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Some layman terms questions from a new user

Discussion in 'Install & Upgrades or Pre-Install Questions' started by Robertas, Apr 21, 2016.

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  1. Apr 21, 2016 #1
    Robertas

    Robertas New Member

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    Hello,
    Briefly about my situation: I was looking into optimized server setups and stumbled upon centminmod on wht, problem was I have no experience managing servers apart from navigating cpanel/whm/ftp programs.
    Solution to this was to find a third party server management company and hand it to experienced admins.

    In my case, I contacted a bunch of companies and smartservermanagement.com were kind enough to help me out, so at the moment we have successfully installed the latest centminmod version (assuming Centmin Mod 1.2.3-eva2000.08 release) and got a blazing fast website up and running.
    At first there were some minor wordpress redirect issues but Nginx Wordpress Configuration - CentminMod.com LEMP Nginx web stack for CentOS fixed them.

    Here are some newb questions that are a bit unclear:
    Question #1
    Whenever there are new Nginx, MariaDB, PHP etc versions released, how to best update every component?
    I've read the stickies/other threads but the information is slightly above my technical understanding so i'd like to double-check.
    As eva2000 wrote:
    Upgrading Centmin Mod involves 2 parts
    1. Upgrading the actual Centmin Mod code outlined at Upgrade Centmin Mod - CentminMod.com LEMP Nginx web stack for CentOS This is heart of Centmin Mod where the code is the engine that runs centmin.sh shell based menu and all the automation you're accustomed to.
    2. Upgrade software that Centmin Mod installed or manages. For this part following outline at Upgrade - How to upgrade Centmin Mod | Centmin Mod Community
    I guess i've just answered my own question, will forward the info to SSM and they should be able to take care of this.

    Question #2
    How to add another domain on the same server with a brand new wordpress install (not a subomdain)?

    Question #3
    Best practices for regular backups? How often do you suggest to backup a website that receives 2mil+ page views per month and has new posts every other day?
    I'm assuming we will setup a script that just backs up the files locally, I see linode offers some sort of backup service too, is it wise to use that in combination with the local backups?
    Seen backuspy and rsnapshot mentioned too, but need to do some more homework.

    Question #4
    Any pointers on how to incorporate and configure load balancers on a live centminmod server?
    Again, I see linode offers linode.com/nodebalancers service.

    Question #5
    Nodequery.com vs Nixstats.com vs linode.com/longview
    Couldnt find clear pricing info for first two options, which one do you guys use?

    Question #6
    Slightly offtopic, i'm using uptimerobot to monitor the uptime. This is crucial to me since we are buying native ad network traffic and any downtime can become very costly,
    does anyone use uptimerobot's API to connect with a traffic source API to pause campaigns when the site goes down?
    Can some sort of script be setup on a seperate tiny server that would run 24/7 checks and connect both services?

    Thanks again for centminmod, doing my part in spreading awareness :)
     
  2. Apr 21, 2016 #2
    eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    Nginx 1.27.x
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    (y)
    how was 1st wordpress instance installed ? if via centmin.sh menu option 22 wordpress auto installer, then same way for 2nd and subsequent installs as you get prompted for site domain name when running centmin.sh menu option 22 as with non-wordpress sites via centmin.sh menu option 2
    Getting started guide step 10 as to backup frequency that all depends on how important data is to you and what your web server is capable of resource wise (cpu, memory and disk). At least daily would be minimum. I have every 4hrs, 8hrs, 12hrs and 24hrs, weekly, monthly depending on server/size of site and saved locally first on server and copy transferred to Amazon S3 storage and Backupsy VPS server.
    Centmin Mod is provide as is, so short of scripted related bugs or issues, any further optimisation to the web stack components - nginx, php-fpm, mariadb mysql, csf firewall etc or web app specific configurations are left to the Centmin Mod user to deal with. So I do not provide any free support for such.

    However, Centmin Mod users are free to help each other out and ask questions or give answers on this community forum. My hopes are that this community forum evolves so that more veteran long time Centmin Mod users help new Centmin Mod users out :)

    Centmin Mod's Nginx has all the nginx modules it requires for you to configure nginx reverse proxy, nginx based load balancing and proxy caching (with exception of the shared file system you'd need i.e. NFS, GlusterFS and any mysql database cluster/replication). You just have to configure it yourself :)

    For nginx reverse proxy & load balancing read the documentation, tutorial and guides below
    again suites your own taste, i have uptimerebot, statuscake, constellix sonar, newrelic, nodequery, nixstats, linode longview, munin, netdata and nodeping all at same time LOL on some servers

    nice discussion thread at monitoring and alert tools? | Centmin Mod Community

    unfortunately don't use their API
     
  3. Apr 22, 2016 #3
    Robertas

    Robertas New Member

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    Cheers for the prompt reply.
    We're still slightly confused regarding the updates :unsure:
    This is the response i've received:
    I understand that we have to use their script in the upgrade process. Since they are using custom script, we have to do it manually according to the forum. Please make sure that the new software updates like PHP will be automatically done whenever a new release is available.


    Ok I believe the confusing part is updating PHP/MariaDB/Nginx in between centminmod code base releases. As I understood they just want to wait for new centminmod code base version that includes the latest components.
    Could you clarify please
     
  4. Apr 22, 2016 #4
    eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

    55,239
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    Nginx 1.27.x
    MariaDB 10.x/11.4+
    centmin mod is designed so that nginx and php updates via centmin.sh menu option 4 and 5 can be done without waiting for me to update the branch. So you get more timely updates for them when their respective versions are announced officially you can do update yourself immediately :)
     
  5. Apr 25, 2016 #5
    Robertas

    Robertas New Member

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    Awesone, we should be good now on the updates.

    Ran into another issue, whenever I update my wordpress plugins, the website goes into maintenance mode for a few minutes, is this normal behavior?
    I can't find any .maintenance file in the root directory whenever this happens.
     
  6. Apr 25, 2016 #6
    eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

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    Nginx 1.27.x
    MariaDB 10.x/11.4+
    that should be the default Wordpress feature whenever plugins, core or themes are updated
     
  7. Apr 25, 2016 #7
    Robertas

    Robertas New Member

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    What's odd is that before centminmod there was no downtime when upgrading plug-ins, I wonder if it's caused by some sort of server level caching or a recent wordpress/plug-in update.

    edit:
    found out this is most likely caused by a certain plugin update ant not centminmod
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2016
  8. Apr 29, 2016 #8
    eva2000

    eva2000 Administrator Staff Member

    55,239
    12,253
    113
    May 24, 2014
    Brisbane, Australia
    Ratings:
    +18,833
    Local Time:
    3:26 AM
    Nginx 1.27.x
    MariaDB 10.x/11.4+
    may i ask which plugin was the culprit ?
     
  9. Apr 29, 2016 #9
    Robertas

    Robertas New Member

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    Most likely advanced ads. Updated some other plugins just now and there was no downtime.
    I've got the paid version which uses some complicated cache busting in order for different display rules to work.
    Will contact the developer and post here if I find out anything useful in case anyone else experiences a similar issue. That's definitely a plugin I use the most.
     
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