Web Hosting Resource Kit

Web Hosting, Web Hosting Reviews & Virtualization


This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. Thanks.

Archives for April 2008

More Disaster Releases from VMWare

By Leave a Comment

More Disaster Releases from VMWare

In my article about VMWare 3.5 here I already pointed out several problems, but also hoped for improvements. Well, on April 10 VMWare released the Update 1 package for 3.5 and it seems like VMWare is absolutely not learning it. I am kind of tempted to say that if Wall Street Analysts start reading about these problems, that the VMWare stock will definitely be downgraded to "hold" or "sell" as these ongoing problems will drive customers to look at competing products more often.

Take a look at this thread at the VMWare communities.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/138793?tstart=0&start=0

The discussion is 16 pages long and has 157 replies! The discussion is about severe problems installing the upgrade and amateurish VMWare responds to the problems. Look at the dates of the different postings and how long this ordeal was going on before VMWare closed the discussion. Does this make a professional impression to you? Probably not. I am not very impressed with it either and it really makes me re-think if VMWare ESX is the right product for a web hosting environment or any production environment. Sure, as an admin I will have to do testing and research before I apply an upgrade to one of my systems – it’s just part of the job. But again it looks like VMWare is testing its alpha or beta code releases in production and lets its customers find all the problems. Can you risk your production environment this way? I can’t. We’re talking virtualization here. Anything that impacts your virtual environment has a much bigger impact. It’s not one physical server going, it’s 35 VMs sitting on that server that eventually go down with it. You are multiplying the problem by 35.

This is supposed to be a minor upgrade and not a big jump like it was from 3.0.2 to 3.5. This is an upgrade package 1 for 3.5, but apparently there was plenty of "opportunity" to mess up. Very disappointing. I for myself won’t upgrade my existing environment for a while and maybe even look at other companies like VirtualIron or XEN for my next virtualization step. I don’t have to drop what I have and paid for, but additional rollouts might just be on another product. I have also forwarded my concerns to my VMWare rep this morning. We will see what comes out of that.

VMWare ESX Storage VMotion (svmotion)

By Leave a Comment

VMWare ESX Storage VMotion (svmotion)

In a different write-up about VMWare ESX 3.5 I complained about how badly Storage VMotion was implemented. I wanted to come back to that topic though since even though VMWare failed badly providing an easy way to do it, the functionality itself is pretty cool. What is Storage VMotion? Storage VMotion or SVMotion is the feature inside ESX 3.5 that allows you to move a machine (VM) from one storage location to another without interruption of service. If that does not tell you anything, see it like pulling a hard drive out of a server and putting it into another server 3 racks down in your data center and at the same time that is still up and running.

I did not want to put up with the lousy implementation of Storage VMotion and searched around. I found several GUI tools (all unsupported by VMWare) that promised to take the pain out of Storage VMotion. I have tested them all and found some worked great, while others did not. The best and most reliable implementation (in my opinion) comes from Lostcreations.com/viplugins.com. This GUI tool uses the plugin feature of Virtualcenter 2.5 and adds an easy way to migrate the storage from one storage location to another right from the VCC (VirtualCenter Client). Once installed and enabled, you just select a VM, right click on it and select "migrate storage". A new window opens up and allows you to drag and drop the machine and the virtual hard drive(s) onto a new storage location. You can see disk size, free space and a few other helpful things. Once satisfied you commit the change and the Virtual Machine starts moving using Storage VMotion.

How does this benefit you (be it a web host or not)? Let’s assume the phyiscal host server running ESX is ready for retirement. If the VM is sitting on local storage you would have to power down the VM and cold migrate it to a new server, SAN, or attached storage of any kind. This could mean a long downtime for a VM. Now you can move the VM in the middle of the day with no interruption for the customer. The performance will suffer a little bit, but overall the VM will maintain high uptime. Another example: Your leased SAN comes off lease and you need to replace it. Instead of a) incurring downtime and b) spending a fortune on EMC SAN Copy you can now easily move your VMs to the new SAN with no interruption in servive. For a web hosting business trying to maintain a near 100% uptime this is huge.

Conclusion: Storage VMotion is a great feature, but currently badly implemented by VMWare. Some 3rd party developers stepped up to the plate and now this feature is kicking butt. I have moved over 80 VMs already using Storage VMotion with 100% uptime.

Thinkhost Web Hosting Reviewed

By Leave a Comment

Thinkhost Reviewed

I never really paid much attention to ThinkHost until I was made aware of their ‘going green’ initiave. As far as I know Thinkhost is the very first web host completely going green and to offer environmental friendly web hosting. I am a little bit fascinated by this topic and decided to find out more. Here is my review of Thinkhost. ThinkHost offers clients a  great hosting package with a rich feature set – all  built on a solid hardware, software, and network infrastructure. Since I have quite a few domain names to take care of I was impressed by the offer that I can host unlimited domains on one single account. Many of my domains are just parked or websites with less than 10 pages. Being able to host them all in one place would definitely help to reduce my overall cost for web hosting. The next feature I was impressed with are the unlimited email forwarders. I use email forwarders a lot – especially for SPAM prevention. When I have to “surrender” an email address somewhere to register for something I use a unique email address and setup a forwarder for it. The process takes only a minute maybe, but allows me to track SPAM and to stop it instantly – by deleting the forwarder. Great that Think Host offers this feature for sure.

Some of my websites need several MySQL databases and again – Thinkhost is there to help by offering unlimited MySQL Database with their web hosting. The servers come with Apache web server which is a) open source software and b) extremely reliable. No wonder that Thinkhost is able to offer a 100% Uptime Guarantee. Servers running FreeBSD and Apache Web server – that is a cool combination. That takes away the need to even consider the 28 Day Money Back Guarantee.

Thinkhost has a great reputation for awesome support. I could not find out yet myself since I did not needed support so far. By the way – Thinkhost offers a great knowledge base with lots of info. I also have to admit that I am quite experienced with web hosting and I directly felt at home.

What else would one need to know about Thinkhost? Well, they are a green web hosting company. They even plant a tree for you when you sign up and become a customer. Being more conscious about our environment is a good thing. ThinkHost definitely helps by offering green web hosting. Their web hosting is solar and wind powered.

Web Hosting Coupon! Before you sign up with Thinkhost, order your web hosting coupon first. The offer and the value of the coupon might change from time to time, but it can’t hurt to wait just a few minutes before signing up and to order your personal web hosting coupon first. How do you get your coupon for ThinkHost? Easy, follow this link and then use the coupon order form on the left side.  Or (even better) use this exclusive coupon code to get $20.00 off right away: THINKHOST20

Conclusion: Two thumbs up for Thinkhost and their green web hosting. I sure love it. That probably tells you all you need. Visit ThinkHost Now

 

Green Web Hosting Options

By Leave a Comment

Green Web Hosting Options

With gasoline approaching new highs almost every other week going green is an easy trend to spot. We all feel the pinch in our wallet. But rising prices do not stop at the gas station. Electricity and natural gas prices are going up as well – it’s not even funny anymore. I have already looked at solar power for my house as an option and maybe I buy a Hybrid the next time I am in the market for a new vehicle. What is your web host doing to go green? Your response will most likely be “nothing” unless you are hosting with Thinkhost.com. Thinkhost is doing what others have considered as impossible for now – Thinkhost is 100% powered by Wind and Solar. Yes, you heard that right – 100% wind and solar powered.

Now you might think that this must come with an additional price tag for their customers, but you are wrong. Thinkhost is not only considering the environment when it comes to web hosting, but they are also extremely customer friendly when it comes to pricing. Currently they offer their plan II for a low $7.95. This plan includes 100 GB of disk space and 1 TB of bandwidth allowance. You can host unlimited domains of that plan + enjoy hundreds of dollars in free software with your account.

Thinkhost offers a 28 Day Money back guarantee and 100% uptime. Their servers are monitored 24/7 by very experienced staff. And once you join them they will plant a tree for you. They will plant a new tree for each new client they get, too.

Conclusion: If you like to go green, do it with style even when it comes to Web hosting. Thinkhost is a super choice to do web hosting and to do something for the environment, too.

http://www.thinkhost.com

Online Backup Storage Providers

By Leave a Comment

Online Backup Storage Providers

Many people ignore them until it is too late – all their data is lost forever. I am talking about backups. Backups are essential to any business and should be essential to consumers as well. The steady increase of more and more digital data is immense, That new digital camera of yours takes great pictures and even videos. You upload them to your laptop or computer and then you forget about them. The next thing you know that clicking sound coming from your hard drive can’t be good. It gets even worse if you are a business with no backups. That historical accounting data that is eventually needed for the upcoming IRS audit – ouch. Nothing to defend yourself anymore. You get the idea of what I am trying to say here. Backup your data before it is too late.

I am a backup fanatic and rather have too many copies than being one short. I have been working in IT for many years as a professional system administrator. Backups have saved my jobs several times. In some cases I was even the hero that was able to bring data back that was thought of being lost forever. I am applying my professional experience at home as well. Between all my workstations and laptops the data is shared and sitting on a server. From that server I run nightly backups to an external hard drive. Every quarter I rotate that external hard with an identical twin and put it into a safety deposit box at my local bank. At the same time I bring its “twin” home to serve me as my backup drive for the next 3 months. If my house would burn down the maximum I would lose is 3 months of data. Still bad, but by far not as bad as a total loss of everything.

For my online ventures I have to use a different approach. One a dedicated server I run  the hard drives in a RAID1 configuration (redundant hard drives mirrored). If one drive goes down the other one is still running. I am also backing up to a stand-alone 3rd hard drive on the dedicated server. From there I backup my data to SAN attached storage inside the same data center. If the server gets “toasted” my data is safe and I lose a maximum of 24 hours. However, what would happen if the data center burns down? I am covered by using an additional online storage service. All my backup data replicates out offsite to an online storage backup provider in a different geographic region.

All this may sound pretty expensive, but it isn’t really. If you look at providers like Liquidweb or ThePlanet – they offer very affordable dedicated servers + backup solutions (e.g. SAN, or backup services). Depending on how much data you really have to backup you are looking at $10 – $40 per month – maybe a little more. If you are looking for offsite storage providers I highly recommend Mozy or Boxnet. Well established providers in this industry that make it very easy for you to backup business and personal data at any time. The pricing is very low so that you can sign up without breaking the bank.

Visit our review of the different Mozy products – click here.

How much is your data worth? Start backing up now.

IX Web Hosting Review

By Leave a Comment

IX Web Hosting Review

A well established web host? Try IX Web Hosting. IX Web Hosting is an award-winning discount web hosting company that worked hard to become an industry leader. IX Hosting provides individuals and small to medium size businesses with all necessary tools required to easily establish an online presence with a domain name and a matching website. According to IX Web Hosting an estimated 5,000+ new clients make the switch to IX Web Hosting every month – that is over 60,000 new clients per year. Not many web hosts can boost such numbers.

IX Web Hosting supports Linux and Windows Web Hosting so that users can pick that flavor they need to bring their website online. For someone like me that is a huge benefit as I host websites on MS Windows and on Linux. I really prefer this one-stop web hosting option and if I would be in the market for web hosting, IX Web Hosting would be high on my list of possible web hosting providers because of this. Even better – All IX Hosting web hosting plans include applications that provide detailed website statistics including raw log files, free search engine submission services, professional web design software, an online file manager and much more. The list is very long to read and you might want to check out their website as the list of features and options keeps on growing.

IX Web Hosting offers unlimited disk space and dat transfer (bandwidth (some restrictions apply)) and a ton of great add-on features like e-mail accounts and add-on domains to host. Pricing is extremely competitive in my opinion and I think that you would have a hard time finding a web host that offers these kind of features AND support for that price AND actually delivers what you pay for. Many web hosts offer cheap web hosting and tons of features, but lack the “beef” behind those offers. IX Web Hosting seems to be different and that is well appreciated. They also feature a true 24/7 customer support center with toll-free phone support and live web chat support.

If you are an experienced webmaster you might want to know that all IX Hosting plans come with features like CGI-BIN, Perl 5, CGI-scripts, PHP 4, Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia DreamWeaver, Flash, and ShockWave, Real Media, MP3s, Quicktime, streaming audio, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Webalizer and ModLogan statistics, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). Please note that ColdFusion, Microsoft SQL servers and Active Server Pages are available only with their Windows web hosting packages.

This web hosting review of IX Web Hosting is a first of a series of more detailed reviews that will appear soon on the Web Hosting Resource Kit website. From our experience you can choose a web host or you can choose the IX Web Hosting Difference. The latter is one of the best choices available on the Internet today when it comes to web hosting. If you just need a web host and bypass IX – well, good luck – you might need it. IX Web Hosting Website

How to Fix Storage VMotion “ThinProvisioned” Problems

By Leave a Comment

How to Fix Storage VMotion "ThinProvisioned" Problems

If you are using VMware ESX 3.5 Storage VMotion you might have heard about the infamous "ThinProvisioned" bug or maybe even ran into it. The bug has two parts that cause this. One seems to be server side and has been fixed with a patch. After applying the patch to an ESX host you can do storage VMotion from the RemoteCLI, but not from one of the (unsupported) plugins or GUI tools. This is caused by the second part of the problem. The VM VMDK file carries the following entry:
ddb.thinProvisioned = "1"

Remove this entry and save the file again. This can be easily done with WinSCP or any other editor/client type of software. Once that entry is removed, do a normal VMotion. Once that is completed you can use your favorite GUI or plugin for Storage VMotion (svmotion) and the VMs should move with no further issues.

I personally have tried several of the plugins, but found this Storage VMotion Plugin the best. Once installed you can just right-click on a VM and initate the storage vmotion from there (drag and drop). Now you just wonder why VMware was not able to program this into the existing release code (3.5)?!

Warning: This trick as well as the current breed of free GUIs or plugins are not supported by VMWare. Do it at your own risk and preferrably test this in a non-production environment.