Would you give up cPanel for better uptime?

[Corey]

Hey Guys,

Currently we have hit a wall with cPanel support regarding some issues we're facing with cPanel on our free servers. cPanel was not made to support the amount of accounts we have and our hands are tied with customizations to it because of the core files being encoded. We have just received final confirmation from them that there is pretty much nothing we can do.

So, my question is... how important is cPanel to you? Please vote on the poll.

We are actively looking for solutions to make cPanel manageable as is. We have some test environments setup with different software that we can hopefully make work with free hosting + cPanel together. I would like to get the opinion of our user base if these solutions we're testing do not work though.

This would only be for free hosting, not paid

==Update==
The #1 problem we're having with cPanel is the forced use of Apache and also why your site goes down. Every time an account is added or removed from the server (which is a lot per day) apache does a graceful restart and reloads the whole config file. Because of the amount of accounts on a server the config file is massive and takes so long to reload that apache stops responding to queries until it finishes which makes your site stop responding. Now say 5 things are queued to be added\removed from Apache and each reload takes 3 minutes... that is a total of 15 minutes of downtime. The only solution is for us to keep adding additional servers to support this, but economically this is not an option for long term growth.

Some Answers:
We would switch to another control panel, it would definitely not be as advanced as cPanel though.

We tried virtualization about 6 months ago and it is not a feasible solution for us.

If we switch it would be all free hosting accounts, we wouldn't be able to offer cPanel for just the people who want it as everyone would prefer cPanel over something else I'm sure.

 

[Livewire]

Would this affect the paid servers at all, or just the free? I dun wanna cast my vote if it only affects free :S

 

[ipodtouchforum]

Isn't cPanel necessary to setup MySQL? Anyway, I am in favor of anything that will give me better uptime.

 

[Livewire]

Isn't cPanel necessary to setup MySQL? Anyway, I am in favor of anything that will give me better uptime.

At the moment it is, however I'm of the assumption if x10 ditches cpanel, they would add in a new system to create databases (might even go as far as auto-creating one when you create your new account).

Keep in mind the poll's ditching cPanel in particular - there's other software available, and with any luck some of the options will better-support the sheer number of accounts x10 has.


My opinion is if it won't affect the paid servers, go for it. I kinda like cpanel though, and with any luck on paid we'll still have cpanel cause there's not as many accounts there

 

[Rob_C]

Well, I wouldnt mind not having cPanel. I hardly use it anyways. The only thing i'm worried about is the installations I have made through fantastico, will this affect them?

 

[Dazz]

I would prefer to keep cPanel as it makes things a whole lot easier for me to manage my website and try new things. I would be sad indeed to see it go, never had any problems with it or with the up-time of the server aside from problems with email.

 

[garrettroyce]

It will be a big jump, but there are many free hosts out there that are pretty good (not as good as us, ofc ) that don't use CPanel.

Could we make a test case, maybe have one free server without cpanel and see what happens?

 

[f1lt3rh34d]

This test server should be lotus then, since it's down daily.

 

[adamparkzer]

Is there a way to potentially remove some features from cPanel that are infrequently used to allow better uptime?

 

[garrettroyce]

Is there a way to potentially remove some features from cPanel that are infrequently used to allow better uptime?

I think the problem is the number of accounts, but maybe this will help. I think what really makes X10 great is the number of features and if we eliminate that I think it'd probably hurt us too.

 

[adamparkzer]

cPanel had a large impact on keeping me with x10Hosting, and I'm sure that others feel that way also.

Is there a way to have some servers for free hosting operate without cPanel, and some with? Users who use the features of cPanel would be placed on a collection of servers, and non-cPanel users would be placed on another set of servers. That way, members that don't use cPanel (which probably is more than cPanel users, according to poll results so far) can have better uptime, and cPanel users could also have better uptime because less people are on their cPanel servers.

 

[Livewire]

I think the problem is the number of accounts, but maybe this will help. I think what really makes X10 great is the number of features and if we eliminate that I think it'd probably hurt us too.

Here's hoping if we do ditch cpanel thatm ost of the features we have still work - File Manager could be cloned with a basic php document, along with a lot of the things in cpanel.

The issue is the sheer numbers, from what I understand. Just gotta find something that doesn't blow up in a gigantic fireball with that many accounts

 

[leafypiggy]

would we replace it with something like lxadmin or something similar? (Not like on the VPS's, but like a panel (like cPanel)) but more stable and better suited for massive amounts of accounts?

Or, just a suite of stuff to use for management:

- http://www.ajaxplorer.info/demo/ (file manager, login with username: demo , password: demo
- PHPmyAdmin for SQL
- some sort of API for creating/managing FTP, Email, etc.

Most of the other stuff in cPanel (except Fantastico) will be pretty easy to replicate.

Plus, users with enough experience could sell their services and install software for people! It'd stimulate the "x10" economy, as well as, if the user sells it for real money, stimulate the global economy!

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

Also, keep in mind there is a lot of other hosting panels out there, like
laxadmin/kloxo
virtualmin
ehcp
plesk
etc

Here is a list of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...l_panels#Licence_and_Operating_system_support

And there is always installing every software (httpd, mysqld, ftpd, mail, bind, etc) manually, and eventually make a custom panel, but that's not likely, due to it's too time consuming I think...

 

[cosmocrazy]

Does this mean there will be no control panel at all? I can't really imagine web hosting without a control panel...

Maybe you can code a nicer panel like Dreamhost! They hand-coded it.

 

[Linkz0rs]

Why not use Virtualization on the servers?
It can greatly reduce costs for the servers, and could improve server load.
I would love to help x10 with their server issues... But sadly, I'm not part of staff lol...
I've dealt with virtualization technology quite a lot, and even use it at work, so I know how to manage, and work with it.

I love cPanel, and really wish x10 wouldn't get rid of it...

 

[Anna]

I'm not on a free sever any more so I won't cast my opinion in the poll, as it would probably not affect me it would be unfair to vote.

I think one of the big questions in regards to ditching cpanel would probably be what it would be replaced with. If I were on a free server that would definatly affect my answer on the poll.

In general I'd say better uptime is preferable though.

 

[Corey]

I have updated my original post with more information.

 

[Kayos]

I think the server stability issue is a huge problem. If cpanel is the main culprit then I say we remove it and use something that does not put so much stress on the servers.

 

[Hauzer]

Hi Corey,

Seeing as cPanel is causing problems, due to the fact that there are many users on the server, we could limit the users a little. Something which no other post in this thread has thought off.

If a person wants cPanel on this host, they just sign up by registering their forum account with their hosting account which instantly is registered with cPanel. I would love the uptime to be higher, though I haven't noticed any problems with it but I would also like to have cPanel at the same time.

All free hosts on x10hosting should have LayeredPanel pre-installed, which is a good alternative. Nothing fancy, just basic really. The user has an option to upgrade to cPanel, but to upgrade you must meet two simple requirements:

* You need a minimum of 100 posts on the forum.
* You must then login to the forums every 2 weeks.

If those requirements are met, then they may have cPanel offered to them from x10hosting. You may choose how many posts are required but 100 is pretty basic.

As adamparkzer has stated, his reason to join to x10hosting was because of the cPanel and in a way, mine was too. Loosing cPanel may also loose a lot more users but will benefit those with 100 posts or higher. This would mean faster servers for those 100+ post users and higher uptime as well.