Firewall Management

Managing your firewall from the command line is a bit hard. We have pre-configured firewall rules applied in your server. This is for extra security.

To easily make changes in the firewall rules just log in to your hosting panel then go to “Firewall”. It is best to suspend rules that you don’t use.

You can add rules by clicking the “plus” icon or “Add rule.”

To ban an IP address:

firewall > list fail2ban > ban IP address

IMPORTANT: Do not suspend or delete the “PING” rule.

 

Restart the server or system

To restart/stop/start server systems such as MySQL, Apache, NGINX and other systems running in your server just log in to your hosting panel and go to “Server”.

500 Internal Server Error

One of the most common issue in hosting is getting the “500 Internal Server Error”. When that happens try to restart your web server (Apache).

server > apache > restart

 

Database/MySQL crash:

If your database has crashed you can restart “MySQL“.

server > mysql > restart

We recommend to “stop” first the “Apache”, then stop/start the “MySQL”.

 

Warm Reboot:

To restart the server you can click “Restart” under hostname.

server > your_hostname > restart

If there are issues we suggest to try first to stop/start/restart the Apache and MySQL before deciding to restart the server. If there are still issues then you can try to restart the server.

 

Server Timezone

To change the server timezone, you need to log in to your hosting panel using the “admin” user.

server > your.hostname.com > configure > timezone

Click “Save” button

Note: The big “cog” or gear icon is the server configuration button. You can also click the “configure” link under the hostname.

Changing PHP values

There are some ways to change the values of your PHP settings. The easiest way is through your site htaccess or adding php.ini in your site directory.

The first thing you need to know is the PHP info. To know the PHP default values just create/upload a file in your site folder containing the phpinfo() code/function then load it in your browser.

1. Create a file in your local then name it as “myphpinfo.php”.

2. Insert/Paste the following code

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

3. Upload the file inside your “public_html” folder

public_html/myphpinfo.php

4. Go to your browser address bar then type

http://yourdomain.com/myphpinfo.php

Note: Once you are done checking the values you need it is recommended to delete this file from your site.

To change the PHP values:

1. Create “.htaccess” file in your local.

Important: If there is already an .htaccess file in your site it is recommended to use it and just edit from your local.

2. Insert the code in your htaccess depending on what you want to change.

Increase the upload size value:

php_value upload_max_filesize 20M
php_value post_max_size 20M
php_value max_input_time -1

Increase memory limit:

php_value memory_limit 256M

Increase max execution time:

php_value max_execution_time 300

3. After making the changes in your htaccess you can upload/replace the file in your site.

Website is not displaying

In some cases you get the 500 Internal Server error or other errors or simply the website is not displaying.

What to do:

1. Do not panic.

Nothing will be fixed if you started to panic and start doing mistakes. Even big websites get issues.

2. Check the server if accessible.

Try to access the server with ANY of the following.
– login to FTP
– login to hosting panel (https://your_server_ip:8083)
– go to your browser (http://your_server_ip)

If you are able to access the server in any of the above options then it means it is online.

IF you are not able to access the server then reboot.

Login to your account dashboard.

client dashboard > manage > system > power cycle

 

3. Check available disk space

Login to your hosting panel using “admin”.

server > show: CPU / MEM / NET / DISK > disk

If there’s no available disk then you need to delete some files in your server.

If your site is huge then maybe the backup is consuming all disk space.

Try to exclude directories in your backup.

Learn more from “Managing your backups“.

After cleaning the server and removing some files please restart the apache/httpd and mysql. Proceed to step #4.

 

4. Check if HTTPD/Apache and MySQL have crashed.

If you are able to access the server then do the following:

1. Login to your hosting panel using “admin” user.

http://your_server_ip:8083

2. Check If the HTTPD/Apache2 is online. If it is not online then it crashed.

server > httpd/apache2 > start/restart

3. Check if the database server (MySQL) is running. If not then start/restart.

server > MySQL > start/restart

IF restarting the HTTP and MySQL did not fix the issue then try to restart the server.

server > host.yourdomain.com > restart

 

5. Investigate website error logs.

If restarting the server/systems did not do the trick then check your site error logs.

You can download your site error logs from the hosting panel.

web > yourdomain.com > view logs > download ErrorLog

If you see errors then it is probably causing your site to crash.

Hire a developer to check and fix the issues.

 

 

Create new FTP user using hosting panel

If you want to create a new FTP user for your developer then you can do this using in your hosting panel.

Login to hosting panel using your “yourwebuser“:

https://your_server_ip:8083

web > yourdomain.com > edit

Check “Additional FTP

Provide the FTP user credentials and path.

Example path:
/home/yourwebuser/web/yourdomain.com/public_html/
/home/yourwebuser/web/yourdomain.com/public_html/subfolder

Initial Server Setup

Once your server completes the build process you should receive an email with your “admin” user details for vestacp web panel. If you did not receive an email, please check your spam folder.

You should be able to see the hosting panel link from your account dashboard once the server is ready.

Follow the steps:

1. Change your admin/root password and email

Immediately login in your web hosting panel and change the admin user email and password right after the build process is completed.

User > Admin > Edit

 

IMPORTANT:
Do not provide your admin/root details to anyone, except to your trusted devs/firends. Untrusted people can load malicious files in your server that could cause hacking activities in the future.

Note:
If you make changes in your hostname through your web panel this is not reflected in your client dashboard.

 

 

Downgrading your server

In some cases, when you need to re-plan or your site isn’t getting the traffic you wanted you decide to downgrade the server to lessen the expense. Downgrading is not automatic. It will be a process of migration.

Here are the steps:
1. You will need to create first your new server from your dashboard.

dashboard > create server

2. Once the new server is ready you can request the migration by submitting a support ticket.

3. After the migration has been completed you can then destroy the old server from your dashboard.

dashboard > manage > system > destroy

Understanding Server Uptime and Proactive Response with Cloud Monitoring

We monitor your server 24×7 with proactive response to issues. Our staffs are on stand-by to take necessary actions in case your server becomes unresponsive.

Our Cloud Monitoring has global location including US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Your sites and servers are checked by multiple nodes to minimize false positive result.

If your server becomes unresponsive, our technical team ensures that your server gets restarted/rebooted.

By default our monitoring checks your server every minute with with 2 probe servers verification before it sets the alert. The estimated time before alert is 15 minutes.

Server Keeps Crashing:
If your server continuously crashing within a day we will investigate the issue and notify you. The maximum automatic reboot within a day is five(5). If the issue is out of our scope you will need to fix it first. Until then the proactive response is disabled. If the issue is within the network or server, we can automatically fix it and update you for information about the issue.

Limitations:
There are issues beyond our control.

  1. Issue with bandwidth provider/carrier.
  2. You have internet (ISP) issues.
  3. Hardware failure – we automatically replace hardware or transfer your site/files into another machine.
  4. Site/Script issues