Hosting a website

[The Developer]

Could you please briefly run me through the steps required to get our website hosted on a flexiscale server, namely:


Are common packages, such as Apache 2, PHP5, MySQL5, perl, python etc included as standard? Or do I need to install these myself?
Is there a control panel to easily manage domains, web services, server processes, create databases, etc (for example a control panel like Parallel's Plesk (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/))
What about FTP services, SSH, email and other common services. Are these also included?


Additionally, in regard to my other post, if we register for a server running CentOS 4 and you introduce CentOS 5 in March is there a way we can upgrade to CentOS 5?

Many thanks for your help.

[tonylucas]

There is two options for what you are wanting to do, unmanaged FlexiScale servers, or the new managed platform we will be bringing out shortly. I'll explain both here.

Could you please briefly run me through the steps required to get our website hosted on a flexiscale server, namely:


Are common packages, such as Apache 2, PHP5, MySQL5, perl, python etc included as standard? Or do I need to install these myself?




(Unmanaged) The base CentOS image we offer has very few services installed, to allow customers to add their own, adding these is fairly trivial through 'yum' (the package management tool).

(Managed) These will all be installed as standard, depending on the setup you have, you may or may not be able to install other pieces of software yourself.




Is there a control panel to easily manage domains, web services, server processes, create databases, etc (for example a control panel like Parallel's Plesk (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/))




(Unmanaged) There is just the SSH command line, we are planning on offering a lightweight web based app when we roll out some updates in a few months time however. There is nothing to stop you running Plesk on the server however we can't offer any help whatsoever in doing so.

(Managed) We have a full web based control panel, including an API, which we hope to release in the next month or so, this is the same one we use for our traditional hosting services, so is a tried and tested product.




What about FTP services, SSH, email and other common services. Are these also included?




These are all included on the managed platform, it's up to you to configure and set them up if you have an unmanaged server. FlexiScale looks and acts just like a normal server, so this is a very easy process.




Additionally, in regard to my other post, if we register for a server running CentOS 4 and you introduce CentOS 5 in March is there a way we can upgrade to CentOS 5?

Many thanks for your help.

CentOS 4 to 5 is not a trivial upgrade, but thats where FlexiScale comes into it's own.

Rather than having to try and do a tricky upgrade on a live system, you will be able to clone the running server, and upgrade it, or create a new CentOS 5 image and move your data to it, then shut the old server down. You can even move it's IP address when your done!

(NB This functionality won't be available until some maintenance work is complete in early March, but it's the same work that will allow us to offer CentOS 5).


Hope this helps.

Regards,

Tony

[The Developer]

Excellent, thanks for the information.

We are looking at FlexiScale seriously to host our site, and would like to switch pretty soon. I suppose it is easy to change from an unmanaged to a managed version of the server when you release them, just by creating a new image and moving the data over?

[tonylucas]

That should work absolutely fine, there may be some differences (e.g. directory structure etc) but we would be happy to advise you when that time comes.

Regards,

Tony.