Using Apache for your dedicated web server is one the best choices you can make as a webmaster, but if you’re unfamiliar with the modules that can be configured alongside it, you may run into trouble down the road. So here are some of the most well documented modules and a brief definition and description to assist you in your dedicated hosting atmosphere.

core – These are what are known as the ‘core Apache features’ and are pretty much required for every Apache install

http_core – This one’s required for every Apache 2.0 install and includes core http support.

prefork – This module implements a non-threaded pre-forking web server on an MPM or multi-processing module but you can also use worker or threadpool instead, though some kind of MPM is required for Apache 2.0

mod_access – You should always keep this module enabled, as it is one of the most helpful Apache modules. You can control the access to your site with mod_access based on the hostname, IP address, as well as use the order, allow, and deny directives, which are great for SSI.

mod_auth – This module controls user authentication using HTTP Basic Authentication.

mod_dir – If you need to search and serve directory index files like index.html or default.htm, you’ll need this.

mod_log_config – You’ll need this to log any and all requests made to the Apache server.

mod_mime – Sets characters, content-encoding, handlers, content-language, and MIME types.

It is important to keep your eye on your resources when you have a dedicated hosting plan so that you know when and if something is about to or has gotten out of hand.  Here I hope to give you a few handy tips when it comes to monitoring your site resources and statistics in Plesk.

First thing you need to do is login to your Plesk control panel, and click on Limits.  As you can see Limits displays the resource limits allocated to your account.  It lists such details as:

• Maximum Number of Subdomains
• Disk Space
• Bandwidth
• Maximum Amount of Traffic
• Maximum Number of Web Users
• and more…

Now click on Up Level at the top of the Limits window for your domain, and click on Report.  The Report will show you all account resource limits & usage, as well as users and a full list of all available scripts, utilities and resources.

FTP Stats will show you a history of FTP activity on your site - both in upload as well as download. 

Traffic History will display information on traffic usage by Months and Years on your dedicated hosting account.  To view the detailed traffic statistics used by various services at the domain, click on the Traffic button.  The page will open displaying the traffic usage table.  You can send a copy of the report to an e-mail address you specify too at the bottom of the Report screen.  You can also set up a schedule for automatic delivery of the reports. 

The last detail about monitoring dedicated resources inside of Plesk is the Web Statistics Preferences screen.  From here you can set some of the preferences that will dictate the display of refers in your stats.

Now you should be a little more handy when it comes to stats and resources inside of your Plesk control panel via your dedicated web hosting account.

As you may have already read in our previous article on What Are SSI?, SSI can really assist you in self managing your dedicated web server on your own. But if your server isn’t already equipped to permit SSI, then you cannot take advantages of the benefits of this easy management tool.

Configuring Your Server to Permit SSI

First, ensure you have mod_include installed and enabled and that you have Options +Includes in your httpd.conf or .htaccess file. Having these things already working will alert Apache to the SSI directives so that you can use them easily.

Secondly, remember that not all files parse for SSI directives and you may have to actually tell Apache which files it needs to parse for you. You can do this in one of two really easy ways:

1. Tell Apache to parse files with the extensions you require. For example, you can make Apache parse all .shtml files by using the AddType text/html .shtml and AddHandler server-parsed .shtml directives.
2. You can use XBitHack on to tell Apache to parse SSI dreictive files only if they have the execute bit set. To set an existing page to be executable, you can use chmod +x pagename.html and you’ll be set.

Please note that on Windows, you can really only use method #1, as Windows doesn’t use execute bits.

Dedicatedserverhosting.com was designed to give you an in-depth look at managing your dedicated server, along with helpful resources to purchase servers, upgrade, or decide what kind of server is right for you. That often includes defining lesser known dedicated server terminology that you are probably unfamiliar with.

One such term in the server realm is “SSI”, which stands for Server Side Includes.

What are SSI?

SSI are directives that are placed inside normal HTML webpages and which can be evaluated on the physical server as your website loads and serves the pages.

What can SSI Do For Me?

SSI can add another layer of dynamic content to your existing HTML pages without having to go through the serving process via CGI or other dynamic website technology. This eases the strain on your website, allowing for faster loads and more dynamic retrieval.

One word of warning about SSI, though – it is best used for loading small pieces of your site, like the current time, etc. However, if you are looking for a solution that will assist with larger portions or applications, SSI will not really do the trick.

Overall, SSI can help balance your dedicated server hosting by easing the load of running small parts of your site.

Have a trouble maker in your dedicated server?

Now we will explain how to suspend a user account in Web Host Manager (WHM).  Now there are a variety of reasons you might need to temporarily suspend an account.  Examples would be non-payment, breach of your own TOS, overages in bandwith and more.  Now lets say you have a trouble maker your hosting on your dedicated account and you want to suspended him.

Login to WHM, then click on Account Functions.  From there, click on Suspend/Unsuspend an Account.  Now you should see a two columned list of all the accounts your hosting on your dedicated server.  Select the account you wish to suspend.  Now you need to enter a reason for the suspension (keep it short and sweet) and then hit the suspend button.  Now if you want to unsuspend an account go into:

Account Functions > Suspend/Unsuspend an Account

Then click on the account you wish to unsuspend, and hit the unsusupend button.  Your done!  Now you can have a little more control using WHM with your hosted accounts under your dedicated server.

Via Web Host Manager (WHM), upgrading and downgrading a package or site you have installed is an important aspect to master.  To start off, login to WHM.  Occasionally, you will want to upgrade or downgrade your hosting packages inside.  This is how you get that done.  Click on “Account Functions” and then go to “Modify an Account”. 

From the Modify an Account page you can select the exact account you wish to modify.  All you have to do is click on the domain for the package and click the “Modify” button.  Here you can see several things you can change. 

You can change the domain name, the cPanel theme, the language, the user name, the max e-mail accounts, the max ftp accounts, the max mailing lists, the max subdomains, the max SQL databases, the max parked domains, the max addon domains and if you can, you can add or remove shell access.

Once you are done changing the settings, hit the “Save” button on the bottom of the screen and you should be all done.  Now you can login to the cPanel for the account you edited to confirm all was changed correctly.

This dedicated server hosting checklist is designed to help you understand what it takes to run a dedicated server. After all, it’s not just about purchasing a box - you need to know how to manage and work with it too. So here’s what it takes, your checklist for running a dedicated server:

• A powerful web hosting platform
• Managed Hosting
• 24/7 technical support - through email is best, so you can document errors and solutions
• State of the art data centers - the more data centers a provider runs, the better chances of redundant uptime for you and your server
• Guaranteed RAM
• Easy upgrades
• Great dedicated hosting deals - amazing coupons to help lower your monthly costs or incentives for staying longer
• Ability to perform website backups

Your dedicated hosting account can be very mysterious if you don’t know where to start.  If you are using WHM (Web Host Manager) and cPanel though, there is no doubt that the most important thing you need to learn to do is how to create a new hosting package and add an account to your dedicated hosting setup.

The first thing you will want to do is login to WHM and click on “Account Functions”.  Then on the Account Functions screen, you need to click on the link for “Create a New Account”.  Now enter the domain name of the new account (without the www part in there).  WHM will automatically create a username for you based on up to the first 8 characters of the domain name.  You may use this or create your own.  Also please remember that a username can not start with a number.

Next you will need to create a password.  Make it 6-8 alpha-numeric characters and it should not contain the username.  You may set all the limits manually or select a pre-configured hosting plan you have already created before.  If you select a pre-configured plan all the account limits will automatically set based on the package selection.  This will save you time.

If you have a contact address you would like to associate with the account, you can enter it in the text box marked for the contact e-mail.  You can always add it later if you do not wish to do this step right now.

With the IP address setting, unless you need to setup an account with a dedicated IP, you should leave this on “Auto Assign”.  Doing so will assign the hosting account the shared IP address for the dedicated hosting plan.

Once that step has been taken care of then you can hit “Create” (at the top of the page) to create the account.  Once you get this done, you are done.  Your new account will be created, and your ready to do some web hosting on your dedicated server.

This is how you manage Crontabs and use the Crontab Manger in Plesk on your dedicated hosting account.  Crontab will allow you to automatically run scheduled tasks on the server, and if selected, receive automatic emails showing the results.

First step would be to login to Plesk, and then go down to the Crontab icon and click it.  Next, you will need to select the name of the user for whom you wish to manage the crontab.  You can also setup crontab messages to be sent to your e-mail address.

To get the task setup, click on the “Add New Task” icon under your Crontab tasks page.  On the next page you should see a web page that reads “Editing the Crontabs tasks of yourusername”.  Enter the specific parameters to set the frequency of the task.  Enter * to select all.

Now under command, you will enter the path to the fill that will execute the crontab.  Once that is done, hit the OK button and you have finished creating your first crontab on your dedicated hosting account using Plesk.

One of the first rules of security they teach you is to have a good password and to change it often.  If you have Plesk installed as your control panel of choice on your dedicated hosting plan this is how you would get that done.

First, login to Plesk and then click on "Domain Administrator".  From there, you will get All of your domain’s preferences as they are seen by Plesk.  The boxes you are looking for are labeled:

• New Password
• Confirm Password

Type your new password into the "New Password" text box.  Make it a 6-8 alpha-numeric combination, and it should not include your user name or anything else that would easily be guessed.  Type it again in the Confirm Password text box and then scroll down the page till you see the OK button.  Click it and you are done.

To change your FTP password, go back to the main Plesk start page and click on "Setup" under "Hosting".  Again make sure it is a 6-8 alpha-numeric combination.  Type it into the New FTP Password and Confirm Password boxes and then scroll down and hit the OK button yet again. 

Now your Plesk powered dedicated account has a fresh set of new passwords and is a ‘bit more secure than it was before.