Service Specification:

Server Specifications

• Ubuntu 64-bit 18.04 LTS
• 1x IPv4 address ¹
• Apache 2.4
• NGINX with HTTP/2 and Brotli compression support
• PHP-FPM 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
• MySQL 5.7
• Postfix
• 100-Mbit connection in Auckland data centre

Notes

¹ Additional IPv4 addresses are NZD$10 per month. IPv6 addresses available on request.

Server specifications are subject to change. Please contact WP NET prior to placing your order if you have particular software requirements for your server.

Service Features

• Fast, secure NZ-based servers — no less than 99.8% service availability
• WP NET Managed Server Control Panel – see below for details
• Daily server snapshop backups, 1 day retention (upgradable)
• Automated daily backups of all MySQL databases, stored off-server, 120 day retention
• Server up-time monitoring (Managed by WP NET Support)
• Managed Firewall with DDoS Protection
• Brute-force blocking for failed SSH/SFTP logins
• Daily server-side malware scanning
• AutoSSL certificate issuance from Let’s Encrypt
• Unmetered NZ traffic
• Supported Managed WordPress installations as specified in the plan (upgradable)

Backups

Server Image Backups

A full snapshot image backup of the entire server (operating system, all software, databases and content) is taken every day. These backups occur sometime between 6pm to 6am, and are stored off-server in a secure repository.

By default, server image backups are retained for one day only, until a new backup replaces it. You can upgrade your service to include additional backups, which are retained until the total backup allocation is exhausted, at which time the backups are rotated and the oldest one is removed.

You can request a server image backup restoration by opening a support ticket. Server image backup restoration costs NZD$30 per restore.

Database Backups

These backups run at 2am each day, stored off-server and retained for 120 days.

Database backups are saved locally and then sent (via HTTPS) to a secure Amazon S3 repository and stored using AES256 encryption. The local copies are then deleted.

Database backups are taken of all databases on the server, including both managed and un-managed WordPress sites.

These backups are not directly accessible by the user. To request a copy or restoration of a database backup you must open a support ticket.

Managed WordPress

Managed Servers allow you to host both managed and un-managed WordPress sites. Each Managed Server includes a default number of managed WordPress sites and you can upgrade to add more managed sites as you need them. This gives our Managed Server customers the flexibility to run their servers to suit their needs.

Default included Managed WordPress sites for Managed Servers:

• MS1+: 1 Managed WordPress site included
• MS2+ and MS3+: 2 Managed WordPress sites included

You can check how many managed sites are included with your server by going to the Service Information page in WP NET and clicking the Configurable Options tab.

At any time you can upgrade your service to add more managed WordPress installations to your server. Additional Managed WordPress sites cost NZD$20 per month.

You must specify which sites you want managed by enrolling them. See Enrolling Sites in Managed WordPress for more details.

Managed WordPress sites qualify for managed WordPress core updates, security updates for plugins, additional security hardening and technical support.

Un-Managed WordPress Sites

You can also host as many un-managed sites as you like, provided you do not exceed your total site allocation.

Total site allocations for each Managed Server level are as follows:

• Basic: 15 sites
• Business: 50 sites
• Enterprise: 100 sites

Un-Managed WordPress sites do not receive WordPress-related technical support or managed updates.

Disk Space Usage

Managed Servers have a fixed disk size, so overuse is not possible. It is recommended that Managed Servers run with no less than 8-10% disk space free. Therefore, Managed Server customers will be notified when disk usage goes over 90% and WP NET Support will assist with a disk space upgrade.

See Upgrade or Downgrade a Managed Server.

Managed Servers running at over 90% disk usage for a prolonged period of time may experience performance and stability issues.

Bandwidth (traffic) Usage

Managed Servers include unmetered traffic to all New Zealand locations, and a predefined monthly allocation of international traffic.

Once a server’s international traffic allocation has been consumed, $25 (20GB) data top-up blocks will be automatically applied each time international traffic reaches 100% (email notifications are sent at 90%). This will continue until the monthly renewal date passes or an upgrade is purchased. Pricing for data top-up blocks is available here.

By signing up for a Managed Server, the customer accepts responsibility for these additional data top-up costs, as they occur.

If a Managed Server is expected to regularly exceed it’s monthly allocation, a Configuration Option Upgrade allows you to add more allocation to your monthly plan.

Note that it is considerably cheaper to buy international traffic in advance (via a Configuration Option Upgrade), rather than relying on automatic data top-ups.

Read more in our Knowledgebase: Managing Server International Traffic.

Managed Server Control Panel

All Managed Servers include WP NET’s custom control panel, integrated directly into our customer portal, My WP NET.

With the Managed Server Control Panel you can:

• Add, edit and remove system users
• Add, edit and remove websites
• Manage AutoSSL for each site
• Add, edit and remove MySQL databases

For more details and instructions see Managed Server Control Panel.

Upgrades and Downgrades

At any time you can upgrade or downgrade your server to a different level to modify the server resources available.

You can also order changes to your server’s configurable options, which allows you to choose specific resources that you wish to change. For example, if you just need more international traffic bandwidth, you can order a configurable option change to do this, and all other server resources remain the same.

For more details see Upgrade or Downgrade a Managed Server in our Knowledgebase.

Account Access

Customer access to Managed Servers is available via SSH. Each user you create with the Managed Server Control Panel is a Linux system user, via which you can connect to the server using SSH, SCP and SFTP.

Users familiar with FTP can use SFTP (FTP over SSH) to connect to the server and manage your site’s files. Most popular FTP clients support the SFTP protocol.

By default, SSH / SFTP (port 22) is restricted to access from within New Zealand only. If you need to access your Managed Server from outside New Zealand, you can request this by opening a support ticket.

Root access to the server is not provided to the customer.

Monitoring and Security

Server Uptime Monitoring

Each Managed Server is remotely monitored with a PING test every 60 seconds.

Currently, we do not automatically monitor each individual domain running on Managed Servers, but you can request any domain to be monitored by opening a support ticket. In the future, we hope to automate the monitoring of all domains on Managed Servers.

Server Resource Monitoring

WP NET support utilises internal monitoring systems to track server resource usage such as RAM and CPU load, network usage and latency, disk usage and running processes. WP NET support will contact customers if any issues are identified, or if upgrading of server resources is required to maintain acceptable performance and stability.

Malware & Virus Scanning

All Managed Servers have malware and virus scanning software installed and an automated scan of all websites is performed each night. If malware is detected, WP NET support is notified and will contact the customer to discuss the best course of action.

Malware and virus scanners we use:

• Linux Malware Detect
• ClamAV
• Sucuri SiteCheck

Blacklist Monitoring

Sites on Managed Servers that are enrolled in our Managed WordPress support service are checked against the following blacklist services:

• Google Safe Browsing

Database Management

Customers can create and remove MySQL databases using the Cloud Server Control Panel.

Remote connection to the database server is not possible. Port 3306 is blocked by the firewall and MySQL is configured to disallow remote connections. Database management options available to the customer are phpMyAdmin and WP-CLI.

Managed Cloud Servers do not have phpMyAdmin installed by default, but you can request it by opening a support ticket.