Dreamhost Moves from Network-Booted OS to Local OS’s
As you may or may not know, Digitivity.org is hosted on Dreamhost. Anyway, they used to boot the operating system (which in Dreamhost’s case is Debian etch 4.0) from the network to allow for centralized configuration.
Now, they’re moving to local OS’s, which requires rebooting their servers. This means a few minutes of downtime per website as the OS reboots.
This mirrors the way that Dreamhost used to have NFS (network file system)-based home directories, but now has local directories, which increase performance.
Server Reboot
They gave advance notice of the reboots at Dreamhoststatus.com.
Unfortunately, it caught me a little off-guard. I had just finished editing and publishing a WordPress post, and when I went to the Tracewatch statistics module, it gave a PHP error. When I refreshed the page, PHP wasn’t even there!
I logged in to the server without a password through SSH, but it didn’t work since it wanted a password. This, to me, indicated that the public key file had been deleted. So I logged in using a password. I was floored when I didn’t see my own files, but rather the operating system files:
me@server:/$ ls MegaSAS.log cdrom dev etc lib lost+found opt sbin sys var bin core dh home lib32 media proc selinux tmp boot data emul initrd lib64 mnt root srv usr
I put in a request to Dreamhost support, but by the time they got back to me 10 minutes or so later, the reboot had already completed, and everything was OK.
Note: the original shell I was logged in to didn’t reflect the changed files. I logged in to another shell to see my files again. This is a feature of Unix/Linux operating systems.
Although I was afraid for a few minutes the site was gone, in retospect, even if I were administrating my own server, I’d have to reboot it as well occasionally.
Dreamhost Backup
Dreamhost, of course, has a backup system, and you can request old files back through Support. There’s also a hidden .snapshot directory that contains a snapshot of your files as they were before. Finally, you can download your entire account backup to your local computer in a single file from the Panel.
Dreamhost Problems Custom Status RSS
One thing you can do to keep on top of status changes at Dreamhost is to put a custom RSS feed of just the things that affect the servers you’re on into your RSS feed reader.
I have this feed along with my FeedBurner custom status feed in a folder called Alerts:
Dreamhost Custom Status Feed in RSS Reader
It’s possible other hosts like 1&1 or Hostgator also have custom RSS status feeds, but I don’t know for certain. FeedBurner does, so you should grab that.
Dreamhost Custom Status RSS Location
To get the address for your particular server, go to the Support section of the Dreamhost Panel, which is at this address:
https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=support.msg
The RSS address is with the orange RSS icon:
Dreamhost Custom Status Feed in Dreamhost Support
If you liked this article
If you liked this article, don’t forget to subscribe for updates!
Get updates by RSS (What’s RSS?)
Follow me on Twitter
![[del.icio.us]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[dzone]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/dzone.png)
![[Facebook]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[Reddit]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://digitivity.org/blog/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Top Incoming Search Terms
"dreamhost problems" "leave a reply" site:http://digitivity.org/ .snapshot dreamhost check dreamhost server status dream host apps +status dream host problems dreamhost adress dreamhost brasil server problems dreamhost how to custom rss feed dreamhost network status dreamhost panel status dreamhost problem dreamhost problems dreamhost problems 2010 dreamhost reboot dreamhost reboot my server dreamhost rss dreamhost rss feeds dreamhost selinux dreamhost server status dreamhost server status feed dreamhost slashdot 2010 dreamhost snapshot dreamhost snapshot directory dreamhost status dreamhost wordpress feed rss hidden snapshot directory dreamhost how to delet nfs fil dreamhost http://digitivity.org/781/dreamhost-server-problems-status-rss local address dreamhost miro install panel dreamhost status problems at dreamhost 2010 problems with dreamhost 2010 problems with rss feed from blog to linkedin rss feeds for dreamhost server status rss site:digitivity.org site:http://digitivity.org site:http://digitivity.org/ status rss wordpress problem dreamhostRelated posts:
- Check If Your Blog Is Working with ismyblogworking.com I ran across a neat website the other day that...
- What Is RSS? An Introduction to Feeds and RSS Feed Readers RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a handy way...
- Does RSS Kill Your Productivity and Make You Insane? Does RSS kill your productivity? (What's RSS?) Jacqui Cheng at...
- Dreamvue: A Desktop App to Manage Your Dreamhost Account Dreamhost recently (within the last few months) released a remote...
- DreamHost Offers Web Hosting for One Year for $9.24 with a One-Day Promotional Code DreamHost is offering webhosting for one year at $100 off,...
Explore related content: backup, DreamHost, Dreamhost status, network, OS, problems, RSS feed, security, server
Nice and helpful information, will use it.
Very efficiently written information. It is going to be useful to anybody who usess it, including myself. Sustain the nice work – for positive i will try extra posts.
I dont know what to say. this is definitely one of the better blogs Ive read. Youre so insightful, have so much real stuff to bring to the table. I hope that more people read this and get what I got from it: chellolls. Great job and great site. I cant wait to read more, keep em comin!
We would also like to mention that most people that find themselves without having health insurance can be students, self-employed and people who are without a job. More than half of the uninsured are really under the age of Thirty five. They do not experience they are looking for health insurance because they are young along with healthy. The income is typically spent on homes, food, as well as entertainment. Most people that do represent the working class either complete or part time are not offered insurance via their jobs so they head out without owing to the rising expense of health insurance in the usa. Thanks for the strategies you reveal through this blog.
I savor, lead to I found exactly what I was taking a look for. You have ended my 4 day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye
Thank you to get sharing these details. Nonetheless will probably be actually good to have some more specifics!
Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely helpful info particularly the last part
I care for such information much. I was looking for this certain info for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.
Aw, this has been an immensely good post. For believe I wish to make a note of individuals as well ( space ) slacking and as a result authentic procedure to brew a pretty decent article… conversely exactly what can That i say… That i put things off a lot my entire life apparently go set up.
Hello Guru, what entice you to post an article. This article was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.
Hey there, I need to thanks any autor on the internet business. Most of is pretty obvious and useful. The form could also be brilliant in my closet. Everything that if possible tel us what’s the structure what application? many thanks repeatedly and therefore resume the deliver the results.
I enjoy what you guys are usually up too. Such clever work and exposure! Keep up the fantastic works guys I’ve incorporated you guys to my own blogroll.
Utterly pent subject material, Really enjoyed looking at.
For fun. And, yes, I always put down a great book and long to know what happened to the characters after “The End.” Sequels written years later and not by the original author are risky and often really bad, but I’ll give this one a whirl because I loved P&P and it seems intriguing to have nasty old Wickham murdered.diablo 3 gold
your site is very interesting, i add this site to my bookmarks….
Excellent post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely helpful info specially the last part
I care for such info a lot. I was seeking this certain info for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck.
Dreamhost has great future.
Dreamhost Problems Status RSS | Digitivity Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I have truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
I totally agree with your issues. We all benefit from this wonderful script. This blog is good. I have acquired a little things from here. Thank you.