In order to better serve customers by increasing stability, customization and issue response time. We are moving websites hosted by Dreamhost away into a new server.
Benefits of the Move
- Faster website access times:
The number of websites that will live on the new server is significantly smaller compared to Dreamhost. This means more server system resources to serve your pages, which means more responsive websites on the server end. - Greater system stability:
With less websites on a server, the probability of something going wrong is greatly reduced, plus any downtime that may occur will only take hours (as opposed to days) to be fixed. In the past we have experienced on at least 4 outages (over the 10 years that we have been with Dreamhost) that lasted at least a week. This new server should never encounter anything close this amount of downtime. - Faster:
The specifications of the new server are higher than that of Dreamhost servers, plus it uses Solid State Drives for data storage. This means that your website should generally perform better than before.
What Other Changes Should You be Aware of?
USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS: In order to facilitate this move, all usernames and passwords to FTP accounts and email accounts will be changed. A full list of accounts and temporary passwords associated with your account will be sent to you at this email address once the migration is complete.
NOTE: This will not effect usernames and passwords used to access content management systems such as Moodle, Drupal or WordPress.
MYSQL DATABASE NAMES, USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS: Will also need to be changed. However, if you have a content management system installed on your system, we will migrate the database and update the CMS’s configuration files to use the new database for you. If you have an off-server application that relies on the MySQL database service, please notify us as your account will require additional configuration.
MYSQL DATABASE HOSTNAME: The hostname for your database connection will need to be changed to localhost.
PHPMYADMIN ADDRESS CHANGES: Access to phpMyAdmin will now be accessible at https://[yourWebsiteAddress.com]/phpmyadmin
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (WordPress, Drupal, and Moodle): The new server is expected to be 100% compatible with all popular CMS’s however, some of these systems require additional configuration for server file path purposes. If there are *new* issues with your site running with a CMS, please let us know and we will troubleshoot the issue at no additional cost to you.
SFTP: The new server will only allow connections via the significantly more secure SFTP protocol.
FTP FILE STRUCTURE: The FTP location to where you upload your website’s files will change.
EMAIL CLIENT SETTINGS: If you are using an email client such as macOS Mail, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird and any email application on your mobile phone or tablet, your email settings will need to be updated once the migration is complete.
EMAIL TRANSMISSION ENCRYPTION: You can now send and receive email via an encrypted connection on all email clients that support TLS encryption. If your client does not support TLS, you will still be able to send and receive email with an unencrypted connection. Webmail will still be available to users who prefer it.
WEBMAIL ADDRESS CHANGES: Your webmail will now be accessible at https://[yourWebsiteAddress.com]/webmail
ADMINISTRATORS WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO UPDATE EMAIL ACCOUNT PASSWORDS: The current version of the web server administration software does not permit email address account holders to change their own passwords, only the account administrator can via their account Administration Panel. This should change in the near future.
ADMINISTRATION PANEL ADDRESS CHANGE: Access to your hosting account including websites, domain names, and email addresses will now be accessible via https://server0.exodios.com:8083
ONECLICK INSTALLS: Some clients used Dreamhost’s OneClick Install service to install a content management system for managing their website. This service will be discontinued. If, however you need an installation of any content management system (Drupal, WordPress, etc.), please let us know and we will be more than happy to install one for you for a small fee. Or, if you want to wait and save some money, the Softaculous Auto Installer should be available in the coming months to help do the installation for you.
BACKUPS: With your hosting includes automatic daily backups of your account from the previous 3 days. If something goes wrong, you can log in and restore your account yourself.
FREE* SSL CERTIFICATES: Secure your website’s traffic to ensure usernames and passwords stay safe.SSL Certificates provided by Let’s Encrypt will now available for your website. For a small one-time install fee, you get a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate that automatically renews at no additional cost.
PLAN NPO NO LONGER UNLIMITED: The new server has a finite amount of transfer bandwidth and disk space, compared to the previous service provider, as a result PLAN NPO has been pushed back to 1GB of disk space and 10GB of monthly transfer bandwidth. For most clients, this is still more than enough. Pricing stays the same.
PLAN P LIMIT CHANGES: Plan P disk limit increases to 250MB of space and monthly transfer bandwidth decreases to 2.5GB of monthly transfer bandwidth. Pricing stays the same.
PLAN E LIMIT CHANGES: Plan E disk limit stays at 100MB of space and monthly transfer bandwidth decreases to 10GB of monthly transfer bandwidth. Pricing stays the same.
DISK AND TRANSFER BANDWIDTH PLAN LIMITS NOW ENFORCED: The previous web server did not provide the appropriate tools for enforcing plan limits. This new one does. Should you reach your plan limit, please contact us to discuss solutions that will better serve you.
QUICK AND EASY EXODUS: If you are unhappy with your service with us at any point, moving your site is quick and easy. You can download your account backup to your local hard drive at any time. Backup files can be migrated into other web servers running HestiaCP and restored within minutes.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT: Will only be available through us. Simply fire us an email at ryan.brownell@brownellnetworks.com and we’ll be happy to help.
TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE BASE: A knowledge base is being developed to help answer the most common questions and problems. Initially it will mostly focus on just client configuration (email, FTP, etc.) You can find this knowledge base at http://support.brownellnetworks.com.
What Do You Need to Do?
Mostly nothing, we will facilitate the migration of all data and configuration of any CMS’s. Once migration is complete, you will get an email indicating as such and receive a list of account usernames and passwords. After you receive this email you will need to:
- Update the password to your administration panel user.
- Update all passwords to all email accounts.
- Update any saved FTP settings.
- Update email client settings.
- Inform all users of webmail of the new webmail address.
- Test your site to make sure it is working as normal.
- Contact us with any issues.