Results matching “lunarpages” from Ye Olde Rad Blog III

Updated the VPS guide, which is now 20 pages .. tho the last two are incomplete. I can probably finish it in 25 pages. (No hurry.)

Installed Ruby on Rails today, on my laptop, where it seems to be working fine. Also installed RoR on the Rad VPS, but it seems to be having trouble there. (Problems identified.)

Ruby is a programming (scripting) language (not unlike PHP), known to have elegant syntax. Some even call it artistic.

Rails is a Web Application Framework (not unlike the Zend Framework for PHP) which is built with (and based on) the Ruby scripting language.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! ("5th of May") It's like our 4th of July, for Mexicans .. tho not technically their Independence day (as many presume). Rather it's when Mexico defeated the French (under Napoleon) in 1862 (during our Civil war) ..

.. some 41 years after Mexico's war of independence. Four thousand Mexican soldiers defeated twice as many French at the Battle of Puebla.

CdM is a big deal here in Southern California, and probably any place with a sizable Mexican population. Like St. Patrick's day, you don't have to be Mexican to celebrate. Good excuse to eat tacos and drink Mexican beer. Olé!

Been busy working on the new » Guide to Virtual Private Servers. Now I remember why I don't write more guides: they're lots of work.

I transferred 2 months worth of daily entries (Dec 2007 + Jan 2008) to individual blog entries, using (older) Movable Type v3.35, since that was the version I was using when those entries were made.

It's much easier to reference (via linkage) a particular event .. such as the upgrade to YaBB v2.2 (which did not go well) .. or the Bug's 3rd birthday (which did) .. when I have a daily entry to link to (instead of monthly).

Back in December & January is when I was researching VPS servers, and didn't have time to convert the daily entries to blog entries...

.. after Lunarpages (you might recall) booted us off the server (end of November), and I was worried they were gonna turn off the lights and pull our plug.

But now we're all caught up. (Took me all day, tho. Tedious maximus.) Only the last 2 days don't have blog entries.

Blog entries are also better for search engines, since each page can indexed individually (with its own title).

Today I paid for our second month of hosting at our new web host .. WiredTree (using half the refund I received from cancelling my annual subscription with Lunarpages).

During our first month of service, I've been closely monitoring resource usage .. at our new VPS server. So I have a good idea where we stand.

Everything in the world of Virtual Privates Servers, I learned, boils down to memory usage (RAM). Our hosting plan dedicates 384-MB to the site. (256-MB standard plan, plus a 128-MB upgrade).

If we exceed 384-MB, we would have to purcha$e more memory .. at a rate of $7.50/month per additional 64-MB RAM.

Here's what I found » the highest amount of RAM we've used thus far is 366-MB (see here), which equals 95% of our allowable limit. Kinda close, but this was only a short-term transient (1 hour).

Our highest *sustained* memory use is ~325-MB (lasting a few days), so that number might be more meaningful (85% max). Our average memory use tends to be in the range of 270-to-290 MB (75%)...

.. which is actually pretty comfortable. And it's not uncommon, following a reboot, for our usage to drop down to the 220-240 area, tho these low numbers tend to creep up over time (as Apache caches more pages).

The Lunarpages chapter in Radified's webhosting history officially came to a close yesterday .. when I cancelled the account. See here » Lunarpages Account Cancelled

If the site continues to grow and develop, our next move might be to a Hybrid Dedicated Server (which sounds pretty cool).

If I had cancelled after today, I would've lost $95 (my annual renewal fee) .. which will pay for two months of service at our new VPS (with WiredTree).

This last-hurrah with Lunarpages began back in November, when we were booted off the Production server .. for using "excessive resources." Closure always feels good. "Adios, Lunarpages. It was fun while it lasted."

While laying in the sauna last night (where I had a great sweat going), I was thinking how pleased I am with the way things turned out .. with our move to the new VPS server (upgrade). The site is more enjoyable to use, now that's much zippier. Both the blog and the forum are way faster.

And I like how the world of VPS contains such cool language. Consider, for example, the phrase, "Rad on VPS ala Xen." Sounds Ferrari-like, doesn't it?

Laying there (in the steam), I was thinking how many people have worked very hard to make all this cool software (such as MTOS) available .. that I get to play with!

The last few months have been hectic, trying to lower our usage of server resources. I upgraded both the forum & blog scripts. And when that wasn't enough, I had no choice but to move the site. Lunarpages kept threatening to cancel my account, so I had to do something.

Feel like I can finally relax. The move is complete. The site is stable. Nobody is threatening to turn off the lights. Plus these WiredTree support techs are great.

Biggest problem I had moving the site (to our new VPS server) .. was the blog not working.

Readers could still view pages/entries, but the blog-interface (which allows me to create new entries) would not load.

Instead of launching the interface, the master script-file (mt.cgi) prompted a *download*. ("Would you like to download, open or cancel?")

That suk'ed .. cuz I make much use of the blog .. to help keep the home-page lean-n-mean.

(Tho I create these entries in Dreamweaver, cuz it's a far superior tool to what you find in the MT interface, far as web page creation goes. Then I copy-n-paste into MT. That's why the blog entries always come after you see/read it on the home page.)

Normally I have a plenty of tools in my Troubleshooting bag-of-tricks, but this problem left me scratching my head.

I'd never seen this type of behavior. And neither had anyone at the Movable Type forums. (I use the new Open Source version of Movable Type » v4.1.)

Not being able to use the blog was a major bummer. Fortunately, I found an article that offered a solution .. even tho it appeared to address a different problem.

First thing I did after moving the site to a new server is .. find out if the move was really necessary.

You'll recall that Lunarpages support told me the site used too many resources to qualify for their VPS plan, and that I needed a dedicate server (something I found hard to believe).

So now that we are here, I've been pinging the sppt techs at WiredTree, asking them exactly what resources we're using.

You can find all the gory details here » Resource Usage at New VPS Server .. but they basically said our CPU usage is "minimal."

Surprisingly however, they also said our allotment of memory would've already been exceeded .. had it not been for the free 128-MB RAM upgrade ( .. for which I found a coupon).

WiredTree offers two VPS plans. One comes with 256-MB ($49/mo), the other 512-MB ($89/mo). So it seems we already exceed the 256 .. currently using 270-MB, and the specs of our current plan (with 384-MB dedicated memory) are half-way between the 256 and 512-MB VPS plans.

WT offers incremental memory upgrades at a rate of $7.50/mo per 64-MB. So it seems my (free) 128-MB upgrade is worth $15/mo. Plus the coupon also provides a 10% discount .. equal to $5/mo. So the coupon is worth $20/mo (total) .. without which we'd be paying $65/mo.

Welcome to Chicago! .. "the Windy city." If you can read these words, you are resolving to the NEW server.

My registrar says it's normal for locations to go back and forth between old and new servers for the first 48 hours.

This is Radified's first venture into the world of VPS hosting. We've always used Shared hosting before (way cheaper). VPS is definitely a step up in the web world.

I changed DNS pointers at 2:30 PM (Tuesday afternoon). My registrar is located down in San Diego, so I think the closer you are to San Diego, the faster you'll resolve to the new server. (Not sure if that's how it works, tho.)

The site was backed-up (at OLD server) at 8AM (Tuesday). So any posts made between then and now are lost.

I feel good about the move, having done considerable research, and getting everything I wanted.

Moving the site today .. to our new server (physically-located downtown Chicago). You can read some of the details in this thread here » Heads up - Preparing to move the site

This is the final entry I will make at the old server. It will take a day or so for the new DNS to resolve. When I'm set up at the new server, I'll add a note to this page indicating so.

This is currently the *NEW* server. It's 7:30 AM Pacific time right now. By tonight, hopefully, we should be done moving.

I'm on the steeper slopes of the learning curve, so it may take longer than expected. They sent me lots of "New account" PDFs to read ("Getting Started"). I stayed up 'til midnight, last night. Then my eyeballs started falling out, and I passed out (with the laptop still on my lap).

Been reading so much about VPS servers that my dang eyeball fell out. Hate it when that happens.

Been learning new words like Xen and OpenVZ. I could totally write a Rad guide to VPS.

For example, here's a great post about how to move the site from Shared server (where we are now) to VPS.

First thing that needs to be answered is » Managed or unManaged? For noobies like me, with no Linux admin experience, they recommend a Managed VPS.

All things being equal (disk space, memory, bandwidth, etc) a Managed VPS cost about double what you pay for unManaged.

For example, the unManaged Link-3 plan at VPSlink that comes with 10-GB disk space + 256-MB RAM costs $25/month. The same plan (10 + 256) from Spry is fully managed. It costs $50/month. ($45 if you pay for 3 months.) Both are located in Seattle, part of the same company, and probably the most popular VPS host.

Happy belated Valentines day. That's when I called our web host (Lunarpages) to ask about upgrading the site to one of their VPS servers.

They informed me however, Radified uses too many server resources to qualify for their VPS plan, and that I need to upgrade to one of their Dedicated servers instead.

Much as my ego would like to believe we really need a dedicated server, I just don't buy it. So I've been beating the bushes, trying to find a new host.

At the top of my list is ServInt. They're based out of the northern-Virginia/DC area. Altho I'd prefer a server located here on the West coast, I have many fond memories of my weekend visits to DC, back when I lived in Pennsylvania. (Anybody been to Clyde's for brunch in Georgetown?)