[Solved] I would like to Switch to a VPS

[psurbey]

Dear Forum (or admins)

My brother and I would like to purchase 2 VPSes. I have some questions

 

 

1) I would like to switch my Moodle site to a VPS and the form asks for operating and specs. You recommend Ubuntu 20.What should I choose?

 

I am just building the site up so there are no users as of yet and I need all the background software to run moodle on the site. 

 

2) Will it have all the same server ware (ie cpanel, php, sql)? 

 

3) How can I switch my current server Tommy to a VPS?

Thanks

Paul

 

 

[wolstech]

VPSes are usually handled by Krydos, so I'll pass this to him.

 

To answer your number 2 and 3 though, a VPS is a bare OS installation by default. It comes with no software beyond the OS, but you get full root access, so you can just install Apache and PHP on it and host a website (which is what most people do with one). Krydos can help with this if you ask  He can also move a Tommy account's data to the VPS for you.

 

Your access and administration of a VPS is just what the OS provides (for linux you get a command line via SSH, for Windows you get remote desktop), and whatever you install (I believe some have installed free cPanel alternatives like VestaCP to reduce the amount of command line usage). Also, the Windows ones don't include a license.

[Krydos]

1) I would like to switch my Moodle site to a VPS and the form asks for operating and specs. You recommend Ubuntu 20.What should I choose?

I recommend Ubuntu 20 for a moodle site as it's the easiest linux distro to administrate. It has cutting edge versions of most everything too which helps avoid vulnerabilities. It's really easy to upgrade your VPS to higher stats later if you want, but you can start with the 2 GB memory, 2 CPUs, and 50 GB hard drive for $4 per month. Memory affects the speed of the websites the most, more CPUs help if you have a lot of multitasking going on, and hard drive space is for storing files, images, videos, etc.

 

2) Will it have all the same server ware (ie cpanel, php, sql)?

You can install cpanel on your vps if you want to, but be aware that it will cost you $15 per month for the solo license. https://cpanel.net/pricing/ Like Wolstech said a lot of people like to install free control panels like VestaCP, but be aware that control panels use a lot more resources than just plain ssh does so your load will be higher and your speeds will be slower.

 

3) How can I switch my current server Tommy to a VPS?

The basic process is to zip up your files, and backup your databases. Then install apache or nginx on the vps. You'll also need to install php and mysql. Then unzip your files onto the vps, and load your databases into mysql on the vps. I strongly recommend at least trying to learn how to do a lot of that stuff yourself because a VPS is a great opportunity for learning, but if you get stuck I can help, or if you mess things up really bad I can always just wipe the hard drive and start over with a fresh operating system install.