Hi, people of the InterWorx Forums.
My name’s Rob, and I’m the new Support Tech.
One of the things we thought it’d be smart to do is set up a general quick-help and FAQ thread for the forums, something to go to first just in case you have a problem and think someone else might have had the same one before.
First off, for new and prospective users, let’s go over the basics.
InterWorx itself is a control panel system for both dedicated and virtual private Linux servers. It lets you easily and quickly configure your machine for hosting various services, including allowing people to resell the services you have sold them. It integrates nicely with many popular billing services such as WHMCS, ClientExec, AWBS and ModernBill/Parallels Billing. It’s extensible through its own API, and provides both SimpleScripts and Softaculous integration for installing popular site software such as Wordpress, Magento, phpBB, and more.
The real power behind InterWorx (or at least the part that I found awesome) lies in its clustering software, which makes building a load-balanced server cluster a matter of a few clicks with the proper hardware configuration.
Post-Installation: Stickies that point to docs or comprehensive forum posts
It would be useful to have stickies that also point to docs or comprehensive forum posts on these topics:
Walk-through of first things to do immediately after installing InterWorx, both for NodeWorx and SiteWorx
Listing of major services installed by InterWorx and location of configuration files
Recommending tweaks to apply and hardening for Apache, MySql, firewalls, etc.
Gotchas, caveats and things NOT to mess with unless you know what you're doing (for example, things that could immediately break your InterWorx installation
I list these topics because they were some of the first things I went hunting for after installation.
I hope no one minds my thoughts, and I’ve read this post a few times, but some of the post is not feasible as follows
If everyone creates sticky post, then it become the same, cluttered. I think it’s better to create tags for easy searching.
Tweaks for hardening apache etc… This to me is not part of IW but part of server admins duties. IW make a good base install and leaves any further changes to be configured as the owners need/want. Any posts relating to this usually have not originated from IW team, but from users themselves.
Better docs would be lovely but the docs do exist on IW website.
not everyone/anyone should be creating sticky posts (you are right, that would get messy), but maybe someone roaming these forums long enough to know which are the helpful and actually still valid posts.
I have been reading many many posts over the last few days and very often a problem and it’s solution have been rendered obsolete by either a FAQ entry or by changes to iworx-cp. As a “newbie” it is sometimes difficult to tell whether this or that task is supposed to be done from within the panel or directly in the underlying OS.
Very often I came across posts decribing how to do something in config files only to realize later that this has later been moved into the GUI for better usability.
And I know that its often a very bad idea to interfere with the well designed interactions between Panel and OS. So especially strategicmoves’ last point “Gotchas, caveats and things NOT to mess with unless you know what you’re doing (for example, things that could immediately break your InterWorx installation” is something I would love to see.
Sure enough, in a few weeks or months, I will know these things (hopefully not by bad experiences and horrible mistakes) but if someone who is used to setting up iworx-cp a lot would take the time and list the most important things from the forums and faqs it would make it so much easier for new admins to adopt iworx-cp.
Don’t get me wrong, the existing documentation is great but forums can be a valuable additional source if they are sorted and collected into stickies by the more experienced long-time users.
Apart from all that, where can i find the Sitworx Documentation?
Many thanks, and I was reticent to reply to this post originally,as my thoughts and understandings are different sorry.
There are some good points raised, but there are downsides, in that the forum are asking for users to give up time to do this. I myself try to help where I can, but it’s hard for me to distinguish which is important to some users and not others, and with the different OS which can be used, may have different fixes/hardening etc… But I fully understand what your saying.
I’m just leaving but I’ll have a look for siteworx docs when I’m back, sorry, I have never had to look for the siteworx docs.
Yeah, I know it is a lot of work to keep track of these things and I have to admit that I haven’t done this myself on any forum I am participating in. But maybe someone reads this, who has kept some links for himself to look up and thinks “hey, this could be a good starting point for others”…
The reason I am asking for the sitworx docs is simply that I would like to see if we can translate some or all of them for our users.
I’ll ask Brett or Mr T, but if none exists, if I have time I will produce some documentation, all I would ideally need to know is how indepth it needs to be, I’m thinking just a walk through.
I hope that’s alright and sorry to have mislead you
The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that most of the things in Siteworx are pretty self explanatory and that users, who don’t know what this or that means should simply not touch that setting. On the other hand it is always a nice added value, if the basics are covered for novice users.
But maybe a small collection of caveats and tipps, like e.g. “change your FTP password in order to use the FTP account we created for you” (as we have discussed here http://forums.interworx.com/threads/6622-Ftp?p=25682#post25682). The existing FAQ here would be way to much for simple end users, but those tiny things could help new users a lot.
I have to confess the biggest by far question asked or mistake made is not knowing the hosting folder to place website, which is HTML folder. Even some experienced web devs have made the same mistake and place in root folder.
It would be interesting to know of other users experience or thoughts as well, but I do just think a simple walk through is the way to go.
Your thoughts are always welcome (I’ve seen your many thoughtful responses all around the IW forums) so thanks for chiming in.
The first point IW-Robert makes above is “One of the things we thought it’d be smart to do is set up a general quick-help and FAQ thread for the forums, something to go to first just in case you have a problem and think someone else might have had the same one before.”
My original post was in the spirit of his note and I thought any stickies or pointers to forum posts would be listed here – in this thread – perhaps as a running list of sorts. I probably confused the issue by saying “stickies” since that really refers to “posts that stick” somewhere. (Ooops!)
Still, I have to echo (again) what mdeinhardt is saying …
[QUOTE=mdeinhardt;25674] … I have been reading many many posts over the last few days and very often a problem and it’s solution have been rendered obsolete by either a FAQ entry or by changes to iworx-cp. As a “newbie” it is sometimes difficult to tell whether this or that task is supposed to be done from within the panel or directly in the underlying OS. Very often I came across posts decribing how to do something in config files only to realize later that this has later been moved into the GUI for better usability. …
Michael[/QUOTE]
I cannot tell you how many hours I’ve spent searching the (very good) IW documentation, the forums, and the FAQs for answers to procedures and processes. I am deeply grateful to the forum posters who take time to give clear directions, examples and code snippets (including yourself). But again, as the versions change, as the panel improves, as the OS is upgraded, things change.
Yes, SiteWorx documentation … even a walkthrough … would be most welcome. I just read (and responded) to the thread referenced by mdeinhardt above about FTP passwords in SiteWorx. Now that was a real “gotcha”!
My clients are definitely not going to look through the FAQs, search a knowledgebase or read the reference materials. They are going to send me an email (more likely a text message!) asking question after question after question. I’d rather have a manual (or walkthrough document) that they can quickly reference.
Not to lay the work on you John, I’m happy to create a not-too-comprehensive document (and share with others) but would rather not have to start from scratch. And thanks for your efforts in this regard.
My suggestion would be to create two threads that should only be used for Q and A:
One for anything you deem worthwile to be written down for Siteworx Users (i.e our customers). This could later compiled into a FAQ/Walkthrough/Manual of sorts.
The other to collect everything you came across that is helpful for all of us using nodeowrx and sitworx as admins.
The benefit of doing it in Q and A form is the better searchabilty and this also forces everone to formulate their findings, tipps and tricks in a better way .
If we keep discussions about those things in here, the two threads would become a valuable source of information over time and no-one has to do it all by himself.
I believe that is what IWorx-Robert has intended with this very thread or at least something in that vein, but then we came and spoiled it with discussions Sorry for that.
I hope you don’t mind, but the FTP was no gotcha, sorry. It’s a little strange why the password is not known, and the password file is encrypted but there most likely is a reason why it’s setup this way. I’m thinking at dev stage, someone would have asked same question, and after reading a little, it could be to stop any snooping on command line perhaps.
Michael, I did think the same for thread, as the next post was purposefully left blank, but as no one seems to have used it since it’s inception, I just didn’t want to appear to be rude by stating or moving this thread. I think your thoughts make sense, but as with computers, GIGO is the order of the day.
I don’t think it’s rude. The question is, is IWorx-Robert still around and would he agree and/or be willing to scan this or the other thread and compile the helpful stuff into his first two posts. Because that’s the best way to do this: Everebody contributes Q and A (that means the question AND the answer, otherwise the thread gets out of hand again with discussion) and the OP collects the good stuff into the first post(s). That way newbies don’t have to search the whole forum and also don’t have to read several pages of a thread but simply go to the first post and find everything there.
If it can’t be done in here, we would need the threads I mentioned and someone with enough knowledge to start them and do the compilation.
Sorry for that.