September 2011

In this issue:

• New cloud servers
• New hosting control panel
• Migrating your sites to the new systems

New cloud servers

The rather ancient cfdeveloper servers have been going for many years, in fact I'm quite surprised they are still going, but they are now finally being retired and have been replaced with new Virtual Private Servers in the cloud provided by Bluethunder..

I'm sure most folks have heard about cloud computing by now, but for those that don't really know what it is all about, here is an explanation on wikipedia, and below are some of the advantages that this new setup gives to CFML Developer.

• Scalability
  Hosting in the cloud uses virtual private servers, which can have all their resources expanded on demand (CPU, RAM, Disk).
• Performance
  The new cloud servers are of course considerably more powerful than the old cfdeveloper servers (16 CPU cores, 24GB RAM, Raid 10). We have also upgraded to Windows Server 2008 64 bit which is of course better and faster.
• New Features
  • Windows Server 2008
    With the advent of the latest version of windows server comes improved performance as well as a host of new features. One of which is the ability to take full control over your own site the web.config file, which allows you to do things like URL Rewriting, redirects, and many of things you could only previously do with Apache. For more details take a look HERE.
  • SQL Server 2008 Express
    In addition to MySQL, you can now also use Microsoft SQL Server 2008 express, which I personally find far more powerful, user friendly and reliable than MySQL, it is also much easier to backup and restore databases. You can find more details on MSSQL 2008 Express HERE.
  • New control Panel
    The old HELM control panel is also being retired as well, see the next article for more details.
  • Increased Resources
    You will also notice that the resources have increased, in fact doubled in most cases on both the FREE and the PLUS developer hosting plans.
     

To take advantage of all these new features and improvements, you will need to migrate your account to the new system. Please see the migration article below for more details.

New hosting control panel

Another major change with the new systems is a brand new hosting control panel called WebsitePanel, which replaces HELM.

Helm was great in its day, but sadly it is well past its sell by date and is no longer being actively developed or supported, so will never be able to support windows 2008 Server or IIS 7.

Using WebsitePanel will of course take some getting used to as it is considerably different than helm, but thanks to BlueThunder we have some handy video tutorials to make this process easier. You can also find the official WebsitePanel user guide HERE.

Here are just some of the funky new features you get with WebsitePanel.

• Better File Management
  In HELM you had a separate file manager for each site, but in WebsitePanel you have a centralised file manager that allows you to access all your files in all your sites from one place. The same goes for FTP, instead of a separate FTP account for each domain, you can have one with access to the root of your hosting space that can access everything.
  In addition you can also ZIP and UNZIP files from within the file manager which makes uploading/downloading and backing up your apps much easier.
• Better Database Management
  You can now backup, restore and truncate your database directly within the control panel. This means if you already have an existing database you can easily upload and restore it to your account, and also backup and download just as easily. If you find your database has grown more than it should, just hit the truncate button.
• Scheduled Tasks
  WebsitePanel gives you much greater power with its pre-set scheduled tasks, you can schedule
  • Database backups,
  • Zip/Archive files in your web space
  • Send Files via FTP (send yourself a copy of your archive)
  • Check website availability - can also be used in place of CFSCHEDULE to execute specific URK's on your site.
  • Send email notifications
• Authentication
  You can now enable/disable windows basic or integration authentication

What is NOT included

• Railo
  Currently Railo is not supported by WebsitePanel, I am however working on this and aim to have it supported before the old servers are shut down.
  Railo Technologies have also decided they no longer wish to support the CFML Developer community, so the enterprise extensions will also no longer be available.
• ColdFusion Data Sources
  WebsitePanel does not currently support creating CF DSN's, again I am working on this, but in the mean time you will need to request your DSN to be setup manually.

Migrating your sites to the new systems

Unfortunately there is no automated way to migrate to the new servers, it has to be done manually, however it is still pretty straight forward.

If you wish you continue using your existing domain, then you will need to backup all your data and then delete your domain from helm first, then add it to WebsitePanel.

If you are happy to use a different domain, then just sign up as a new user via the website and setup a new domain as normal and upload your data.

Your existing application/code will need to be downloaded via FTP, but you can then just zip it and upload to your new WebsitePanel account as a single file and then use the unzip tool to extract it.

Your MySQL databases can be exported using PHPMyAdmin and then imported to the new server via PHPMyAdmin or via WebsitePanel, you do need to create the database first though before you can restore it.

EMAIL

If you have a PLUS account in HELM and signed up way back when this included email, then you will not be able to migrate this as email is no longer included and has not been for a long time. You may instead signup for a CFML Developer Google Apps account instead which includes a "yourname@cfmldeveloper.com" email address as well as numerous other handy developer tools and collaboration features.
If you have your own domain name which was registered through CFML Developer / Bluethunder Internet, then this includes email forwarding as standard, so you will be able to set this up to forward to your CFML Developer Google Apps account by logging into your account at www.bluethunderdomains.net . If however you still prefer to use your own domain for email, then I recommend singing up for a Google Apps Free account.

I will be taking the old servers offline at the end of March 2012, so you have a whole 6 months to make the migration.

Once you have migrated your sites please do let me know so that I can delete your HELM account and know it has been migrated.

If you have any questions or issues then please post them on getSatisfaction.