Fantastico Deluxe WHM Admin

[TwoRocks]

I just noticed something new in WHM under Add-Ons:

Fantastico Deluxe WHM Admin

However, when I click on the link, all I get is a blank screen.

Could you shed some light on what kind of function(s) can be expected here in the future?

Have the "great makers" of WHM posted anything about it?

Just curious...

[Jeff]

Hi David,

Are you a VDS customer?

edit: whoops, this is the Reseller forum, isn't it? :)

That feature is not available to Resellers, only root.

[TwoRocks]

Okay, mystery solved. Thanks, Jeff.

That means if I ever want to satisfy my "curious self" and find out what I can do with WHM Admin I will have to upgrade to a VDS... :D

[Jeff]

I can satisfy your curiosity - Fantastico Deluxe WHM Admin is how the server admin controls which packages of Fantastico can be installed, such as WordPress, phpBB, and so on. Other configuration options include managing updates for it, setting the location of the packages to be stored, path to wget, feature sets, and more. It is the control and command center for everything Fantastico, so to speak.

[TwoRocks]

Jeff,

a follow-up question: if/when the time comes for a VDS upgrade (from a reseller account) what would be the new "tricks" / skills I'd have to learn?

Which new tools will I find at my disposal, besides cPanel & WHM?

Which tasks will I need to perform myself with a VDS that you take care of now while I'm a reseller?

I know that transferring existing cPanel accounts from the shared hosting server to the VDS would be one of my jobs instead of yours, but what other jobs that you are covering now would become my responsibility?

[Jeff]

That's both an easy question, and a tough question to answer.

The easy answer to the question of what you would need to manage as a VDS customer is this: just about everything. We do provide support to ensure cPanel/WHM are operational as expected, and we will always provide any type of security related support. The VDS FAQ in the PreSales forum states that the VDS operator is responsible for handling the day to day administration tasks.

The tough part is detailing a list of the day to day tasks, because there are so many different ones that may need to be addressed at any given time.

One example would be troubleshooting email issues. If you're using a VDS and one day one of your customers emails you and says, "why can't I send email from joe@example1.com to truman@example2.com"? It will be your responsibility to check your mail logs to determine the cause.

Another example is logging into your VDS on a daily basis and checking to ensure everything is running smoothly.

If you are having issues setting up a database in cPanel, that will also be something you will need to troubleshoot.

Honestly, the list goes on and on. If you have a background in Linux systems administration and working with a shell, then the VDS servers are generally easy to work with and fun to use. Otherwise your best bet is either shared hosting or a managed dedicated server, which we do provide.

[TwoRocks]

Thanks for the insights, Jeff.

As I don't have a Linux sys admin background, I think I'll "stick to my guns" / reseller account for a while which, thanks to your different reseller plans, offers a lot of room for bandwith / disk space upgrades...

I have yet another follow-up question, though:

In a nutshell, what would be areas where shared hosting / a reseller account are insufficient, and a VDS or dedicated server would be required?

I'm thinking specifically along the lines of streaming audio and video. What can be done within the (bandwidth) limits of a shared hosting account and what cannot?

One of my clients might be asking me soon to set her up for a weekly / monthly "live radio show" (and later on maybe video, as well) for a relatively small audience, at first (maybe a couple dozen live streams @ 32kbps), and I was considering installing something like Icecast (or some other streaming server solution) for her.

Of course, if something like Icecast definitely requires a VDS, there are always the ever-so-popular podcasts which work just fine with shared hosting...

[Jeff]

Hi David,

Another excellent post with very important questions.


In a nutshell, what would be areas where shared hosting / a reseller account are insufficient, and a VDS or dedicated server would be required?


One area is mailing lists. Our email policy on shared hosting is to allow up to 20 emails per minute, and 1000 emails total per day, per email account. This is fine for people with relatively small mailing lists, and those just using email to communicate with their customers. For those that need to maintain large mailing lists and exceed the limits we impose on the shared hosting servers, a VDS or dedicated would be the alternatives.

Another area is very popular or CPU intensive websites. Running a website that receives, let's just say 500,000 hits a day, and heavily uses PHP and MySQL, could become very CPU intensive. For a website that uses nothing but static html, this isn't so much of an issue. Anything CPU intensive would be best done in a VDS or a dedicated.

I will mention the next thing below, which was the first thing that popped into my mind.


One of my clients might be asking me soon to set her up for a weekly / monthly "live radio show" (and later on maybe video, as well) for a relatively small audience, at first (maybe a couple dozen live streams @ 32kbps), and I was considering installing something like Icecast (or some other streaming server solution) for her.

Of course, if something like Icecast definitely requires a VDS, there are always the ever-so-popular podcasts which work just fine with shared hosting...

We do not allow services such as this to be run on the shared hosting servers, primarily due to security reasons. We have a set number of services that run on each shared server, such as cPanel, MySQL, httpd, and Exim. Allowing users to set up other services could introduce both security and stability risks into the environment. On a VDS, however, you are free to install anything you'd like. Podcasting definitely sounds like the best solution here.

[his]

Otherwise your best bet is either shared hosting or a managed dedicated server, which we do provide.

How similar is the management you offer for managed dedicated servers to the reseller plan? If its enough, then I would probably be interested in that. I also would like to know are there different "levels" or "types" of reseller plans?

Thanks! Marie Kinsella

[Jeff]

How similar is the management you offer for managed dedicated servers to the reseller plan? If its enough, then I would probably be interested in that.

The management we offer for dedicated servers is very similiar to the reseller plans on the shared hosting servers, in that we fully administer the servers and make sure everything is up and running smoothly at all times. There's really not any difference. You can always find more information about the dedicated servers here, which provides a little more information:

Dedicated servers as of August 2006
http://www.myriadnetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=209


I also would like to know are there different "levels" or "types" of reseller plans?

Thanks! Marie Kinsella

The differences in our Reseller plans really just comes down to 3 things:

1. Disk space
2. Bandwidth per month
3. Number of accounts

You can find more information on each of these on the main Myriad website ( www.myriadnetwork.com )

Other than those 3 things, everything else is the same.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to let me know. Thanks Marie.