Will XF Provide a Complete Server & Site Installation Option?

Anthony Parsons

Well-known member
As the title says... will this be something that XF will provide as a paid service, obviously given full server access to install XFES to ensure a setup is correctly installed?

Being both server and site!
 
Having spent a good part of my day attempting to install, I'd say this would be a good option to offer. Knowing me, I probably would have taken the same route, but this will cause a lot less heartache if an install service is offered.
 
I see opportunities for the guys who have done this and can step in to offer third party services. Target audience for this are mostly big board so I know a lot of people are willing to pay.
 
I have been considering offering this myself via my consultancy. My PII should cover it, however I am just checking with them as my Linux Knowledge is all self taught, and whilst I am confident and comfortable with my own abilities I want to make sure I am covered "if" I screwed something up.

For the time being, if anyone requires any help on a no warrenties basis, feel free to drop me a PC.
 
Yer, but the problem is privacy and security. Allowing a company like XF access to your server is one thing. Allowing an individual on contract access is a whole other kettle of fish.
Not really that much difference if it's, for instance, a small ISP or hosting company......

You have to have trust, in most cases, if you are using a managed server and having someone else do major system level work for you.
I've used one-man ISP's for managed servers for 12+ years now and never had a security problem.

I like your idea though - and there would be a small market for someone who would specialize in XF and perhaps a couple other packages and offer various options and app-specific support. No doubt that many successful forums would love to outsource everything and spend all their time on content and community management.

One problem is that folks are used to getting things for almost nothing! If someone was to do this, I'd suggest going only for the folks who have at least a bit of money to spend - say, starting at 50 or so a month upwards. It's hard to make a living when $10 or $20 accounts are hassling you on the phone.....
 
Hosts are a business... so they aren't really an unknown entity. The problem with many hosts though, is that they won't install non-standard programs onto their servers for you. Even when they will, you then have another part of the process with the XF configuration. XF have an installation service for their side if you had no experience. The server side... we come back to the round-about lack of experience.

Installing something on a server can usually be worked out with trial and error (Google)... configuration getting it to work correctly, that is typically the problem.
 
I have put in a request with WiredTree to see if they will install and configure it for me... hopefully they do.

Updated: Thankfully they will, but the expected response due to it being non-standard server software, so possible issues getting this all running:

Unfortunately, we are also not entirely familiar with this software as 3rd party software is not considered apart of our scope of support. We can try installing this for you but please keep in mind that apart from the installation we do not have the resources to assist you in any configuration or issues that arise due to this installation.
 
I don't think we can really expect XF to offer installation of elasticsearch - it's not really within the remit of a forum software company. XF needs MySQL and PHP but we don't expect the team to install them on our servers for us.
 
Nobody said it was an expectation... more a request, as its a third party non-standard software required for installation in order to use their product. One often becomes quite fast and efficient when installing the same software, as they encounter the same errors and thus fixes quickly... where right now, my host is getting errors, and having to search them, in combination with me searching for them, in order to work them out, as its non-standard server software, such as PHP, MySQL, Apache, etc...

The error Wiredtree is experiencing, as an example, seems to be with the IP binding, as the software attempts to do this automatically and seems to get it wrong more than right, thus now having to fault find the solution, which is an easy one, but time consuming when done once off.
 
http://www.nimbushosting.co.uk/forumhosting

Was this already mentioned? Looks like they support XF gladly - and are full service.

We're hosted with them, and couldn't be happier. They offer excellent support. I shot Tim a mail yesterday after reading about the Big Board search, and apparently they already were looking into it.

If you want dedicated forum hosting from a skilled team, I would whole definitly recommend them!
 
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