This feature really shines when you use Microsoft WebMatrix due to its push button access to the Microsoft Web Gallery where you can quickly and easily deploy some of the most popular and advanced open source applications available (think DotNetNuke, WordPress, Umbraco, Joomla). If you don’t have Microsoft WebMatrix installed, you can get it for free here.

Getting Started
We are going to use Microsoft WebMatrix during this example to highlight some of the benefits of using the application in conjunction with the Windows Fusion environment. When you first launch Microsoft WebMatrix, you’ll be greeted with a quick start panel (See Screenshot).

“WebMatrix is a free web development tool from Microsoft that includes everything you need for website development. Start from open source web applications, built-in web templates or just start writing code yourself. It’s all-inclusive, simple and best of all free. Developing websites has never been easier.” – http://microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

Donet’s Windows Fusion hosting product is completely compatible with Microsoft WebMatrix.  This tool is one-of-a-kind; it allows users to have nearly everything they need to build a website from scratch at their fingertips – and then some.  I won’t go into too much detail about this program and it’s capabilities, as Microsoft has already done that in great detail.  For general information, tutorials, how-to’s, etc., please visit the Microsoft WebMatrix website.  There, you’ll even find step-by-step instructions on how to put together a website from beginning to end.

Below you will find instructions on how to publish your Windows Fusion website via FTP and WebDeploy.

FTP:

Click the “Publish” icon followed by “Publish”

Use the following connection information:

Protocol: FTP

Server:  cluster02.webhost.donet.com

Site path:  www (or whichever directory you would rather publish to)

User name:  [insert site name here]@windows.donet.com

Destination URL:  http://[enter site name here]

WebDeploy:

Click the “Publish” icon followed by “Publish”

Use the following connection information:

Protocol: FTP

Server:  cluster02.webhost.donet.com

Site path:  www (or whichever directory you would rather publish to)

User name:  WINDOWS\[insert SAM user name here]

Destination URL:  http://[enter site name here]

Technical Overview
Current Version: 5.3.10
We are currently running PHP 5.3.10 (latest stable version as of 03/01/2012). As new verions are released, we will test and implement the new PHP versions in addition to supporting this PHP version. If your application requires a specific version of PHP, please contact us and we can attempt to work with you to accomodate your specific requirements.

Runtime Protocol: FastCGI
For performance and security reasons we have impletemented PHP in our Windows Fusion environment utilizing the FastCGI protocol for interfacing PHP to the web servers.

Runtime Session Save Handler: PHP WinCache
“Windows Cache Extension for PHP is a PHP accelerator that is used to increase the speed of PHP applications running on Windows and Windows Server. Once the Windows Cache Extension for PHP is enabled and loaded by the PHP engine, PHP applications can take advantage of the functionality without any code modifications.” – IIS.NET

We have taken several steps to improve the performance of PHP sites hosted on our Windows Fusion product. If you have any additional technical questions, please contact us for more information.

PHP Customization
/PHP/php.ini
You can customize certain PHP directives in your own PHP configuration file. When you connect to your website via FTP you will see several folders, one of them being PHP. In that PHP folder you will see a php.ini file with several directives already configured. You can place your additional PHP directives in this file, and with the web server continuously monitoring changes to this configuration file, you should notice these changes immediately.

Seeing your PHP settings
We automatically create a phpinfo.php page for every site. You can see your PHP settings by going to www.yourdomain.tld/phpinfo.php.

If you are a developer with a need to connect directly query against your database, the first thing you should be aware of is the Database Manager Module available via IIS Manager. Once you configure your connection strings in the IIS Manager management console, you can browse your database and issue queries.

If you still prefer to connect via SSMS, please send an email to support@donet.com with your public static IP address for us to configure an exception on all of our firewall instances. Once we have configured those exceptions and you have SSMS downloaded and installed on your client; you can login with the following information:

Server type: Database Engine
Server name: mdb-sqlvs01.windows.donet.com
Authentication: SQL Server Authentication
Login: Name of the site with no periods (Provided in Welcome Letter)
Password: Provide in Welcome Letter

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our support staff at 937-226-6896 or by emailing support@donet.com.

Our Windows and Linux System Administrators will be applying vendor released system updates and performing other maintenance related tasks on many of our shared and managed servers. Service interruptions are expected to be brief and will likely go unnoticed, but some minor service interruptions may occur.

Donet performs regularly scheduled maintenance to ensure the security, performance and reliability of the services we provide to our customers. We regret any inconvenience our scheduled maintenance activities may cause to our customers. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Donet Technical Support Team at (937) 226-6896.

During this time, backup and restore operations will be unavailable. If you have an urgent restore requirement, please contact the Donet Technical Support Team at (937) 226-2896. We anticipate no interruption to the regularly scheduled backup window beginning Monday 05/14/2012 at 8:00 PM EDT.

Donet performs regularly scheduled maintenance to ensure the security, performance and reliability of the services we provide to our customers. We regret any inconvenience our scheduled maintenance activities may cause to our customers. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Donet Technical Support Team at (937) 226-6896.

The rolling upgrade procedure is intended to limit the amount of downtime required to approximately 5 minutes or less. Service interruptions are expected to be brief and will likely go unnoticed, but some minor service interruptions may occur.

This upgrade will provide customers access to the latest features and product enhancements however, existing customer databases will continue to operate at the SQL Server 2008 (100) compatibility level unless a database compatibility level upgrade is specifically requested or deemed appropriate by Donet Systems Administrators. This maintenance notification is for informational purposes only, no action on your part is required.

Donet performs regularly scheduled maintenance to ensure the security, performance and reliability of the services we provide to our customers. We regret any inconvenience our scheduled maintenance activities may cause to our customers. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Donet Technical Support Team at (937) 226-6896.

Our Windows and Linux System Administrators will be applying vendor released system updates and performing other maintenance related tasks on many of our shared and managed servers. Service interruptions are expected to be brief and will likely go unnoticed, but some minor service interruptions may occur.

Our Network Administrators will be applying vendor released security updates to our hosted and managed customer firewall devices. A device reboot is required to complete this process. Service interruptions are expected to be brief and will likely go unnoticed, however some minor service interruptions may occur.

Donet performs regularly scheduled maintenance to ensure the security, performance and reliability of the services we provide to our customers. We regret any inconvenience our scheduled maintenance activities may cause to our customers. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Donet Technical Support Team at (937) 226-6896.

Donet performs regularly scheduled maintenance to ensure the security, performance and reliability of the services we provide to our customers. We regret any inconvenience our scheduled maintenance activities may cause to our customers. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Donet Technical Support Team at (937) 226-68

Fast forward to today – Slickplan has over 30,000 registered users and regularly attracts over 10,000 visits per month. Although well received, Slickplan’s users bombarded its creators with suggestions for improvement. Good suggestions. Slickplan’s creators combined user feedback with some ideas of their own and are currently very close to launching a second, account-based version of Slickplan. Anticipation of the launch of the second version has been building for months, and a huge amount of traffic is expected once the updated Slickplan is launched. Slickplan’s creators recognize the importance of making a good first impression, so they approached Donet in need of a hosting provider that could handle a large and sudden influx of visitors without any hiccups.

Donet responded by offering their VIP (Versatile Infrastructure Platform) cloud service. We’re able to provide nearly continuous uptime with VIP by clustering multiple physical and virtual servers to create the appearance of one rock-solid interface to the visitor. Then we pass the site network traffic through redundant links to redundant switches and routers, and ultimately out of one of our three (redundant) upstream providers. We can easily handle network peaks up to one gigabit per-second, though our traffic usually sits in the 400-500 megabits per-second range. All VIP instances come with a 99.999% uptime guarantee, so Slickplan’s creators can rest assured that their launch won’t be ruined by the sudden disappearance of their web application.

Beyond the assurances and security that we provided Slickplan’s creators, they confided in us that it was the personal touch we’re able to give that made the decision an easy one for them. VIP customers receive gold level support from the Donet staff, which means that support requests will be immediately addressed by an on site engineer during regular business hours and that after hours support will always be available via our emergency support line. “Slickplan is available to web users worldwide, so problems can arise at any time. The fact that a human engineer with Donet is willing and able to help us at most any time is a great comfort,” one Slickplan architect explained.