T-shirt swap

There is only one thing cooler than a cool customer. Its a cool customer with their own website on their tshirt. We'd love to wear one. So if you have one we'll swap you one of yours for one of ours (http://blog.rimuhosting.com/2012/02/21/bare-elbows/). Contact us at support to arrange the exchange! To get our T-shirt you can order directly at http://www.cafepress.com/rimuhosting and we can give you a hosting credit.

Tech news updates

• 2012-03-27 : JBoss AS 7.1 install script
• 2012-03-20 : Monitoring your server
• 2012-03-16 : Account authorization and password resets

Make a delightful day for your users

Users will forget what you say. Users will forget what you do. Users will remember how they feel. So design a beautiful day for your customers. Make it a memorable day.

Per minute billing

We have recently had a couple of questions/comments about how/whether we do per- minute/hour/day/month billing. Our goal is to only charge you for the minutes you use on a server.

Success through kick ass users

Kathy Sierra presented at Webstock 2012. And her talk compelled me to start thinking deeply about how I go about writing apps and helping users. The best indicator of success is when, after using your app (or service or company), the user thinks ‘I’m awesome’. NOT: the product or company or service is awesome.

T-shirts are a coming …

T-shirts are great. They cover a good part of your torso. But not the arms. So your elbows get to breathe. We think it is so important for your bare elbows to touch your desk while you're admin-ing your server that we'd like to give a few of our most precious customers a free t-shirt.

Tech news updates

• 2012-02-20 : Cron script for checking disk space
• 2012-02-18 : Distrubution release support (CentOS4/Debian 5)
• 2012-02-18 : Plesk updates and server security
• 2012-02-03 : Linux kernel CVE-2012-0056 vulnerability
• 2012-02-01 : Centos brcm-iscsi.log
• 2012-01-05 : WordPress mass update script 3.3.1
• 2011-12-14 : WordPress mass update script 3.3

Introducing 2 Parts Magic

I am happy to announce the launch of a new RimuHosting service: 2 Parts Magic web app development services. 2 Parts Magic is team of web programmers. Based here in the Cambridge RimuHosting offices. They write browser based web applications for start-ups and successful Internet-based businesses. So you can use their services to implement your rich internet applications. Typically forms or pages using things like Ajax, Javascript, HTML5 on the client side. Applications that require a 'server side' that makes use of databases and knows about users and billing and things like complex ordering systems. Applications that need things like REST-ful APIs.

December 2011 Newsletter

… We will try to keep you posted on some of the our key news since the last newsletter back in April (http://blog.rimuhosting.com/2011/04/19/newsletter-2011-04/) …

… RimuHosting is launching a web app development service: http://2partsmagic.com. 2 Parts Magic builds web application software: server-side (Java, JSP, MySQL) and client-side (Javascript, Ajax, HTML5) …

Plus Standing Cloud, discounted dedicated servers, VPS improvements and more.

Silverstripe CMS on Standing Cloud webinar Tue Dec 13 1300 PST

Join Standing Cloud and Peter from RimuHosting at Tue, Dec 13, 2011 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM PST for a webinar that demonstrates Standing Clouds one-click app deployment and management (to RimuHosting servers).

We will be giving a demo using Silverstripe as our target app. And the webinar will be followed by a Q&A session.

Tech news updates

• 2011-11-15 : Fixing broken permissions or ownership
• 2011-11-11 : Using swap within a VPS
• 2011-10-12 : Checking a potentially hacked machine and reinstalling packages when you break things

Easy application hosting using StandingCloud and RimuHosting

Imagine being able to configure a server, pre-setup and ready to run your favorite webapp, with a push of a button. Need a bug tracking system? Just hit a button, and wait a minute, then log into your own Bugzilla app. No sysadmin skills required. No wondering about best practices or security upgrades. StandingCloud are making this possible. They currently have 101 web applications that can be deployed and managed on a cloud server with a push of a button.

VPS-on-dedicated server hosting v2.0

Today RimuHosting introduce our version 2.0 of our VPS-on-dedicated server hosting.  With this upgrade you get:

• Instant dedicated server setups.
• Great discounts on selected dedicated servers (starting at $120/m).
• The power of dedicated servers with the convenience of cloud virtualization.
• Dedicated server hosting billed by the minute or hour or day or month.

Tech news updates

• 2011-09-09 : DigiNotar and SSL certificates
• 2011-08-31 : Why is your server sending spam? why does it keep crashing with high load?
• 2011-08-27 : Could not perform immediate configuration on already unpacked ‘util-linux’.Please see man 5 apt.conf under APT::Immediate-Configure for details
• 2011-08-27 : Hurricane Irene approaching New York
• 2011-08-26 : Apache exploit may crash your server – heres how to fix it

RimuHosting turns on redundant PSU and redundant power feed options

We are happy to announce that we now able to offer dedicated servers with redundant power supplies as well as servers on redundant (A+B) power feeds. The redundant power supply means that your server gets two power connections. Each drawing about 50% of the servers power. If one PSU fails then the other takes over.

Tech news updates

• 2011-08-16 : Wildcard DNS queries added to our DNS API
• 2011-08-12 : 10 August Dallas outage report
• 2011-08-05 : PCI compliance – a basic HOWTO
• 2011-07-15 : Centos 6 released for VPS usage @ Rimuhosting

HOWTO videos for Rimuhosting Control Panel on youtube

Sometimes explaining how to do something in the control panel can be fairly involved, and often confusing for people new to VPS or Rimuhosting. We have a fairly involved control panel that can do a lot of tasks, and it saves you a lot of time if you can do these things yourself in your own time, the way you want them done. For this reason, i have spent a fair amount of time going through a lot of the more common, and somewhat complex tasks via the control panel, and using a screen capture tool, and uploading these to youtube.

Tech news updates

• 2011-07-13 : WordPress mass update script 3.2.1
• 2011-07-06 : Building database clusters with MySQL
• 2011-07-05 : Easy web server Load-Balancing with HAProxy
• 2011-07-05 : WordPress mass update script 3.2
• 2011-07-01 : Storage Clustering Part 2: GlusterFS
• 2011-07-01 : WordPress mass update script 3.1.4
• 2011-06-20 : Easy IP failover (Debian squeeze)
• 2011-06-10 : Storage Clustering Part 1: An Introduction

Special Offer: Upgrade your RimuHosting VPS to a VPS on a dedicated server?

Updating this list as part of our commitment to offering great server deals, current as of 31st May 2011.

We have some older but still powerful machines available. Rather than let them gather dust, we thought we would offer them to customers who are currently have a VPS on a shared host. And would like an upgrade to a dedicated machine. You would get (most likely) more memory; more disk space; and, most importantly, less contention. The CPU and disk IO is dedicated solely to you.

Tech news updates

• 2011-05-26 : WordPress mass update script 3.1.3
• 2011-05-09 : Jira Issue Tracker install script
• 2011-05-07 : Confluence Wiki install script

Sandy Bridge servers in stock; get one quick

Remember back a couple of years and Pentium 4 CPUs were nearly hitting 4Ghz? Then along came the new Core 2 Duos and we were back to a mere 2Ghz (albeit with these new ‘cores’). Intel has been pushing performance via efficiency (e.g. multiple cores) not brute Ghz. But that has always hampered ‘straight-line’ performance. And that’s pretty much been the status quo since 2009. Intel launched the new Sandy Bridge architecture in January and (after some delays due to SATA bugs) the first production mainboards are finally coming on the market (and, yes, we went and got some for our dedicated server customers). Order here: http://rimuhosting.com/order/startorder1.jsp.

$50 hosting credit for server migration

I’d like to offer a USD 50 hosting credit to anyone ordering a new server with us where that server is currently hosted elsewhere. Get started now, order a fast VPS with a ton of memory at a pretty decent price using our Launchtime ordering system. Why order a server with RimuHosting? We're run by sysadmins, not sales people. We work hard to provide great service. We help out with your server. Our prices are pretty decent. And we are the original independent VPS hosting provider. Getting websites up and running since 2003.

Tech news updates

• 2011-05-03 : mod_flvx — flv movies working with apache/apache2
• 2011-05-02 : WordPress mass update script 3.1.2
• 2011-04-15 : Migrating VPS with virtualmin — Multiple DNS changes

RimuHosting News 2010 to April 2011

Hi. Every now and then we send out a newsletter. The last one was in December 2009. Since then we have added a lot of cool new features and services that you may find helpful.

8 years old and lots of recent improvements

RimuHosting just passed its 8th year anniversary in March (that's 1000 years in binary!). We have been pushing hard to improve our hosting service and provide even better value and support to our customers.

Previewing 25mail.st: managed email hosting service

Mail server issues are one of the most frequent mail server requests we get here at RimuHosting. Troubleshooting existing configurations. Setting up ‘basic’ mail servers for customers. Setting up fancy ‘do everything’ mail servers for customers. Answering queries about why ‘x’ is flagged as SPAM (or not). Advising on things like SPF and DKIM. Blacklists and whitelists. Automated SPAM filtering. The list goes on. (And on.)

We are in the business of taking the hassle out of running your website. So it makes sense that we try to help solve all these hassles with email servers for our customers. 25 Mail St (http://25mail.st).

Tech news updates

• 2011-04-07 : WordPress mass update script 3.1.1
• 2011-03-17 : Jboss Exploits
• 2011-02-24 : Debian v6.0 (Squeeze) released
• 2011-02-24 : Plesk 10 — redirect problem
• 2011-02-24 : WordPress mass update script 3.1

Christchurch Earthquake Assistance

Yesterday Christchurch was hit by a devastating earthquake. Our thoughts go out to family and friends and everyone down there. RimuHosting is nestled safe in Cambridge far away from the earthquake. We feel far removed and frankly a little frustrated at our inability to do much to help our fellow kiwis.

What we do have, and what I would like to offer to those affected, are VPSs. For mail. To help keep your business ticking over. To provide updates to your friends and family. To provide forums and support groups for those affected. For mash up apps that help match up people who can help with people who need help.

Tech news updates

• 2011-02-21 : WordCamp 2011 — Wellington
• 2011-02-11 : Improved VPS reboot/powercycles
• 2011-02-11 : WordPress mass update script 3.05

Run your own VPS backups

We have just added a VPS snapshot/backup page to the RimuHosting control panel. By default for each VPS we run a weekly backup. This creates a snapshot of your VPS disk image. Which you can then restore to (e.g. to revert to an earlier time) or mount along with your current file system (e.g. to restore selected files).

Data transfer reporting page (new RimuHosting control panel feature)

We have added a new data transfer reporting page. It show data transfer usage for each server for the last 50-odd days. With a summary for this and last month.

Introducing Launchtime tailored pricing plans

RimuHosting is proud to introduce the Launchtime tailored pricing algorithm. This algorithm is an alternative to 'fixed' pricing plans. And it will be a key tool for us to provide more affordable, fairer and more flexible pricing.

Tech news updates

• 2011-02-06 : Resolving “My website is slow ”
• 2011-02-01 : London special, two months free hosting!
• 2011-01-29 : Tomcat 7 released, installer updated
• 2011-01-27 : Setting up Monit + with tomcat

Heavily discounted dedicated VPS host server pricing. Very limited stock available

Want to upgrade from a VPS on a shared host to a VPS on a dedicated server? More memory, more disk space, dedicated CPU and disks? We have a great offer for a few of you …

Happy holidays everyone!

Thank you to all our wonderful customers for your business in 2010. We have had a great time setting up servers and helping out with so many varied and interesting environments.

Introducing Launchtime. The easiest way to order and setup your new VPS.

• Quicker and easier.
• Just choose memory, disk space and data allowance.
• More options if you need them.
• Push-button install.
• We can still provide full support.
• Order your VPS, the new way.

Looking for offsite FTP-based backups? Introducing our new Bakop FTP backup service.

Introducing http://bakop.com/, the offsite FTP backup service. We have ‘broken out’ the popular RimuHosting-customer-only backupspace service into a standalone and separately branded service. That anyone can sign up for and use.

You get to use however much space you need. No file quotas. The setup continues to use the linux-foo goodness that enables sshfs, sftp, scp and (a small subset of ‘safe’) ssh. It is not S3. It is not a CDN. It is not cloud this or that. Bakop a nice, simple FTP-with-extras place you can rent disk space and store your files remotely.

Pingability, our website monitoring service, gets a facelift.

While I was kicking back camping in Yosemite, Justin here has been ‘messing about’ with CSS on our Pingability web check and alert service. Bringing it from my 2003 design to something a little more contemporary. Thanks, Justin.

Pingability lets you monitor your websites pages, check that things are running OK, and alert you (via email, txt or phone) when they are not. It supports SSH actions (so you it can, say, SSH in and restart apache/mysql or reboot your server) if a web page stops responding. And it can check things like email servers are working, DNS is returning results, and ports are open. There are free and paid options.

http://pingability.com/