Ramifications of moving from Windows hosting to Linux hosting

R

Randy Morgan

I am considering changing my web hosting account from a shared Windows
platform to a shared Linux platform. I'm going to give a little
background as to why in the next paragraph, so if you don't care about
the why please just skip it.

My host does not permit access to raw log files, and their included
stats analysis package stinks. I'm using some free services now, but
the amount of data that can is stored is pretty small. I've researched
Awstats, and it looks like an awesome package. There's still the
problem of log files, though, and the trick they suggest to build your
own log files involves a script (pslogger) that is available in perl or
php. My host disables many PHP functions on Windows packages, and some
of those disabled functions show up in the PHP version of the script
that builds log files. I suppose the equivalent Windows technology is
ASP or ASP.NET, which my host would allow, but I can't find where
anybody has ported pslogger to either of them. Doing it myself is
laughably impractical. If move my hosting account to a Linux platform,
those disabled PHP functions become enabled and then everything is duck
soup...well, maybe not duck soup but at least doable.

I can still use FP extensions if I move to a Linux platform, but I lose
support for ASP and ASP.NET. In my site I use databases to hold the
results of a couple forms, and in working through FP to do this it
created some Access databases and had me change the page extension from
..htm to .asp. Since ASP goes away if I change hosting platforms, I'll
have to change the pages. I could change the databases from Access to
MySQL, but FP does not seem to have a robust process for creating or
managing MySQL databases, and they weren't an option I could find when I
was setting up the databases originally.

For those of you who are wondering if there's a questions in here
anywhere, here they are.

1. Am I correct about FP's inability to automatically create and manage
MySQL databases the way it does with Access databases? If true, the
reasons are obvious, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything.
(BTW, a search on "mysql" in FP returns only one item, and that's a link
to the FP MVPs!).

2. Before I started storing form results in a database I put them in
..csv files. This worked fine, but I moved to databases, mainly because
I thought I should because "databases are better". But, the form data
are relatively simple, and I don't expect either database to ever hold
more than about 2000 records of 8 to 10 text fields each. This ain't
the Excel forum, but does anybody have any experience using Excel to
manage files of this size or can comment as to whether they become too
unwieldy to use?

3. I could (I think) avoid all this if there was a version of pslogger
written in ASP or ASP.NET. Anybody seen one?
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

Have you consider moving to another web host, where you would have access to the raw log files,
where you could then download them and run them in Windows based stat analysis application directly
on your PC?

FP will not manage a MySQL database.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
==============================================
If you feel your current issue is a results of installing
a Service Pack or security update, please contact
Microsoft Product Support Services:
http://support.microsoft.com
If the problem can be shown to have been caused by a
security update, then there is usually no charge for the call.
==============================================
 
R

Randy Morgan

Oh, I've considered moving to another host, but inertia and fear of the
unknown have kept me from doing so.

I figure they all have their quirks, and my inclination is to stick with
the devil I know. Beyond that, the site is relatively active right now
and I'm skeptical that I can move from a budget host to another host and
keep the site live all (or even most) of the time during the transition.

Thanks for confirming my understanding of FP and MySQL. Pity, that, but
understandable from MSFT's point of view.


Randy
 
P

P@tty Ayers

Oh, I've considered moving to another host, but inertia and fear of the
unknown have kept me from doing so.

I'd really suggest considering it. There are so many host companies; in my
experience, there are a lot of them who offer good prices, excellent
support, and everything I need. We're really in a strong position to choose.
...Beyond that, the site is relatively active right now and I'm skeptical
that I can move from a budget host to another host and keep the site live
all (or even most) of the time during the transition.

That really shouldn't be a problem. When the site is duplicated and
functioning properly on the new host, you change the name server settings
for the domain, and likely no one will even know you've changed hosts.

Just my 2 cents worth. :)
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

Switching host only becomes a issue if you have a interactive functions (forum, shopping carts,
etc.) running on your site.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
==============================================
If you feel your current issue is a results of installing
a Service Pack or security update, please contact
Microsoft Product Support Services:
http://support.microsoft.com
If the problem can be shown to have been caused by a
security update, then there is usually no charge for the call.
==============================================
 
R

Randy Morgan

I don't have any of those, per se, but I do have form/buttons that take
visitors to external websites to make contributions. I got some code to
embed from the provider, but I didn't have to provide any DNS info or
anything like that.

I'm feeling a little better about the prospect of changing...now to see
if I can wrangle any of my year-in-advance fee from godaddy.

Randy Morgan
 
P

P@tty Ayers

Of course, but those can all be copied over to a new host.


--
Patty Ayers | www.WebDevBiz.com
Free Articles on the Business of Web Development
Web Design Contract, Estimate Request Form, Estimate Worksheet
--

Thomas A. Rowe said:
Switching host only becomes a issue if you have a interactive functions
(forum, shopping carts, etc.) running on your site.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
==============================================
If you feel your current issue is a results of installing
a Service Pack or security update, please contact
Microsoft Product Support Services:
http://support.microsoft.com
If the problem can be shown to have been caused by a
security update, then there is usually no charge for the call.
==============================================
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

True, but if you have both sites running at the same time, you will have users hitting both sites
depending on how fast the DNS is updated around the world.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
==============================================
If you feel your current issue is a results of installing
a Service Pack or security update, please contact
Microsoft Product Support Services:
http://support.microsoft.com
If the problem can be shown to have been caused by a
security update, then there is usually no charge for the call.
==============================================

P@tty Ayers said:
Of course, but those can all be copied over to a new host.
 
R

Randy Morgan

I've enquired with a couple of other hosts as to how the transfer
process would work. We'll see what they say.

But, back on to the possibility of just moving it to Linux...any
thoughts on how difficult a .csv file would be to work with if it had a
couple thousand records, and is there a way to call a display the
results on a page similar to the way the DBRW works?

Thanks,

Randy Morgan
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

You would have to learn PHP or whatever server-side script is supported on the server.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
==============================================
If you feel your current issue is a results of installing
a Service Pack or security update, please contact
Microsoft Product Support Services:
http://support.microsoft.com
If the problem can be shown to have been caused by a
security update, then there is usually no charge for the call.
==============================================
 
R

Ronx

I am currently using a Perl/CGI script in conjunction with a .csv text
files forming a database, although only with 600 records in the
biggest file. The display is indistinguishable from that of a
conventional database - but that is down to the programmer's skills
(or lack of them). In my experience, it is just as hard to work with
30 records as it is with 300, and 3000 would not add to the
difficulty.
This application was hosted on a BeOS server until recently, now
running on Windows 2003
See www.rxs-enterprises.org/tabnofrm/
 

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