Hi, I am brand spanking new to VPS.  I have used lunarpages shared hosting for years.  I am a web designer and primarily use joomla.  Joomla worked fabulously on the shared hosting accounts.  A client of mine needed more resources, so I recommended lunarpages and we put him on a lunarpages VPS package.

So, I go to install joomla and keep having issues installing extensions.  After about 5 hours of research, I narrow it down to not having suPHP installed on the VPS.  Upn calling, I find that I need to pay $60/30 minutes to have it installed for me because I don't have a clue on how to install it and there is no documentation.

Prior to calling, I searched the forum and found that many times documentation was promised on how to install this ourselves dating back to 2008.  There was also a post saying that suPHP is now being used by default on all servers since 2006.  Again, I am a total VPS noob, but from my understanding, running any php app that is going to upload anything won't work properly (permissions) without suPHP or similar.  Doesn't that pretty much mean that all PHP users on VPS are going to have to install suPHP or pay to have it installed?

I found this on joomla by a dev team member written in 2008 saying entitled, "Hosting providers - Isn't it time?".  It hits two key issues that he feels that hosting companies need to be caught up on.  (http://community.joomla.org/blogs/leadership/467-hosting-providers-isnt-it-time.html)

Here is the portion about suPHP:
suphp (or equlivalent). Running Apache/php via this method means permission problems for you users are a thing of the past (almost). Under this environment when php writes a file (ie installing a template for example) the files are owned by your user account. Files that are 644 are writable by your user (ftp), and yet other users on the same shared server cannot write to them. Again, why would you not want this simple extra layer of security, as well as making it so much easier for your users to mange their Joomla (and any other php script) website?


So, I guess the point of this post is that I have to eat the cost of having LP install suPHP for me when money is extremely tight.  Had I known beforehand that php apps wouldn't work right, I would have first presented that to the client and had him cover the costs. 

I understand paying for extra services and am not trying to be cheap...like if I called lunarpages and asked them to install joomla for me, I feel that I should have to pay for that.  I just feel like it is a surprise or hidden fee.

I feel that this should be

1) disclosed up front
2) preinstalled on all vps accounts or have an option to install with fee spelled out DURING SIGNUP and/or
3) have a lunarpages supplied wiki so that we can install it ourselves.


Does anyone else agree? 

Conga,
Thanks for responding.  What are the other options?  From my understanding (which isn't saying a lot), it isn't just joomla, but ANY php app that uploads files won't work.  So all of the extremely popular open source php based cms, forums, anything in fantastico, etc won't work. 

As I said, VPS is a whole new game to me, and I don't know the numbers and these are probably very low, but for argument's sake lets say half of the VPS customers decide to run PHP apps.  They aren't going to run correctly with the out of the box vps setup.  So, half of the VPS customers would either need to install suPHP (or equivalant) or pay to have it installed.   

I agree...clear documentation at the minimum should be provided AND I would have liked to have been informed when I called lunarpages to setup the VPS that additional expenses would be necessary before I could get my site running properly..  I did all of my cost assessments up front and this was not expected.  $60 may not seem like a lot to LP, but times are super tough right now and I can assure you that that $60 is gonna be tough on my bank account.  My client is paying for his hosting bill.  Had this expense been presented while I was on the phone with VPS sales, then it simply would have been paid by my client...but now I have to pay it.  I hate to sound so angry, but I really am.

Hey folks,
I currently have one site on a LunarPages VPS...but last year I launched a collection of sites on a VPS with a different provider.

I had an incredibly difficult time setting up my Joomla site on my LunarPages VPS, which was the reason I went elsewhere, but I did keep one site on a LunarPages VPS.

I am willing to try LunarPages out again...I'm considering migrating some sites to a Linux Pro VPS, but I have some questions first.

Can LunarPages support Joomla/SUPHP on the LunarPanel version of a Linux Pro VPS?
Without me having to do it?
For no extra $$$ ?

I'll be honest, my experience with the other VPS provider has been incredibly easy to use Joomla on. It comes with CPanel and has had none of the permissions problems I ran into with LunarPages.

LunarPages is slightly less expensive, and support is usually outstanding...so I'm not anti-LunarPages.

Thanks in advance,
Craig

Thanks Joshua. I might give it another shot.