Mailing List Archive

D. L. Fox wrote:
>
> Does anyone have a list of web hosts that support Apache::ASP?

You're narrowing your scope unnecessarily here. Unlike with the _other_
ASP, it isn't the case that Apache::ASP is either supported or it isn't.
It would be nice if it were preinstalled and configured, but that
isn't necessary. What you really must have are: 1) Apache; 2)
permission to modify httpd.conf; 3) mod_perl; and 4) the ability to get
arbitrary CPAN modules installed. There are a whole lot of web hosts
that fit that criteria.

There are a few web hosts that let you do all that without root access
to the server, but I wouldn't recommend them. You often have to involve
their tech support droids to get things set up, and that usually results
in too much hassle, as you've found out. I imagine you're not in the
market for a dedicated server. Therefore, I would recommend any of the
VPS sort of web hosts: ones that give you root access to a virtual
machine so you can run CPAN yourself.

I've just been through this myself, so I can give you a few tips in
selecting a provider:

1. Be sure to check versions of everything. I briefly tried setting up
Apache::ASP at one hosting provider that was still using Red Hat Linux
7.3! You probably have no idea how hard it is to get modern software to
build on something that old. Since new software is freely available,
the Linux world tends to abandon backwards compatibility much more
quickly than the commercial software world. You want to find a host
where the major pieces aren't more than a few years old. You don't need
to be bleeding edge, just avoid the overly conservatives ones.

2. A lot of cheap hosting providers keep their prices down by putting
some pretty severe restrictions on the amount of RAM given to each
customer. 64 MB is just not enough. Even if you strip down MySQL and
Apache to turn off all the space-for-time tradeoffs they have -- child
prespawning in Apache, big caches in MySQL, etc. -- you'll still be
running up against memory limits. You might actually get it working,
but you won't be able to run things like system updates while the web
and database servers are up. Start a second Perl interpreter instance,
or a C++ compiler, or a tool like yum, and you're running the system out
of memory again. Apache::ASP does Bad Things (TM) when it runs out of
RAM. I'd say 96-128 MB is the smallest reasonable amount. 256 MB is
plenty, ignoring application-specific overhead.

3. As for how to find such hosts, a Google search for "Linux VPS" will
turn up dozens. There are a few companies using OSes other than Linux,
and some don't call it a VPS, but you'll get plenty of choices. Just
some names to demonstrate the variety out there: VPSLink, Linode, Web
Intellects, and Verio. Between those four, you can probably find a 10:1
price ratio, a 5:1 base resource ratio, not a single control panel
that's the same among them, wholly different management models.... Look
at those four, then look at another dozen before making your decision.
There's a company out there with exactly the right feature balance for
you. There's too much competition for two companies to offer exactly
the same service set. We've got hyper-differentiation going on here.

> bothered to contact me four or five times with a "We're still working on
> it!" type message. It took them less seconds to charge my credit card
> than it has days to get my account setup.

Naturally. Charging your credit card is a solved technical problem.
One should not rely on someone else's tech support droids to solve
technical problems.

I hereby posit the theory of the 4 Rs of Tech Support: Reboot,
Reinstall, Replace, or Refuse to Acknowledge. If your problem requires
another solution, you're better off doing it yourself.

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Warren, thanks for the response packed full of info. It makes for a good
tutorial on how to get started, IMHO.

> some names to demonstrate the variety out there: VPSLink, Linode, Web
> Intellects, and Verio.

Now this is a lesson to me. As many times as I've installed Apache,
mod_perl, Apache::ASP, etc. on my boxes at home (Windows and Linux), I
never even thought to go this route. DOH!

I really like the thought of having that much control over the server.
Then if it breaks, I can only blame myself (backup, backup, backup).

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