Tech Tips
Restarting Your VPS
Did you know that you can restart your own VPS? One of the benefits of the eApps Virtual Private Server hosting service is that you can restart your server without impacting any other customers. If your service is not responding, a restart of the service will often re-activate your site and email service. Please note that restarting your service may clear out some information about why your site went down. Before you do a restart you may want to check for common problems such as running out of memory or other server resources. To restart your server, do the following:
  • Login to your control panel at http://cp.eapps.com/cp (use forgot password feature if needed)
  • Click on the System tab
  • Click on the Server Info icon
  • Click on Stop Server link in upper right, wait 10-15 seconds
  • Click on Start Server link in upper right
Your server should restart within 10-20 seconds.

Using mod_jk for Java Applications
A common problem for our customers that use Java applications is the inability to use web mail and PHP applications. This occurs because all HTTP requests are being forwarded to Tomcat, when they really need to be served by the Apache web server. To get around this problem, we offer mod_jk, an Apache module that serves as the traffic cop for HTTP requests. Mod_jk will route requests to Apache or Tomcat based on the context of the URL. mod_jk also enhances the security of your application. For more information, read the user guide at http://support.eapps.com/hsp/modjk.

Making Custom Apache Settings
Another common problem for our customers is caused when the httpd.conf file is edited directly. Eventually, if you directly edit this configuration file you will experience a “site not found” or other Apache error. The Control Panel used to manage domains, create sites, create mailboxes, etc is integrated with the Apache web server.  All of the configuration entries for Apache related administration activities are handled automatically by the Control Panel.  What happens is that certain system events such as upgrading your plan or updating your plan to take advantage of new services and higher resource allowances causes a “resynchronization” of the settings in the Control Panel and the configuration of your VPS.  This results in a regeneration of the httpd.conf file which overlays the manually edited version.  For more information on how to use Apache, including how to add custom settings to httpd.conf, please see the Apache user guide at http://support.eapps.com/hsp/apache.

Service Monitoring
Who is Monitoring My Service? -- eApps Hosting has a sophisticated monitoring system. We monitor all of our network devices and servers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our job is to ensure that every device and server is operational. However, our monitoring service does not monitor your specific site. Many customers are mistakenly under the impression that we ensure that their site is continuously operating without problems. Customers that have a mission critical site and want to achieve a higher level of assurance may want to consider our optional site monitoring services. These services are offered at $10 per month. An explanation of these services appears below. For the month of May, we are offering a promotion for the monitoring service - first month free. See the Promotions section of this newsletter.
Web Page Monitoring
This is by far the most frequently chosen monitoring option. Once you purchase the service, we will ask you to give us a specific web page that you want to monitor, and as an option a specific string of text on that page. Some customers display text on the page that was retrieved from a database, to verify that both the application and database server are operational. We will set up our monitor to read that page and optionally scan for the specified text every 30 seconds or so. If the page or text can not be found for 5 consecutive tries, our monitor will alert you and optionally our technical support department. If we are alerted, we will restart your service.

Protocol Monitoring
This monitoring option allows you to monitor a specific protocol, such as HTTP, POP, or SMTP. This option is generally only used when you want to make sure that a key service is operational.

New Applications
Java 6 and Tomcat 6
The latest versions of Java and Tomcat are now available for all customers that have a CentOS Standard Plus plan or higher. If you want to use these new applications and do not see them in the All Applications list in your Control Panel, please send an email to billing@eapps.com.

KonaKart
This new Java ecommerce application is now available for all customers that have a CentOS Standard Plus plan or higher. KonaKart is compatible with osCommerce and allows you to deploy a scalable, powerful commerce presence using Java. If you want to use KonaKart and do not see it in the All Applications list in your Control Panel, please send an email to billing@eapps.com.

Notifications of New Applications and Versions
How can I receive immediate notifications of new applications and updated versions? This newsletter is one of the primary means of communication with you. We also send general announcements related to planned maintenance events to both the Administrative and Technical contacts from the Contacts information in your Control Panel. We do not send general notifications of announcements for new and updated applications, simply because we do not want to barrage our customers with information. However, you can get immediate notification of all events by subscribing to the mailing list at our Support Center. Just go to http://support.eapps.com and if you have not already done so click on Register to create an account on the support system. This account will allow you to see all tickets submitted via the web form in the Support Center as well as allow you to subscribe to the News announcements. Once you have logged into your account, click on the News icon. On the right side, you can enter the email address that you want to have announcements sent to.