[oclug] telnet/ssh Usage Question

[Rod Giffin]

Francis J. A. Pinteric said:
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 16:57:00 +0100
> "Mark Harrison" <Mark at ascentium.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Francis,
>>
>> Depends what I could DO once I'd logged in...
>>
>> If I were getting a dedicated (virtual?) machine, and was expecting to
>> be able to install my own "backend software", then yes, I'd need it.
>>
[snip]
> Well, I'm thinking more in terms of a VPS (Virtual Personal Server)
> where they offer the whole bag of tricks.. It's got MySQL but not
> PostgreSQL, PHP4, three kinds of webmail(including SqirrelMail) but also
> POP access, FTP, CGI, Perl, Wiki (two versions) and a whole host of
> other things. Coming is POP3S and SFTP.

Because I manage a website with those characteristics that DOESN'T include
ssh or any other sort of access other than a lame web interface, and/or
FTP... I can tell you it is absolutely invaluable to have some sort of
shell access, preferably secure.  But the server in this case does provide
a way around it which, for me, is fairly straightforward though.

I build everything on a local server, FTP it to the webserver, and include
a script file which sets up anything that I'd otherwise do immediately
(database updates etc.)

A script runs at 02:00 hours every morning.  The biggest problem with it
is, if you made a mistake, you have to wait up to 24 hours to fix it, and
that can be embarrassing -- so what I do is upload everything into a
staging area for testing the next day.  If it's all good, I include the
commands to move the changes in the staging area to the production area
the next night.  Even mundane web updates take between 36 and 48 hours,
which is a pain.

Nonetheless, I would not pay extra for SSH access.  I simply wouldn't use
a service that didn't provide some sort of secondary access to the system
to back up their customer tools.

Rod.