Topic: Been moving sites from shared hosting to a VPS hosting...

[saratogaWX]

Sorry if I haven't been too responsive lately.. since last week, I've been moving multiple sites from my (somewhat ancient) 1and1 Dual Linux unlimited package on shared hosting to a new 1and1 VPS M (one cpu) system in order to do three things:
1) avoid a cron-no-running issue which had parts of my site and 9 regional networks not working correctly (finally, it was fixed on Monday)
2) avoid the 5-concurrent FTP/SFTP session limits now imposed on 1and1 shared Linux hosting
3) do a general cleanup of lots of dross from running a site for 10 years.

I've managed to port/cleanup 9 regional sites I host and they are all moved to the VPS now:
Canada Atlantic, Canada Western, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Manitoba,
Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic, Mid-South, Plains and Northwest

Whew.. now the big one.. the main saratoga-weather.org site (and to reconfigure all the weather software for uploading to the VPS).

n.b. The last station in Manitoba stopped reporting, so I've temporarily discontinued that network.. If anyone in Manitoba would like to join the network, I'll gladly reactivate it

[Jáchym]

So far so good,  I hope it goes smoothly

[spweather]

Hope it's OK replying to this topic after so long, just came across it.

Ken, I'm curious, after a few months, how you feel about moving to a VPS? I too, am frustrated by the 5 concurrent connections limit and have been considering a VPS.

Also, if you could be more specific about the 1and1 plan you chose and if it is suiting your needs. I looked at 1and1 plans and I didn't see any VPS, everything is Cloud.

Thanks,
Dennis

[saratogaWX]

Not a problem .. I've been on the (now renamed) Virtural Server Cloud L since last year.  It took a bit of getting used to as I'd not done server admin stuff since before retirement in 2004.  But, the Plesk container and admin panels are reasonably easy to navigate and use.  I've set up 9 sites on the one VPS (my main site+8 regional net sites).

The only ongoing issue is what I thought were excessive numbers of 500 errors which I finally toned down by changing a PHP option to use less memory reserve for the opcache in PHP 7.1.

The good news is I'm free of the 5 concurrent FTP connections limit, and can use old-style FTP for weather programs that don't support FTPS or SFTP.  I have full access to the logs (both website and server) and run analysis daily.  I have a lot of 'knockers' on my SSH connection, but fail2ban shuts them off after 3 bad tries.

I don't recommend doing your own host unless you're comfortable about running a linux (CentOS) server yourself -- the tech support line for the VPS/Cloud servers actually connects to techs that know how to fix things (and not just read a support script).
So, for me.. I'm glad I moved to a VPS even if it costs me additional maintenance beyond the customary website maint.

[spweather]

Thanks for the useful information Ken.

I probably don't have the skills, currently, to go the VPS route. But the 1and1 option you pointed to is certainly something to think about in the future.

Dennis

[vreihen]

But the 1and1 option you pointed to is certainly something to think about in the future.

Whatever you do, stay away from 1&1 at all costs!  Maybe their VPS support is different, but their shared hosting plans and support nightmares have been documented on several threads here recently.....

[pfletch101]

Whatever you do, stay away from 1&1 at all costs!  Maybe their VPS support is different, but their shared hosting plans and support nightmares have been documented on several threads here recently.....

Sadly, I have to endorse that view. I had been with 1&1 for my own sites and some Charity sites that I manage for some years, and was initially quite happy with their performance and support, but the latter (particularly) had progressively deteriorated over the last year or so, and I finally gave up in the middle of last year and moved everything to another provider (Midphase.com). So far, I am very happy with the move, and their support is night and day better that 1&1's had become.

[Jáchym]

1and1 USED TO be good,  now the best way towards non functional site