Question New server setup

[dalydesign]

Server operating system version

Centos 6

Plesk version and microupdate number

12.5

I'm looking at setting up a new server as we have 20+ small sites on an old Plesk 12.5 server. The old server is a 2.4ghz x 4 core Xeon, 16gb, 2x2TB HD with a 100Mb/s lan (server was set up in 2015). It’s mainly running low traffic Wordpress sites, a few bespoke PHP/MySQL sites (all via cloudflare) and mail for 200 mailboxes. our big customers are hosted elsewhere on managed VPS or Cloud hosting….sever runs fine, but occasionally slow during backups. Most sites are on PHP 7.2 with a few on 5.6 (these sites will have to be retired if the owners won’t pay to rebuild them) so we need to set up a new server with PHP 7.4 & 8

The new server I’m looking at is a 3.6ghz x 8 core, 64gb ram, 2x960gb NVMe (or 6 core, 32gb ram and 2x2tb HD), 1GB lan and a choice of OS’s.

the old Plesk is unsupported, and has been over customised with quite a few so I’m not expecting the domains to migrate successfully. Especially as the Plesk Wordpress mapping to each domain is broken.

So I have a few questions…

NVMe vs HD.… obviously theres a big speed difference on the likes of a laptop and PlayStation, but hosting wise is there much difference. I’ve had a NVMe fail on a MacBook Pro, several SSD’s and HD’s. So I was wondering what others thought with regards to hosting and reliability of the different drives.

Then there’s the OS… what would you all recommend as im assuming AlmaLinux 8 is the natural choice having already being on Centos and I find that very stable …or should I install Debian 11 or Ubuntu 22?

Then there’s auto-updates of plesk… in 12.5, I found it flakey. As often it would cause a crash due to a bug of some sort. Is it much more reliable?

Finally. Tech support, we’re paying Fasthosts monthly for plesk, but Fasthosts say that anything to do with plesk is not their remit as they are only responsible for the hardware. Does anyone know what tech support is available from Plesk should something go wrong.

Before we bite the bullet what are your thoughts on the above queries?

 

[Kaspar]

Then there’s the OS… what would you all recommend as im assuming AlmaLinux 8 is the natural choice having already being on Centos and I find that very stable …or should I install Debian 11 or Ubuntu 22?

Since you already familiar with CentOS I suggest going with AlmaLinux 9 if the current limitations don't pose an issue for you (otherwise go with AlmaLinux 8).

Then there’s auto-updates of plesk… in 12.5, I found it flakey. As often it would cause a crash due to a bug of some sort. Is it much more reliable?

Never had any issues with the auto-update process itself. It's worth noting however that Plesk changed it's release schedule, with new updates being released (almost) every month. Unfortunately those often contain bugs (mostly small ones with limited impact, but sometimes bugs with larger impact). For that reason I don't use the auto update and update manually every month or so. It's something to keep an close eye on.

Finally. Tech support, we’re paying Fasthosts monthly for plesk, but Fasthosts say that anything to do with plesk is not their remit as they are only responsible for the hardware. Does anyone know what tech support is available from Plesk should something go wrong.

If you got Plesk license trough your Provider (for example bundled with your server) then direct support from Plesk is probably not included in your license. That doesn't mean that you can't get support from Plesk. You'll need to add a support subscription to you license. More info here: https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213953025-How-to-get-support-directly-from-Plesk-

 

[dalydesign]

Thanks. I was hoping the updates would’ve been more stable nowadays. What you’re describing is exactly the issue we used to have and spent half my time troubleshooting these issues hence why the server became heavily customised with fixes.

that’s interesting to know about the support. In the past, Fasthosts have been useless. Whenever I asked about issues with plesk, they said they’d look in these forums!!!! ….then they suggested I contact plesk as they only support the hardware.

 

[Ashleymadison12]

This thread helped me alot, Thanks for discussin guys.