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Archive for the ‘Windows Hyper-V VPS’ Category

Free SmarterMail 7 Professional Edition

Posted by Mike on September 17th, 2010

Purchase any Windows Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Dedicated Server with Windows and you will receive the SmarterBundle ($800.00 Value) at no additional cost. The SmarterBundle includes:

  • SmarterMail Pro 7  – 250 Mailboxes ($299.00 Value)
  • SmarterStats Pro 4.x – 50 Sites($299.00 Value)
  • SmarterTrack Pro 4.x – 2 Agents($199.00 Value)

SmarterMail 7.0 delivers Exchange-level mail server features for a fraction of the cost. With lower hardware requirements, superior stability, and reduced maintenance costs and is the best-in-class Microsoft Exchange alternative for businesses.  It is easy to install and administer on your own VPS or Dedicated Server.

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Adding a New User in Windows Server 2008

Posted by Tony on July 22nd, 2010

If you would like to give another user Remote Desktop access to your Windows Server 2008 VPS or Dedicated server, you will need to create a local user.  Here is how you would do this:

  • Login to your server with the Administrator account.
  • Open up the “Server Management” tool by right clicking on “Computer”  and then clicking on “Manage”.
  • Expand the “Configuration” tab and then expand the “Local Users and Groups” tab.
  • Right click on “Users” and click “New User…”
  • Enter the user name that you would like to create in the “User name:” field.
  • Make sure that you uncheck “User must change password at next logon” and make sure that you check both “User cannot change password” and “Password never expires”.
  • Once you click create, this user will be added.

If you need anymore help, do not hesitate to contact our support department.

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Hardware Loadbalanced VPS Servers

Posted by Mike on July 20th, 2010

In our Datacenter we have two Diesel Generators, Three Load Balanced Fiber Rings, Dual Power Feeds, Redundant Network and Hardware Nodes.  When you are looking for a High Availability Hosting Solutions, the greatest point of failure is your Single Web Server.  Hardware Loadbalancing offers a way to remove the single point of failure in your application.

To get hardware loadbalancing you must have at least 2 or more VPS or Application Servers.  The Load Balancer will then divide the load between multiple servers, and reduces the actual load on the server.  The hardware device will even take the SSL encryption off the server and carry the SSL encryption load for you.

The different modes available for Load Balancing are: Round Robin, Fastest Response Time, Least Connections, Weighted Round Robin, or a Custom/adaptive Type. A simple explanation would be to say if you run an e-commerce web site; You are like a grocery store, and you want to get a user through the checkout lane the fastest. Right now you only have one checkout lane, and customers are lining up. If you “Load Balance” and open a second checkout lane the user load or wait time is cut in half. If the register runs out of receipt tape (i.e. Server crash), users can switch to the other checkout lane. The end goal, you want ensure the fastest and most reliable service to your customers, so they do not shop elsewhere. I am sure we have all seen a customer leave a store because the line was too long, or the site was not available.

Another benefit of Loadbalancing two servers is being able to take a server off-line to do an upgrade or patch on the system with Zero Downtime to the entire application.  This is a common practice used in patching enterprise applications.

Hardware Loadbalancing of a VPS or Dedicated server is one way to ensure 100% uptime of your enterprise application.  You can also now view your server load balancing configuration and availability in the Client Area, under your Load Balancing Service.

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Transferring files onto a VPS/Dedicated Server with RDP

Posted by Mike on June 29th, 2010

If you are looking to load software onto a Dedicated Server or Windows VPS, you can do so without setting up FTP or drive mapping on the server.  Windows Remote Desktop Connection (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Remote Desktop Connection) has the option to map remote resources such as the Printer, Clipboard and even local drives.

Click on the Options tab when launching Remote Desktop and select “more”.  You can then select local drives on your PC/Laptop that you want your Server to see.  From your server located in the RackWire.com datacenter you can now browse the C: drive on your PC and copy any needed files/programs to the VPS cloud.

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Managing your Windows Hyper-V VPS from your client area

Posted by Rob Magnanti on May 17th, 2010

If you have recently purchased a Windows VPS from Rackwire, you may have noticed you now have the ability to manage certain aspects right from your client area. These features will work with all Windows VPS’s purchased after April 15th, 2010. Before that date, management of your VPS can be done through DotNetPanel.

To manage, your VPS, first log into your client area at: https://www.rackwire.com/billing/clientarea.php. From there, click on the “My Services” tab. You should see a list of your services. Click the icon next to your Windows VPS:

On the next page, you will see something similar to the following:

As you can see, on this page, you will have the abiliy to reboot, hard reboot, start or shut down your VPS.  You will also see a live image of your VPS’s console that updates every 30 seconds.  Clicking on the image if your VPS launches a remote desktop connection.  Just enter your password and you will be logged into your VPS.

If you have any problems with the features you see on this page, feel free to contact support.

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DotNetPanel Goes Open Source as WebSitePanel

Posted by Rob Magnanti on May 7th, 2010

Recently we were surprised to see that popular Windows control panel software, DotNetPanel had decided to change its licensing model and move to open source under the name WebSitePanel.  We use DotNetPanel here at Rackwire for our shared Windows hosting accounts and, in the past, our Windows VPS plans as well.  All in all, we have been happy with the product and our customer’s seem pleased with it as well.  There have been times however, where we’ve thought it would be nice if we could change some functionality or even add our own features to the application.  Enter open source.

For the uninitiated, when software is released, the source code that was used to create that application is generally either considered open source or closed source (proprietary).  Open-source software  is computer software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software.  Closed source software generally describes software whose source code is not published.  The most popular example would be the open source operating system Linux and its counterpart Microsoft Windows whose code is proprietary.

While there are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each software model, we typically try to use open source software as often as possible for a number of reasons.  Our App Market for example, features a number of open source applications:

  1. WordPress
  2. Joomla
  3. Drupal
  4. SugarCRM
  5. osCommerce
  6. MediaWiki
  7. ZenCart

One reason try to use open source software when possible is because of the flexibility it provides us.  As web hosting experts, we also do a fair amount of software programming.  Using open source software allows us to easily modify or add features to our product offerings.  For example, to get Drupal added to our series of “1-Click Installer” applications, some modifications needed to be made to the code.  Had this been a closed source application, these updates would not have been possible.

Another benefit of open source is the community aspect.  Popular open source software is generally worked on by a community of developers from all over the world.  Proprietary software on the other hand, is generally worked on by one, or a team of developers employed by the software manufacturer.  Often times, open source projects have many times more developers working on the software than a similar closed source application would have.  Because of this, things like patches, bug fixes and upgrades are usually released at a much faster pace.

Last but not least, open source is that it is generally provided free of charge (free and open source / FOSS).  Saving on licensing costs never hurts and helps us pass on savings to our clients.

With all that being said, we are extremely happy that DotNetPanel has decided to go open source and hope the community really gets behind the project.  With the open source community behind it, we think it could really take off and ultimately benefit our customers and the hosting industry as a whole.  DotNotPanel is available with all of our shared Windows hosting plans.

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How to Access MS SQL on your Server 2008 VPS

Posted by Mike on March 9th, 2010

If you have installed MS SQL or MS SQL Express on your Server 2008 VPS access to the Database is blocked by default on the Server 2008 Firewall.

To do this you need to do the two main steps:

Step 1. Configure the Database Engine to use a specific TCP/IP port. The default instance of the Database Engine uses port 1433, but that can be changed. Instances of SQL Server Express, SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1, and named instances of the Database Engine use dynamic ports. To configure these instances to use a specific port, see How to: Configure a Server to Listen on a Specific TCP Port (SQL Server Configuration Manager).

Step 2. Configure the firewall to allow access to that port for authorized users or computers.

Microsoft has a Guide on Opening the Port on the Server 2008 Firewall (Port 1433 / 1434) for TCP Access: How to: Configure a Windows Firewall for Database Engine Access

Step 1. In Control Panel, open Network Connections, right-click the active connection, and then click Properties.

Step 2. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Windows Firewall Settings.

Step 3. In the Windows Firewall dialog box, click the Exceptions tab, and then click Add Port.

Step 4. In the Add a Port dialog box, in the Name text box, type SQL Server <instance name>.

Step 5. In the Port number text box, type the port number of the instance of the Database Engine, such as 1433 for the default instance.

Step 6. Verify that TCP is selected, and then click OK.

Step 7. To open the port to expose the SQL Server Browser service, click Add Port, type SQL Server Browser in the Name text box, type 1434 in the Port Number text box, select UDP, and then click OK.

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Windows VPS Backups and Snapshots

Posted by Mike on February 10th, 2010

When you Order a Windows VPS Running Server 2003 or Server 2008, the first thing you want to do is Take a snapshot of the Vanilla system before you install anything or make any changes.  Here are the steps to take a Snapshot of your windows VPS System. 

Step 1. First, log into the Control Panel and navigate to: Username -> Level1-VPS -> Virtual Private Servers.  From here you will see a few Genral, Configuration, Snapshot and Network tabs.  Click on “Snapshots”.

 

Step 2.  On the Snapshots tab, click the “Take Snapshot” Button.

Step 3.  Once you take a Snapshot, you can rename the Snapshot, like Vanilla Install.  That way if you need to restore the system, you have a backup.

 

Step 4.  You now have a Successful backup of your Server Instance.  If you need to restore your server back to a certain date click the “Apply” botton.  It is always a good idea to take a backup Snapshot after you successfully test any changes you have made to the configuration of your server. 

Best of luck, to get your own Windows Virtual Server with Snapshot capability go here.

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Installing WordPress on Windows Server 2008

Posted by Mike on December 28th, 2009

This is the Quick and Easy way to Install a WordPress Website on Windows Server 2008.  Step One, Download and install the Windows Web Platform Installer.  Launch the Installer and Click on Web Applications Tab and Select WordPress.

Choose “Install”.  The next screen will ask to install the following required third Party Applications:

  • Web Deployment Tool 1.0
  • PHP 5.2.11
  • CGI
  • URL Rewrite 1.1
  • MySQL Windows Essential 5.1
  • Windows Cache Extension 1.0 for PHP 5.2

Select a root MySQL Password, I choose “FLuffy…….wait a second, get your own password.

Lucky for me, the Hyper-V VPS I am on is on an unmetered 100 MBps Connection, so the Download/Install takes minutes.  After it installs PHP and MySQL on the Windows server it will ask you to configure the new WordPress Web Application. You can install in the Default Directory, a Custom /url or a totally new Application with a Custom Domain Name.

Enter the MySQL password from step three, and click Continue.  Then you will get a Successfully installed message.

Now go to your URL/Domain and you should have the WordPress Initial Installation Screen.

Once you click on Install WordPress you will get your Admin User / Password.  Copy the Password and Click Login.  Once Logged in you can Create Pages, Add Plugins, and Choose Custom Themes.  Good luck and Happy Blogging!

You can install WordPress on a Windows Server, Linux VPS, or even a Shared Linux Hosting Plan quick an easy.  The Easiest WordPress Install, is RackWire’s WordPress Hosting, that has full Theme and Plugin Features!

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