Hi ottn,
Let's see how well I can answer your questions...my eyes are popping out of my head...it's been a crazy crazy day. :blink:
1. How difficult will it be to move my Geo SSL registered through another company? Any insight you can provide on this would be greatly appreciated as I run modernbill and this is really important to my continued operation.
Assuming you have several accounts, I assume you'll want your accounts moved for you? We're currently working with Data393 to develop a move process and policy. I should know more tomorrow, but when the site(s) are moved using the cPanel move script, I am pretty sure your SSL certificate is moved with your site. I have never heard of a problem moving the cert, so we should be able to move it manually.
2. Do you maintain Cpanel upgrades, security fixes and hot patches or am I expected to do this?
Yes, one of the pleasures and responsibilities of a Server Owner, is keeping cPanel up to date. cPanel makes this pretty easy. You can set it for auto update (which I personally don't recommend) or do it manually through your WHM. There are three release types: edge, release and stable. We recommend using release because the security updates don't make it to stable in a timely enough fashion, in our opinion.
Doing them manually allows you to notify customers of a maintenance window. Due to cPanels development methodology of making frequent updates with little testing, it's not uncommon to have a quirk or two when updates are run. Only the brave should use edge...that's cutting edge...
3. I noticed you now offer Fantastico Licenses. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. It has been my biggest reason for searching for another Cpanel provider, but I would much rather stay here. Now, I can. Will I be responsible for the install and maintanence of this software? How steep is the learning curve for someone with ok Command Line experience? (I can work most problems for things like PostNuke, OSCommerce and can install most Linux game servers (different server of course) with little to no help.
We installed our first Fantastico license a little less than two weeks ago. John didn't have too much trouble with it. It works kinda like this: You have to have a 'site' on the server to install Fantastico to. Through that site, you will have a management interface...easy easy easy. But, because there is so much user information needed to install it, we cannot pre-install it during the setup...installation is manual. Although our technicians can install it for a support fee upon request if you provide them with the necessary information needed. Here is a link to the Fantastico Installation Guide that may be helpful.
http://www.netenberg.com/support.php. Maybe others have installed it and can share their experience and opinion.
Once Fantastico is installed, you can manage the settings through the cPanel of the account you hosted it on. It's an easy interface and allows quite a bit of flexibility. The only request we have is that you ban phpNuke. PostNuke is okay. phpNuke has some security issues that we do not like, so ask that you don't offer it.
Fantastico has an auto update feature. They keep all of the scripts updated. You can select stable or current updates. We use 'stable'. You can also manually update if for some reason you need to.
Installing the scripts is easy as pie, once it's set up on the server.
4. Can I offer reseller accounts as a VPS?
Yes! A VPS is the same as a dedicated server from the cPanel viewpoint. In other words you have full root access and WHM access. So you can definately offer a reseller program on a VPS.
5. As a Bulk reseller, I relied on you to maintain the server and all resources. With the VPS, what will change as far as my System Admin responsibility?
With a VPS, we manage the OS and do kernel updates, etc. You manage the Software on the server. cPanel makes this easy with their update feature, either auto or manual update.
As far as resources, on bandwidth, like your BR account, you pay for usage over allocated bandwidth. Disk Space is a different matter, although you can upgrade the VPS if you need more disk space. VPS upgrades are pretty easy, but do require a short down time (usually less than 5 minutes depending on the amount of data. It's easy easy to move a VPS (drag and drop). You do lose a bit of disk space for cPanel. Last I heard it was around 800 to 1000 MB for cPanel, so take that into consideration when ordering. Bottom line is that there is some management needed with bandwidth and disk space, but nothing more than a BR really.
As far as performance, that's probably a bit more complex, because we don't watch for performance issues unless they begin impacting the server. So if your performance drops, you'll need to determine the cause...e.g. runaway script, user abuse, or a too busy site that should have their own VPS by themselves, for example. You can open a ticket and get technical help with those issues, although if it becomes too complex, there may be fee based charges to track down a specific problem. We provide monitoring service where you are paged or emailed if/when a service goes down.
So managing your services is another responsibility. We will be working on a service monitoring product where we'll monitor and react to service outages. Currently Data393 offers theirs for $50...which if you compare to many hosts is a pretty good price.
Let me know if you have further questions....feedback from other VPS owners is welcome.
Pat
