ServerPilot = Great VPS Hosting for WordPress Websites

14 Comments

1. Hi,
   the following mods or tasks are not standard for many users, but they gave me the freedom to use my ServerPilot enabled server like any other VPS I manage.

   Disclaimer:

   I managed the steps below from the command line and while most of them are discussed with SP support team, I can’t guarantee that it works for 100% in your case and doesn’t break the SP configuration. Use backups and don’t try them if you’re not sure what you’re doing!

   • Install New Relic “Server monitoring” (just follow the instructions within you New Relic account)
   • Install New Relic “PHP Application monitoring”, follow the steps from the SP documentation and change the application name in “/etc/php5.X-sp/conf.d/newrelic.ini” if you have more than one server in your New Relic account. You need to change the setting “newrelic.appname”
   • Run sudo apt-get install imagemagick to get ImageMagick installed on your server. Note,
     this is not the same as installing the PHP extension. If you followed the instructions from the SP documentation, this step is not necessary.
   • Like I said in my article I use the backup file created with ManageWP for the migration of a WordPress website. This backup file is a ZIP file which I upload to the public directory. To unzip that file you need the Linux tool “unzip”. Install it with sudo apt-get install unzip and migrate your WP website even faster!
   • Create a new app and install phpMyAdmin (you need to download a regular ZIP file from the phpMyAdmin website). Protect that app using a .htaccess file with this code. I create also my own config.inc.php file and raise the session cookie live time with “$cfg[‘LoginCookieValidity’] = 86400;”.
   • Install “automysqlbackup” like described here and change the default BACKUPDIR value in “/etc/default/automysqlbackup”. I choose always a location within a user directory, because it’s easier to backup your data on another location.
   • Create a CRON job to optimize your database tables frequently, it’s easy using this MySQL tool: “mysqlcheck -o –all-databases”
   • Use rsync to backup your data. The backup function from DigitalOcean is great to recover a broken server. You can’t use the DO snapshots to recover a single app, file or database. The article on this page show how to backup your files with rsync (skip the part about the database). If you don’t have some external backup storage, you can use a small DigitalOcean droplet in a another datacenter or location.

2. I use the following commands to backup my files (using rsync) on third party backup location.

   First I created a SSH key pair, using this function while I hit the “Enter” button several times to use the default options:
   ssh-keygen

   Using this command I uploaded the public key to my backup location:
   cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@123.45.67.89 "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

   Next I uploaded my files to the backup server using rsync (without entering a password):
   rsync -avz --delete --exclude-from "/root/exclude.txt" -e "ssh -i /root/.sshid_rsa" "/srv/users" user@123.45.67.89:daily-backup

   Inside the file exclude.txt I’ve entered a view unwanted directories:
log/*
tmp/*


   These commands should work with each standard Ubuntu + ServerPilot setup. You need to login to your server as root too match the paths I’ve used for this example. Add the rsync command as a CRON job and sync your files every day.

3. Just play with Serverpilot … actually it looks really good solution for me over CloudWays where my websites currently living ;)
   Anyway I play also with InfiniteWP and I do anything, but I m not able to set up right cron job for that :) Need that for schedule backups.
   Read that you use Infinitewp too, maybe some direction how to do it? Thx

   1. Hi Peter,
      I used InfiniteWP for ~60 websites until someone was able to show me a screenshot from my IWP dashboard. Now I’m using an Excelsheet + Lastpass and Jetpack (site management). For backups I’ve written a custom script that is able to back/restore files very quickly. I use this script for testing updates and new plugins/themes, just like I “tried” with IWP. For you backup schedule, do you use a paid extension?
      How about site backups using rsync?

4. Hi,
   Somehow I figured it out, how to set up cron :) so now its working :)
   I tried ServerPilot few months ago for little bit, few days ago got idea, why not test it again, bc. not satisfied completely with Cloudways. So now I am playing with it, also moved one smaller live site there and everything works well, so will think about move there for other sites too.
   Then just recognize, I will need seriously to take look at some backup solutions, so tried several backups plugins, I am sorry to say that, but all of them looks like junk for me, like billboard for commercial, links everywhere, just to buy addons.
   I really prefer clean and simple interface, nothing like UpDraftPlus, even if its works.
   I found one cool plugin for backups https://bwp.hmn.md/ what works well and had clean interface without spamy links.
   I use google mail for business, so enough space on google drive, so I considered to use this for backups. Then just do some comparison and found that InfiniteWP offers more for similar price. So I gave it try for few hours, everything looks ok :)
   Yes I bought schedule backup and cloud so it do backups automatic to google drive and it works well without any trouble and the way I like. Few clicks and everything just works.
   Currently I manage no more than 10 sites, but still what infinitewp offers – also some kind of managing… backups is really time saver … that you probably know much better with so many websites :)

   Did you contact developer of that plugin in regard to that security issue?
   I though also about rsync for backups … but how you can see I fight whole night with just one crop job, so even I am sure, i will be able to do it, still actually prefer wordpress way – one click solution … will see whats next ;)
   I will play more with server now, so probably on this route I will discover more solutions. To set up backups and other staff o server site is good solution, but it requires some experience … I want to avoid that I crash whole server bc. I will try to set up backups :D but for sure will look for that kind of solution in close future. That is why you have to write more post here about things around this topic ;)

   This security advice from you, not make me more comfortable now :) anyway its selfhosted in subdomain/domain/folder on my choice, not public … so not sure if someone can discover it easily.

   It looks like infinitewp is still one man show, so its secure and stable like any other plugin … Its different than something bigger like Jetpack or ManageWP.
   I am in state, that just looking and discovering solutions (never-ending) …

   1. HI Peter,

      that was a long comment :)

      There are so many backup solutions for WordPress websites and most of them work only if your WordPress website is working. This is a big problem actually. That’s why I check a backup solution on the restore feature first. I can’t believe there are backup solutions without any restore features. A secure backup is easy, but a full/partial restore is more difficult and takes the most time if something went wrong.

      It’s funny that hmn.md has created a second backup tool while BackupWordPress is still a solid product.

      I had several contact moments with IWP and the communication was another reason that I stopped using their product. The security breach was just the last tiny thing I need to go.
      I need to program a few more functions for my own script and will publish the code here as open source. Stay tuned…

5. Just notice, that link is the same product BackupWordpress. Yes, it looks solid, but no any restore feature.
   With infinite I have just install fresh WP and connect plugin and can restore it with one click from Google drive.
   You are right about communication, even for paid clients, it looks its the same ;) this will not work in long term. I hope developer will recognize and repair weakness, bc. product and business model looks good compared to other solutions.

   1. Hi Peter,
      the backup/restore features works nice, but not always :( I tried only the local backup/restore and sometimes all updates were gone. Try this if you like:

      • First remove all older backups and created a new one.
      • Next do some updates and create also a 2 other backups to have different restore points.
      • After that do some different restores

      This worked me very well until I created at the end a new backup and than all previous backups were gone. In the database and also in the backup folder. Let me know if you have the same issue. I closed the IWP support ticket after 10 (annoying) replies.

      …bc. product and business model looks good compared to other solutions.

      Not sure if we see that the same way, their code is based on ManageWP and I don’t think that IWP has the same capabilities ;)

   2. Yes, I can confirm this magic :) Some backups were gone after last step – backup, the same situation with google drive.
      Also I had different copies of real backups than in dashboard. It did not delete all backups, it depends on which restore I did.
      So it somehow remember something and during backup somehow probably synchronize these backups not well.

      On other hand I was positively surprised how fast it was. During few minutes many backups/restores. Simply click and everything was … almost done :) Also true is, that I had no any error during many backups to server or google drive and I did it really fast one after other, but this “magic” is there :)

      I don’t like much ManageWP, too heavy for me and also not sure if I want pay that price for my needs.
      I still think, that for solution based on WP as plugin, its not so bad. Sure solutions based on years tested things like rsync and mysqldump backups are probably the most stable way to do these tasks …

      Not sure about WPremote if its death project and it continues with BackupWordpress or how this will goes.

      1. Finding a good backup solution is very hard. I bought a script via CodeCanyon for $19 and that script was really cool: The author has used the same script for his own site and I was able to download his site and/or database. He was lucky that I’m not a hacker :)
         Imagine how many people using scripts or plugins from people which doesn’t know enough about secure web development.

         You got an email from me, including my backup script. I hope you like it.

6. Thanks for sharing this. Its cool too :) so you inspired by this author and now you are downloading my testing web? :D
   It was probably the fastest backup and restore what I did, really simple and fast tool.

   1. LOL… the developer’s script was the start sign to write my own backup script.

7. Hi, any ideas how can i white label serverpilot?

   1. Hi,

      You can built your own application while using the Serverpilot API.
      It’s a lot of work if you don’t have already your own customer service panel :)

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