Apache 2.2.9 Introduced to all Servers

This is a quick update to let everyone know that HostedFX has now officially upgraded all of our servers to be using the latest stable build of Apache – version 2.2.9. We have previously delayed the upgrade as we wanted to make certain that most, if not all, of the bugs would be corrected by the time we have upgraded. We believe now is a great time to roll out the latest version of Apache, whilst maintaining our stable hosting environment.

The full list of new features and benefits of Apache 2 can be seen here.

The upgrade is now complete, and out of our eight servers we have only had one report of there being an issue – which was quickly resolved. As always, if you have any issues they we be quickly addressed via our secure client area.

Thank you,
Gareth Hodson

All Servers Upgraded

Most of you won’t have noticed (due to us scheduling our downtime in the middle of the night EST time), but we had all of our servers upgraded last night. This is yet further evidence of HostedFX meeting client demand – when a server starts to even slightly feel any strain – we upgrade.

Scheduled Downtime Information for Upgrades
Time: Thu Jan 31 02:27:05 EST 2008
Total Time on Error: 14 minutes, 33 seconds

Details of Upgrade – Each server now has;
- An additional 1GB of RAM.
- An improved backup drive with 160GB storage.

This now takes each of our servers specs to the following:

Intel Dual Xeon 2.8ghz HyperThreading
Memory: 4096 MB DDR [4GB] ECC System Memory
Main Drive: 160GB Sata
Backup Drive: 160GB Sata
Automated Daily Backups
Private VLAN: 100mbps

Thanks for hosting with HostedFX!

General Security/Performance Upgrades

Over the past 24 hours we have added some extra safety precautions to our server in order to secure the protection and integrity of all our clients and their websites. In addition, we have made a few tweaks to ensure the performance of our server is as high as possible. The measures taken are as follows.

- CHKRootKit – a simple program that detects and hacker software and notifies us if any has been detected via email.
- RootKit Hunter – scanning tool to ensure our system does not have any backdoors or exploits.
- Securing and Upgrading of SSH Server – increases security during ssh connections failures and automatically blocks the attackers ip in the firewall.
- System Integrity Monitor – 24×7 Internal Monitor that checks all services and restarts them if they are down.
- SPRI – changes the priority of different processes in accordance to level of importance, hence increasing server performance.
- Secure and Optimize Apache (HTTP)- tweaks apache to perform better, and prevent unnecessary information from being easily seen. Also installed mod_security to restrict web attacks.
- MySQL optimization – increases performance of MySQL.
- host.conf hardenening – prevent dns lookup poisoning & spoofing protection.
- nsswitch.conf modification – secure and optimize DNS lookups.
- sysctl.conf hardening – helps prevent TCP/IP stack from syn-flood attacks and other network abuses.
- Shell Fork Bomb/Memory Hog Protection – prevents a user logged into a shell from consuming all the resources on the server.
- TMP Directory hardening ( /tmp, /var/tmp, /dev/shm) – helps prevents execution of malicious scripts.

As always, HostedFX is always striving to provide the best service possible for you.

Additional 1GB RAM Upgrade

Although our main server is currently extremely stable, we can never have too much! I have scheduled an additonal 1GB of RAM to be installed on the server later this evening. The upgrade will result in no more than 15 minutes of downtime and has been scheduled for 10 PM EST (02/05/2007).

This will take our server RAM to the following:

- Memory: 3072 MB DDR (3GB) ECC System Memory

Which is a very high specification. Once again, this upgrade is typical of our determination to grow as a company, whilst providing the best possible services and hardware for our wonderful customers!

Server Upgrades…Yes, MORE!

You may have noticed the server has been having a few problems the last few weeks – slow points, outages and downtime. Well hopefully this will now be fixed. Last night the server was down for a few upgrades. Firstly, I had the operating system reinstalled; there may have been a problem before causing the system to crash. Secondly, I have added a second hard drive to the server. Now, the whole server is backed up automatically every single day – so in the event you have any little problems it will take a few seconds to restore the backup after contacting me. Lastly, I’ve bought an extra stick of RAM taking us up to 1.5GB, this was not necessary but I thought it’s best to have more than not enough. My pocket’s a little lighter, but well worth the investment in my opinion.