PHP
Media Temple’s new Grid-Server (gs) offers both PHP 4 and 5 (default is 4). The PHP ‘safe-mode’ limitation that existed under the old Shared-Server (ss) is gone (yay!). But, PHP on the (gs) package is running as CGI. I’m not very knowledgeable about this, so I don’t know exactly what this means… but I have heard that PHP runs slower as CGI. If any PHP gurus out there can shed any light on this, please leave a comment
EMAIL ACCOUNTS
The (gs) package is much better at handling email accounts than the old (ss) package was. When you created a user under (ss), you wouldn’t be able to specify which domain it was for. This isn’t a problem if you only have one domain, but if you were hosting multiple domains under the same account, this was a big pain. Under (gs) this limitation is no longer in effect. Email account handling is much more standard.
However, any email address that you already had created prior to migrating from (ss) to (gs) is locked into “all domains” mode, and you are unable to edit it in your account center. To get around this limitation, you’ll need to delete the existing account, and re-create the account. At that point you’ll be able to specify what domain the account goes with. Don’t forget to back up your email before you go deleting accounts on the server.
WEBMAIL
Media Temple has ditched Squirrel Mail, the horribly ugly webmail client that was used under the (ss) package. They have replaced it with @mail. With @mail, you have 4 options when logging in: “Simple (Any Browser)”, “Simple (Ajax)”, “Advanced (IE6+)”, and “Advanced (Mozilla)”. These options will determine the look and functionality of your webmail. Unfortunately, only “Simple (Any Browser)” is compatible with Safari (my browser of choice). It’s still head and shoulders above Squirrel Mail, but it’s not quite as functional as some of the other options. If you run Firefox on the Mac, you can use the more advanced options. From a looks standpoint, “Simple” is a nice clean interface, and “Advanced” looks more like Outlook.
Since upgrading have you been on Digg Page 1 yet? Curious to see if the grid server help up?
No, not yet. The system still seems a little flakey, so I would hate to test it yet. I’m hoping I don’t end up on Digg until the (gs) system is a little more stable.
If and when it happens, I’ll be writing about to let everyone know how it held up.
@mail is OK i guess, but they should have used Roundcube. It might only be in beta, but it’s amazing and a lot less buggy than @mail which is a released product.
Oh yeah – http://www.roundcube.net
Hi,
I also plan to upgrade my ss plan to grid server lite package. But I am curious about this new GPU thing. At their knowledge base, MT states that our GPU usage will be calculated based on Cpu Usage, Disk Usage etc., but what does it mean? If you can give us some real examples based on your sites it will be perfect. I googled around about this but couldn’t find any results.
It might be 4th Parth of this article chain. :)
Thanks for all the information.
I just started the process (step one). Did you go with the (gs) “lite” package? Or did it seem worthwhile to pony up for the full (i.e. $20/mo) (gs) package? I can’t make up my mind on that.
I did light, but I’m considering upgrading to the full package… primarily because I’m running 5 sites, and that’s the maximum you can run. I would like the ability to run more, and the extra server space would be nice too. I just don’t want to pay the extra $$$.