A complete guide to Magento Optimization on a cPanel VPS. The step by step instructions to do this yourself are below.

We also offer this service for $20 to our VPS clients, you can order here: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/clients/cart.php?a=add&pid=68&carttpl=cart

Also note that steps 1-3 can speed up any cPanel hosted CMS (Joomla, Wordpress, Prestashop etc.), while the rest of the steps are specific to Magento.

1. Install Zend OPCache - Note this is unnecessary on recently provisioned servers as we now have this as part of the cPanel template
It's important to run one of the best caching modules available, and OPCache (formally APC) is one of the best. The instructions to do this are located in a separate knowledgebase article, click here. 

2. Install EnginTron
EnginTron provides some minor speed increases. The instructions to do this are located in a separate knowledgebase article, click here. 

3. MySQL Tweaks

• SSH to your VPS
• Type: nano /etc/my.cnf
• Add any of the following lines that are missing or adjust their values:

[mysqld]
innodb_file_per_table=1
open_files_limit=10240
max_allowed_packet=256M
key_buffer_size = 512M
sort_buffer_size = 4m
read_buffer_size = 4m
read_rnd_buffer_size = 2m
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 64m
tmp_table_size = 128m
query_cache_size =0
query_cache_type = 0
thread_cache_size = 8
max_connections = 400
wait_timeout = 300

• To save press CTRL O
• To exit press CTRL X
• Type: service mysql restart 

4. Turned GZIP on in your .htaccess

• SSH to your VPS
• Go to your home directory e.g. cd /home/username/www
• Type: nano .htaccess
• This should open a file which is already full of information. You need to locate the lines below and make that section match what is below (UNCOMMENT lines by removing the # infront of them)

############################################
## enable resulting html compression

php_flag zlib.output_compression on 
Now the section for “mod_deflate.c” from your .htaccess file and uncomment the settings as follows:

Code: 

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>

############################################
## enable apache served files compression
## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#gzip

# Insert filter on all content
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
# Insert filter on selected content types only
#AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css text/javascript

# Netscape 4.x has some problems...
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html

# Netscape 4.06-4.08 have some more problems
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip

# MSIE masquerades as Netscape, but it is fine
BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html

# Don't compress images
SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary

# Make sure proxies don't deliver the wrong content
Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary  

</IfModule>

• Once you are finished editing to save press: CTRL O
• To quit press: CTRL X

5. Turned on Cache Management in Magento

• Login to Magento Admin
• Go to System -> Cache Management
• Click 'Select All'
• Then next to the word 'Actions' on the drop down box choose 'Enable'
• Click 'Submit'

6. Turned on External Full Page Caching

• Login to Magento Admin
• Go to System -> Configuration
• Scroll down on the left hand side click on Advanced -> System
• Expand the section "External Full Page Cache Settings"
• Select "Yes" to enable external cache
• Leave the cookie lifetime at 3600 seconds
• Set the External Cache Control to 'Zend Full Page Cache'
• Click 'Save Config' on the top right of the screen

Follow this advice to move your website to VPSBlocks without downtime:

• Firstly, sign up with us. Make sure you do NOT cancel your old hosting provider, and do not tell them you will be cancelling just yet.
• Setup the new VPS hosting environment, if you use cPanel see: http://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/46/0/getting-started-with-cpanel-and-whm
• Copy across all your files to the new VPS
• Backup and copy across your database to the new VPS
• Setup your VPS webserver (if using cPanel this can be done easily see http://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/3/0/migrating-a-cpanel-website-to-a-new-cpanel-server)
• Setup your mail server and mailboxes (if using cPanel this is very easy, if you are not using cPanel you can use Webmin or install Mail Enable on a Windows VPS - see http://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/56/0/installing-mailenable-mail-server-on-windows)
• Test your site. The best way to do this is to temporarily modify your hosts file to make your own computer believe that your site is hosted on your new VPS. See: http://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/57/0/how-to-edit-my-hosts-file
• If your site is database driven you have two options to ensure you don't lose data (you may want to do one last backup of the database from the old host and restore it on your VPSBlocks VPS to ensure data is completely up to date):
  • Modify your database connection in your old hosting and point it to the IP Address of your new VPS (recommended)
  • Add a temporary redirect to your site IP address when people visit your old site, so when users access your site on the old server they are automatically transferred to the new server
• Now that your site is working on both servers and using the database on the new server it's time to change your DNS
• If you are using our DNS servers:
  • Login to your domain registrar and set the name servers associated with your domain to our name servers (ns1.controlmyvps.com.au and ns2.controlmyvps.com.au)
  • Check the 'Manage DNS' section in 'My Account' on our website and ensure all necessary DNS records have been created (if you have subdomains other than www.yourdomain.com.au and mail.yourdomain.com.au etc.)
• If you are using your own name servers in cPanel:
  • Login to your domain registrar and set the name servers associated with your domain to your name servers (ns1.controlmyvps.com.au and ns2.controlmyvps.com.au)
  • Check in cPanel and ensure you have created all necessary DNS records (e.g. www.yourdomain.com.au, mail.yourdomain.com.au, webmail.yourdomain.com.au, subdomain.yourdomain.com.au)
• Now once the DNS change has been made you will need to wait. It usually takes about 48 hours for DNS changes to propogate completely. Once this time has passed and you have checked that your domain does resolve to the new VPS IP address you are ready to cancel with your old host (ensure when testing where your domain resolves that you have removed any changes to the hosts file).

Congraulations! You've now completed a downtime free migration with no impact on your customers. Better still you can expect a 99.99% uptime on your VPS with VPSBlocks!!

1. If it's a cPanel server check to ensure it's not reachable through a different internet connection (such as 3g/4g on your mobile phone). If it is it means you have simply blocked yourself in the firewall (most likely by trying to login accidentally using incorrect credentials). To rectify this see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/73/0/locked-out-of-cpanel-vps

2. If you serve websites check to see if they are reachable from elsewhere, a good website to do that is: http://isup.me 

3. If you are in China, most likely the China traffic block is active. This blocks all incoming requests from China and is on by default. To turn off this block see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/188/0/disable-china-block

4. Check the console to see what your VPS is actually doing. Even if your VPS is offline or unreachable you should be able to view the console to see what has actually happened. This is available in our portal system, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/28/0/how-can-i-get-console-access-to-my-vps

5. If you've accessed the console and the VPS is not responding or still not functioning properly, you can easily power off and back on your VPS. This should bring your VPS back online right away, you after powering it back on you can also view the console to watch it booting. See: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/34/0/how-do-i-stop--start--restart-my-vps

6. If your VPS is still not online after a reboot please open a ticket with support.

Why did it go down?

If your VPS was unresponsive and required a reboot, generally the reason is a lack of available memory or very heavy server load.

Linux

Linux VPSs can behave normally but once they are under stress if your usable RAM runs out the operating system will attempt to kill various services, if it runs out very quickly it may hang completely.

1. Firstly make sure you have a file based swap partition, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/131/0/creating-a-file-based-swap-partition

2. Add some more physical RAM to your machine, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/86/0/how-to-upgrade-your-memory--ram

3. Setup a monitor so that if it reoccurs your VPS can be automatically restarted upon detection of failures (we recommend at least 3 failures before you set it to restart however). See: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/244/0/setup-a-vps-monitor

4. Add CPU cores, if your server comes under heavy load at times adding CPU cores can help, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/87/0/how-to-upgrade-your-processor--cpu-cores

5. If cPanel limit your apache configuration in WHM -> Service Configuration -> Apache Configuration. Lower your server limit, max clients, max requests per child and possible timeout values. This should help reduce the amount of RAM apache processes would use if the server comes under heavy load.

6. Change your PHP configuration from suPHP to DSO or CGI. suPHP is a little more secure, however, it uses more RAM than both DSO and CGI and also affects performance.

Windows

Windows VPSs rarely go offline. They can become unresponsive however if you have used all your RAM, this is particularly the case for servers with only 1GB of RAM.

1. Add more RAM, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/86/0/how-to-upgrade-your-memory--ram

2. Monitor your RAM usage in the task manager, when you are logged in open the task manager. Anything more than 80% usage and you will very quickly run into memory issues.

3. If you are using the Windows machine to browse the internet, make sure you have all other applications closed, this includes server management which loads automatically upon login.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

How to change your operating system

If you wish to change your operating system to another one under the same category (e.g. Linux or Windows), you can do so by following the below instructions:

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines' on the left hand side.

3. Click on 'Manage' next to the server in question.

4. Click on the 'Modify' tab and then choose Upgrade/downgrade options

3. Select your new operating system and 'Click to Continue' and follow the prompts. 

4. Once this is done you will need to reprovision your VPS. This will permanently delete your entire current VPS (including SATA storage if you have it) and issue you a new VPS on the new operating system.

6. Click on the 'Overview' tab

8. Click on 'Reinstall VPS Image' in the Actions window.

This will generally take about 30 minutes to reprovision your VPS.

VPS vs Shared Hosting

A VPS (Virtual Private Server or Virtual Dedicated Server) gives you a big advantage over shared hosting. You can configure it exactly the way you want to ensure optimal performance. Most importantly you are not affected by noisy neighbors (other busy sites on the same server). A VPS however, only provides benefit gains if you have enough resources to run your site and in the case of cPanel, the cPanel services (mail, DNS, web/apache, spam filtering etc.) effectively.

Once you have a VPS you need to ensure that you get the performance gains available by configuring the elements below. It's important to realise that the server configuration itself will generally only account for about 20% of speed gains, site development will account for about 80% of increased performance. As a result we will look at site performance first.

Site Performance

We are going to look specifically at Wordpress websites, the theories are the same for Joomla, Magento and other CMS based sites. Most CMSs perform quite reasonably out-of-the-box, however, once themes are changed and plugins added they can quickly become an unwieldy beast that is slow to load. Unfortunately many developers focus on the attractiveness of your site, and overlook the performance losses by adding many plugins to ease their development burden. It's important when developing to be aware of site speeds at all times.

Plugins

The first thing we recommend is that you grab a plugin performance profiler. Use this to determine which plugins are slowing your site down. Remove or disable any you absolutely don't need, or replace them with more efficient plugins that do a similar job. 

* Wordpress UsageDD: https://wordpress.org/plugins/usagedd/

* Joomla: https://www.daycounts.com/how-to/how-to-pinpoint-joomla-performance-issues 

* Magento Profiler: https://www.atwix.com/magento/finding-bottlenecks/

If running Wordpress a Caching Plugin such as W3 Total Cache may speed up your site considerably.

Themes

Like Plugins third-party themes can affect your site greatly. The best way to see if your theme is the issue is to set your theme back to the default theme (yes it will no doubt break your site and make it look terrible), then check the load times. If the load times are improved then the theme itself is contributing to the site slowness. Put back your regular theme, recheck, and if the result is the same then contact your developer, or considering changing themes. Often third-party purchased themes are not well written and will be slow.

External Content

If your plugins or theme is loading content from an external location, you may find that your server waits until it's got that data before displaying any content, this relies then on an external service, and often overseas. This will substantially slow down your site and should be avoided at all costs.

Site Tuning

Enable mod_default compression in cPanel, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/339/0/enabling-mod_deflate--gzip-compression

Small things can make a big difference with the configuration you set in your .htaccess file. Things to check:

Gzip compression is enabled:

php_flag zlib.output_compression "1"

Your PHP memory limit is high enough:

php_value memory_limit 512M

Server Configuration

Once you have your site optimized, you can look at server modifications that will improve performance. The below is specific for cPanel based servers.

• Make sure you are running PHP in DSO mode or PHP-FPM. This is vitally important, if you run in suPHP or CGI your site will be very slow. All servers we provision are setup in DSO mode by default. PHP-FPM is enabled through the MultiPHP Manager in WHM.
• Ensure that your resources are not consumed. If your server is using memory from a swap/paging file, then it will be much slower. This essentially means you ran out of physical RAM and it's now using disk as RAM. RAM is about 100x faster than even NVME performance. To check if your server is using swap file you need to login to WHM and go to Server Status -> Server Information. Look for the section entitled 'Current Memory Usage'. If the 'Swap' line has a 'used' amount then you have crept into your swap file usage. This is not a big problem if it's only a small number of bytes and you still have regular 'free' memory in the 'Mem' line.
• Check you have enough CPU cores. Unfortunately it's not possible to check the true current CPU usage in WHM, so you will need to login to your server via SSH. Once there type the command: top
  Once top has opened press the '1' key. This will show you your CPU cores and the percent used of each core. If you are utilising them all heavily (e.g. close to 100%) then you should consider adding more cores. If you only have 1 core and it's close to 100% all the time, then adding more CPU cores will definitely help your server and thus your site performance.
• Installing Nginx. Although Nginx is not officially supported by cPanel, there is a plugin for it available at: https://engintron.com/ 
  We also have an article on how to install it here: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/172/0/installing-nginx-on-cpanel-servers
  Nginx is a proxy that sits in front of Apache and answers all non-https website requests. When it receives a request it checks it's cache and only contacts Apache for the proper page if it doesn't have a recently cached copy. This alleviates load on Apache and MySQL. As this is not supported officially by cPanel however it is possible that some configuration issues occur when cPanel auto-updates itself, although in our experience this is rare.

I hope this article has helped to give you an insight into what you can do to speed up your website performance.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

How to upgrade or downgrade your memory / RAM

If you have an existing VPS and would like to upgrade resources, you can do so by following these instructions:

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines'

3. Click on 'Manage' next to the machine you wish to modify.

4. Click on the 'Modify' tab

5. Click on 'Upgrade/Downgrade Options'

6. Here you can add extra RAM, CPU Cores, Bandwidth and Disk Space. You can also select a different operating system, however, for the new operating system to take affect you must reprovision your VPS (see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/85/0/how-to-reprovision--reinstall--setup-your-vps-again )

7. On the following screen you can also select to schedule the upgrade (Choose 'Now' to have it occur immediately).

Note that when you upgrade CPU, RAM or Disk Space upon receiving payment your server will automatically be shutdown, the resources modified and restarted at the time you scheduled.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

How to upgrade your processor / CPU cores

If you have an existing VPS and would like to upgrade resources, you can do so by following these instructions:

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines'

3. Click on 'Manage' next to the machine you wish to modify.

4. Click on the 'Modify' tab

5. Click on 'Upgrade/Downgrade Options'

5. Here you can add extra RAM, CPU Cores, Bandwidth and Disk Space. You can also select a different operating system, however, for the new operating system to take affect you must reprovision your VPS (see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/85/0/how-to-reprovision--reinstall--setup-your-vps-again )

cPanel is great as a complete hosting package. But if you don't need features like a web based file manager, VestaCP is a free control panel that offers speeds far surpassing that provided by cPanel. It's fantastic for hosting CMS based websites such as Magento, Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal etc.

Check out our sample Magento website running on a basic 1 CPU Core, 512MB Ram Linux Ubuntu 14 server at http://203.143.83.193/

Note: If you are not confident in following these instructions we offer this installation as an optional service to our customers during the ordering process. We recommend you choose Ubuntu 14 as your operating system, and during the order process will be asked if you would like the Vesta Initial Setup, the cost is only $20.

INSTALLING VESTA CONTROL PANEL

Start with a VPS, for Vesta we recommend Ubuntu 16 or Ubuntu 14

SSH into your new VPS

Type: curl -O http://vestacp.com/pub/vst-install.sh

Type: bash vst-install.sh

Important note: If asked for a hostname you must put the name you gave your server e.g. vps.yourdomain.com. If you do not put the same name services will not be able to resolve the hostname to your local VPS and it will cause issues with NGinx and some other services.

To start the installation press: y

Enter your email address

The installation will complete and at the end display your login credentials

Now run: update-rc.d mysql disable
*Note: This is an Ubuntu 14 oddity, as otherwise two mysql processes will be started upon startup. 

Disable AppArmor for Bind9 (named) so DNS serving will function properly

AppArmor by default prevents Bind9 from reading it's own database files under /home/<user>/ location. So you need to run these commands:

ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.named /etc/apparmor.d/disable/

apparmor_parser -R /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.named

service bind9 restart

Visit https://YOURIP:8083 in your browser

Login using the credentials supplied to you

AUTO UPDATES

We recommend turning on autoupdate

On the top bar, click on 'Updates' and click on [ enable autoupdate ]

USERS

By default the 'Admin' user exists. You can create another user in the 'USER' section. Ensure any passwords you enter are very secure, particularly if you enable SSH access for any users you create. For each user you create, as well as the admin user you can also set default name servers. If you are using your own name servers enter them by editing the user, if you are using our provided name servers, enter them (ns1.controlmyvps.com.au / ns2.controlmyvps.com.au)

CREATING A WEBSITE

Click on 'WEB'

Click on 'edit' next to the default domain

Here you should set the default settings for the webserver. For best performance we recommend you turn on Nginx Support and set the Nginx Template to default then click 'Save'

Note: Leave the Apache Template as default. If you want to set it to php-fcgi for extra performance you must have more than 1G of RAM, but you need to modify a file manually in SSH.

Edit /etc/apache2/mods-available/fcgid.conf (Ubuntu) (/etc/httpd/conf.d/fcgid.conf on CentOS):


<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
  AddHandler    fcgid-script .fcgi
  FcgidConnectTimeout 20
  FcgidMinProcessesPerClass 0
  FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass 10
  FcgidMaxProcesses 50
  FcgidIdleTimeout 60
  FcgidProcessLifeTime 120
  FcgidIdleScanInterval 30


  # Change the rate at which new FastCGI processes are spawned under load. Higher=faster
  FcgidSpawnScoreUpLimit 10

  # Higher number = spawning more FastCGI processes decreases the spawn rate (controls runaway
  FcgidSpawnScore 2

  # Higher number = terminating FastCGI processes decreases the spawn rate (controls runaway)
  FcgidTerminationScore 2

  # Increase the FastCGI max request length for large file uploads (needed for some sites)
  FcgidMaxRequestLen 1073741824

  FcgidMaxRequestsPerProcess 100000
  FcgidIOTimeout 1800
</IfModule>



You cannot edit the name for this website. This is the website that will always appear when you visit the IP address directly or any domains listed in the 'Aliases' section.

If you are hosting a single or main website you can use the default website, and enter the domain names in aliases. Note by doing this that you will have to add MAIL manually for the domain.

Alternatively, click on 'WEB' again and this time choose 'Add Web Domain' and add your new website.

ENABLING SELF-SIGNED SSL ON YOUR WEBSITE

To enable self-signed SSL on your default website so things like webmail are accessed via SSL you need to do the following.

Click on 'WEB'

Click on 'edit' next to the default domain

Check the box next to 'SSL Support'

Click on 'Generate CSR' (this opens in a new browser window/tab)

Fill out the details, and change the Domain to a domain name that resolves to the server

Then copy and and paste each of the details into the editing domain section. Note that they are not in the same order, so ensure you copy the certificate and key correctly. THe SSL Certificate Authority would be blank.

Click 'Save'

You will get warnings due to this being a self-signed certificate, but logging in via webmail will be secured.

DNS RECORDS

When you add a website the DNS records are automatically created for it. However, it's up to you whether you want to create your own DNS servers (ns1.yourdomain.com/ns2.yourdomain.com) and use Vesta to manage your DNS records, or use our provided DNS servers (ns1.controlmyvps.com.au/ns2.controlmyvps.com.au) and enter the DNS records yourself in our control panel.

If you setup your own DNS servers, you can edit/add any DNS records in the DNS section. Note that if you do not setup your own DNS servers then anything you do in this section will not be public or have any impact in the rest of the internet - e.g. you should make changes you need in our provided control panel.

MAIL

To setup mail for your domain you will need to go the MAIL section. Here you can add/edit domains that you host mail for, and also add/remove mail accounts, open webmail and more.

If you've used the default website as your website, you will need to click on 'Add Mail Domain' and add your domain

Then click 'Add account' to add email accounts

WEBMAIL

Providing you have followed the instructions on enabling the self-signed SSL, Webmail can be accessed at any time at https://YOURIP/webmail/ or https://YOURDOMAIN/webmail/

If you have not then you can only access at http://YOURIP/webmail/ or http://YOURDOMAIN/webmail/

DATABASE

If you are installing a CMS such as Magento, Joomla, Wordpress, Prestashop etc. you will need a database.

First click on 'DB'

Then click on 'Add Database'

Here fill out the name of your database, note that the user you are currently logged in with will be prefixed to your MySQL database and MySQL username.

FTP

You can FTP into the server using SFP or SCP as your admin user.

When you login you will see four folders. Browse into the web folder, there you will see a folder for each site under your username. Under that the public_html folder is your web root folder.

Click 'Save'

INSTALLING MAGENTO

First download the full version of Magento, and extract it on your local machine.

Then FTP into the server and upload all the files into the public_html directory.

Then delete the file index.html

Then browse to http://YOURSITE/index.php

Follow the steps to install Magento

UPDATING YOUR SERVER (Debian and Ubuntu)

You're nearly complete, but now you need to ensure your server is running the latest version of everything that's just been installed. To do that first SSH into your server, then type:

apt-get update

apt-get upgrade

Answer yes to any questions posed. 

RUNNING A LOW MEMORY VPS

If you are running on a VPS and only have 512MB of RAM, you may need to perform some tweaks, we recommend that you:

• SSH into your VPS
• Type: nano /etc/mysql/my.cnf
• Modify the file to look like this:

[mysqld_safe]
socket=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

[mysqld]
user=mysql
pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port=3306
basedir=/usr
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
tmpdir=/tmp
lc-messages-dir=/usr/share/mysql
log_error=/var/log/mysql/error.log
max_connections=200
max_user_connections=30
wait_timeout=30
interactive_timeout=50
long_query_time=5
performance_schema             = off

# CACHES AND LIMITS #

tmp-table-size                 = 32M
max-heap-table-size            = 32M
query-cache-type               = 0
query-cache-size               = 0
max-connections                = 500
thread-cache-size              = 50
open-files-limit               = 65535
table-definition-cache         = 1024
table-open-cache               = 2048

# INNODB #
innodb-flush-method            = O_DIRECT
innodb-log-files-in-group      = 2
innodb-flush-log-at-trx-commit = 1
innodb-file-per-table          = 1
innodb-buffer-pool-size        = 128M

• Also, you should create a file based swap partition, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/131/0/creating-a-file-based-swap-partition

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

How to upgrade your disk space

If you have an existing VPS and would like to upgrade resources, you can do so by following these instructions:

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines'

3. Click on 'Manage' next to the machine you wish to modify.

4. Click on the 'Modify' tab

5. Click on 'Upgrade/Downgrade Options'

5. Here you can add extra RAM, CPU Cores, Bandwidth and Disk Space. You can also select a different operating system, however, for the new operating system to take affect you must reprovision your VPS (see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/85/0/how-to-reprovision--reinstall--setup-your-vps-again ). If modifying your main disk space you must increase the NVME/Flash Disk (not SATA as that is for backup purposes only).

6. On the following screen you can also select to schedule the upgrade (Choose 'Now' to have it occur immediately).

zPanel is a free alternative to cPanel. It's very easy to setup if you follow the below instructions:

1. Login to your server via SSH (see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/41/0/how-do-i-use-ssh )

2. Follow the instructions to install zPanel, see: http://www.zpanelcp.com/download/

Once this is complete you will see a Congratulations summary displayed in your SSH session. This will provide you the password you need to login to zPanel. The system will also automatically reboot. Ensure you save the password before you close the SSH session, otherwise you will not be able to login.

e.g.

# Save the following information somewhere safe:             #
# MySQL Root Password : sdf89us4j                            #
# ZPanelX Username    : zadmin                               #
# ZPanelX Password    :

> New server crypto key written to cnf/security.php
> New API key has been generated!
> Account password for 'zadmin' has been updated!

p6pFIBviIsfdQH6hC                     #

5. To login go to http://YOURSERVERIP

Login using: zadmin
Pass: p6pFIBviIsfdQH6hC (whatever password is displayed)

Once you are logged in you can begin creating websites.

• To get started go to 'Domain Management -> Domains' and create your new hosting account domain.
• It will enter a pending state, to force it to be created immediately go to 'Server Admin -> zPanel Config' at the bottom is an option 'Run Daemon Now' click on that.
• Once your domain is green (live), you should check DNS for it.
• Click on 'Domain Management' -> 'DNS Manager', choose your newly added domain
• Create mailboxes: click on 'Mail' -> 'Mailboxes'
• Create a MySQL Database if required: Click on 'Database Management' -> 'MySQL Database'
• Create an FTP Account if required: Click on 'File Management' -> 'FTP Accounts'
• You can also create other users (users, resellers or administrators) if you wish: Click on 'Reseller -> 'Manage Clients'

For help see the zPanel website at: http://www.zpanelcp.com

Due to the way most operating systems work, IPv6 is preferred before IPv4 when available - however the world isn't fully IPv6 ready even though many sites are supporting it - eg google has IPv6 - but It's not in Australia - so it's SLOW accessing it via an IPV6 from a VPS in Australia (and we wouldn't be surprised if the IPv6 international trunks are substantially smaller than IPv4).

You can use this Microsoft support article to prefer v4 over v6 (it lays the blame at mis-configured routers - not the case here - It's just that we're ahead of most of the rest of the world) or you can disable IPv6 on hosts which don't need/want it.

For linux variants there is an article here on how to disable IPv6: http://activemq.apache.org/multicast-watch-out-for-ipv6-vs-ipv4-support-on-your-operating-system-or-distribution-or-network.html

Interestingly, the latency between Melbourne to Sydney over ipv6 is also high - something which VPSBlocks or our DC have no control over (yet).

Disabling in Windows 2008

Download the fix onto your VPS and install it: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728870

Disabling in Windows 2012

Right click on the powershell icon and choose 'Run as Administrator', then paste in this command:

New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\TCPIP6\Parameters -Name DisabledComponents -PropertyType DWord -Value 0xffffffff

You may need to restart afterwards.

Disabling in CentOS 5.3

Disable IPV6 support on your Linux machine by adding a line at the end of /etc/modprobe.conf by doing the following:

• SSH into your VPS (we recommend using Putty)
• Type: pico /etc/modprobe.conf
• Go to the end of the file and enter this line:
• alias net-pf-10 off # disable IPV6
• Save the file and exit pico.
• Restart the VPS

Disabling in CentOS 5.4+

• Edit /etc/sysconfig/network and set "NETWORKING_IPV6" to "no"  
• For 5.4 and later, replace in /etc/modprobe.conf

   alias ipv6 off

with:

   options ipv6 disable=1
 

Disabling in CentOS 6 or 5.4+

Add the following to /etc/sysctl.conf:

net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1

Alternative Method where modprobe.d is installed

touch /etc/modprobe.d/disable-ipv6.conf

echo "install ipv6 /bin/true" >> /etc/modprobe.d/disable-ipv6.conf 

Run /sbin/chkconfig ip6tables off to disable the IPv6 firewall

Reboot the system

Disabling in Linux (Debian)

Append the following to /etc/gai.conf

precedence ::ffff:0:0/96  100

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

How to reprovision your VPS

If you want to reprovision your VPS you can do so through the control panel. Please note that this will DELETE all existing data on your VPS including all NVME/Flash and SATA disk:

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines'

3. Click on 'Manage' next to the VPS in question

4. Click on the 'Reinstall VPS' option for that VPS

Reinstalling takes approximately 30 minutes and you may receive a new IP address. Please do not do any further actions in the portal until the reprovision is complete, doing so is likely to interrupt the reprovision requiring manual intervention by support staff.

Find excellent tutorial on restart on task hang. Know how to setup the server so it restarts if this occurs automatically.

Sometimes on a Linux server, particularly if there isn't enough memory allocated on a server or the tasks being queued cannot be done with the available resources over a period of time, tasks may hang on the server. This can be fatal and cause the server to become unresponsive.

To setup the server so it restarts if this occurs automatically you need:

Login to SSH

To make these settings live without rebooting type:
sysctl kernel.panic=5
sysctl kernel.hung_task_panic=1
sysctl vm.panic_on_oom=1

Edit the configuration file so the changes will also occur after a reboot type:
pico /etc/sysctl.conf

Add the following to the bottom of the file

# Reboot 5 seconds after panic
kernel.panic = 5

# Panic if a hung task was found
kernel.hung_task_panic = 1

# Panic if OOM-Killer is initiated
vm.panic_on_oom = 1

To save Press: CTRL O
To exit Press: CTRL X 

To change the hostname on your actual VPS, you need to login via SSH (see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/41/0/how-do-i-use-ssh)

Ubuntu

Type: /bin/hostname mynewhostname

Type: nano /etc/hosts

Edit the file and then save it.

* Note: If you do not have nano installed, you can install it by running:
apt-get install nano

CentOS

Type: hostname mynewhostname

Type: pico /etc/sysconfig/network

Edit the file by changing the hostname entry if there is one, and then save it.

* Note: If you do not have pico installed, you can install it by running:
yum install pico

CentOS 7

Type: hostname mynewhostname

Type: pico /etc/hostname

Edit the file by changing the hostname entry and then save it.

Type: pico /etc/hosts

Edit the file by changing the hostname entry for 127.0.0.1 and then save it.

If you wish to manage your DNS records directly through us you need to set the name servers for your existing domain to ours.

To do this, login to the provider you registered your domain at (your domain registrar).

Look for the option to 'Change Name Servers' or 'Change DNS Servers'.

Replace the Primary and Secondary Name Servers with ours:

• ns1.controlmyvps.com.au
• ns2.controlmyvps.com.au

Remove any other name servers that are listed there.

If you cannot find the option to Change Name Servers where you registered your domain, search their help and you should find it quite easily. Please note that changing your name servers to point to us does NOT in anyway affect where your domain registration is held. When your domain registration becomes due you will still be invoiced and need to pay your existing domain registrar.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

Cancelling any services

This method works for any services including VPS, SPAM Filtering, DNS Zones or Licensing.

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on the 'Account/Billing' on the left hand panel

4. Click on 'Manage' next to the service you wish to cancel.

5. Choose 'Request Cancellation'.

Cancelling a VPS

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Virtual Machines' on the left hand panel

4. Click on the 'Manage' button next to the VPS

5. Click on 'Cancel Server'

6. Confirm the cancellation.

The account has now been cancelled. It will physically be removed from the server within 24 hours. Once a cancellation request has been made you will never be billed again for that service.

If you have accidentally submitted a cancellation request and wish to continue the service, please email us and we will remove the request before it's processed where possible. Note that once a cancellation has been processed all data is erased permanently and cannot be restored unless you purchased the daily backup feature when your service was active.

Cancelling a Domain Registration

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Domains'

4. Click on 'Manage Domains'

5. Click on 'Manage Domain' next to the domain in question

6. Click on 'Auto Renew' and ensure it is disabled.

Domain registrations cannot be cancelled, but you can stop them from auto-renewing.

Cancelling Licensing

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'View Licensing'

4. Select the license you wish to cancel.

5. Follow the prompts to cancel it.

For most Linux Distributions (e.g. CentOS, Debian, FreeBSD)

1. Open Filezilla
2. Click the "Site Manager" button and set up a new site
3. Set the "Host" to the main IP address of your server
3. Set the port to 22.
4. In the "Protocol" dropdown box, choose "SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol"
5. In the "Login Type" choose "Normal"
6. User the following credentials - 

User: root
Password: your server's root password

This will allow you to securely transfer files to your VPS.

IMPORTANT: NEVER USE PLAIN FTP WITH YOUR ROOT CREDENTIALS. ALWAYS USE SFTP INSTEAD.

Ubuntu

If you have an Ubuntu server, you will need to install OpenSSH Server. Do this with the following SSH command: sudo apt-get install openssh-server

For help, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSH/OpenSSH/Configuring 

Credentials to use are your ip address as the hostname with your user account and the corresponding password

cPanel Accounts

1. Open Filezilla
2. Click the "Site Manager" button and set up a new site
3. Set the "Host" to the main IP address of your server
3. Set the port to 22.
4. In the "Protocol" dropdown box, choose "SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol"
5. In the "Login Type" choose "Normal"
6. User the following credentials - 

User: your cPanel username
Password: your cPanel password

You can also create custom cPanel accounts for your websites.

For custom created FTP accounts use the following credentials - 

Port: 21
Protocol: FTP
User: user@domainname.com
Password: user password

All clients can check their bandwidth using our API. For details on doing this please download the API document at http://www.vpsblocks.com.au/files/VPSBlocks_Reseller_API.pdf

The section 'Get Bandwidth' is on page 10.

For those who use MySQL Workbench or other MySQL managers.

By default cPanel hosts are configured to not allow the access to MySQL server remotely because is explicitely insecure.

Rather than exposing port 3306 to the world that's better and much more secure to connect via SSH tunnel.

When you create your connection in MySQL Workbench choose the connection method: Standard TCP/IP over SSH 

Connection config (here is the MySQL Workbench example):

SSH Hostname: <your_vps_ip_address>:22

SSH Username: root (or other)

SSH Password: <correct_password_for_that_user>

If you do not use key based AUTH for SSH, bypass SSH Key File option.

MySQL Hostname: localhost (or 127.0.0.1)

MySQL Server port: 3306

Username: root

Password: <mysql_root_password> \\ attention, this password might differ from SSH root password

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

To order SPAM filtering

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on the 'New Orders' tab

4. Click on 'Order SPAM Filtering'

5. Enter the domain you wish to filter SPAM for, plus and domian aliases separated by a comma.

6. Once you make payment you will be sent an email with login details to the SPAM Experts control panel.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

Cancelling any services

This method works for any services including VPS, SPAM Filtering, DNS Zones or Licensing.

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on the 'Account/Billing' on the left hand panel

4. Click on 'Manage' next to the service you wish to cancel.

5. Choose 'Request Cancellation'.

Cancelling a VPS

If you are a reseller and need to cancel a clients' VPS you do this in the same way as you would cancel your own VPS:

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Virtual Machines' on the left hand panel

4. Click on the 'Manage' button next to the VPS

5. Click on 'Cancel Server'

6. Confirm the cancellation.

The account has now been cancelled. It will physically be removed from the server within 24 hours. Once a cancellation request has been made you will never be billed again for that service.

If you have accidentally submitted a cancellation request and wish to continue the service, please email us and we will remove the request before it's processed where possible. Note that once a cancellation has been processed all data is erased permanently and cannot be restored unless you purchased the daily backup feature when your service was active.

Cancelling a Domain Registration

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Domain Registration'

4. Click on 'Manage Domains'

5. Click on 'Manage Domain' next to the domain in question

6. Click on 'Auto Renew' and ensure it is disabled.

Domain registrations cannot be cancelled, but you can stop them from auto-renewing.

Cancelling Licensing

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Licensing'

4. Select the license you wish to cancel.

5. Follow the prompts to cancel it.

First you need to enable ioncube:

• Login to WHM (you will have been provided access in the VPS setup email)
• Go to 'tweak settings'
• Search for 'ioncube'
• Click the checkbox next to ioncube in the cPanel PHP loader section and click 'Save'

Now you need to install Fantastico!

Just SSH to your server and enter following command (you may also copy/paste):

wget http://174.120.165.106/fantastico_f3/install.sh -O - | /bin/bash

This will attempt to install Fantastico F3 on your server automatically. Please be patient, the process may take some time (and you will see a fair amount of information output to the screen during this process.

At this point, your copy of Fantastico F3 is fully functional. You can visit the cPanel component and start installing scripts (visiting WHM component is not mandatory as was in F2).

NOW GO TO YOUR WHM -> Plugins -> Fantastico F3.

Follow the on screen instructions.

If your users don't see a Fantastico link in their CPanel: Go to WHM and edit the "default" Features List. Activate Fantastico.

If you have purchased a managed support package this will be done for you.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

How to upgrade your pre-paid bandwidth

If you have an existing VPS and would like to upgrade resources, you can do so by following these instructions:

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines'

3. Click on 'Manage' next to the machine you wish to modify.

4. Click on the 'Modify' tab

5. Click on 'Upgrade/Downgrade Options'

5. Here you can add extra RAM, CPU Cores, Bandwidth and Disk Space. You can also select a different operating system, however, for the new operating system to take affect you must reprovision your VPS (see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/85/0/how-to-reprovision--reinstall--setup-your-vps-again )

Note that pre-paid bandwidth is half the cost of bandwidth overages, so if you are going to exceed your included bandwidth it's worth upgrading your pre-paid bandwidth unless usage was a once-off.

Sometimes it's required to filter incoming connections and listening ports in netstat output and monitor it continuously.

Below is the example of that:

watch -n5 "netstat -antwe | grep -Ev 'LISTEN|127.0.0.1' | gawk '{ print \$5, \$6, \$7 }' | grep -E ':80|:443'"

Where:

-n5 is refreshing interval, you can increase it if connections disapper too quickly

grep -Ev is excluding pattern from output

gawk's fields $5, $6 and $7 represent netstat fields: Foreign address + port, Connections state, UID of process owner

grep -E includes only ports you are interested in

If gawk is not installed, then install using proper command:

yum install gawk # for CentOS

apt-get install gawk # for Ubuntu

pacman -S gwak # on Archlinux

How to modify your reverse DNS entry / PTR record

When you create a VPS the domain you specify on the order form will automatically be entered as the reverse DNS entry.

You can however adjust this or set a reverse DNS for any IPs you own by doing the following:

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines'

3. Click on 'Manage' next to the VPS in question.

4. Click on the 'Networking' tab

5. In the 'Networking' window click on the IP address you wish to set or change the reverse DNS.

6. Your current reverse DNS entry will be displayed. To change it enter the reverse DNS entry you would like and click 'OK'.

Note: It is not necessary to put a . after the domain, but you can if you like (either way it will be entered correctly into the DNS server).

When you browse to your website and access a directory that has no index.html, index.htm or index.php file, by default a list of all the files and sub-directories/folders is displayed.

Turning this listing off is very easy. You could use .htaccess to do it, however an easier way is to log into your cPanel account for the site and do the following:

Under "Advanced" (down the bottom), click on "Index Manager". Select the public_html folder and choose "No indexing". That will apply to all subfolders. You can also select specific sub-folders and change the permissions for them.

The most common error states:

Using nameservers with the following IPs: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Sorry, the domain is already pointed to an IP address that does not appear to use DNS servers associated with this server.

The reason for this is a setting in cPanel that does not allow remotely hosted domains to be parked on the server. To fix this:

1. Login to WHM (https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:2087/) using your root username and password

2. Type 'tweak' into the top left search bar

3. Click on 'Tweak Settings'

4. On the right hand side of the tweak settings is a 'find' textbox. In that box type: remote

5. Look for the option 'Allow Remote Domains' and turn that 'On'

This will now allow you to add parked domains that do not point to the cPanel server. This is handy because generally you want to have the new server setup to accept a domain before you point the domain to the new server.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

How to create DNS records

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'DNS Zones'

3. Click on 'Add Zone'

4. Enter your domain name in the format domain.com or domain.com.au (not www.domain.com) and click OK. The zone will be added immediately (it may take about 30 seconds).

5. Select the new domain from the drop down box (it's most likely selected for you now) and modify your DNS records - e.g. click 'Add Record' and create an A record for your domain to point to the IP of your VPS.

7. Don't forget to hit the 'Save DNS Zone' button once you have completed adding the zones.

8. If you didn't purchase the domain with us, login to your domain registrar and update the name servers associated with the domain to: ns1.controlmyvps.com.au and ns2.controlmyvps.com.au

Referring people to VPSBlocks and earning affiliate commissions is easy.

How to setup referrals

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Account'

4. Click on 'Referrals'

5. Near the top of the page you will see 'Your Unique Referral Link'.

Copy that link to your website, or you can copy the image based link displayed at the bottom of the page.

When a visitor of your website clicks your unique referral link, then signs up for an account with us, commisssion will be added to your affiliate account.

Whenever your affiliate account reaches at least $50, you can request this to be paid.

Commission is added to your account EVERY time a customer you refer is billed. So, a single customer who purchases a $99.95/month hosting plan could see you earn $119.94 per year for as long as that customer's account is active.

Full details of our affiliate program can be found by visiting the Reseller section of our site.

In Windows if you have an internal network adapter, and an external network adapter and make the server a domain controller, it will automatically make both NICs part of the domain profile (which allows everything in the firewall restrictions).

To stop this what we recommend is you make keep your internal network adapter as your domain profile, and make your external network adapter (the one that connects to the internet) a member of the public profile.

To do this go to the Windows Advanced Firewall and create a rule which blocks UDP on port 389 for the external subnet range (e.g. 203.143.x.x) both incoming and outgoing. This will prevent Windows from being able to resolve the NIC to a domain and therefore mark it as public.

To access the SPAM Experts Login please go to https://one.spamexperts.controlmyvps.com.au

QUARANTINE (POSSIBLE SPAM)

This will show all messages the filter has quarantined. To view, click on the email's subject. To release click the email symbol on the right of the line. Released emails will appear in your mailbox within a few minutes.

LOG SEARCH

Here you can enter a date range and hit search (the other fields can be left empty). This will show you how emails were handled in the past, including any emails temporarily rejected (waiting for redelivery) and permanently rejected. Permanently rejected emails cannot be viewed or released.

WHITELIST

If an email has been rejected, you can set up a "white list" either for the email address or for an entire domain under "Sender whitelist". This will ensure that future emails will get through. For any emails already rejected, please ask the sender to resend.

EMAIL CLASSIFICATION

In the "Log Search" you will see a column entitled "Classification". The most common are:

ACCEPTED

The email has passed the spam filter and has been delivered to the recipient's inbox.

TEMPORARILY REJECTED

The email was temporarily rejected. Legitimate mail servers that observe the RFC standards will re-deliver the message. 
greylisted - message greylisted 
High DNSBL score - IP is listed on blacklists. For more information on DNSBL (and to check if an IP is blacklisted), please see www.dnsbl.info.

REJECTED

The email has been permanently rejected and can be found in the spam quarantine. 
Considered spam - identified as spam by filter rules. 
Content looked like spam - Failed content check. 
Sender's domain is missing DNS records - Faulty DNS entries

PERIODIC REPORT (QUARANTINE EMAIL)

In this section you can control the period report that lists all quarantined emails (possible spam emails). This report is useful to review suspicious emails without logging into the Spam Experts panel.

• Report enabled? Tick to enable
• Recipient Address Define who receives the report. Please note that this field only accepts one address. For multiple recipients, set up a new email in your cPanel and then set up forwarder rules to all required recipients.
• Report Frequency Daily or Weekly
• Format HTML or PDF
• Include extra spam table Adds statistics about the spam filtering
• Send report with no quarantined messages If enabled, you will receive the report daily or weekly as defined, regardless of whether newly quarantined emails are available for review

Manage Users

If your domain has multiple mailboxes by individuals, you can give them their own access to the Spam Experts panel to allow each email user to review their own logs and quarantine.

MANAGE EMAIL USERS

In this section you can add email users for direct access to the Spam Experts panel. Just add the new user with their email address and a password. Once added, users can log in directly at https://one.spamexperts.controlmyvps.com.au 

White and Black Listing

SENDER WHITELIST AND BLACKLIST

A white list is a list of emails which are never marked as spam. It's ideal to guarantee important emails to get through without delay or to resolve a situation where a sender you trust gets marked as spam occasionally. You can also whitelist entire domains.

On the reverse, a black list is a list of emails which are always treated as spam. If you receive emails from a sender which are not marked as spam, but you don't wish to receive these, you can enter the email address on the black list. You can also blacklist entire domains.

RECIPIENT WHITELIST AND BLACKLIST

The recipient settings apply to the receiving, ie your email address. With these setting, you can permanently allow all or no emails through to your address(es).

If you whitelist one of your email addresses, all emails will go through to this address. This basically disables the spam filter for a specific email address.

In reverse, if you blacklist a recipient email address, all email to this address will be treated as spam and no email will go through on this address. This setting is probably rare, but may be useful if you have an email which attracts spam and is not used for any legitimate mail correspondence.

Domain statistics

Ever wondered if the spam filter is doing its job? Have a quick look at the domain statistics. Enter your required time frame and see how much spam was blocked.

• Unsure messages These are the message in Quarantine
• Spam messages blocked Rejected messages
• Not Spam messages Accepted messages which were delivered to inbox
• Viruses blicked / Blacklisted Viruses and emails from the blacklist

To rebuild Apache through cPanel follow these instructions:

• Login to WHM as Root and follow the path
  Main >> Software >> EasyApache (Apache Update)
• Select radio button "Previously Saved Config" and click on start customizing based on profile
• Select Apache
• Select PHP 5 (latest version )
• Click on Exhaustive Option list
• Find eAccelerator & mod_fscgi and ensure both of these are checked
• Select any options you require, then click on save and build 
• Wait for the build to complete (it takes about 15 minutes, hit refresh to check it's progress)
• You will be prompted to choose your PHP module, select mod_fcgi

If you are running a MySQL based site, we have seen good speed improvements by enabling mod_fcgi and eAccelerator (note you also have to select mod_fgci as the PHP interpreter - you are asked to select the PHP interpreter after the rebuild is complete).

If you enable eAccelerator, you should also make this modificiation:

https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/72/0/eaccelerator-filling-up-tmp-directory

This article explain how to change the your account level password. This password is the one you use in combination with your email address to login to the portal website or My Account area.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

To change your account level password

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Account'

4. Click on 'Change Password'

5. Enter your new password and click 'Save Changes'

To add additional services to your existing VPS:

Login at https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

Click the 'Modify' tab

Select the name of the VPS you wish to modify from the drop down list box (it may take a few seconds to load after you do this)

Click on 'Upgrade/Downgrade Options'

Here you can choose to add additional services or increase resources to your existing VPS.

* If items already have values, these are the current items already added to your VPS. Removing them or setting quantities to 0 will remove them from your VPS.

Overview

The Google Security Team and Red Hat have discovered a flaw in the way that certain types of DNS lookups are handled on some Linux servers. By exploiting this critical vulnerability, an attacker could gain full control over the system.

Impact

The code that causes the vulnerability was introduced in a 2008 update to the GNU C Library (glibc). That package contains a library against which all GNU/Linux programs are linked, and the flaw affects the version of glibc included in a number of current Linux distributions:

• CentOS 6 and 7
• Fedora 22 and 23
• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS
• Debian 6 (squeeze), 7 (wheezy)

Resolution

On affected servers, glibc needs to be updated and the server rebooted. 

First SSH to the server, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/41/0/how-do-i-use-ssh 

Step #1: Check the Current glibc Version

1. On CentOS 6 and CentOS 7 servers, run:

   yum list glibc

   That will produce output similar to:

   [root@host ~]# yum list glibc
Installed Packages
glibc.x86_64     2.17-106.el7_2.1     @system-updates-released
Available Packages
glibc.i686     2.17-106.el7_2.1     system-updates-released

   The currently installed version is listed under Installed Packages.

2. On Fedora 22 and Fedora 23 servers, run:

   dnf list glibc

   That will produce output similar to:

   [root@host ~]# dnf list glibc
Installed Packages
glibc.x86_64     2.21-5.fc22     @System
Available Packages
glibc.i686     2.21-5.fc22     fedora

   The currently installed version is listed under Installed Packages.

3. On Debian (6, 7) and Ubuntu (12.04 LTS, 14.04) servers, run:

   ldd --version

   That will produce output similar to:

   [root@host ~]# ldd --version
ldd (Ubuntu EGLIBC 2.21-0ubuntu4.1) 2.19
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.

   The currently installed version in this example is 2.21-0ubuntu4.1.

Step #2: Is the Installed Version Vulnerable?

If the version returned by the command you ran above matches (or exceeds) the version listed below for your operating system, then the vulnerability already has been patched:

• Patched versions:
• CentOS 6: glibc-2.12-1.166.el6_7.7
• CentOS 7: glibc-2.17-106.el7_2.4
• Fedora 22: glibc-2.21-11.fc22
• Fedora 23: glibc-2.22-9.fc23
• Debian 6 (squeeze): eglibc 2.11.3-4+deb6u11
• Debian 7 (wheezy): eglibc 2.13-38+deb7u10
• Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: libc6 2.19-0ubuntu6.7
• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: libc6 2.15-0ubuntu10.13

If the version returned by the command you ran in Step 1 is lower than what’s listed above for your operating system you will need to proceed to Step 3 to upgrade and reboot.

Step #3: Update glibc on a Self-Managed Server

Run these commands as root to update and reboot:

1. On Debian (6, 7) and Ubuntu (12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS) servers:
   apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
reboot

    

2. On CentOS 6 and CentOS 7 servers (to update only glibc):
yum clean all
yum update glibc
reboot

On CentOS 6 and CentOS 7 servers (to update all packages -recommended):
yum install yum-utils -y && package-cleanup --oldkernels --count=1 -y && sed -i 's/installonly_limit=.*/installonly_limit=2/g' /etc/yum.conf && yum clean all && yum update -y
reboot

    

3. On Fedora 22 and Fedora 23 servers:
   dnf clean all
dnf update
reboot

    

First you need to login to the VPSBlocks portal, and navigate to the Monitors tab on the left hand panel. The screen shots below are slightly outdated, but the functionality is the same.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

Setting up the Monitor

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Monitoring' on the left hand side

4. Click on the Plus to add a new monitor.

5. Fill out a URL hosted on your VPS.

6. Fill out the rest of the monitor details, hover over each option with your mouse for a full description.

7. Save your monitor.

8. Within 2 minutes you should be able to view history through the drop down box.

Copying accounts from an old cPanel server to a new one is very easy. To migrate from one cPanel server to another, please do this:

1. Log into WHM as root on the new cPanel server

2. Click "Copy multiple accounts/packages from another server"

3. Fill in the required information and click "Fetch Account List"

To install .NET 3.5 you need to do the following

1. Mount the Windows 2012 R2 DVD, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/33/0/mount-a-dvd

2. Open a powershell window and type: Install-WindowsFeature -name Net-Framework-Core -source D:\sources\sxs\

Note: the above line assumes that the install DVD is mounted at D:

Windows 2008 R2

How to verify if .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is installed:

Here are the steps to verify that .NET Framework 3.5.1 is installed on Windows Server 2008 R2.

1. Click the Start button in the lower left hand corner of the display.
2. Highlight Administrative Tools and select Server Manager.
3. In the Server Manager interface, click Features to display all the installed Features in the right hand pane. Verify that .NET Framework 3.5.1 is listed.

If .NET Framework 3.5.1 feature is not listed, you can use either of the following methods to install it:

Method 1: Using Server Manager Interface

1. In the Server Manager interface, select Add Features to displays a list of possible features.
2. In the Select Features interface, expand .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features.
3. Once you expand .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features, you will see two check boxes. One for .NET Framework 3.5.1 and other for WCF Activation. Check the box next to .NET Framework 3.5.1 and click Next.

   Note: If you do not expand .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features and check it, you will get a pop-up titled Add Features Wizard as shown below.

   Click Cancel and expand .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features and then check .NET Framework 3.5.1 check box below it.

    

   You cannot install .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features unless the required role services and features are also installed.

4. In the Confirm Installation Selections interface, review the selections and then click Install.
5. Allow the installation process to complete and then click Close.

Method 2: Using PowerShell

1. Click the Start button in the lower left hand corner of the display.
2. Highlight All Programs and select Accessories
3. Expand Windows PowerShell and right click Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator. Click Yes on the User Account Control box.
4. At the PowerShell command prompt, type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:
   • Import-Module ServerManager
   • Add-WindowsFeature as-net-framework

We realise that clients may have markets in China, associations, clients or hire workers in China. Therefore you can disable this block in the control panel.

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. On the right hand side of the table listing your VPSs you will a column entitled Blocks. Next to each VPS there is a checkbox entitled 'China'. Simply uncheck that box to allow traffic from China.

NOTE: This does not actually change the root or administrator password on your server, we have no access to do that. This just provides you a secure way to provide us with your current root or administrator password if you have changed it since provisioning so we can provide support.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

To change your stored VPS password

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on 'Virtual Machines' on the left hand panel

4. Click on 'Manage' next to the VPS in question

5. Click on 'Modify'

6. Click on 'Change Stored Password'

7. Enter your current root password as set on your VPS and click 'Save Changes'

This updates the our system securely so our staff can access your server if required for support or management purposes.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

You MUST login using your email address and account level password to be able to manage private internal networks.

How to create a private internal network

1. Login to the VPSBlocks My Account Portal using your email address and account level password.
2. Click on 'Internal Networks' on the left hand menu
3. If you have an internal network created it will display the IP Range of your network, it will also list any virtual machines already connected to the network. If not click on 'Create Internal Network'. Provide an internal range (e.g. 192.168.2.0), note always use .0 on the end as the network will be automatically setup with a /24 subnet providing you with the ability to connect up to 254 machines.
4. You can create multiple private networks for isolating between different servers via subnets.
5. Now you have a virtual network, you need to add an internal network adapter to your virtual machines.

Adding a private internal NIC to your VMs

1. Click on 'Virtual Machines' on the left hand menu
2. Click on 'Manage' next to the virtual machine you want to add an internal NIC 
3. At this stage the virtual machine must be powered off (shutdown), you can do this through the 'Power Off VPS' button, or do it through the operating system on your virtual machine. Once it's shut down continue to step 4.
4. Click on the 'Networking' button
5. Click 'Add Internal NIC'
6. This will add an internal NIC to your virtual machine and automatically assign it an IP address from your internal range (this IP cannot be changed). The NIC will use DHCP, however, further configuration is necessary on both Windows and Linux platforms.
7. You can now start your server again (click 'Overview' and 'Power On VPS')

Final configuration within your virtual machine

1. If you are running Windows on the virtual machine you will need to set the new NIC's metric to be higher than the default, this is so your system knows which NIC to send public traffic through. Please see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/294/0/internal-private-networking-on-windows
2. If you are running CentOS or RedHat you will need to create a configuration file at /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 (usually it is eth1) and ensure the DEFROUTE is set to No. Please see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/314/0/nic-configuration-on-redhat-and-centos
3. If you are running Ubuntu or Debian you will need to edit /etc/network/interfaces file and add the configuration for the new NIC, ensuring it is set to use DHCP.

If you are unsure how to configure your internal NIC properly please contact support and we would be happy to help.

If you require a snapshot to be taken of a server that is also a domain controller please contact support and we can switch the checkpoint time from production to standard. This will mean snapshots can take longer to work, and may be slower while they exist, but will provide the same level of protection as a production checkpoint.

1. Login to your VPS via SSH as root (link here - https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/41/0/how-do-i-use-ssh)
2. Type the command (without brackets):
   
   

   awk '{ print $1 }' /usr/local/apache/domlogs/<yourdomain>  | sort -n | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -20

   
   == OR, if your traffic is mostly HTTPS ==
   
   

   awk '{ print $1 }' /usr/local/apache/domlogs/<yourdomain>-ssl  | sort -n | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -20

3. If you see thousands of hits from particular IP address(es), they are most likely scrapers or bruteforcing bots, both deserve to be blocked.
4. Login to WHM as root, go to "ConfigServer Security & Firewall", click on "Firewall Deny IPs" and add harvested IP addresses (or whole subnets if you wish to the end of the list. Then click "Change" and then "Restart csf+lfd".

You can create a SnapShot of your VPS which exists for 48 hours allowing you to easily roll back your VPS to when the SnapShot was taken.

A few things to note:

1. Managed backups will not be taken if a snapshot exists, so be sure to delete the snapshot when you no longer require it.

2. Snapshots are automatically deleted after 48 hours.

3. When a snapshot exists it will slow down your VPS somewhat.

To create a SnapShot:

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines'

3. Click on 'Manage' next to the VPS in question

4. In the 'Snapshot' window choose to 'Create Snapshot' (note you can only have one snapshot, so if you already have one you will need to delete it first).

5. If you want to roll back your VPS to when the snapshot was taken choose 'Restore Snapshot'.

Note: If you restore a SnapShot it will roll back your VPS to the state it was when the Snapshot was taken, this action is irreversible.

1. Login to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au/Cloud.aspx using your email address and password.

2. Click on 'Licensing' on the left hand menu

3. Click 'Add Licenses'

4. Select the license you wish to add and click 'Order Now'

5. Ensure you fill out the required quantity and the specify correctly the VPS name you wish to associate the license with.

6. Complete the checkout process.

7. Support will install the licenses for you.

or

2. Using WHM -> EasyApache 4 -> Customize -> Apache Modules, search for remoteip.

After install remoteip module you need to find the file:

/etc/apache2/conf.modules.d/NNN_mod_remoteip.conf
where NNN is a sequence of digits, it can be different or different hosts.

Note: on CentOS 6 it can be found at /etc/httpd/ directory.

Edit the file and add the following content to it's bottom:

RemoteIPHeader CF-Connecting-IP
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 173.245.48.0/20
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 103.21.244.0/22
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 103.22.200.0/22
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 103.31.4.0/22
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 141.101.64.0/18
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 108.162.192.0/18
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 190.93.240.0/20
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 188.114.96.0/20
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 197.234.240.0/22
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 198.41.128.0/17
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 162.158.0.0/15
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 104.16.0.0/12
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 172.64.0.0/13
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 131.0.72.0/22
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 2400:cb00::/32
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 2606:4700::/32
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 2803:f800::/32
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 2405:b500::/32
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 2405:8100::/32
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 2a06:98c0::/29
RemoteIPTrustedProxy 2c0f:f248::/32

If you read this article in 2199 year please double check actual CF ip addresses at this URL: https://www.cloudflare.com/ips/

Then restart Apache.

We will do the following on request:

• Update System Software
• Configure System Software
• Help with software installations
• Help in the event of issues related to your VPS or software on your VPS

What we cannot do:

• Modify code
• Develop or fix websites
• Configure custom software which we have no knowledge of

Server management gives you peace of mind that professionals are taking care of your server and provides you a cheap alternative to consulting fees for system and software installations and configurations.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

How to download your virtual hard disk

Important notes:

• You can only download the VHD if your VPS is stopped. During the download you cannot start the VPS (as the virtual hard disk is in use).
• You can only download your primary NVME/Flash disk, you cannot download your SATA disk (SATA disks are meant solely for backup purposes).

1. Login to the https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au using your email address and password

2. Click on 'Virtual Machines'

3. Shutdown the virtual machine in question. This is best done from within the VPS operating system itself. When it is shut down you will see the Status of the virtual machine as 'Stopped'. A download link will appear in the 'SSD(GB)' column.

4. Click the download link and the download will begin. Note this download is not resumeable as it a direct stream download.

Once that is done, you can greatly increase the speed your site is served, and reduce the load on your server by utilising the CloudFlare CDN and incorporating specific page rules for Wordpress you can dramatically speed up delivery and protect your site from hackers.

We recommend you read the article by Erick Valois on exactly how to do this: https://ttfb.io/blog/how-to-set-up-cloudflare-to-cache-wordpress-pages/

For any other VPS you can easily set up your own MySQL server on your VPS.  

1. If the new owner does not have an account with VPSBlocks, they should create one at https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/clients/register.php
2. Once they have an account email accounts@vpsblocks.com.au and request that the VPS (remember to include the VPS Name) be transferred to another account and provide the email address associated with the new account. For authorisation reasons your request must come from the email address registered to YOUR account.
3. For security reasons our accounts will reply back and ask you to verify the move, upon receiving a reply from you verifying the move we will place the VPS under the new account owner. They will then have full access to the VPS. You will lose all access to the VPS through our control panel and accounting system.

This must be in the format either:

• something.yourdomain.com (if you own a domain name)
• something.yourdomain.com.au (an example if your domain is a .com.au domain)
• name.yourname.ssdhosts.com.au (if you would prefer to use a name we provide)

Changing your VPS name will not create new DNS records, so you would have to do that manually if required.

To change your VPS name

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Double Click on the VPS name you wish to change

4. Enter the new domain (using the format above)

5. Press Enter to apply changes (it will take about 30 seconds to make the changes)

6. To discard changes just click elsewhere on the page

Apache detected an error in the Rewrite config.
Syntax error on line x of /home/user/public_html/.htaccess.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Invalid command ‘suPHP_ConfigPath’, perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration
Please try again.

This error is caused by using a custom php.ini file.

The solution:

1. Edit the .htaccess file at /home/user/public_html (where user is your cPanel username)
2. Open the .htaccess file and search for the following line and comment it out
   
   suPHP_ConfigPath /home/user/www (where user is your cPanel username)
   
   Add a # to the front of the line to comment it out
   
   # suPHP_ConfigPath /home/user/www (where user is your cPanel username)
   
   
3. Save the .htaccess file and apply the redirects within your cPanel account
4. Once the redirects are set uncomment that line and save the .htaccess again to re-apply your php.ini file

We pay for bandwidth in MB (Megabit)/sec through multiple providers (for redundancy and best path). The physical links connecting the DC to the network providers are capable of many hundreds of MB/sec and higher. They are limited at the provider depending on existing contracts.

As an IT Service provider the most important thing from our end is that there is plenty of overhead (available bandwidth throughput) on these links. This will mean that there is no latency through the connections with our provider. VPSBlocks is a responsible provider and always ensure this is the case.

The actual speed you get is dependent on the slowest device between two points. Point A being your server, and point B being wherever it is sending data to or receiving data from. The theoretical maximum is 128 Megabytes per second as that is the speed of a 1GB link. More likely speed if you have a good internet connection ISP provided by your ISP is 1-2 Megabytes per second, this is entirely dependent on the route the data takes and if any switches or routers it travels through are saturated, rate limited or simply latency based on distance.

You can check your ping speeds by opening a command prompt and typing: ping 203.143.83.1

Note: a MB (Megabit) is 1/8th of a Megabyte.

We monitor bandwidth at the NIC level. Your monthly bandwidth allowance is calculated based on a calendar month.

You are alerted via email if:

1. You exceed 10% of your monthly bandwidth allocation in a single day.

2. You exceed 80% of your bandwidth.

3. You exceed 100% of your bandwidth.

If you exceed 100% of your bandwidth we do not shut down your VPS. We alert you, and it's up to you to stop your VPS if you do not want to pay overages. You can stop your VPS or Suspend it at any time through the control panel, see: https://www.vpsblocks.com.au/support/Knowledgebase/Article/View/34/0/how-do-i-stop--start--restart-my-vps

Bandwidth Overages

Bandwidth overages cost $0.50 per GB and are charged on a separate bandwidth overage invoice on the first couple of days of the month.

If you exceed your bandwidth and believe you will continue to exceed your bandwidth, you may wish to increase the bandwidth on your plan. This increases your regular monthly spend, however, the cost is just $0.25 per GB. You can increase your plan after receiving the notification of 100% bandwidth usage without penalty as long as it's prior to any bandwidth overage invoice being issued.

Portal Login Explained

If you login to the portal website using your email address and account level password you can administer all your VPSs, change account details, place new orders etc.

If you login to the portal website using your VPS username and VPS password you will only have access to manage a single VPS, no mention of VPSBlocks is made, and no ability to modify your account or order services.

First view your current backups and choose which one you want restored

1. Go to https://portal.controlmyvps.com.au

2. Login using your email address and password

3. Click on the 'Backup' tab

4. This will display your current backups. Choose which one you want to restore.

5. Open a support ticket or email support@vpsblocks.com.au and be sure to include:

a. The VPS you want to restore

b. Which backup (date) you want to restore

c. If you want to restore over the top of your production VPS or if you would like it restored to a separate location so you can access and retrieve specific files

There is no charge for restorations, and our turnaround is generally within a couple of hours depending on the size of your VPS.

To fix that you need to modify the file wp-config.php and add following lines:

if($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https'){

$_SERVER['HTTPS'] = 'on';

$_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'] = 443; }

To fix this:

• Login to your server via SSH
• Type: cd /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/etc/phpmyadmin/
• Type: nano php.ini
• Look for the section [Session] and scroll down to see if session.save_path is commented out. If it is, remove the # line and set the save path to /tmp
• Press Ctrl O to save
• Press Ctrl X to exit
• Type: service cpanel restart

Perform the following commands one by one:

rm -fv cmq.tgz
wget http://www.configserver.com/free/cmq.tgz
tar -xzf cmq.tgz
cd cmq
sh install.sh

Once these commands have been performed, log into WHM on your VPS.

Locate the "Plugins" tier, which is at the bottom of the left hand menu and it will be listed there.

cPanel is great as a complete hosting package. But if you don't need features like a web based file manager, HestiaCP is a free control panel that offers speeds far surpassing that provided by cPanel. It's fantastic for hosting CMS based websites such as Magento, Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal etc.

Check out our sample Magento website running on a basic 1 CPU Core, 512MB Ram Linux Ubuntu 14 server at http://203.143.83.193/

Note: If you are not confident in following these instructions we offer this installation as an optional service to our customers during the ordering process. We recommend you choose Ubuntu 20 as your operating system, and during the order process will be asked if you would like the HestiaCP Initial Setup, there is no cost for this. Or you can do it yourself using the below instructions.

INSTALLING HESTIA CONTROL PANEL

Start with a VPS, for Vesta we recommend Ubuntu 20

SSH into your new VPS

Type: curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hestiacp/hestiacp/release/install/hst-install.sh

Type: bash hst-install.sh

Important note: If asked for a hostname you must put the name you gave your server e.g. vps.yourdomain.com. If you do not put the same name services will not be able to resolve the hostname to your local VPS and it will cause issues with NGinx and some other services.

To start the installation press: y

Enter your email address

The installation will complete and at the end display your login credentials

Disable AppArmor for Bind9 (named) so DNS serving will function properly

AppArmor by default prevents Bind9 from reading it's own database files under /home/<user>/ location. So you need to run these commands:

ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.named /etc/apparmor.d/disable/

apparmor_parser -R /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.named

service bind9 restart

Visit https://YOURIP:8083 in your browser

To do this:

• Login to WHM
• Go to 'Exim Configuration'
• Click on the 'Access Lists' tab
• Click on 'Edit' next to 'Trusted SMTP IP addresses'
• Add the IP of the filtering service
• If you are using SPAMExperts provided by VPSBlocks then add our SPAM Experts server IPs:
  • 203.143.85.209
  • 203.143.85.15
• Go to 'Restart Services' -> 'Mail Server (Exim)' to restart Exim to use the new configuration.

Please note that this is for critical server down issues only, for all other issues please send a ticket through to support@vpsblocks.com.au or call during business hours.

Useful when VPS with Managed Backups enabled was cancelled/terminated but not removed from Backupmanager backup task(s).

1. Login to BackupManager as Administrator
2. Run "Find Backup Location" (icon on the Desktop, or manually as %SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -File "C:\FindBackupLocation.ps1")
3. Type or copy/paste the VPS name when prompted and press Enter
4. The app will show the Backup schedule name as SANXX (if shows empty window, then VPS is not under Managed Backups)
5. Open corresponding SANXX Backup app window
6. Check all 3 batches for the VPS name (Backup Jobs -> VM Selection)
7. Highlight the VPS in the list and click "Delete VMs" below
8. Done