FreeBSD MPS v3: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Product Questions

1. What is MPS v3?
2. What is the relationship between MPS v3 and 360° Managed Servers?
3. What can I do with MPS v3?
4. What does the MPS v3 team manage for me?
5. What features are included in MPS v3?
6. What add-ons are available with MPS v3?
7. Can MPS v3 have more than one IP address and/or SSL certificate?
8. Will any additional IP addresses I purchase be contiguous (sequential)?
9. Can I change the IP address?
10. Can MPS v3 accommodate IPv6 addresses?
11. What are the differences between MPS v2 and MPS v3?
12. What are the benefits offered by the MPS v3 team?
13. Does the MPS v3 team backup/restore data for MPS v3?

Technical Questions

1. Can I use the shutdown and reboot commands on MPS v3?
2. Why can't I log in directly as the root user to MPS v3?
3. What is the difference between the admin, root, and standard users on MPS v3?
4. Can I install custom applications or use FreeBSD Ports Collection?
5. What Does MPS v3 support with its CGI Library?
6. Does MPS v3 support custom Perl modules?
7. Does MPS v3 support a control panel?
8. What email options are there with MPS v3?
9. Where do subhost sites reside on MPS v3?
10. What connection options are there for MPS v3?

Product Questions

1. What is MPS v3?

   
   
   The MPS v3 is a dedicated hosting solution that bundles enterprise-level hardware, a highly secure managed hosting platform, and managed services into one powerful product. The MPS v3 product line consists of three sever types: Basic, Pro, and Pro Plus. These server types are differentiated entirely by hardware and capacity:
   
   

   Plan Name	Disk	Quota	Drive Type	RAM	Processor	GHz	Bandwidth
   Basic	3x73 GB	60 GB	RAID Mirrored SCSI	1 GB	Xeon	2.6	1 TB
   Pro	3x146 GB	105 GB	RAID Mirrored SCSI	2 GB	Dual Xeon	3.0	2 TB
   Pro Plus	3x300	230 GB	RAID Mirrored SCSI	4 GB	Dual Xeon	3.2	3 TB

   
   
   All three FreeBSD MPS v3s include the following features within the base price:
   • Managed services such as triple backup, FreeBSD UNIX, version 6.0 operating system and core service updates
   • Security patches and updates
   • More than 50 pre-bundled vinstall software packages for your specific server
   • A choice of control panels designed to make configuring and maintaining your server easier
   • 24/7 System Administration-level support to give you peace of mind while managing your MPS v3
   By outsourcing your dedicated hosting with MPS v3, you eliminate the up-front expense of buying and maintaining hardware that becomes quickly outdated. And with MPS v3, you also eliminate the recurring costs of server administration, keeping up on possible security threats, conducting data backups, and ensuring connectivity and bandwidth availability. The MPS v3 gives you the freedom to concentrate on the success of your business instead of worrying about your infrastructure.

2. What is the relationship between MPS v3 and 360° Managed Servers?

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   The MPS v3 is just one of the many types of products offered in the 360° Managed Servers family. The 360° Managed Servers solution delivers enterprise-class servers and software to power the most intensive applications and content with dedicated bandwidth and processing. To learn more about the different types of products offered through the 360° Managed Servers solution, contact sales at service@alpineweb.com.

3. What can I do with MPS v3?

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   You can use your MPS v3 as a Web server, application server, email server, FTP server, or configure the server however you like. For example, you can even configure your server as a database server and store a large amount of data on it which employees with database privileges can access. Since the MPS v3 is a dedicated server, you have the flexibility to configure and manage the server to meet your precise needs. Using the MPS v3, you can do just about anything you could normally do if you owned the hardware, but without the hassle of server management or hiring a third party to manage it for you. Enjoy full root access, multiple shell accounts, multiple domain hosting, enhanced security, and the ability to install your own applications.

4. What does the MPS v3 team manage for me?

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   The MPS v3 team manages the hardware, FreeBSD UNIX, version 6.0 operating system patches, security updates, along with offering customized kernel level changes designed to make your server more secure and improve the management and usability to your server. This includes security updates and patches to a control panel and the custom installation scripts (or vinstalls). You also receive multi-level backups (instantaneous, daily, and weekly) and we monitor your server for security and reliability.

5. What features are included in MPS v3?

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   Server Administration
   • Root access to your server
   • Configure multiple Shell user accounts
   • Host =email accounts
   • Access to the FreeBSD Ports Collection of Applications
   • Install pre-configured applications of your choice through an vinstall command
   • Anonymous and non-anonymous FTP user accounts
   Web Server
   • Apache 2.2.3 Web Server
   • Dynamic Module Support
   • Full CGI-BIN and log file access
   • Counters, Guest lists, and other pre-configured CGI's
   • Urchin 5 Web analytics tool and other site traffic statistical applications
   • Create and Manage multiple podcast channels
   Email
   • POP/IMAP user accounts
   • Email aliases, virtmaps, and autoresponders
   • TWIG, Squirrelmail, CPX: Control Panel Web-based email applications
   • Majordomo, Mailman, PGP, Procmail, and other email utilities

6. What add-ons are available with MPS v3?

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   Multiple Domain Hosting
   • Domain Names
   • Virtual subhost support
   E-commerce
   • SSL Web Server encryption
   • ShopSite E-commerce (storefront management with secure transactions and payment processing)
   Web Development Tools
   • Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Server-side Extensions
   • Miva Empresa
   • PHP 5.1.5 is the default version. PHP 3.x and PHP 4.x are also supported.
   • Perl 5.8.7, Python, and TcL scripting languages
   • Java Support
   • CGI Library
   Database Solutions
   • MySQL 3.x
   • MySQL 4.x
   • MySQL 5.0.24 (the default version of MySQL installed when you execute the vinstall)
   • PostgreSQL 7.4.7
   • PostgreSQL 7.4.13
   Multi-Media Applications
   • RealSystem Server Media streaming application
   • Macromedia Flash Support
   • Helix Streaming server
   Web site Traffic Analyzers
   • Urchin 5
   • Analog statistics
   • The Webalizer
   • WebTrends Log Analyzer support
   Email Utilities
   • Email Autoreply
   • PGP and GnuPG
   • Majordomo - Mailing List Utility
   • Mailman - Mailing List Utility
   • Procmail - Email Sorting and Filtering Utility
   • Vnews
   • SpamAssassin spam filter
   • ClamAV virus filter
   Groupware
   • CPX: Control Panel - Custom control panel, system administration, email, and user configuration.
   • TWIG - Web-Based Email, Calendar.
   • Squirrelmail - Web-Based Email, Calendar.

7. Can MPS v3 have more than 1 IP address and/or SSL certificate?

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   By default, your server comes with a single dedicated IP address and is not enabled to have additional ones. However, you can purchase additional, multiple IP addresses and configure your server to utilize them. You may also purchase your own SSL certificates and associate them with the IP addresses associated with your server. Use the proprietary vaddhost and vaddcert command-line commands to configure certificates and additional IP addresses.

8. Will any additional IP addresses I purchase be contiguous (sequential)?

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   Not necessarily. Our provisioning system and ARIN requirements do not allow us to guarantee contiguous IP address blocks. When you purchase additional IP addresses, the next available addresses will automatically be assigned to your account/server.

9. Can I change the IP address?

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   No. If you have not purchased additional, multiple IP addresses, you must not change the IP address. If you have purchased additional, multiple IP addresses for your server, you must exercise great care when you change an IP Address. In all cases, if you specify an IP address which is not assigned to your server, it will not function. This is true of any other IP address than the those assigned to your server. You will also be unable to see information about any aspect of the data traffic associated with any other IP address or accounts. The FreeBSD operating system supports a standard, UNIX/Linux command which enables you to see the status of network interfaces for your private server. Use the command for diagnostic. For example, if you issue the ifconfig command without any additional argument, all of the currently active interfaces are displayed. If you issue the command with the additional argument of –a, all of the interfaces, including inactive ones are displayed. For more details about the ifconfig command, refer to the FreeBSD operating system Man Pages.

10. Can MPS v3 accommodate IPv6 addresses?

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    Not at this time. We are currently in development and testing of an IPv6-friendly version of the MPS v3. It will process IPv4 and IPv6 addresses with ease.

11. What are the differences between MPS v2 and MPS v3?

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    MPS v3 is a significant upgrade to the MPS products. Because MPS v3 includes upgrades to the operating system and the file system, almost all programs and services on the server vary technically in some way from other MPS products. Accordingly, interaction with frequently used and common elements of the server may change.
    
    However, the MPS v3 operating system and file system perform almost identically to MPS v2. This means your interaction with most wrappers, scripts, services, and programs on MPS v3 should not change. For example, your usage of command-line wrappers such as vadduser or vaddhost does not change.
    • Web Server: The MPS v3 comes with the Apache Web server version 2.2.3 installed by default. This version performs faster and executes requests in a more optimized fashion than previous versions. The Apache 2 Web server also provides native support for the increasingly popular IPv6 protocol. For more information, refer to the Overview of new features in Apache 2.0 or the Overview of new features in Apache 2.2.
    • PHP 5.x: PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) version 5.1.5 is compiled specifically for Apache 2 on MPS v3. PHP 4.4.4, available through a vinstall, is compiled specifically for Apache 1. Attempting to use either version of PHP with a different version of the Apache Web server may cause scripts and programs to function incorrectly. PHP 5.x adds several new extensions and improved support for popular technologies such as XML, SOAP, MySQL, object oriented programming, and others. For more information about changes in PHP 5.x, refer to the PHP 5 ChangeLog.
    • MySQL 5.x: The new operating system of the MPS v3 permits the MySQL database server to use native threading, instead of FreeBSD threading as used with previous MPS implementations. MySQL for MPS v3 uses less (sometimes 30 or more) processes than MySQL on other MPS products. MySQL 5.0.24 is the default version installed when executing vinstall mysql or vinstall mysql5 from the command line. MySQL 4.1.21 is also available by executing vinstall mysql4.1 from the command line. MySQL 5.x includes many new controls, elements and features, improving performance and functionality. For more information about changes in MySQL 5.x, refer to What's New in MySQL 5.0
    • Vinstall Library: The MPS v3 introduces several new vinstalls, such as Tomcat and java_jdk. Old or deprecated programs in the vinstall library are no longer offered. The vinstalls offered on MPS v2 that are not supported on MPS v3 include the following:
      • cybozu
      • mysql3-oldstyle
      • mysql3
      • mysql4.0
      • perl5.6.1
      • perl5.8.4
      • perl5.8.6
      • postgresql-oldstyle
      • procmail (available with procmail-lda)
    • WordPress: The vinstall for WordPress for MPS v3 installs the latest WordPress version, 2.0.4. The vinstall also provides additional command-line options when installing WordPress. To obtain a full list of these options, connect to your server through SSH and execute the following from the command prompt:

      # vinstall wordpress --help

      An example of these new options is you can specify the installation of a language pack for WordPress during the vinstall. For example, the following installs the Japanese language pack:

      # vinstall wordpress --lang=’ja’

12. What are the benefits offered by MPS v3 data centers?

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    Each MPS v3 server resides in a protected data center. The MPS v3 utilizes the following power backups: automated battery backups and redundant emergency power generators. Both are provided in Premier Data Centers. Potentially insecure programs are disabled or removed, and a hacking alert system (Sentinel) immediately notifies system administrators.

13. Does the MPS v3 team backup/restore data for MPS v3?

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    We work hard to ensure that your data is backed up and that you can easily access those backups. Data backup services* include:
    • Mirror Backup: On the physical server we provide RAID hardware mirroring disk-to-disk backups. Your master and slave mirrored backups provide real-time, automated backups so your Web content stays live even if a hard drive fails.
    • Hard Disk Backup: In addition to the dual mirrored drives, each physical server has a hard disk backup that runs every 24 hours. You can access this hard drive backup anytime from your server command line using the getback command.
    • Tape Backup: Approximately each week, we archive tape backups in the data center tape library. There is a $100 fee for data restoration from one of these backup tapes.
    In order to restore files from the backup drive or tape backups, we have created a utility called getback. The getback command can restore a single file, multiple files, and whole directories. To use the getback command you simply type getback file or directory and you will see a list of available backup versions. The first is the on-line version, which is free. The others are from the tape backups and require a fee.

Technical Questions

1. Can I use the shutdown -r and reboot commands on MPS v3?

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   Your MPS v3 is running a Virtual Kernel. To run the shutdown or reboot commands will effect the shutting down or the rebooting of your virtual kernel and the applications running on it. The shutdown command attempts to cleanly halt and restart services on your MPS v3, including execution of the commands in the /etc/rc.shutdown script. The shutdown procedure then kills any processes that do not exit cleanly, and restarts the init process (the init process reads the /usr/local/etc/rc.d directory scripts to start system services and applications). Because you do not have access to the physical machine level, you can not completely halt your MPS v3 (the -h option for the shutdown command is disabled), but you do have access to stop/start/restart all the services on your server.
   
   The reboot command differs from shutdown because it does not attempt a clean shutdown of your system. Instead, reboot simply kills all running processes and then runs init (which will run the /usr/local/etc/rc.d directory scripts).

2. Why can't I log in directly as the root user to MPS v3?

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   For security purposes, direct root logins using the username root and the root password are not permitted on your MPS v3. Many administrative tasks can be accomplished by logging into the MPS v3 account as the administrative user. Once you have logged in as the administrative user, you can then use the su command to become the root user.

3. What is the difference between the administrative, root, and standard users on MPS v3?

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   The main difference between the different classes of users is based on permissions offered to the user. A normal user can only affect the files they own, whereas the administrative user can affect some system files. The administrative user is created at the time you provision your MPS v3. The root user has unrestricted file and application access, including files owned by other users. Because of the power of the root user, this user does not have FTP or email access and can only access the account through SSH, either directly using an SSH key generated for the root user or indirectly by connecting through shell as the administrative user and then using the su command to become the root user. For your account, SSH is controlled by means of an Internet/Network Daemon (or inetd).

4. Can I install custom applications or use FreeBSD Ports Collection?

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   The MPS v3 environment enables you to install and run most FreeBSD compatible software and some LINUX software on your server. This includes the ability to install software from the FreeBSD Ports Collection, which is available in the /ports directory within your server. See The FreeBSD Ports Collection (http://www.freebsd.org/ports/) for details about what is available and how to use the Ports Collection.
   
   Many common programs that require additional configuration or special installation steps are available through the vinstall utility, standard with your MPS v3.

5. What does MPS v3 support with its CGI Library?

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   The MPS v3 CGI Library enable a vast range of CGI application support.
   • SWISH-E - Build a keyword index of the pages on your site and provide a search form to enable visitors to perform searches of your Web site.
   • ht://Dig - This is a powerful indexing tool for site searches.
   • FormMail - This popular script is an easy way to handle Form content and have it mailed to specified email addresses.
   • PGP FormMail - This script is an easy way to handle Form content and have it mailed to specified email addresses encrypted with your PGP public key.
   • Count 2.5 Hit Counter - Record and display the number of hits to a Web page. This CGI generates a GIF image of the number of hits and returns an in-lined image to the Web Browser.
   • Hit Counters - Dynamically count the number of times a page is accessed and display that count with numeric digits or graphical digits.
   • ImageMagick - Manipulate images quickly and easily. Combine with scripts to interface with images on your Web site.
   • Redirect - Enable visitors to your Web site to jump from location to location using a simple form.
   • Comments Form - Create a form to enable visitors to send you comments or information to a recipient of your choice.
   • Guestlist Form - Create a form to enable clients to sign in and post remarks to a guest list.
   • Finger - Provide a form by which your clients can query a remote host for remote user information.
   • User Authentication Manager - Control access to a particular directory on your Web server using htaccess password protection. Administrate users, groups, and access permissions using a Web-based utility.
   • Whois - Perform a query exclusively on the InterNIC database of a domain name ending with any of the international TLD's (which includes the .com and .net top level domains).
   • WWWBoard - A great way to host Threaded Web Discussion forum and message board.
   • Wpoison - A free tool which can be used to help reduce the problem of bulk junk Email on the Internet.

6. Does MPS v3 support custom Perl Modules?

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   Your MPS v3 has the CPAN utility installed. On the first use of CPAN, it will ask you to configure where you want to download and obtain certain Perl Module file for installation use. There are several Perl modules already installed for you on your server that pre-installed applications use. To see which Perl modules and packages are installed on your server you can use the pkg_info | grep p5 command. FreeBSD uses the pkg command to keep track of what modules and packages have been installed to the environment. To install a Perl package/module with CPAN, you can use the perl -MCPAN -e shell command to enter the CPAN utility. Once you have entered the CPAN utility, to install a Perl module/package use the command install module/package. To see if CPAN has the available module you want to install, use the i /CGI/ command with in the CPAN utility to list all of the CGI modules.

7. Does MPS v3 support a control panel?

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   CPX: Control Panel provides an intuitive Web interface to administer your MPS v3. Many of the day-to-day account management tasks can now be performed through CPX: Control Panel. In addition to user and domain management, CPX: Control Panel also offers an enhanced Web-based e-mail interface and mail management modules.
   
   One of the key benefits of CPX: Control Panel is how it empowers subhosting on the MPS v3. CPX: Control Panel was designed in a tiered model giving you the ability to create domain administrators with end user management control. This enables each subhost and its respective end users the ability to setup and control their own accounts. CPX: Control Panel offers the following features:
   • File Management
   • Webmail
   • User Management
   • Domain Management
   • Mail Management
   • Profile and Preferences
   • Java plug-in SSH terminal

8. What email options are there with MPS v3?

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   Sendmail, ipop3d, and UW IMAP are used for mail services on the MPS v3. You can use Sendmail to send to mailing lists using Mailman or Majordomo. Also available is the autoreply function. CPX: Control Panel enables you to configure autoreplies easily. Complimented with Sendmail is Spamassassin and ClamAV for e-mail filtering.

9. Where do subhost sites reside on MPS v3?

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   The default location for subhost Web content in the MPS v3 is in the content owner's www directory. For example, the content for domain.com administered by the domain administrator user named bob, would reside in the /home/bob/www/domain.com directory (where /home/bob is the home directory of the bob user). This is the easiest way to manage subhosts in a multi-user environment. For more information, see the MPS v3 Users Guide.

10. What connection options are there for MPS v3?

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    The UNIX shell is the most powerful tool for the MPS v3. Using an SSH (or Telnet) client, you can connect and log in to your MPS v3 from anywhere in the world as if you were sitting in front it. Included with SSH and Telnet, the MPS v3 server offers FTP and SCP access. FTP gives those with access the ability to upload/download files to and from their /home directory on the server. SCP uses SSH to enable users to transfer files to and from the server with an encrypted connection. These connection types can be assigned on a user-by-user basis.

    Note: Although Telnet is available and you can install it by means of a vinstall, it is disabled by default when your account is first provisioned.