We are pleased to announce the successful merger of ewebplanet.in, a successful web hosting and development provider based in Kolkata with Diadem Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Ewebplanet.in has been a division of Insync Tech Fin Solutions Ltd., which was founded by Mr. Atul Kumar in 2006 and has enjoyed rapid growth since its inception.

As the company is now focussed on developing their own SAP oriented products and solutions (SBOeConnect and SBOeCube), they had decided to hive off their web hosting division to a provider which shared the same vision and values and would be able to take good care of their clients and manage them effectively. After a series of amicable discussions with Mr. Atul Gupta, Insync decided to migrate its hosting services and clients to our network which would enable us to start managing their hosting services and clients, effective from 15 Oct 2011.

I am confident that this merger would enable us to provide the existing clients of ewebplanet.in with enhanced hosting features and upgrade their hosting plans to new features and services as we release them to our clients. To begin with, all accounts would be migrated to the new version of the Plesk Control Panel 10.3 which has a new streamlined interface and extensive features for effective management of client accounts and services. Customers can also use the 1-click installer for installing third part apps (wordpress, joomla, etc.) without going through the technical process of installing these applications on their accounts.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all clients and partners of  ewebplanet.in to Diadem Technologies and I hope that we can continue to serve and provide you with industry leading hosting services in the days ahead.

I would also like to thank our clients, partners and our committed support staff for their continued support and this merger would further consolidate our presence as a leading web hosting provider in this region with a strong presence in the SME segment.

Posted by hriday under News & Updates
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I'm attending Parallels APAC Summit 2011!

The Parallels APAC Summit, is an annual event and was held in Singapore last month between Sep 23-25 2011. For me, this was my first visit at a Parallels summit and as we have recently become a Parallels Gold Partner, I found it prudent to be at this event as it also coincided with the launch of the Softlayer DC in Singapore, which is their first international data center outside of the US.

The summit was a well organised event and held at the Shangrila Resort in Sentosa which is a popular island getaway from Singapore. I was fortunate enough  to meet and interact with key Parallels personnel and get an insight into the upcoming versions of their new products and services. The keynote was delivered by none other then Mr. Lance Crosby (CEO, Softlayer Technologies, Inc) which made this event all the more special. Best of all, we were able to meet and interact with other key hosting solution providers across the region and share notes on planning ahead for the future.

Here are some pics from this event and stay tuned with us as we launch new solutions and services in partnership with Parallels (the industry leader for web hosting automation and virtualisation solutions)

Posted by hriday under Industry Events
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In case of a scheduled maintenance which requires your Xen VMs to be shutdown on your Xen server when you are not available, the following script should can be put to use:

Create a script as allvmshutdown.sh with 755 permissions and add the list of VMs as in the example script:

#!/bin/bash
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM1
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM2
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM3
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM4
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM5
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM6
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM7
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM8
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM9
xe vm-shutdown vm=VM10

To get a list of VMs on the server, run the command #xe vm-list from the command line, which will list the VMs hosted on your Xen host.

Now you just need to add a cron entry to schedule this job. For example, to run script at 02:00 am on Sunday:

crontab -e
*   02 *    *    0           /scripts/allvmshutdown.sh

Note: Do ensure that the script is commented or removed from the crontab, after the maintenance has been completed to prevent this script from recurring.

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Posted by hriday under Linux, Virtualisation
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SSL is absolutely essential for any website collecting sensitive information online. On your computer, you can see it as the little padlock in the bottom right-hand corner of your browser, when you send or collect information online.

If you go to an unsecured website, you transmit information over many computers and networks, practically inviting hackers to steal this information – like passwords and credit card information. Obviously, that’s not something you want to fall prey to. SSL ensures that this does not happen.

What is SSL?

Secure Sockets Layer or SSL, was introduced in 1994 and has been declared as the standard for securing E-commerce transactions.  SSL is a protocol that encrypts credit card numbers and other sensitive information by scrambling the data so it can not be accessed by eavesdroppers.  More than likely, you have visited a few sites protected with SSL encryption as it is typically indicated by a URL that starts with HTTPS opposed to HTTP and a padlock icon located on the top or bottom of the web page.

SSL ensures safe transactions:

To make sure that no hacker can intercept and misuse information being collected online, SSL does two things:

  • Encrypts it with a hidden key on the user’s computer before the information is sent out;
  • Sends the key to the receiving computer using another encryption system called RSA. With this key the information collected online can be decoded.
    A 128-bit public encryption key and a 1024-bit private RSA key are unbreakable today. They are also part of most web browsers and web servers.

How does SSL  communication work:

    • Provides visible authentication:

      Before an SSL session is established, the server it connects with needs to have a digital certificate – a kind of unique digital identification to establish its authenticity. Digital certificates are issued by a Certification Authority, after performing several checks to confirm the identity of the organization to which it is issuing the certificate.

      An SSL digital certificate generates a public key for your customers and a private key on your server that works as a kind of official, online stamp for your enterprise. This private key needs to be kept secure, along with a back-up. A user can check to see if a secure session has been established by looking at the web address: in a secure session, the ‘http:’ portion of the web address changes to ‘https:’

        • Assures data integrity:

          This basically ensures that nobody can tamper with the data or information that is already online. Your customers will know that the contents of your website – or any information they have transmitted to it online – cannot be tampered with. It assures them that they are doing business in a safe environment.

            • Ensures data privacy:

              This means that online collection of sensitive information is secure and cannot be intercepted or read by anyone except the computer it was intended for.

              Data integrity and data privacy are integral to the functioning and success of any website handling or facilitating online financial transactions – and that’s what e-commerce is all about.

              Once a secure session has been established, the public key is used by customers, to encrypt the information being sent online. This information is then decoded instantaneously through your server’s private key.

              Posted by ankur under Web Hosting
              0 Comments

              Expressmaint utility is a very handy tool to backup and do different maintenance activities for SQL server 2005/2008 databases.

              You can perform various kind of administrative jobs in your SQL server database without having a in depth knowledge of SQL server maintenance facilities available with it. The jobs that can be done using this small but powerful utility are:

              • Full Database Backup
              • Differential Database Backup
              • Log Backup
              • Housekeeping of backup files
              • Database Integrity Checks
              • Database Index Rebuilds
              • Database Index Reorganization
              • Database Statistics Update
              • Report Creation

              The Expressmaint Utility can be downloaded from the below mentioned links:

              ExpressMaint utility for SQL 2005: http://www.sqldbatips.com/samples/code/ExpressMaint.zip

              ExpressMaint utility for SQL 2008: http://www.sqldbatips.com/samples/code/ExpressMaint2008.zip

              Example Syntax

              Note that the entire command should be on one line even though some examples span multiple lines for formatting purposes

              1) Full Database Backup of all user databases to c:\backups, verify the backups and report to c:\reports keeping backups for 1 day and reports for 1 week and continue processing other databases if an error is encountered baking up a database

              expressmaint -S (local) -D ALL_USER -T DB -R c:\reports -RU WEEKS -RV 1 -B c:\backups -BU DAYS -BV 1 -V -C

              2) Full Database Backup of all system databases to c:\backups, verify the backups and report to c:\reports keeping backups for 1 week and reports for 1 week

              expressmaint -S (local) -D ALL_SYSTEM -T DB -R c:\reports -RU WEEKS -RV 1 -B c:\backups -BU DAYS -BV 1 -V

              3) Log Backup of all user databases to c:\backups, don’t verify the backups and report to c:\reports keeping backups for 1 day and reports for 1  day

              expressmaint -S (local) -D ALL_USER -T LOG -R c:\reports -RU DAYS -RV 1 -B c:\backups -BU DAYS -BV 1

              4) Check the integrity of the AdventureWorks database and report to c:\reports keeping reports for 1 week

              expressmaint -S (local) -D AdventureWorks -T CHECKDB -R c:\reports -RU WEEKS -RV 1

              5) Rebuild all indexes in the AdventureWorks database and report to c:\reports keeping reports for 1 day

              expressmaint -S (local) -D AdventureWorks -T REINDEX -R c:\reports -RU DAYS -RV 1

              6) Update all statistics with fullscan in the AdventureWorks database and report to c:\reports keeping reports for 1 day

              expressmaint -S (local) -D AdventureWorks -T STATSFULL -R c:\reports -RU DAYS -RV 1

              Automating backups using ExpressMaint

              Since SQL Server 2005 Express Edition does not include SQL Agent, we need to rely on the Windows Task Scheduler to run our maintenance tasks. If you are not familiar with how to set up a scheduled task, it’s worth reviewing the Microsoft Knowledge Base article below

              How to Schedule Tasks in Windows XP

              • Double-click Add Scheduled Task to start the Scheduled Task Wizard, and then click Next in the first dialog box
              • Click Browse, browse to Expressmaint.exe, and then click Open.
              • Type a name for the task e.g DAILY FULL BACKUP and then choose Daily from the scheduling options
              • Click Next, specify the information about the time to run the task e.g. 00:00, and then click Next
              • Type the name and password of the account that will execute this task. Make sure that you choose an account that is a syadmin for your instance
              • Click Next, select the checkbox to Open the Advanced Properties for this task and then click Finish
              • In the Run text box append the arguments you want to pass to the ExpressMaint utility. (You must leave a space after the existing contents)
              • Click OK. If prompted, supply the password for the account again
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              Posted by anirban under Database, Windows Server
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              If you have forgot your Plesk admin password and the forgot password option is also linked to an invalid email id, following is the method to recover your Plesk admin password for Linux and Windows Servers.

              For Plesk Linux:

              Login to your server by SSH, with root privilege and run:

              # cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow

              You will see the current password in Plan Text form.

              For Plesk Windows:

              Login to your server from Remote Desktop Connection, with administrator rights and run:

              “C:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\admin\bin\plesksrvclient.exe” –get

              And you will see a Windows Box with your admin password.

              Note: If your Plesk installation is older the file will be located in C:\Program Files\SWsoft\Plesk\admin\bin

              Note: If you are running Windows x64 (Dedicated or virtual) the path will be: C:\Program Filex (x86)\Parallels\Plesk\admin\bin (Parallels folder may be SWsoft on older plesk installs)

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              Posted by ankur under Plesk Control Panel
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              PHP 5.3 introduces various new tags and deprecated certain PHP functions which were being supported till ver 5.2. We recently upgraded the PHP version on one of our servers to 5.3 and found that it broke one site which was built on ver Joomla 1.0.x. Following is a simple update to ensure that the site still works on the new version of PHP 5.3.x.

              Edit the Function.php file under  your Joomla directory on /public_html/includes/Cache/Lite.
              Replace:
              $arguments = func_get_args();

              with

              $arguments = func_get_args();
              $numargs = func_num_args();
              for($i=1; $i < $numargs; $i++){
              $arguments[$i] = &$arguments[$i];
              }

              in includes/Cache/Lite/Function.php. It will fix compatibility view issues for joomla 1.0.x on php 5.3.x and this resolved the issue for us.

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              Posted by hriday under CMS, Joomla
              4 Comments

              Some of our clients need help in using the domain control panel provided with the domain they register with us. So I thought it would be beneficial for them if a step by step guideline is their which makes things simpler to understand and help them do the required settings themselves. I will explain for two of the Domain registrars namely “ENOM” and “Directi”.

              Directi/ResellerClub domain control panel overview

              1. Login to the directi domain control panel provided by the domain registrar. Enter the domain name and select “Domain registration Service” and click the “Go” button. The home screen should appear as below:
              2. If you want to use the DNS service of the registrar then you have to modify the Name servers to the one provided by your registrar. On order to change this click on the “DNS” tab and select “Activate DNS” and then “Autoupdate Nameservers”. This will set the Name servers for the domain to the Default.

              3. But if you want to set the Name servers to some different then select the “Name Servers” link and change to the desired one.
              4. Now click on “Manage DNS” to start adding records in the DNS.
              5. Now you can add different records on the window that opened. For example if you want to add a MX record then click on the “MX Records button” and then click “Add Mx record”.
              6. Similarly you have various other tabs like “A Records”,“CNAME Records”, “TXT Records” , “SRV Records” etc that you can set. Below are some screenshots
                to explain how those are edited.

              7. If you want to set a “Domain forwarding” which will help you to redirect your website to a separate website you have to click on the “Domain Forwarding” in the home page and click “Activate Domain Forwarding” which in turn would ask to “Autoupdate nameservers” if not done in step 3 or else go the “Domain
                Forwarding”                 settings window.


              ENOM domain control panel Overview

              1. Login to the ENOM domain access control panel.
              2. To change the DNS click “Edit” under “DNS Information” section. You can set you own Name servers or use the default Name servers provided by your registrar.In order to use the default Name servers select the “Default” radio button and click “Save”.
              3. To enter the different records click “Edit” under “Host Records”.
              4. The different types of records like “A record”, “CNAME Record”, “TXT Record” , Domain forwarding/URL redirection are shown below.
              5. To add SRV record go to the “SRV Host Records” and click “Edit” and then “Add New”. After adding the record click save.
              6. To set Mail server settings go to the “Email Settings” section and click edit. Select service as “User(MX Record)” and enter the value and save.
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              Posted by anirban under Domain Name Service
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              I have just returned from a holiday in Kashmir and the entire experience was worth the effort. The valley is beautiful and most of the local people are extremely friendly and courteous. Contrary what most people would expect that this is a volatile and strife torn region, I found the people willing to leave the past behind and move forward with the rest of the country. I had never felt insecure as the region was bustling with activity with tourists from other parts of the country who were looking forward to a respite from the oppressing heat of the summer in the cool environs of the valley.

              This place is a must visit for anyone who loves nature, the mountains and the warmth of its people (in spite of their daily hardships). Here are some pics from the trip which might make you lose your heart to this place as it sure has made mine !

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              Posted by hriday under Experiences
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              After multiple attempts we have finally being successful in integrating the ICICI Bank online payment gateway in our Linux severs with Plesk and cPanel. Below are the steps that may help you in configuring the same on your server.

              Configuration for PLesk

              1. Download the SFA files from the ICICI merchant area and extract on the webserver under ICICI folder.
              Extract the sfa.jar file in “SFA_Dependencies” and edit the sfa.properties file with the following entries:
              verbose=true
              Key.Directory=/var/www/key
              OS.Type=UNIX
              traceLog=/var/log/tomcat5/icici.log
              2. Copy the ICICI JAR files from “SFA_Dependencies” folder to the following folders
              • JAR Files to copy: cryptix32.jar, jcert.jar, jnet.jar, jsse.jar, servlet.jar, sfa.jar
              • Copied jar files to  /usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/ from /var/www/vhosts/domainname.com/httpdocs/ICICI/SFA_Dependencies [run this stape after installation of JavaBridge]
              • Reset permissions to these files to tomcat:tomcat under the lib folder
              • Also copy the jar files to /usr/share/tomcat5/common/lib folder
              • Change the owned and group of copied files as per the existing folder owner (Optional and ensure having 777 permissions on the above folder).
              3. Download JavaBridge from below URL
              • # wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/php-java-bridge/files/Binary%20package/php-java-bridge_6.2.1/php-java-bridge_6.2.1_documentation.zip/download
              Install JavaBridge with the following steps:
              • Unzip the php-java-bridge_6.1.2.1_documentation.zip
              • # java -classpath JavaBridge.war TestInstallation
              • # cp JavaBridge.war /var/lib/tomcat5/webapps/.
              • # service tomcat5 restart
              • Test the installation at http://plesk02.diadem-tech.com:8080/JavaBridge
              Reference URLs:
              • http://php-java-bridge.sourceforge.net/pjb/tomcat6.php
              • http://php-java-bridge.sourceforge.net/pjb/installation.php
              4. Edit the file /var/lib/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/cgi/php.ini with below lines.
              ;; -*- mode: Scheme; tab-width:4 -*-
              ;; A simple php.ini
              ;; extension_dir is this “cgi” directory
              extension_dir=.
              ;; include php libraries from these directories
              include_path=.:/usr/share/pear
              java.classpath = /usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/cryptix32.jar;/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/jcert.jar;/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/jnet.jar;/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/jsse.jar;/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/servlet.jar;/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/sfa.jar;
              5. Edit /root/.bash_profile to set CLASSPATH as env variable and add the below lines.
              include_path=.:/usr/share/pear
              CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/cryptix32.jar;
              CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/jnet.jar;
              CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/servlet.jar;
              CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/sfa.jar;
              CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/jcert.jar;
              CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/usr/share/tomcat5/webapps/JavaBridge/WEB-INF/lib/jsse.jar;
              export include_path
              export CLASSPATH
              Run the following commands from shell:
              • #. .bash_profile to set the environment variable.
              • # env to check the environment variables.
              • # service tomcat5 restart – Tomcat restart
              6. Configure Tomcat to use SUN Java
              • # vim /etc/sysconfig/tomcat5
              Comment the existing JAVA_HOME and add the below line
              JAVA_HOME=”/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_20/” (The JDK version will change as per the installed version)
              Restart Tomcat
              • # touch /var/log/tomcat5/icici.log
              • # chown tomcat.tomcat /var/log/tomcat5/icici.log
              7. Stop Apache and Tomcat and then copy the following key files to the /var/www/key directory:
              • 0000XXXX.key
              • intermediate.cer
              • payseal.icicibank-chain-bundle.cer
              The .cer files can be found under the cert_bundle folder provided by ICICI. The key file also needs to be downloaded from the merchant admin site or provided by ICICI.
              • Start Apache and Tomcat.
              Run the following keyrestore command from the /var/www/key folder:
              # keytool -import -alias pgIntermediateCA -file ./intermediate.cer -keystore /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_12/jre/lib/security/cacerts -storepass changeit
              This might give an error like keytool error: gnu.javax.crypto.keyring.MalformedKeyringException: incorrect magic which can be ignored.
              8. Update the TestSSL.php page and change the response URL and use the updated file:
              $oMerchant->setMerchantDetails(“0000XXXX”,”0000XXXX”,”0000XXXX”,”193.545.34.33″,rand().”",”Ord123″,”http://10.10.10.147:8756/SFAResponse.php”,”POST”,”INR”,”INV123″,”req.Preauthorization”,”100″,”",”Ext1″,”true”,”Ext3″,”Ext4″,”Ext5″);
              Also in SFAResponse.php and “./Sfa/PostLibPHP.php” file on line 2 would also change from
              ‘ require_once(“java/Java.php”);’ to ‘ require_once(“java/Java.inc”);’
              Test the TestSSL and Testjava pages
              • http://domainname.com/ICICI/SFAClient/TestPages/testjava.php
              • http://domainname.com/ICICI/SFAClient/TestPages/TestSsl.php
              Hopefully the above links would work and the error output log can be checked at:
              • # tail –v –f /var/www/vhosts/pgtest.domainname.com/statistics/logs/error.log

              cPanel configuration

              For cPanel you need to install Tomcat and FastCGI module in PHP to run ICICI PG, below are the steps.
              1. Login WHM with root user
              2. In the Main page  click on Software and then EasyApache (Apache Update)
              3. Go through each step as follows.
              a) Click “Start customizing based on profile”
              b) Select Apache Version – Click Next to proceed with the current version.
              c) Select PHP Major Version – Click Next to proceed with the current version.
              d) Select PHP Minor version – Click Next to proceed with the current version.
              e) Short option list – Click “Exhaustive Options List” to view full options.
              Exhaustive Options List – From here you can select the PHP modules you needed
              Select mod_fcgid (FCGI module for Apache), FCGI and Tomcat (you can also select other PHP module for future requirement e.g. GD, SOAP, curl, Zend, Zlib, Zip bizip, MySQLi )
              f) Click “Save & Build” to start apache-php compilation.
              4. Once the compilation over you can verify the installed PHP modules using the following command.
              # php –m
              And Tomcat from the URL: http://server ip:8080
              5. After the installation of Tomcat defines the following important environment variables in /root/.bash_profile
              CATALINA_HOME=/usr/local/jakarta/tomcat
              CATALINA_BASE=/usr/local/jakarta/tomcat
              JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/jdk/
              export CATALINA_HOME CATALINA_BASE JAVA_HOME
              Now run “#. .bash_profile” command from shell to set the environment variable.
              All done now start the ICICI Payment Gateway Integration same as Plesk steps. Only the tomcat path is different i.e. /usr/local/jakarta/tomcat.
              Posted by ankur under Linux, PHP/MySQL, Plesk Control Panel
              1 Comment