TechCogs

Here are the default registry settings for the instructions mention in the MS KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906510.

Andrew Hosting Server Admin, Servers, Solution, Troubleshooting, Windows 2003 R2, Windows Server

So, I had a server that ran out of disk space on the OS partition.  Easy to fix, but when I rebooted the server, the screen was black except for the box that has the Windows logo.  I was still able to login, but I had to guess at field I was on when typing. Well, it seems this is a strange by-product of not being able to save your profile when logging off.

There is a somewhat simple solution, but it requires a working server.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906510

Andrew Hosting Microsoft, Servers, Windows 2003 R2

Notes on setting up apache for multiple web sites:

In the /etc/apache2 directory you have two directories:
- sites-available
- sites-enabled

The sites-available directory contains configuration files for each website.
The sites-available contains links to the configuration file in the sites-available directory.  It does not contain the file itself.

The mistake that is made at times is that *all* configs are placed in one file – default.

So, for a domain name like domain.com you would create a file called domain.com in the sites-available directory with the following:

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/domain
ServerName www.domain.com
Server Alias domain.com
</VirtualHost>

you would do:  /ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.com /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/domain.com

OR

a2ensite domain.com (from within the sites-available) directory.

finally:  /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

So, in a nutshell — create a file per domain name — use ServerAlias to cover www.domain.com and domain.com.

Andrew Hosting Apache, LAMP, Linux, Open Source, Server Admin, Ubuntu, WordPress

Instructions for Installing WordPress
——————————————————————————————————

# Setup Sources (some VPS vendors block sources)
vi /etc/apt/sources.list

(remove all # in front of all sources)
To save in vi: :qw
To exit without saving: :q!

# Do updates, upgrades, and install essentials
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

# Install a friendly editor if you are not familiar with VI
apt-get install jed

# Now for some security (iptables will probably be installed, running command doesn’t hurt and verifies that it is)
# The config below allows for FTP, SMTP, POP, IMAP, HTTP, HTTPS and SSH
# Adjust according to your needs
apt-get install iptables
iptables -F
iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p icmp –icmp-type any -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 22 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 25 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 80 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 110 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 143 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 443 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 993 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 995 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 10000 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -j REJECT –reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
iptables -A FORWARD -j REJECT –reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

iptables-save > /etc/network/iptables
printf ‘#!/bin/sh\niptables-restore < /etc/network/iptables\n’ > /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/iptables
chmod 754 /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/iptables

# Deny Hosts is a nifty little program that tracks people who try to brute force your root account
apt-get install denyhosts

#Location of config files:
#config: /etc/denyhosts.conf
#datafile: /etc/hosts.deny

# This installs the lamp stack
tasksel install lamp-server

# And now for Wordpress
cd ~/
mkdir downloads
cd downloads
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
mkdir /var/www/wordpress
cd /var/www/
chown -R www-data:www-data wordpress
chmod -R -v 755 wordpress
tar -zxvf ~/downloads/latest.tar.gz –directory=/var/www
cd /var/www
mv wordpress myblog
cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/default.org
jed /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

#add the following section to the top
#-START——————————————
NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/myblog
ServerName www.myblog.com
</VirtualHost>
#-END——————————————–
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

#Setup a database for WordPress
#Change command below according to your needs
mysqladmin -u root -p create wordpress-myblog
mysql -u root -p
CREATE USER ‘wp-myblog’@'localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘NiftyPasswordGoesHere’;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO ‘wp-myblog’@'localhost’ WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
USE wordpress-myblog;

#Finally point your domain DNS records to your IP address and complete setup.

Andrew Hosting, How-to Apache, Blog, LAMP, mysql, Open Source, Server Admin, VPS, WordPress

I’ve just been alerted that there is an Internet outage for customers in Nashville and Atlanta.  I’m not sure of the scope at this time.  More details to come later.

It seems a second outage occurred around 4:30 PM.

Still no update in the news as to the cause.

Andrew Hosting Internet, Outage

<2005>

“Web 2.0, it is the architecture that will solve our problem!” Pat announced.

“We have to be leaders in technology to stay ahead of our competition,” Rick added.

“They’re right!  We have to live on the cutting edge of technology, ” Lee complemented.

“What is Web 2.0?” I asked.

Crickets chirped.

</2005>

Obscureonosis: a condition where someone employs a concept that cannot be well defined in order to hide his/her ignorance and/or lack of ability.

---

Is cloud computing the solution to tomorrow’s IT problems?  If you listen to Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, you’ll hear an earful that cloud computing isn’t the magic bullet of the future.  Yet, the headlines continue to roll off magazine articles and blogs that cloud computing is the future – the next step of enterprise computing.

Suddenly, experts descend from the clouds.  Products emerge and solutions abound.  But is there substance to this vapory talk?  Or is it just another case of obscureonosis.

We will start by looking at the difference between VPS (virtual private server), cloud hosting and cloud computing – we will even touch on cloud storage.  After all, cloud hosting and cloud computing are implementations of the cloud technology.

VPS technology is basically subscription based server virtualization.   You either pay a flat fee for a limited amount of resources or a fee per resources (CPU, memory, network, storage) per hour.  Administration is done through the vendor’s web site, but once the server is up and running – it’s all up to you.

Cloud Hosting technology is basically subscription based server virtualization.   You either pay a flat fee for a limited amount of resources or a fee per resources (CPU, memory, network, storage) per hour.  Administration is done through the vendor’s web site, but once the server is up and running – it’s all up to you.

No, that wasn’t a cut and paste error.  VPS and Cloud Hosting are the same thing!  Basically, you end up managing the OS on up.  Everything below the OS is managed by the vendor.

VPS (Cloud Hosting) is what I use to host this blog and my Ruby on Rails projects.

What is happening here is a form of infrastructure-encapsulation and abstraction.  Perhaps it might be easier to think of it as “hardware-as-a-service”.  The details of the hardware, network and storage are hidden.  Your fee covers the management of these items.  Additionally, specific attributes are exposed to provide you insight to performance and cost (typically utilization statistics).

There are a few vendors that provide “cloud” web hosting.  Which is basically the same thing as regular web hosting.  These vendors are using the word “cloud” to mean infrastructure-encapsulation and abstraction.  So, if you’ve used any form of web hosting, you’ve been using cloud  technologies.  (Go ahead, put it on your resume, but don’t blame me if you get grilled in the interview.)

Cloud computing is something different – before we look at that, let’s take a look at grid computing.  Grid computing (at a high level) is when transactions are processed between multiple computers.  It’s basically distributed programming.  In the same way, cloud computing is when transactions are processed between multiple “systems” (again, at a very high level).

For example, if you had a web page that sold paper clips, you might connect your site to Amazon and Paypal.  Using these services over the Internet is a basic form of cloud computing.

Which brings me to my final point:  the cloud is the network.

Andrew Hosting Cloud Computing, Cloud Hosting, Hardware, hardware-as-a-service, infrastructure abstraction, infrastructure encapsulation, Ruby on Rails, Servers, Virtual Private Server, Virtualization, VPS

Well, I finally did it!  I moved my WordPress site from a hosting service (Godaddy, if you must know) to my own VPS (hosted by Linode).

Here is the process I followed:

1. Used FTP to make a copy of all the files to my local hard drive.

2. Created an export file from WordPress.

3. Setup WordPress on the VPS (more details on that later).

4. Imported the backup.

5. Restored directories in the wp-content folder (uploads, themes, plugins).

6. Setup my user account backup.

Done.

I also move my email over to my VPS.  This gives me plenty of ideas for future content.

Andrew Hosting