Would you give up cPanel for better uptime?

[garrettroyce]

I would think that would require modifying cPanel's source files, and I don't think you are allowed to modify proprietary software. Remember, cPanel is NOT open source.

Aslo, Corey mentioned that cPanel is encoded. So there is no way of changing the way cPanel works without forcing the cPanel devs to do something about it

Yeah, I see now what we're up against. It sounds like rehashing Apache is the perfect solution, but I'm guessing we're up against the same brick wall on that one too.

I'm also guessing that there's no way to tell CPanel to handle everything except Apache as well, right?

 

[Russ]

Nope, see the thing is, cPanel and apache are tied in together, you can't have one without the other.

 

[gto286]

i agree it's tied together..
but for me at this time of posting i can't even gain access to mine..

 

[garrettroyce]

Nope, see the thing is, cPanel and apache are tied in together, you can't have one without the other.

Ahh, that's how they get ya :biggrin:

I know the staff will figure it out soon.

 

[Smith6612]

I'm not, cause I'm on paid; I'm more wondering whether it does it off of a fresh install, otherwise I imagine the support ticket count would increase from users who don't check the forums to see if someone's already got a tutorial up for it.


Edit: Should clarify, long as it works with base install on anything using a .htaccess or mod_rewrite, I say go for it, but if it's not going to work with it or it can't support as many accounts as we'd need, it might not work just for that.

Once all of the major projects that x10 has going on finish and I can find some time, I plan on making video tutorials for people anyways. So when/if things do change around, I'll upload a batch of videos that x10 can use for tutorials.

 

[masshuu]

Isn't there apache mods that can store config files in an sql database, and load that data dynamically from there?

Although windows environment isn't my first choice, a default windows 2003 server has ISS 6, which as far as i can tell, would allow dynamic adding of clients.

I would say though, that 3 minutes of downtime for a reload is unacceptable. Even 1 minute is to much. I know its free hosting. If cPannel has said theres nothing that can be done, then they lack proper support. Search sourceforge, theres a dozen Mature projects, like(not much time searching):

https://sourceforge.net/projects/penguinator
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ravencore
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ispconfig
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vhcs
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hoster
http://sourceforge.net/projects/webcp

Some look questionable, but others don't look to bad. I would still play with them all quite a bit though to see which ones administrators and developers like(is that what you would call them? People who do any coding for the site) and which ones fit the needs of the website.

 

[Corey]

We are unable to modify the cPanel files to change when or if it reloads the apache config file, we're also unable to use lighttpd or nginx because cPanel does not support them. That means when an account is created or removed it won't be able to communicate with lighttpd or nginx to tell it what to do.

Also, trying to run a separate web server just while it's restarting is not a feasible option either. Port 80 would still be bound by connections while waiting for them to gracefully exit causing any other server to fail starting.

This is our top priority right now and we're working on a lot of different things. I have confidence we'll find a solution and keep cPanel.

I also can't really blame the folks at cPanel, we are one of the only if not the only free host that runs cPanel so we often run into a lot of issues. The software they made is designed for paid hosting, we're not using it within it's scope and can not expect them to support us outside of it.

I appreciate all the ideas everyone has been thinking of, it really shows your dedication to making x10 great.

-Corey

 

[scarymonkey]

YES: PLEASE GET RID OF CPANEL....This unreliability caused by it is a MAJOR show stopper for me personally, I would have been off to another free hosting service if there wasn't an opportunity to resolve this, in this case by removing cpanel if that is what is required.

KILL CPANEL ASAP.....CHEERS.

 

[tadueszkwasniewski]

Well, if the account creation/deletion can't be queued and done once daily for everything, how about switching to DirectAdmin panel? It's not as good as cPanel IMO, but still a powerful panel for everything.

 

[farscapeone]

Lets see, cPanel is not design for free hosting, it's expensive, they can't give you adequate support and it's causing a lot of problems and downtime. On the other hand there's a lot of other (even free) admin tools out there that could do the job.

I don't see any good reason for keeping cPanel under this circumstances.

 

[gimr1987]

Well, if the account creation/deletion can't be queued and done once daily for everything, how about switching to DirectAdmin panel? It's not as good as cPanel IMO, but still a powerful panel for everything.

yes direct admin is much faster dhen cpanel

 

[garrettroyce]

I think once the staff fix CPanel for X10, it will be the best possible solution. CPanel does everything really well, in my opinion, it just so happens to have a very big flaw.

 

[masshuu]

I think once the staff fix CPanel for X10, it will be the best possible solution. CPanel does everything really well, in my opinion, it just so happens to have a very big flaw.

except that there pushing cpanel far past what it was originally designed for, and they have hit walls that they can't tear down, so they go around them, but this creates instability with the servers.

 

[garrettroyce]

except that there pushing cpanel far past what it was originally designed for, and they have hit walls that they can't tear down, so they go around them, but this creates instability with the servers.

I think we'll find a way to have our cake and eat it too! We'll have CPanel and uptime

I have confidence we'll find a solution and keep cPanel.

 

[xav0989]

I have a little improvement concerning the 2 server idea. Why not have an application that is bound to the 80 port, and redirects traffic internally to 1 of the 2 servers, which broadcast to another port, while the other one restarts. This way, there will be no problem of apache bound to the 80 port, and we could keep cPanel. Both of the servers will have to share the configuration files though.

 

[Picard1595]

CPanel just needs to go, sure there are a few hold outs that like CPanel, but there are other account panels that are more powerful then cpanel and much more suitable to x10hostings needs.

 

[garrettroyce]

I have a little improvement concerning the 2 server idea. Why not have an application that is bound to the 80 port, and redirects traffic internally to 1 of the 2 servers, which broadcast to another port, while the other one restarts. This way, there will be no problem of apache bound to the 80 port, and we could keep cPanel. Both of the servers will have to share the configuration files though.

I think the problem is the application you're talking about would mean a modification to CPanel because CPanel is used to dealing with Apache directly. If we could modify CPanel, we'd be able to do many other things that would work better than 2 high load server processes running at once.

 

[Hauzer]

Lets see, cPanel is not design for free hosting, it's expensive, they can't give you adequate support and it's causing a lot of problems and downtime. On the other hand there's a lot of other (even free) admin tools out there that could do the job.

I don't see any good reason for keeping cPanel under this circumstances.

cPanel isn't designed for free hosting, yet x10hosting offer it? What does that mean? Well, basically x10hosting are doing a lot of free users a favour and is recognized for it. They're offering cPanel for free which is most likely attracting a lot of members, and that's how x10hosting came to be.

Indeed there are a lot of other panels out there and as you've stated, some even free but then x10hosting won't have as good reputation. Reputation in this case probably doesn't matter, that's what you're thinking but how many more members do you think will sign up for a free control panel?

There are probably others that can do the same job, but maybe again not as good or as easy.

Good reasons to keep cPanel is that x10 are offering it for free to free users, which will gain more members, the more the merier (higher incomes). cPanel is known for it's powerful control panel, and more members will feel more relaxed with it. Other panels won't be able to do the jobs easier, and members may not sign up as they've never heard of the panel before.

CPanel just needs to go, sure there are a few hold outs that like CPanel, but there are other account panels that are more powerful then cpanel and much more suitable to x10hostings needs.

Yes, maybe more suitable to x10hosting needs but never more powerful. cPanel 11 is the most powerful panel available out there, yet still user friendly.

May be there are others that are similar but cPanel just attracts more members and other panels may not.

 

[masshuu]

Good reasons to keep cPanel is that x10 are offering it for free to free users, which will gain more members, the more the merier (higher incomes). cPanel is known for it's powerful control panel, and more members will feel more relaxed with it. Other panels won't be able to do the jobs easier, and members may not sign up as they've never heard of the panel before.

except that they will get discouraged when there website goes down for 3 mintues every 20 minutes, and takes 3 seconds to load a page

 

[Anna]

getting them based on cpanel might be true, but keeping them has everything to do with uptime and stability...

I actually think that x10 would get a lot new users even without cpanel, when I signed up cpanel was NOT a major factor to the choice. My main reasons was there were fairly good space and bandwidth, and most importantly NO forced ads, in fact no ads at all required. I tried a few. I stayed on x10 not because of cpanel, though I admit it is a nice tool to have, but because of a helpful community and good support.