Webhost 3.0

Webhost 3.0 provides an updated platform that combines the hosting services onto a single VM.

The service is intended for customers that have technical skills/knowledge in installing/maintaining web software. Customers that have limited technical knowledge/skills may be more comfortable with some of the options listed at: http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/hosting/

Webhost 3.0 provides the following level of support: http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/hosting/support.cfm

Customers that require a higher level of customization and/or have a deep technical background may be more comfortable with a "Managed Server" and installing the web application stack on their own: http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/managed_servers/

What's new

A summary of the updated features:

• 64-bit RHEL 6 (Coldfusion can allocate more than 2 GB of memory)
  • CF9/LAMP currently using 32-bit RHEL5
• Coldfusion 10 using Java 1.7
  • CF9 currently using CF9 with Java 1.6
• PHP 5.4
  • LAMP2 currently uses PHP 5.3
  • PHP-FPM also now available as an alternative to mod_php (uses less memory)
• Python 2.7
  • No change from LAMP2
• Ruby 1.9.3
  • LAMP2 currently uses Ruby 1.8.7
• Perl 5.16
  • No change from LAMP2
• MySQL 5.5
  • Same version from LAMP2
  • MySQL database located on same VM versus separate
• Local storage
  • No longer uses NFS (Shared File Service) for storage
  • Customers can opt to continue to use SFS, but will incur additional charges
• Updated administrative tools
  • Can now modify both ".wdaccess" and ".htaccess" via web inteface
  • Can upload files via PHP Shell
  • Can utilize "pip" for installing Python software
• Shared Apache instance
  • Provides lower memory footprint for hosting multiple isolated instances

The PHP Shell/virtualenv utilities are no longer an "experimental" utility. There are some new "experimental" features that may be of interest for advanced web developers by special request.

• Git Repository
  • A git repository that can be used as an alternative to webdav for publishing code
• Mercurial Repository
  • A mercurial repository that can be used as an alternative to webdav for publishing code
• nodejs
  • possible to run under mod_passenger
• memcache
  • distributed memory object caching system

Details

Software Versions

Shared vs. Standalone Apache

In CF9/LAMP2 each "instance" represented a separate apache instance that could be started/stopped independently. This provides a high level of isolation, but can also consume more system resources and complicate server administration. The "shared" apache instance makes it possible to host a larger number of instances on a single apache instance while still providing isolation between the instances.

* Will start/stop ALL sites that are behind the shared Apache
** Use of Python w/out custom virtualhost include is somewhat limited

How many instances

Using a VM with 2 GB of memory the following are some guidelines on possible deployments. Individual applications may vary (i.e. it's possible to have a single PHP/Python/Ruby/Perl application that consumes 100% of the memory. Increasing the amount of memory may make it possible to run more instances, but it is not a recommended best practice.

Please note that each instance could host anywhere from 1 website to 100 websites depending on how the software is configured (i.e. a single multisite drupal instance serving 100 websites).

Coldfusion

• 2 instances shared or standalone

PHP

• 3 standalone
• 9 shared

Python

• 3 standalone
• 9 shared

Ruby

• 3 standalone
• 9 shared

Static

• 3 standalone
• 100 shared

The estimates below are based on the following observed utilization