Tag Archives: slicehost

Moved to Linode for hosting

Published Jun 12, 2009 | In Unix/Server Stuff

Long time readers of my blog will know that I moved to Slicehost around 15 months back. I was pretty happy with their service, but now I have left them and have moved all my sites to Linode.  linode_logo_gray

Both Slicehost and Linode are good but when compared with Linode, Slicehost was slightly costlier. I realized it after reading the comparison done by David. I bought an account in Linode for testing and was quite happy with it. But I was lazy to move all my sites, since it involved some work.

The recent announcement by Linode to give 33% additional disk space wooed me enough and I gave in. 🙂

Now I am getting some additional features with Linode but for less cost. 😉

Posted in Unix/Server Stuff | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Webbynode – A new VPS hosting service in beta

Published Nov 10, 2008 | In Random/Personal

Webbynode is a new Xen based VPS hosting service, which targets developers who want to have control over every aspect of their server. This means you can have a single server where you can run your Ruby on Rails application in parallel with a Django application.

The service is currently in beta and you can register your email address in their registration page to get an invite. The advantage of testing the service during the beta period is that you can use the service free right now and once the service is out of beta, you will get discount over the regular price and if you are lucky you can even get lifetime memberships. 🙂

I am still waiting for an invite and once I get to try this service, I will write a detailed review comparing its feature with slicehost, which is my current hosting service.

More details about Webbynode can be found below.

Posted in Random/Personal | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Changing the default config editor in Ubuntu

Published Apr 25, 2008 | In Unix/Server Stuff

If you are following the articles at Slicehost, then you may notice that PickledOnion uses nano as the default editor. I somehow like vi more than nano (not ready for a debate 😉 ) and was looking for a way to make vi the default config editor. After some googling, I found how to do it.

I am writing it down here so that all I have to remember is that I just need to search my blog if I need to do it again in future.

Okay the command you have to use is (I am assuming that you are not logged in as root, which is the recommended approach)

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

And then press the number corresponding to the editor which you want to use. Below is the screenshot of how it looked in my slice.

Changing default config editor in Ubuntu

Posted in Unix/Server Stuff | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thankyou Slicehost

Published Feb 8, 2008 | In Random/Personal

As you all know, recently I moved to SliceHost and these are some statistics about my site.

First is the response time graph from Site24x7, an excellent service to monitor your site’s uptime and response time.

Response Time Graph

Second is the graph from Google’s Webmaster tool, which shows the number of KB’s of data downloaded per day from my blog.

Google Webmaster Tool Graph

I have just 2 words to say – THANKYOU SLICEHOST

By the way I have also upgraded to a 512MB Slice 😉

Posted in Random/Personal | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Accessing MySQL safely using port forwarding with PuTTY

Published Feb 7, 2008 | In Database Programming, Unix/Server Stuff

During my days with dreamhost, in order to access MySQL from my local machine, I used to add my ip to the allowed host list. Even though security is compromised here, I really liked to use HeidiSQL for accessing MySQL database server instead of the built in MySQL console. But after my move to SliceHost, I found a little trick using which I can continue to use HeidiSQL from my local machine without adding my ip to the allowed host list.

This nice little trick is called port forwarding. Let me show you how I configured PuTTY so as to enable port forwarding.
First install MySQL and then configure SSH to use key based authentication and change the default port by following the articles at Slicehost. After installing MySQL and configuring SSH, download and install PuTTY from its download page. I recommend you to download the zip file containing all the files.

Then create a new session in PuTTY by entering the ip address and also the port. Then choose Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels. In the source port field enter a valid port number like 8600. In the destination field enter the value 127.0.0.1:3306. 3306 is the default port in which MySQL runs. The reason why I asked you to enter a different port in the source is that, in future if you run a MySQL server in your local machine for testing, it will clash with your port forwarding. Click the Add button and then start the session. Don’t forget to save the session.

PuTTY

Now open your favourite MySQL GUI client. Mine is HeidiSQL. In the connection settings, enter 127.0.0.1 as the Hostname and enter the port which you specified in the source field in PuTTY (8600) as port. Also enter your username, password, default database name and the click connect.

PuTTY

Now the request which goes to port 8600 of your local machine is forwarded to port 3600 of your MySQL server by PuTTY and you can safely use a GUI client for MySQL without adding any ip to the allowed host list. Note that it will work only when PuTTY is having the session opened.

I hope this is of help to you and let me know how it is working for you. Happy PuTTYing 😉

Posted in Database Programming, Unix/Server Stuff | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Good Bye Dreamhost, Hello SliceHost

Published Jan 29, 2008 | In Unix/Server Stuff

Finally, I am out of Dreamhost. My annual plan expired last November and I changed to monthly plan and was searching for a reason to change. The incident which happened last week became the final nail in the coffin and I am out of it now.

I have faced the bad neighbour problem and have had some outages because of it occasionally, but to be fair to Dreamhost, the problems I faced with them were not as bad as the ones which I had with my previous web host.

The other reason for me to change the host is that I have got fed up with shared hosting and wanted to dive into VPS. I thought of going with MediaTemple, but they were expensive and then tried GoDaddy Linux Virtual Dedicated plan. It really sucked! I was not getting the kind of control which I was expecting. More over the control panel itself took too much memory of 256 MB and the server was always at its knees.

It was then I read the review about SliceHost from Hosting Fu. I was doing some research and the moment I found the excellent article repository, I immediately went and registered. Right from the OS, everything is in your control and you can configure or install any software which you want. This is the type of control I was looking for. I selected Ubuntu Gusty as OS and have so far installed and configured Apache, MySQL, PHP, Subversion and Ruby on Rails. Finally I can get my hands dirty with Ruby on Rails, (which was actually one of my resolutions for 2007 🙂 )

I will keep you guys posted about my experience with SliceHost and also will post the interesting code snippets or configuration tricks which saves me some time. I am back to slicing my slice from slicehost 🙂

Posted in Unix/Server Stuff | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments