should be fast and reliable, and should ideally be backed up with an alternative connection in case the first one fails. You should be able to get information about your prospective web host’s Internet connection on the company’s web site, or if not, ask directly. It’s also a good idea to find out where the web host’s network operations center (NOC) is located. The United States is known for having the fastest and most reliable Internet connections in the world, so having a NOC in the US is a definite plus.
What is Managed Hosting? – Accept No Substitutes
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts here; nothing will substitute for actually doing the research on web hosts and the managed hosting options they offer. There really isn’t an “industry standard” package, price, or service level as far as managed hosting accounts; this makes a certain amount of sense, since many businesses require a custom configuration to fit their needs.
Likewise, there are certain things a really good managed web host will offer that simply can’t be substituted. Perhaps the key word here is “quality.” For example, a good managed host’s hardware will be top of the line, and backed by warranties and on-site service contracts. The software should also be the best in the field, and actively maintained.
The technical resources tell only half the story, though. A good managed web host’s greatest asset is its human resources. Remember, these people will be dealing with your equipment, and the lifeblood of your business (your web presence), much more often than they would be if you held a shared hosting account with the same company. For the technical people, find out whether they are certified, and if so, on what operating systems, applications, and hardware. For sales and customer support personnel, ask how many years of experience they have in the field and specifically in the web hosting industry.
Keep in mind that you’re putting a huge chunk of your business in the hands of this company. You need to be comfortable with the quality of hardware, software, and above all, people, who will be handling this trust. Can they provide you with the high level of efficiency you have every right to expect from them? If you can answer that question affirmatively, you have found the managed web host you need.
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