Introduction
First off, thank you personally for deciding to host with Okra Host. Now that you have a spot to host your domain, there are some steps to take to attach your domain to your hosting. It’s painless, and takes between 10 and 15 minutes, depending if you are a slow reader like the author. Regardless, bear with this primer. It’s well worth it!
Domain Migration
First, there is an important distinction analogized best with vehicles: hosting is your vehicle that gets your name and existence places. Your domain name is like the vehicle tag that must be renewed annually. Without a valid vehicular registration, you can’t drive anywhere! This following section covers domain registrations (tag transfers):
New Domain Registration
Purchased a new domain when registering hosting with Okra Host? Everything is primed and ready to go! Skip onto the next big section: Getting Started.
Moving Domain from a Previous Company
At the very least, your domain nameservers must be changed to ns1.okra.host and ns2.okra.host. This is done through the company through which your domain name is registered; in other words, it’s to whomever payment is remitted to renew the existence of your domain. Some hosts bundle this domain into your hosting, but don’t provide separation between hosting and registration, so to divorce yourself from it you will need to change registrars. If you can change the nameservers, no need to Change Registrars: skip over the next section to Getting Started!
Changing Registrars
Registrar transfers will separate you from your current registrar to a neutral third-party. This is recommended historically, because some registrars prefer to hold domain names hostage over bogus balances. Always transfer your domain before terminating a hosting contract. We adopt best practices by utilizing a neutral, third-party registrar via domains.okra.host. Transfers are free. Renewals are $10/year. Transfers include a renewal at $10/year.
Domain registration is a high volume, low margin industry. If you prefer registrar XYZ, because domain ABC is registered there, then use it. You want to keep all your domains under one roof preferably, because a change of (e-mail) address is easier to update. Use Namecheap, gandi.net, Hover, GoDaddy, or whoever works best for you. Just keep your domains under one roof for simplicity.
Registrar transfers take 3-10 business days to complete. Once your registrar has been transferred, then change your nameservers to ns1.okra.host and ns2.okra.host. DNS changes will be active within 24 hours.
Getting Started
Setting Up E-mail
Do you want to forward your e-mail to a remote account (less reliable) or have it delivered locally? If you want to forward it remotely, caveat emptor. See KB: “Creating a forwarded email“. If you would like for mail to arrive on your hosting account, awesome: that’s a sensible solution. You can either create a new mailbox via User > Add User within the control panel or to attach an e-mail address to an existing user, visit Mail > Manage Mailboxes. Enter the new e-mail address, and select your username. Mail access is covered in a separate KB article: “Accessing e-mail”
Getting Your Site(s) Online
Almost done! Now you need to create a web site in this location. If you’re migrating over, then copy your website files to the document root for your site, which is always /var/www/html. If you’re starting fresh, WordPress is always a great candidate. Just remove index.html from this location before uploading your new site. You can also edit this page on-the-fly under Files > File Manager.
Preview Your Domain
Domains may be previewed by overriding global DNS. We have a separate guide available under KB: Previewing your domain. This method will work every time and allows you to preview your site before initiating nameserver changes.
Miscellany
Adding More Domains
More domains may be added to your account via DNS > Addon Domains. Just follow the same rules with Domain Migration section to get the tag attached to the right vehicle in the proper state. Always locate addon domains under /var/www instead of /var/www/html. There are pedantic fringe cases covered elsewhere for the intrepid user.
Understanding Permissions
Okra Host uses a separate, non-privileged user for its web server. This improves security by only letting the web server read what you authorize it to read/access, but requires a few extra steps to setup PHP applications like WordPress and Drupal. KB: Permissions overview is a crash-course in permissions. Know what you’re doing? Great. Just change relevant directories that require write access to 717.
Building Your Own Software
Congratulations, you’ve moved up in comfort! Clients may build any software and run any service that is necessary to operation of the web site – please don’t run a game server or bitcoin miner. Any applications should be plug-and-play. C applications will require installation under /usr/local. Gems, packages, modules, eggs, etc. (kudos to those who affiliated terms with language) will be installed just fine with their respective install command. gem install, pear install, perl -MCPAN -e 'install', pip-python install require no further configuration.
Running Services
Need to run a daemon? No problem. Clients can run up to 10 services from the terminal that listen externally on a TCP socket. See KB: Listening on ports.
Looking for specific, advanced guides? Check these out:
Thanks again for joining, and have fun!