I have had a server here for a bit over a year.

Pentium 4 2.8GHz
Primary IDE Drive: 2 x 80 GB (80 GB Useable space)
RAM Slot 1: 1024MB
Number of ips: 5
Bandwidth: 1000 GB of Bandwidth
Network Uplink: 10Mbps
FloodGuard: Protect a 4 IP Block
Shared SQL Server: None
Control Panel: None

The person who originally set it up did so with:

FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE #0
Apache/2.0.46 (Unix)
PHP 4.3.2RC4 - Server API Apache 2.0 Handler
MySQL 3.23.56

I had a fellow try to 'upgrade' the server yesterday and like an idiot I didn't have a backup of the entire server. He ended up putting Apache 1.3.33 on, didn't change the mysql version, but did upgrade php to 4.3.10. He was going to upgrade MySQL, but he struggled with Apache and php for over 8 hours so I told him to just stop and I'd get a professional to do this.

I want Apache 2.x, php 4.x and MySQL 4.x

Has anyone got these to work together on a FreeBSD server?

Is there a place on these forums, or where can I go to find links or references to professionals who can set up new servers for me (after all the BDS headaches I'm willing to do Linux)? Or does anyone have any ideas?

Has to be in the US with telephone for 'emergency' support if needed.

One last question - this thing has 2 80gig drives with 80 gigs 'usable'. What's the other drive for?

It's pretty easy to install all those apps through ports, specifically using the portupgrade utility (/usr/ports/sysutils/portupgrade). What's going wrong with your update?

Well, I'm not sure what to tell you. I'm not savvy enough to securely set up a server - It's not my forte. When I asked about doing this in a major web site forum (I'm not sure what your link rules are here so...) I had many of the exact same replies - This is easy stuff (I was looking for someone to do it and received several replies - One of which I followed up on). But when the rubber hit the road, php and thus vBulletin (the major part of my site) would not work.

I sorta feel bad - The fellow who tried to 'upgrade' the server was sincere. I don't think he was FreeBSD ignorant. Like a total fool, I didn't have ServerMatrix back up the entire server prior to doing this (and I *preach* about backups) and this is a 'production' server. Anyway, He rebuilt the ports tree and all that and 'cleaned things up'. We went through about 8 hours of his trying things and ending up going back to Apache 1.3.33 (which for some reason broke mod_rewrite - it's there but it doesn't do what it should) just to get php to work. I sat and 'watched' on AIM throughout. He was then going to do the MySQL update but I told him not to because so far it had turned out to be a nightmare and I really can't 'afford' to be offline due something 'catestrophic' occurring - I 'lost my faith' in him.

As a brief history, the fellow who set it up for me a year ago had problems as well. I thought he was just not experienced enough. I'm considering getting a 'new' server her this week and getting Linux on it and a professional to set it up. But - if I could really get the server upgraded I would because of the hassle of moving things from one server to another, DNS changes, and all that. The bottom line here is I've come to think there's something about FreeBSD that I'm (and the two fellows who have worked with my server) have missed... Or if FreeBSD is simply not a good platform for vBulletin for some reason.

I did call Servermatrix about a month ago when I thought about doing this (mainly because I wanted to upgrade from MySQL 3.x to 4.x because of new features). I asked if they had personnel who could do this (I explained I was willing to pay for the service) or if they had any recommended 'server consultants'. The person I spoke with was short and to the point: No and No. Bye! I've been very happy with ServerMatrix but I will admit I would have been happy if they had a list of 'recommended' consultants or could arrange for a professional to do things like this for those of us who keep web sites online but whose focus is the site content rather than 'server techies'.

So - I don't know all the problems the fellow was seeing. I know he had to 'recompile' many things multiple times.

On the other hand - What's weirder, is I did install all these on my Mac and my PC without a hitch - But I did it with precompiled binaries. All I had to do was tweak the different conf files for Apache, php, MySQL, etc.

Anyway, thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.

Our managed services group can take care of something like this for you for a fee (which would be determined by sales). vB is pretty platform independent, and will run so long as it has a good enviornment to run. Open a sales RFQ in Orbit and see if we can work something out for you.

Do you have a management plan? Gold management and above come with one hour of free managed services per month. If you wish this can be applied to upgrading and securing your system.

OK - I'll open a sales RFQ and see what happens. Like I said, the gal I spoke with on the phone indicated you folks don't do that stuff. I don't mind paying. I just want it done correctly.

No - I don't have a management plan. To be honest, I was previously on a Verio virtual 'server' for years but out grew it - From like 1998-9 until last December. Before that I was on virtual 'hosts' from 1996. I rarely had a problem and never had one that I couldn't deal with. But admittedly the Verio deal was fully managed (not to mention very expensive). I have two 'home' servers on old PCs that I run on my broadband conection and they've both been running for close to 2 years without a glitch. I didn't expect to need management.

So it goes. Live and learn.

Just as I suspected... They suggest I upgrade the server to another server and then they add: "Everything else that you have listed can be doen and you would have to do it yourslef."

Spelling aside, the sales group says the managed services group can (will?) not take care of something like this for me even for a fee.

Do you know differently?

That sounds a little odd. Open a sales RFQ and ask how much it would cost to upgrade these daemons. Managed services or Level Two support can be able to do what you need.

It may sound odd, but it was the same reaction I got when I called a month or so ago.

But - I'll try again and reference this thread.

This is their response in full: Actually, if I did upgrade to another server, it appears I can get more power, and 100 Mbps Uplink, cheaper with the SuperServer 3.0.

When I rented this server I bought more than I needed to keep my site fast and accessable. It's only me on the server - I don't resell, and the traffic isn't all that high. I don't think I've ever seen the server load go over 1.5 at the busiest times.

I DO appreciate your response and I'll post sales response to the new RFQ here.

To keep things simple, I updated the existing Open Ticket - 582275PLNT

I added:

From my experience:
Upgrading though ports can be tricky because the combination of apache+php+mysql might not be the one you want and you have to be carefull with your make options.
That's the reason I use a control panel like Directadmin which provides the basic tools.

I'd suggest that you use MySQL 4.1.x. It'll save you from doing an upgrade later on.

A company like serverwizards could set this up for you for a decent price.

Thanks for the reply. I just got another server and I'm playing with it a bit. I appreciate the information - especially with respect to that aspect of using ports.

I had to get used to the way that the ports system installed daemons. it's a bit different than RPM's or compiling from source. Once used to how thier system works its cake. All config files go in /usr/local/etc, programs in /usr/local/bin, libraries in /usr/local/lib, etc.

I second that. However, if you have clients running php/mysql sites you may want to notify them beforehand, or double check your own site if this applies to you. One of my clients uses a news script that implements the native mysql hashing functions for password encryption, and because of the way the tables were created by the install script, mysql 41 did not use the old hashing methods. None of his users were able to login after the db upgrade. I had to reset his password in the database, and he in turn had to reset all the others.

Just something to be on the lookout for. The mysql upgrade is well worth it though, may as well do it now.

Find Facecake from the forums. I'm not sure if he does work like this but I know he's a freebsd guru guy. He would shoot you for sacrificing the daemon for the evil penguin. (I'm just spawn of satan because I run windows )

I currently run http://osnn.net and http://spammers-paradise.com/ both servers hosted here at SM. Never had a problem with upgrades. If you need help you can contact me, at freebsd-help [at] x-istence.com.

I do full server upgrades to whatever version you want for a small charge (Not advertising).

Besides that, i'll help with small issues.

ARGH THE SPAWN OF SANTA SPEAKS! (windows has its uses, IMO however, its not on the webserver, but lets not start a flame war :P)



Whilst i don't use apache2 on production boxes, yes Apache2+php4+mysql4 work perfectly fine on freebsd.
Excluding updating your configs etc, it *should* be a simple case of just going throught the various ports, installing them and removing the old ones.
I'm not quite sure how anyone with any knowledge can piss about for 8 hours with apache + php ESPECIALLY when installing from ports (my bets are, they forgot to make config to facilitae the change from apache2 --> apache1.x (i know you didnt want to do that though))


Theres not any links afaik (i don't think TP/SM allow advertising, but i'd have to check). If your wanting someone to do that Please feel to pm/email me.




The drive is most likely in a raid config, where the drives mirror each other, so if one fails, your data is not lost