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How

How to use the UpCloud API to manage your UpCloud servers

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How to use the UpCloud API to manage your UpCloud servers.

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If you have not read my previous posts I have now moved my blog etc to the awesome UpCloud host. Sign up using this link to get $25 free credit.

I recently compared Digital Ocean, Vultr and UpCloud Disk IO here and UpCloud came out on top by a long way (read the blog post here).

Here is my blog post on moving from Vultr to UpCloud.

Spoiler: UpCloud performance is great.

Upcloud Site Speed in GTMetrix

I have never had an UpCloud page load take longer than 2 seconds since moving.

UpCloud API

UpCloud has an API that we can opt into to using where we can manage servers. Read the official UpCloud API documentation here.

The API allows you to control:

  • Accounts
  • Pricing
  • Zones
  • Timezones
  • Plans
  • Servers
  • Storages
  • IP-Addresses
  • Firewall
  • Tags
  • etc

Create a sub-account to query the API

You should create a new user account (in the UpCloud dasbboard) just for API access. I created two accounts for use on my server and on my home laptop and my server (and set a limiting IP(s) that can access it).

Create a Sub Account for API Access

Login to your UpCloud account (create an account here and get $25 free credit),

  1. Click My Accounts,
  2. Click User Accounts,
  3. Click Change on your user and enable API connections.
  4. TIP: Set up an IP rule to limit access to your API for security (I set up a VPN to get a static IP on my dynamic IP Internet host at home)).
  5. Save the changes

Enable API Connections

TIP: Lock down the account to have the minimum permissions required.

e.g

  • Disable access to the control panel (Untick).
  • Allow API Connections (Tick) and specify an IP
  • Disable access to billing contact (Untick).
  • Disable access to billing section in the control panel (Untick).
  • Disable allowing of emails to billing contact (Untick).
  • Allow or Remove access to all server (or manually add access to desired servers)
  • Allow or Remove access to modify storage (or manually allow or remove access to desired storage)
  • etc

Lock down the account to the minimum needed

Save the account.

Now let’s make our first API call

I use OSX and I use the awesome Paw API testing tool from https://paw.cloud (This is not a plug, they are awesome). Postman is a popular API testing tool too. Any good programing language or CLI will allow you to send API requests.

First, let’s prepare the authorization string (this is a Base64 encoded combination of your username and password) read more here.

  1. Head over to https://www.base64encode.org/
  2. Click the Encode tab
  3. Add your “username:password” (without the quotes).
  4. Click Encode

A Base64 string will be outputted 🙂

e.g > eW91cmFwaXVzZXJuYW1lOnlvdXJzdXBlcnNlY3VyZXBhc3N3b3Jk

fyi

You can encode also Encode and Decode Base64 from the Ubuntu Command line

Encode Base64 from the CLI Sample

Decode Base64 from the CLI Sample

Now we can add an “Authorization Basic” token to the API request in Paw.

Authorization Header added with my base64 token.

A quick test of the UpCloud Prices API endpoint https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/price reveals the API is working.

Add Authorization Token

I can now see a full breakdown of my service prices in JSON 🙂

Query My Account

OK, Let’s see how much credit I have left by querying the https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/account, I duplicated the item in Paw and changed the URL to https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/account but no data returned?

I had to enable “Access to Billing section in Control Panel” for the user before this data returned from the API (make sense).

> HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Query (GET)

Output

“2500.00” = cents ($25)

Query All of Your Servers

Ok, Let’s get server information by querying https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/server

Query (GET)

Output

Query Server Information

I have redated the UUID’s for my servers but once you know them you can query them by hitting https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/server/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

Output

The servers name, IPv4 and IPV6 network adapters are listed, CPU(s), Memory, Disk Sized and UUID’s are all visible 🙂

Surprisingly the VNC password is visible (enabling access to the root console).

TIP: Ensure your API account is safe and secure.

Query Storage Information

Now, Let’s query the storage with the GUID from above by querying https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

Output

I can see information about the storage’s assigned server and backups 🙂

Query Backup Information

Backup storage can be queried with the same storge API endpoint https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############

Query (GET)

Output

Rename Backup

One thing that I would like to be able to do is to rename on-demand backups in the UpCloud dashboard (this is not a feature yet) but I can rename manual backup’s in the API though 🙂

Boring “On-Demand Backup” label.

Rename Backups Not possible in the GUI

I tried sending JSON to https://api.upcloud.com/1.2/storage/########-####-####-####-############ to rename a backup but kept getting an error?

JSON

{
> “storage”: {
> “title”: “Latest manual backup , Working NGINX, PHP, MySQL w Tweaks”,
> “size”: “50”
> }
> }

Result

> “error_code” : “CONTENT_TYPE_INVALID”,
> “error_message” : “The Content-Type header has an invalid value.”

I googled and found an old manual for UpClouds API (official support here).

I added these missing content type headers (108 was the length in chars of the payload)

Still no go?

I think the content length value is wrong, more here.

I fixed it, it turned out I had a semicolon in the Content-Type value. The JSON RFC always assumes that Content-Type is UTF8 encoded (more here).

This Fails

This Works

Now I can rename my Backup (storage). I manually calculated the length of the JSON payload and added a “Content-Length” header and value.

Query (PUT)

Output

Success 🙂

Backup Renamed

Create a Backup

Backups can be performed with a “/backup” added to the end of the query string.

Query (POST)

Output

Success (UpCloud GUI)

Conclusion

UpCloud does have great API docs.

I can easily integrate this into bash scripts to manage my servers via API and a future Java app for managing servers.

Paw does give CURL output to allow me to copy working API’s for use in BASH 🙂

More to come

  1. BASH Script to Deploy and configure a server on UpCloud via Initalization scripts (or manual) (1 week)
  2. JAVA App to manage your server (3 months)

If you are signing up for UpCloud please consider using my referral code and get $25 credit for free.

Read my setup guide here.

https://www.upcloud.com/register/?promo=D84793

I hope this guide helps someone.

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Revision History

V1.1 updated typo

v1.0 Initial Post.

Measuring VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 4 of 4

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How can you measure VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 4 of 4

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Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

I ran the MySQL benchmark preparation command again (no problem this time).

Test table and records created

Test Records Created

Now I can benchmark MySQL on my main server.

RAW Output

Results

queries performed (in 60 seconds):

  • read: 336210
  • other: 48030
  • total: 384240

I decided to add an index to see if I can speed this query up (read the MySQL index page here). I added an index (in Adminer) on the columns “Id” and “pad” for the sbtest table in the test database

I restarted the MySQL process

I ran the same benchmark again.

Raw Output

Results

The quick index added 20% extra throughput on queries 🙂

Mysql before and after an index

Don’t forget to delete your test database

Viewing MySQL Index Usage (on the “test” database)

Query to show Index stats for a table ‘test’

I can see the MySQL PRIMARY index is getting used 🙂

Index Summary

Read more in viewable query stats (columns) here.

Other System Information Tools

Show processor information

Output

Memory Information

You can assign 512MB, 1GB, 2GB or more memory to a server on Vultr, Read my guide here on upgrading resources for Vultr VM’s here.

Only upgrade your server’s memory when server processes demand it, there is no need to pay for extra idle memory. Read my older guides on upgrading Digital Ocean and AWS servers.

I use the htop utility to monitor memory and processes. The memory usage will depend on how you have configured your server to use connection pools in code, MySQL or services.  Also what memory demands do you get in pean bandwidth times?

HTOP

You can check your server memory details on Ubuntu with this command

Output

Use Memory or Disk (Swap)

You can configure the use of Memory over Disk by configuring your/etc/sysctl.conf file (setting value “vm.swappiness”)

You can check your swap file settings by running the following command

Or By running

Set a new swap file value by editing /etc/sysctl.conf

Set the following to use more ram over the swap disk.

Read about swappiness values here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swappiness

Service Performance

Performance (and allocated resources) depends on the demands of your operating system and installed software

What operating system do you have?

View NGINX Status, how much memory does it use?

PHP (and Child Worker) status how much memory does it use and how many child workers do you have? Read my add PHP child workers post here (and update to PHP 7.2 here)

MySQL Status

Shared VM Hosts

One of the biggest impacts (after server latency) for your server is not the disk performance but the number of hosts/websites on the server who are also using the disk and server resources.

Reverse IP Lookup

I have 80 other web servers on my server (based on a reverse lookup).

I may move to a dedicated box when I can afford it.

Security

Above all else ensure that security is number 1 priority and make performance second priority.

Scan your site with Zap, Qualys and Kali Linux. Performance means nothing if you are hacked.

website-report

Simulated concurrent users

You can use Siege to test the maximum concurrent users accessing your site before the server starts to drop connections.

FYI: If you use Cloudflare (you should) this may not work as it will block connections.

Install Siege

Test  your server with 10 concurrent serves for 1 minute

Results

Keep upping the connections (from 10 above) to a limit where connections start dropping.

I tried 25 then 50 concurrent users hitting a server on Digital Ocean and it did not fail.

Conclusion

  • Choose a server near your customers
  • Change hosts if one is faster and cheaper
  • Measure or benchmark your server (and compare over time).
  • Use Cloudflare

Create your own server today

  • Create your own server on Vultr here.
  • Create your own server on Digital Ocean here.
  • Create your own server on UpCloud here.

And remember you can install the Runcloud server management dashboard here.

I hope this guide helps someone.

 

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Measuring VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 3 of 4

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How can you measure VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 3 of 4

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Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

I used these commands to generate bonnie++ reports from the data in part 2

Image of results here

Bonnie Results

Network Performace

IMHO Network Latency is the biggest impact on server performance, Read my old post on scalability on a budget here. I am in Australia an having a server in Singapore was too far away and latency was terrible.

Here is a non-scientific example of pinging a Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud server in three different locations (and Google).

Ping Test

Test Ping Results

Latency matters, run a https://www.webpagetest.org/ scan over your site to see why.

Adding https added almost 0.7 seconds to https communications in the past on Digital Ocean (a few thousand kilometres away). The longer the latency the longer HTTPS handshakes take.

SSL

Deploying a server to Singapore (in my experience) is bad if your visitors are in Australia. But deploying to other regions may be lower in cost though. It’s a trade off.

Server Location

Deploy servers as close as you can to your customers is the best tip for performance.

Deploy serves close to your customers

Also, consider setting up Image Optimization and Image CDN plugins (guide here) in WordPress and using Cloudflare (guide here)

Benchmarking with SysBench

Install CPU Benchmark

CPU Benchmark (Vultr/Sydney)

Result

39.15 seconds

CPU Benchmark (Digital Ocean/London)

Result

33.43 sec

CPU Benchmark (UpCloud/Singapore)

Result

23.77 sec

Surprisingly, 1st place in prime generation goes to UpCloud, then Digital Ocean then Vultr.  UpCloud has some good processors.

Processors:

  • UpCLoud (Singapore): Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2687W v4 @ 3.00GHz
  • Digital Ocean (London): Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L v2 @ 2.40GHz
  • Vultr (Sydney): Virtual CPU a7769a6388d5 (Masked/Hidden CPU @ 2.40GHz)

(Lower is better)

prime benchmark results

(oops, typo in the chart should say Vultr)

Benchmark the file IO

Confirm free space

Install Sysbench

I had 10GB free on all servers (Vultr, Digitial Ocean and UpCloud) so I created a 10GB test file.

Now I can run the benchmark and use the pre-created text file.

SysBench description from the Ubuntu manpage.

“SysBench is a modular, cross-platform and multi-threaded benchmark tool for evaluating OS parameters that are important for a system running a database under intensive load. The idea of this benchmark suite is to quickly get an impression about system performance without setting up complex database benchmarks or even without installing a database at all.”

SysBench Results (Vultr/Sydney)

SysBench Results (Digital Ocean/London)

SysBench Results (UpCloud/Singapore)

Comparison

Sysbench Results table

sysbench fileio results (text)

Read

  • Vultr (Sydney): 385,920
  • Digital Ocean (London): 944,280
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 944,320

Write

  • Vultr (Sydney): 823,266
  • Digital Ocean (London): 629,520
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 662,880

Other

  • Vultr (Sydney): 1,466,466
  • Digital Ocean (London): 3,588,232
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 2,121,090

Total Read Gb

  • Vultr (Sydney): 5.8887 Gb
  • Digital Ocean (London): 14.409 Gb
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 15.172 Gb

Total Written Gb

  • Vultr (Sydney): 3.9258 Gb
  • Digital Ocean (London): 9.6057 Gb
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 10.115 Gb

Total Transferred Gb

  • Vultr (Sydney): 9.8145 Gb
  • Digital Ocean (London): 24.014 Gb
  • UpCloud (Singapore): 25.287 Gb

Now I can remove test file io benchmark file

Confirm the test file has been deleted

Bonus: Benchmark MySQL (on my main server (Vultr) not on Digital Ocean and UpCLoud)

I tried to run a command

To fix the error I created a test table with Adminer (guide here).

Create Test Table

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Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

Measuring VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 2 of 4

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How can you measure VM performance (CPU, Disk, Latency, Concurrent Users etc) on Ubuntu and comparing Vultr, Digital Ocean and UpCloud – Part 2 of 4

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Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

Measure Disk Performance with Bonnie++

Installing Bonnie++ on Ubuntu

Read this. post on using Bonnie++

Benchmark disk IO with DD and Bonnie++

Starting Bonnie++

Bonnie++ Readme.

Disk io with bonnie++ on Vultr/Sydney

Disk io with bonnie++ on Digital Ocean/London

Disk io with bonnie++ on UpCloud/Singapore

Now read this site on how to make sense of this data

 

< Previous – Next >

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4

How I upgraded from a standalone 1Password 6.x licence to 1Password (7+) cloud subscription on OSX

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This is how I upgraded from my standalone 1Password 6.x family licence to a 1Password 7 cloud subscription on OSX. I am not reviewing 1Password here.

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This is NOT a paid endorsement, this is output from my legitimate quest from upgrading an old stand-alone family licence to a cloud subscription. I have been using 1Password for the past 5 years and have recommended it to everyone I know.

Always backup your data before updating (things can go wrong), good luck. At the time of writing 1Password 7 was not out of beta.

Why

I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, Setting up VM’s on UpCloud, AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean and let’s say 1Password has helped me store everything from service invoices, SSH password service passwords etc. I did have a stroke last year (caused by the flu (a cough) and luckily all is OK ) and I now realise that having everything out of my brain and in a secure vault is a good idea (touch wood).

Reasons why I use 1Password – Password Manager.

  • It is a good idea to use a password manager.
  • It has allowed me to have a different password on every site I use.
  • I managed to stop using my old “same” password on every site I used since the 1990’s.
  • I am paranoid (check out https://howsecureismypassword.net/, https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and google “sites hacked” or “passwords exposed”).
  • It’s a good idea.

1Password 7 News

1Password 7 has been hitting my twitter timeline, should I upgrade? Here is the official upgrade guide.

Security Researcher Troy Hunt’s – https://haveibeenpwned.com/ is now a feature in 1Password 7

I wrote a PHP implementation to check a password exposure level with Troy Hunt’s pwned passwords API and know it’s a good idea.

Also, there are loads of great features in 1Password 7.

1 Password site showing 1Password 7

Anything that can help create secure passwords is a good idea.

1Password Twitter Support Shoutout

Before I begin I would like to acknowledge the patient 1Password support team on twitter. They answered well over 20 questions from me and handled my frustrations of there not being a clear standalone family licence, I suspected a plot to force people onto a cloud subscription at first.

In an ideal world upgrading, 1Password should be an easy process (1Password Twitter Support indicated)

NBN Support

Load’s of 1 Password activity on Twitter

Before I downloaded the latest 1Password 7 I fired heaps of questions at the twitter support. I hope 1Password give them a raise or bonus.

1Password Twitter DM's

I did spend way too long reading past the negative 1Password support posts on “where is the standalone licence”, “beta discounts are gone”, “why so expensive” and “how can I upgrade from 1password 6 and still use dropbox” etc.

1Password Forum Searches

I ended up logging a support ticket (looking for the unicorn beta tester discount/stand-alone licence, I think I was too late to join the beta program).

1Password Forum Support

I backed up my 1Password 6 data

Always take backups of your data before upgrading anything.

    • Open your existing 1Password 6
    • Click File, Export, All Items
    • Choose a File Name and press Save
    • Verify Data (open Finder)

    Backup Existing 1Password 6 Vaults

    I also backed up the 1Password file in Dropbox before upgrading. Simply drag it to your desktop.

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    Backup Dropbox Vault

    I visited https://1password.com/extlink/signin/ and…

    1. Signed in (create an account if you don’t have one), I had one from a previous support ticket I logged.
    2. I chose “Individual” account type.
    3. Specified my Email Address
    4. Verified My Email

    1Password signin process

    Then I..

    1. Added my Name
    2. Skipped the Credit card option (to activate the trial)
    3. Generated a master key (this is combined with your password)
    4. Created a new password for a new password vault
    5. Logged in
    6. Saved my Emergency Recover PWF (with details)

    Account Details

    I did have a peek at the 1Password SSL certificate strength and other tools and they came up all good (I don’t want to use an insecure service).

    You too can test SSL on sites with https://dev.ssllabs.com/ssltest/

    Check 1Password SSL

    The only concern I have is TLS 1.3 is not an option yet. I use it on my blog’s web server (guide here) also a few SSL labs identified weak cyphers are presented as available from the server (Is this an issue)?

    I also had a look at Google Chrome’s developer console to see if anything out of the ordinary was popping up? The console appears a little chatty? TLS 1.2 was in force securing the client/server communications so that’s nice.

    1Password Website Debug Output

    Now that I am logged into my cloud 1Password (trial) account I can…

    1. Add/View/Edit/Delete items in my vault.
    2. Download desktop/mobile apps.
    3. Import data to vaults.
    4. Turn on Two Factor authentication.
    5. Create/Edit/Delete a password vault (or set as default).
    6. Update billing details (if you wish to subscribe)
    7. Contact Support

    Get 1 Password Apps

    Now I can connect my new 1Password cloud account to my local 1Password 6 installation by.

    1. Open 1 Password (on my Mac)
    2. Open the Preferences and go to the Account tab
    3. Click on Scan the account details
    4. Move the scan window over a QR Code (Setup Code) in a logged in 1password.com screen (login detail like login server, master key and username are auto-entered).
    5. Enter my vault password.

    Loud Account

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    Now I am prompted to import my local 1Password data into the cloud account from my local 1Password.

    Import Old Items

    When the import completed I was prompted to delete the local vault (I said yes because I backed it up).

    Remove Old Vault

    Tip: 1Password 6 on my Mac did not appear to delete the Dropbox data so I deleted this manually.

    After a few minutes, I noticed Dropbox was still syncing files?

    1Password is still using Dropbox

    Troubleshooting: I had to set my new cloud vault as the primary vault to save to and not the old vault that was syncing via Dropbox. I also deleted all links to Dropbox on iOS and Android devices.

    I did notice that 1Password was 6.8.9 (I thought 1password 7 was the latest?, I did try the update button). I ended up ticking “Include beta builds” and then 1Password 7.0 is a download option (maybe this will change in the next few days)?

    Opt Into Beta

    I opened 1Password 7 on my local desktop.

    1Password 7 instaled

    I had a quick look around in 1Password 7 for the https://haveibeenpwned.com/ feature. I opened an existing account I added to 1Password. It look’s nice.

    Vulnerable Passwords Feature

    Some nice alerts and features I noticed when viewing my data in 1 Password 7.

    Some 1 Password features noticed

    Aside: I had to opt into beta builds on Windows to get 1Password 7 too.

    Windows 1Password Instaled

    Summary

    When I set out and wanted a stand-alone licence but it appears I would need to pay for a licence on Windows and Mac and portable devices.

    I overlooked an earlier DM from 1Password (that provided the purchase links) so I decided to go with a subscription (I think I missed the BETA program too, no reply from the hockey app email when opting into beta on Windows).

    Standalone

    Buy standalone licences

    From what I could see standalone licences only work via Dropbox (or locally) and not via the 1Password cloud.

    However, the subscription does away with the requirement to buy multiple licences (all apps are free once you subscribe). I am not sure when 1Password 8 is coming out so I think it is wiser to go with a yearly subscription (that’s about 10.8c a day in Australian peso’s).

    Time to Subscribe

    I pulled the trigger and subscribed 🙂

    Subscribe

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    One nice thing is the trial time is added on to the subscription length so if you have 30 days left in the trial it add’s on to the yearly subscription length (13 months), that’s nice.

    Subscribed

    Conclusion

    Happy = Yes (they are shooting fish in a barrel)

    Could have been easier to upgrade from 1 password = Yes

    I hope this guide helps someone.

    Find out more about 1Password at http://1password.com/

    Ask a question or recommend an article

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    Your Question

    Revision History

    v1.3 Fixed typo in the title/url.

    v1.2 Added Links

    v1.1 Added Conclusion

    v1.0 Initial post

    How to install PHP 7.2.latest on Ubuntu 16.04

    by

    How to install PHP 7.2.latest on Ubuntu 16.04

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    I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, Setting up VM’s on UpCloud, AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. PHP is my programming language of choice.

    PHP has a support page that declares the support date ranges and support types: http://php.net/supported-versions.php

    PHP Versions

    A version of PHP is either actively supported, security fix supported or end of life.

    PHP Support

    From time to time vulnerabilities come up that require PHP updates to be applied.

    Source Link here

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    I have guides on setting up PHP 7 here on Digital Ocean, here on AWS and here on Vultr. I have tried upgrading to PHP 7.1 in the past with no luck (I forgot to change something and rolled back to 7.0).

    FYI: I have a guide on setting up PHP child workers so the output from some commands below may be different than yours. Here are the steps I performed to install PHP 7.2 alongside 7.0 then switch. to 7.2.

    Backup your system

    Perform a Snapshot or Backup before proceeding. Nothing beats a quick restore if things fail.

    Note: Use this information at your own risk.

    Update your Ubuntu systems

    Backup PHP

    Install Helper

    This software provides an abstraction of the used apt repositories. It allows you to easily manage your distribution and independent software vendor software sources. More Info

    Add the main PHP repo (more information)

    Update the package lists

    “In a nutshell, apt-get update doesn’t actually install new versions of software. Instead, it updates the package lists for upgrades for packages that need upgrading, as well as new packages that have just come to the repositories.” from here

    Verify New Packages

    Install PHP 7.2

    Install common PHP modules

    Install PHP FPM

    Update all packages (may be needed to update from php 7.2.4 to 7.2.5)

    Edit your NGINX sites-available config

    Edit your NGINX sites-enabled config

    I edited these lines

    Edit your PHP config (and make desired changes)

    Edit your PHP pool config file (as required). See this guide here.

    Make sure you set: listen = /run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock

    Set PHP 7.2 as the default PHP

    Check your PHP version

    Reload PHP

    Reload NGINX

    Check the status of your PHP (and child workers)

    Check your website.

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    Troubleshooting

    Guides that helped me.

    https://thishosting.rocks/install-php-on-ubuntu/

    https://websiteforstudents.com/wordpress-supports-php-7-2-heres-how-to-install-with-nginx-and-mariadb-support/

    Check your log files

    Debug FPM Service

    Remove PHP 7.0

    PHP 7.0 Removed 🙂

    Remove other unused packages

    At the time of writing (Sep 2018) PHP 7.2.9 is the latest version of PHP and PHP 7.3 will be out at the end of the year.

    Good luck and I hope this guide helps someone

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    Revision History

    v1.2 PHP 7.2.9 and PHP 7.2 updates

    v1.1 Remove PHP 7.0 steps

    v1.0 Initial post

    How to backup WordPress on a host that has CPanel

    by

    This is a simple guide that demonstrates how you can log in to a host that offers the CPanel tools to backup all of your website files (and databases). Backing up your website should be done often and especially before you migrate to any another website host. I used to change hosts every few years (they don’t own your site, you do).

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    I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, setting up VM’s on UpCloud, AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line copying files to a server via command line editing remote files locally etc but how do you manage a website with CPanel?

    You can normal login to CPanel tools on a shared host by loading www.yourdomainnam.com/cpanel (failing that login to your domain hosts web GUI and find your CPanel interface there).

    Step 1: Login to your Host

    Login to your web host

    Login to Host

    Step 2: Find your CPanel Interface

    Hosts are a bit different but in this case, I just click my domain to find the CPanel link.

    Domain

    I found it, I clicked the CPanel login.

    Cpanel link

    Step 3: CPanel Applications

    CPanel does offer good tools to manage your websites like web-based File Manager and Database tool called phpMyAdmin.

    CPanel Options

    Aside: CPanel/Hosts Downsides

    The thing I don’t like about hosts that offer CPanel is they usually limit delivery of your website to extract more money. Nothing worse than receiving Resource Limit Is Reached errors.

    cpenal_usage_exceeded

    Also shared hosts usually lag way behind in newer software versions like PHP and MySQL (this is a security concern).

    TIP: You can scan your site for vulnerabilities using Qualsys Freescan, Zap or Kali Linux.

    Here is a security scan of a shared host (with CPanel) that I was using in 1999. Note the high vulnerabilities and old version of Linux.

    Static Website

    Also, a shared host will often overcharge you (e.g $150 a year) for a poorly configured SSL certificate.

    This was an SSL cert I paid $150 a year for (evaluated with SSL Labs SSL Test) on a shared host with CPanel.

    Aside: Self Managed Upsides

    After I moved my domain to a self-managed virtual machine I migrated WordPress, set up a free SSL certificate, sped up my site with a CDN, setup Cloudflare, setup better TLS security etc

    When you manage your own server you can install a free SSL certificate in under 1 minute.

    Below is my SSL certificate. A strong SSL certificate will increase search engine traffic

    SSL Cert

    Aside: Compare Shared host speed v Self Managed

    FYI: https://gtmetrix.com/ is a great site for measuring the speed of a website (shared of self-managed). I found great speed improvements after moving away from a host offering CPanel, tweaking the server and setting up cloudflare. A self-managed server will allow you to tweak anything you want.

    GTMetrix results:

    Shared Host Speed

    I like how self-managed servers allow you to scale the server’s resources yourself, move servers or add storage etc.

    Aside: SSL Certificate

    If you have an SSL cert you should test it often as vulnerabilities pop up from time to time.

    FYI: All sites will soon require an SSL certificate to be sent traffic from search engines (no SSL = lower traffic).

    SSL Test my site: https://dev.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=fearby.com&s=104.27.154.69

    Now enough with the self-managed serve asides and back to how to backup your website with CPanel tools.

    Step 4: Backup your web files in CPanel

    Use the File Explorer app in CPanel

    File Manager

    Highlight all files that you want to backup (highlight everything but not past backup files).

    backup-cpanel-006

    View the files to compress summary

    Compress Summary

    Click Compress Files(s) and view the backup progress

    Backup Progress

    You can now download the backup zip file in your browser (click the file and click Download).

    Downaload ZIp

    Download Progress.

    Download File

    Step 5: Backup your database in CPanel

    Now we need to backup any MySQL database(s) that may be used by WordPress

    Open the phpMyAdmin app in CPanel.

    phpMyAdmin

    FYI: Alternatively, you can use a free tool called Adminer to backup and restore our database.

    Click your WordPress database (on the left). You can identify your current WordPress database by opening the wp-config.php file.

    Database Options

    The first step is to perform an online cold backup of the WordPress database.

    1. Click the database you want to backup (on the left)
    2. Click the Options tab
    3. Under the Copy To frame enter a new database name to copy the database too
    4. Click Go

    Online Backup

    Now you have an online cold spare that you can use just in case the original database corrupts itself. You can rename the database or configure WordPress to point to this new database if need be.

    backup-cpanel-013

    Now let’s download a copy of the database (Repeat for multiple databases).

    1. Click the database you want to backup
    2. Click the Export tab
    3. Click Go

    backup-cpanel-014

    You should now have a backup of your website in a zip file and an export of your database in a .sql text file, SQL files can be re-imported to databases later.

    TIP: Backup often.

    Export Done

    I hope this guide helps someone.

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    How to install Windows 10 Pro alongside an OSX partition with Apple Boot Camp

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    This guide will show you how to install Windows 10 Pro alongside an OSX partition with Apple Boot Camp.

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    I have a number of guides on moving away from CPanel, Setting up VM’s on UpCloud, AWS, Vultr or Digital Ocean along with installing and managing WordPress from the command line. I use OSX to develop and occasionally need to use Windows to achieve some development tasks, this is how you can install Windows on an Apple PC.

    Apple Boot Camp

    Apple Bootcamp software can be found here: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201468

    Bootcamp

    Bootcamp Steps.

    BootStrap Steps

    You can download a Windows 10 ISO here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

    Download ISO

    You will need to plug in a 16GB or larger USB key to use as an install medium.

    Download Boot Camp

    Download AppBoot Camp here: https://support.apple.com/en-au/boot-camp

    Start Apple Boot Camp, click Continue, Tick all options, select the Windows 10 ISO file (beware Bootcamp will select the first ISO file it finds, ensure your USB is selected, Click Continue (tip: You may need to er format and prepare the USB key 10 times, Apple Bootcamp is not the most reliable program), It may take 6 hours to copy files pre Window Setup).

    Bootstrap Steps

    Choose your Windows partition size (at least 200GB is ideas)

    Partition

    When the Bootcamp Wizard is complete you can reboot into Windows (automatic at the end of the wizard)

    Windows Booting

    Enter the desired details in each step (e.g Local, Windows Key, Windows Version, Partition and Country etc)

    Windows Setup Options

    Loads more steps like Keyboard Layout, Domain, Microsoft Account, Password and Cortana and Privacy etc.

    Windows Setup Options

    Windows is now installed, Apple Bootcamp will set up appropriate drivers for your Mac,

    Instaling

    While this is happening I will install Google Chrome Canary.

    Chrome

    Bootcamp has now finished setting up drivers.

    Bootstrap Done

    Windows 10 Start menu (I prefer OSX’s simplicity)

    Windows Strart Menu

    You can set up your prefered Startup disk in the Apple System Preferences or press the Option key on startup and choose a partition to boot.

    Bootup Options

    Update: Open a Windows 10 Boot Camp Installation on OSX in Parallels (like a VM)

    Read this guide will show you how you can open a Windows 10 Boot Camp Installation on OSX in Parallels (like a VM).

    Windows

    I hope this guide helps someone.

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    Revision History

    v1.1 Added Open Bootcams as VM

    v1.0 Initial post