Image via CrunchBaseFinally, after some minor hiccups I have successfully migrated to my new (dedicated) server with UKFast.net.
As I say, it didn't all go smoothly. For one thing, I needed to sort out the DNS settings for both the sites (www.newbeltane.com and www.bestcoolerprices.co.uk) so that they point to the right server. Having done my usual thing at the domain register and in my server's cpanel, I thought all I had to do was wait for the new settings to propagate themselves around the net and we would be away. But, it wasn't to be that simple. When I rang my new hosting company's support desk I discovered that as I was now on a dedicated server and not a managed server I was on my own, at least officially. However it was the middle of the night and I was feeling tired and fraught, and as I had only just received the server form the engineer I had some sympathy from the guy I was speaking with.
After some confusion over what I was trying to do (my tiredness didn't help) I managed to get him t understand my predicament and at that point he suggested that trying to handle it all in the cpanel was probably not the best approach and he suggested using SafeDNS. As it happens, they offer the service for free and after talking me through the steps we were away. All I needed to do now was to wait for 24-48 hours and all should be well.
Next task was to set up Wordpress on the server for both sites and again I hit a barrier. I discovered that neither Fantastico or Softaculous were installed with cpanel. This meant I would have my work cut out. I tried initially installing it need 'by hand' but it wouldn't work properly for some reason. Time to call support again. Only now the person I emailed responded that would need to purchase a support credit (£60 plus VAT for 1 hour's work!).
However, after much discussion on the phone and explaining that as I am paying for the cpanel (£30 pcm plus VAT so it's not cheap) I had expected it come fully configured and my experience was that on or both packages were installed by default. However, despite my protests of 'daylight robbery' it seemed I would have fork out the £60. I was not a happy bunny, I can say.
After making a call to my account manager (the guy who had sold me the dedicated server package for a not inconsiderable sum) I received an answer that was not the one was expecting but worked out a lot cheaper, i.e. free! I could install Softaculous for free myself. I visited http://www.softaculous.com/docs/Installing_Softaculous_in_cPanel and read how to do it, followed the instructions and it was easy peasey, so to speak. However, a word of warning. Wordpress doesn't come with the free version of Softaculous and you need to buy an annual license. Its only $24 a year per server but it's worth it as it means you get all 150 scripts and Wordpress is so much easier to install (and delete if need be).
Once I had done that, installing Wordpress was easy and I was starting to cheer up. However, there were still some hurdles left to over come but more on these in my next post.
