As some of you have noticed, two relatively big changes recently took place.
cPanel 11.25 Upgrades
The first, while not as big, did bring some much needed improvements and fixes. This would be cPanel 11.25 which all servers are now running. Here are some of the more important changes that you should be aware of:
- Mailman archive data is now included in each account's disk usage. However, cPanel does not currently display how much disk space each Mailman list is using so this can create confusion. It will appear that the account is using more disk space than there are files on the account simply because the Mailman data resides elsewhere on the file system.
- WHM users can now set their own default name servers for new accounts via the "Basic cPanel/WHM Setup" link at the top of the left menu.
- A simple DNS zone editor is now available via cPanel. This allows for the creation of custom CNAME and A records.
While that covers a few of the more important changes from a user's point of view there are also numerous bug fixes, minor performance improvements across the board, and some user interface tweaks.
LiteSpeed Migrations
All servers have been migrated from Apache to LiteSpeed. LiteSpeed maintains a lot of the features that Apache offers while providing a tremendous improvement in performance. The big improvement here was in PHP script execution. We were early adopters of cPanel's phpsuexec which then shifted to mod_suphp. While some sort of suphp setup is very necessary in a shared hosting environment it was always plagued by one problem: poor performance when compared to mod_php.
This is where LiteSpeed's LSAPI comes in to play. With it we are able to maintain the high performance benefits of mod_php with the safety of suphp. Some basic benchmarks can be found here:
The key information to look at is at the very top and bottom of the table (LiteSpeed LSAPI and Apache suPHP). Just below the LSAPI you can even see mod_php. While no benchmark will be perfect and please everyone, our own tests produced similar results. It became painfully obvious that LiteSpeed's LSAPI w/ suPHP was a tremendous improvement over Apache suPHP.
With that in mind, there are a couple of minor changes that have occurred as a result of the migration:
- PHP settings can now be used in .htaccess files using the same php_value syntax as Apache.
- Custom php.ini files can still be used but these must be placed directly in the account's public_html directory. This php.ini file will then apply to the entire account (sub/parked/addon domains included).
All of our servers have been running LiteSpeed for at least a few weeks now with some having been migrated a couple of months ago. Overall we experienced very few problems during the migrations. As always, if you ever require assistance we're here to help, just submit a ticket and we'll see what we can do.
Things to come...
We've got a few more big improvements planned for this year already. I don't want to give up too many details just yet but here is what we're working on:
- An alternative to Fantastico with many more scripts to choose from and more frequent updates. We have no immediate plans to remove Fantastico, this will just be another option.
- An entirely new backup system.
- Geographically redundant name servers which will be shared across all of our hosting servers. Not only will this allow for increased DNS availability but it will greatly simplify things with only one set of name servers for all of our clients.
- A freshly redesigned website. Our existing website design has been in use for the better part of a decade and it certainly shows its age. It is hard to focus on something so trivial with all of the other big things that we have planned but the current website simply does not portray the image and first impression that we want to make.
In addition you can expect the same type of version upgrades that you've gotten used to. I just wanted to give you a taste of the bigger projects that we are currently working on. Stay tuned!
cPanel 11.25 Upgrades
The first, while not as big, did bring some much needed improvements and fixes. This would be cPanel 11.25 which all servers are now running. Here are some of the more important changes that you should be aware of:
- Mailman archive data is now included in each account's disk usage. However, cPanel does not currently display how much disk space each Mailman list is using so this can create confusion. It will appear that the account is using more disk space than there are files on the account simply because the Mailman data resides elsewhere on the file system.
- WHM users can now set their own default name servers for new accounts via the "Basic cPanel/WHM Setup" link at the top of the left menu.
- A simple DNS zone editor is now available via cPanel. This allows for the creation of custom CNAME and A records.
While that covers a few of the more important changes from a user's point of view there are also numerous bug fixes, minor performance improvements across the board, and some user interface tweaks.
LiteSpeed Migrations
All servers have been migrated from Apache to LiteSpeed. LiteSpeed maintains a lot of the features that Apache offers while providing a tremendous improvement in performance. The big improvement here was in PHP script execution. We were early adopters of cPanel's phpsuexec which then shifted to mod_suphp. While some sort of suphp setup is very necessary in a shared hosting environment it was always plagued by one problem: poor performance when compared to mod_php.
This is where LiteSpeed's LSAPI comes in to play. With it we are able to maintain the high performance benefits of mod_php with the safety of suphp. Some basic benchmarks can be found here:
The key information to look at is at the very top and bottom of the table (LiteSpeed LSAPI and Apache suPHP). Just below the LSAPI you can even see mod_php. While no benchmark will be perfect and please everyone, our own tests produced similar results. It became painfully obvious that LiteSpeed's LSAPI w/ suPHP was a tremendous improvement over Apache suPHP.
With that in mind, there are a couple of minor changes that have occurred as a result of the migration:
- PHP settings can now be used in .htaccess files using the same php_value syntax as Apache.
- Custom php.ini files can still be used but these must be placed directly in the account's public_html directory. This php.ini file will then apply to the entire account (sub/parked/addon domains included).
All of our servers have been running LiteSpeed for at least a few weeks now with some having been migrated a couple of months ago. Overall we experienced very few problems during the migrations. As always, if you ever require assistance we're here to help, just submit a ticket and we'll see what we can do.
Things to come...
We've got a few more big improvements planned for this year already. I don't want to give up too many details just yet but here is what we're working on:
- An alternative to Fantastico with many more scripts to choose from and more frequent updates. We have no immediate plans to remove Fantastico, this will just be another option.
- An entirely new backup system.
- Geographically redundant name servers which will be shared across all of our hosting servers. Not only will this allow for increased DNS availability but it will greatly simplify things with only one set of name servers for all of our clients.
- A freshly redesigned website. Our existing website design has been in use for the better part of a decade and it certainly shows its age. It is hard to focus on something so trivial with all of the other big things that we have planned but the current website simply does not portray the image and first impression that we want to make.
In addition you can expect the same type of version upgrades that you've gotten used to. I just wanted to give you a taste of the bigger projects that we are currently working on. Stay tuned!