Knowledgebase

For those looking to sell products on their website, Magento is an excellent platform to do so.

While they have a paid version, they also have a free and open source one that is extremely powerful to help you keep your data private on your own server and conduct your business as you best see fit.

With their recent 2.X release, it is required to host this on our VPS hosting packages as the application requires quite a bit of server space, CPU/RAM resources.

We've recently customized our Magento Hosting packages and I wanted to provide an easy to follow step-by-step guide to getting your website up and running.

Step 1: Select Your Hosting Package

The good thing about AppsGators, all of our hosting packages are powered by our high-speed cloud meaning you can instantly add more resources to your server inside our interface with a couple of clicks.

If you're a new business, the Hero 4GB should provide plenty of resources to get up and running.  If you're an existing business, you should select the appropriate package based on the amount of traffic you're getting.

If you're seeing more than 1,000 daily unique visitors, I'd recommend the Hero 6GB to get started as it will ensure your server has ample resources to power your shopping experience (nothing worse than a slow website).

Step 2: Choose A Domain

Once you've selected your package, you need to define the primary domain for your VPS.

This is important as it's going to be the domain used for your private name servers (i.e. ns1.yourdomain.com/ns2.yourdomain.com).  Remember, with a VPS, it's your own private server, meaning you have completely independent name servers from the AppsGators network.

Above, you have three different options:

1. Register a new domain - This allows you to select a brand new domain for your VPS.
2. Transfer your domain from another registrar - If you have your domain already (perhaps at NameCheap/GoDaddy) you may wish to move it over to us here at AppsGators.
3. I will use my existing domain - If you have your name registered already (with AppsGators or another company) you can select this option.

Since your VPS is going to use private name servers, I recommend having the domain at AppsGators as we make this extremely easy to setup.

If your domain is registered with another provider, you'll have to register your name servers inside their interface.

Step 4: Configure Your Server

We reward customers for loyalty, meaning you'll get the best price signing up for 12 months.  Given the discount is around $15/month you're going to be saving quite a bunch, so I highly recommend it.

The other options are pretty standard but I'll provide my feedback:

• Hostname - This is the name of your server.  You need to use something unique so you can identify it.  In my screenshot above, I'm using vps1.keydiets.com.  You can call it whatever, but it has to be a unique subdomain (i.e. server1, alpha, beta, etc.).
• Root Password - This is going to be the "master password" to your server.  You must make this extremely strong for the VPS to create.  Use a combination of lower/uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters.  If someone were to figure this out, they would have complete access to your system.
• NS 1 Prefix - This is the prefix to your custom name server 1.  Almost always this value should be "ns1".
• NS 2 Prefix - Same as NS1 except should almost always be "ns2".
• Web Server - By default, Apache comes free with all of our VPS hosting package.  If you'd like to add LiteSpeed (better performance) you can select the appropriate license.  The cost for this is per month with the LiteSpeed 2CPU license offering their "caching" software.  This is especially helpful for WordPress websites.
• Cloudflare - Of course you're free to go to Cloudflare.com and set this up yourself, but if you'd like to have it pre-installed on the server, along with their Railgun, you can have us do this for a one-time setup fee of $29.95.
• Malware Scanner - Look at this like a virus scanner on your computer.  If you want us to install software that'll scan your server automatically each night for malicious files, we can do so for a small monthly fee.
• Template - Almost always this is going to be CentOS 7.  We have the option to add CloudLinux, but this is mostly used for Reseller web hosts.  Additionally, we have the option to use CentOS 6 at no additional charge.
• Dedicated IPs - You'll need at least 2 for your private name servers.  They come free, but if you need more the price is noted per month.
• Outgoing Monthly Bandwidth - All incoming bandwidth is free of charge at AppsGators.  It's highly unlikely you're going to run out at 5TB unless you're hosting tons of videos on your server or are going to be live streaming.
• Backup Plan - I recommend choosing this option.  This will backup your server Daily to an offsite location with the ability to restore right inside of our interface.
• Daily Backup Quota - This is the number of backups in days you'd like to retain.  I recommend at least 1 day, but it's up to you.   The pricing for this is per month.

Once you have selected all your options you can complete your payment and your server will be built.

As long as your order is validated, the server will automatically provision within about 15 minutes.

Step 5: Setup And Register Name Servers

Once your server is online, you need to login to Web Host Manager, setup your name servers and then register them with your domain register.

To get to the setup screen in Web Host Manager:

1. Login to AppsGators client portal
2. Click on Cloud Web Hosting
3. Select your VPS
4. Click on WHM
5. Login with the username 'root' and the password you defined at setup (you can also find under 'Login Details')
6. Once inside, click on 'Basic WebHost Manager setup' at the top left menu
7. Scroll to the bottom where it says Nameservers.
8. Beside each name server, click Configure Address Records and enter the IP for each:

The first name server will be the primary IP of the server (you can find in your address bar to access Web Host Manager).  To find the second name server IP, click on "Show IP Address Usage" on the left menu inside Web Host Manager.

Register The Name Servers

Once your name servers are setup on your VPS, you need to register them with your domain registrar.

If you've registered with AppsGators:

1. Go back to our Client Portal
2. Click on Domains
3. Select your domain
4. Click on "Private Nameservers" on the right menu under 'Manage'
5. Enter your ns1 and ns2 IPs:

Once this is completed for both name servers you can then edit your domain to use the private name servers:

1. Click on "Nameservers" under 'Manage'
2. Enter the name servers you just registered:

Congratulations!  Your ready to create your website on your VPS!

Step 6: Add Your Website To Web Host Manager

1. Login to Web Host Manager
2. Click on Create a New Account on the left (or type to search for it)
3. Fill out information about the site (enter the domain.com not www.domain.com)
4. Select your package (if Reselling)
5. Leave the other fields default if you're not sure what you're doing
6. Click Create

Step 7: Setup PHP And Dependencies

For Magento 2.X we're going to use PHP 7.1.

You need to enable your domain to use this as the default as of this writing is 7.0:

1. Login to Web Host Manager
2. Click on MultiPHP Manager on the left menu
3. Select the domain and set PHP Version to ea-php71 as noted in the screenshot above

Install Dependencies

For Magento, there are two additional dependencies you need to ensure it'll install properly.

1. Login to Web Host Manager
2. Click on Easy Apache 4 on the left menu
3. In the top table Currently Installed Packages click the Customize button
4. Click on the Apache Modules link on the left and search for mod_version.  Tick that option on (noted in screenshot above).
5. Click on the PHP Extensions link on the left and search for php71-php-bcmath.  Ticket that option on as well.
6. Click on the Review link on the left menu and Provision at the bottom.

Congratulations!  You're ready to install Magento 2.x!

Step 7: Install Magento

All of our VPS hosting packages include the Softaculous apps installer, making the installation process very simple.  To access:

1. Login to Web Host Manager
2. Click on the cP logo beside your domain
3. Scroll to the bottom and click on Magento under "Softaculous Apps Installer"
4. Click Install Now
5. Select the latest version of Magento (2.2.3 as of this writing) and follow the steps to install.

Congratulations!  Magento 2.X is now installed on your website and you're ready to begin selling!

Best Magento Web Hosting

I covered a lot in this tutorial so I also filmed a video that walks you through this entire process:

If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know!