German 1&1-hosting user experience?

[terraboss (Markus)]

Hi,
for local reasons, this post will be in german language

Mein Problem ist, dass ich bei 1und1 Discourse einfach nicht zum laufen bekomme. Ich habe einen vServer L mit 2 GB Ram. Bei DigitalOcean klappt alles wunderbar. Dort habe ich bereits unter Ubuntu 14.04 ein Discourse am laufen. Die Installation war in 10 Minuten durch.

Meine Vorgehensweise:

How To Install Discourse on Ubuntu 14.04 | DigitalOcean

Problem 1: Swap einrichten
An sich brauch ich’s nicht, aber man weiß ja nie… drum wollte ich 2 GB extra freigeben.

root@server:~# swapon /swapfile
swapon: /swapfile: swapon failed: Operation not permitted

Frage: Kann es sein, dass 1und1 das verbietet? Wie löse ich das Problem?

Problem 2: Docker einrichten

Fehler 1:

modprobe: ERROR: …/libkmod/libkmod.c:507 kmod_lookup_alias_from_builtin_file() could not open builtin file ‘/lib/modules/3.13.0-042stab094.8/modules.builtin.bin’
modprobe: FATAL: Module aufs not found.
…
Reading state information…
E: Unable to locate package linux-image-extra-3.13.0-042stab094.8
E: Couldn’t find any package by regex ‘linux-image-extra-3.13.0-042stab094.8’
modprobe: ERROR: …/libkmod/libkmod.c:507 kmod_lookup_alias_from_builtin_file() could not open builtin file ‘/lib/modules/3.13.0-042stab094.8/modules.builtin.bin’
modprobe: FATAL: Module aufs not found.
Warning: tried to install linux-image-extra-3.13.0-042stab094.8 (for AUFS)
but we still have no AUFS. Docker may not work. Proceeding anyways!
…
Client version: 1.4.1
Client API version: 1.16
Go version (client): go1.3.3
Git commit (client): 5bc2ff8
OS/Arch (client): linux/amd64
FATA[0000] Cannot connect to the Docker daemon. Is ‘docker -d’ running on this host?

If you would like to use Docker as a non-root user, you should now consider
adding your user to the “docker” group with something like:

sudo usermod -aG docker your-user

Remember that you will have to log out and back in for this to take effect!

last but not least:

root@server:~# docker -d
INFO[0000] +job serveapi(unix:///var/run/docker.sock)
INFO[0000] Listening for HTTP on unix (/var/run/docker.sock)
INFO[0000] +job init_networkdriver()
package not installed
INFO[0000] -job init_networkdriver() = ERR (1)
FATA[0000] package not installed

Fehler am Netzwerkinterface? Von 1und1 gesperrt?

Oder liegt es nur an meiner eigenen Blödheit? Es handelt sich um die Minimalinstallation von Ubuntu. Ohne Plesk Zeugs.

Nun hat mich der Server (als Student) gerade mal 1€/Jahr gekostet. Daher wäre es echt schnicke, auf so günstige Art und Weise ein weiteres Discourse zum laufen zu bekommen. Habt Ihr Ideen? Any ideas?

Viele Grüße / Best regards,
M

[Kuro (from TDWTF)]

Let’s translate this so everybody can join in on this conversation (and learn some German while we are at it) (I am pretty sure 1&1 is an international host so I figured other people might be able to help)

"My problem is that I can’t get Discourse to run on 1&1 hosting. I bought a vServer L with 2 GB of ram. Everything works on Digital Ocean. Over there Discourse runs on a Ubuntu 14.04-server. Took me 10 minutes to install.

Installation steps used:

How To Install Discourse via Docker on Ubuntu 14.04 | DigitalOcean

Problem 1: setting up the swap
In theory I don’t need to but you never know so I figured, might as well free some extra 2GB.

root@server:~# swapon /swapfile swapon: /swapfile: swapon failed: Operation not permitted
Question: Is it possible that 1&1-hosting doesn’t allow this? Is there a way to prevent this?

Problem 2: setting up Docker

Error 1:

[code]
modprobe: ERROR: …/libkmod/libkmod.c:507 kmod_lookup_alias_from_builtin_file() could not open builtin file ‘/lib/modules/3.13.0-042stab094.8/modules.builtin.bin’
modprobe: FATAL: Module aufs not found.
…
Reading state information…
E: Unable to locate package linux-image-extra-3.13.0-042stab094.8
E: Couldn’t find any package by regex ‘linux-image-extra-3.13.0-042stab094.8’
modprobe: ERROR: …/libkmod/libkmod.c:507 kmod_lookup_alias_from_builtin_file() could not open builtin file ‘/lib/modules/3.13.0-042stab094.8/modules.builtin.bin’
modprobe: FATAL: Module aufs not found.
Warning: tried to install linux-image-extra-3.13.0-042stab094.8 (for AUFS)
but we still have no AUFS. Docker may not work. Proceeding anyways!
…
Client version: 1.4.1
Client API version: 1.16
Go version (client): go1.3.3
Git commit (client): 5bc2ff8
OS/Arch (client): linux/amd64
FATA[0000] Cannot connect to the Docker daemon. Is ‘docker -d’ running on this host?

If you would like to use Docker as a non-root user, you should now consider
adding your user to the “docker” group with something like:

sudo usermod -aG docker your-user

Remember that you will have to log out and back in for this to take effect![/code]
last but not least: (no need to translate this )

root@server:~# docker -d INFO[0000] +job serveapi(unix:///var/run/docker.sock) INFO[0000] Listening for HTTP on unix (/var/run/docker.sock) INFO[0000] +job init_networkdriver() package not installed INFO[0000] -job init_networkdriver() = ERR (1) FATA[0000] package not installed

Is that an error in the network interface? Is this blocked by 1&1-Hosting?

Or is this somehow my fault? The Ubuntu is a barebone installation. No Plesk or anything.

The server was pretty cheap (1€ / year) so it’d be great to run a Discourse instance on it.
Any ideas?

Filed Under: Not Sure if the translation was neccessary and there might be mistakes. At the end I started translating a bit more loosely. Hope it helps somebody

[riking (Kane York)]

@terraboss

modprobe: FATAL: Module aufs not found.
Warning: tried to install linux-image-extra-3.13.0-042stab094.8 (for AUFS) but we still have no AUFS.
Docker may not work. Proceeding anyways!

1&1 hosting is not allowing you to install kernel modules. Discourse will not work. AUFS or BTRFS is required.

[terraboss (Markus)]

@riking
Thank you very much!!! This response was extremely fast. Next time, I’ll post directly in English.

For notice (german):
https://hilfe-center.1und1.de/server-c82640/virtual-server-linux-c82672/administration-c82781/kann-auf-virtual-servern-ein-eigener-kernel-installiert-werden-a784762.html

Maybe I’ll have a look at other cheap german hosters to get my community running. I love Discourse soooo much.

Good night

[gerhard (Gerhard Schlager)]

@terraboss

Maybe I’ll have a look at other cheap german hosters to get my community running.

Must it be a (cheap) German hoster or would it be enough if it’s hosted in a German datacenter?
VULTR has a location in Frankfurt and Linode is planning to expand to Germany too.
And of course there’s JiffyBox (from the German hoster domainfactory) which has a quite good price/performance ratio.
All of them would allow you to use Docker and install a custom kernel.

For VULTR see also

Discourse and Vultr? Where to start on new instance for multi?

Hey there! I have been ‘shopping’ for different forum solutions that have nothing to do with PHP and really innovate the entire ‘thing’ of forums. I’ve checked out NodeBB but it is lacking in community-related aspects that I need for my forum. Discourse looks to be exactly what I need. I noticed the emphasis on DO around here. I tried them, did my research. I decided instead to go to Vultr. My questions are: Will Discourse work on a Vultr instance? If so, is the 4GB Memory and 2 CPU en…

[purldator (mountain)]

I can vouch for Vultr. I haven’t deployed Discourse on there. Yet. But I did play and mess around with a test instance to get used to the command line and I liked it. Super fast, might I add. I’ll be deploying Discourse there after setting something up to my liking on a VM local sandbox.

[terraboss (Markus)]

@purldator

Sounds pretty interesting.

Costs are an very important aspect because I’ll need this community for a two non-profit organisations. One of them is focused in medical area, so we’ll need at least a european hoster to confirm privacy and regulatory requirements. The other one is for a local FabLab (fabrication laboratory).

[Moter8]

You can try out Runabove. 2,5$ per month, servers in France, no SLA though.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/runabove-ovh-experiment-vs-digital-ocean/24428/

[purldator (mountain)]

Hey @terraboss, I got curious and sent a support ticket to Vultr about your requirements.

We do not offer a specific uptime SLA, but our privacy policy can be found at https://www.vultr.com/legal/privacy.php

For the sake of being complete. Vultr’s prices are good. You get slightly more for the same price as DigitalOcean.

[terraboss (Markus)]

Thanks @purldator,
I guess Vultr would be a pretty good choice for my personal stuff in terms of performance and price-service ratio. I noticed the SSD speed while setting up discourse: 430 MB/s. WOW. This is great.

For my the other projects, I’ve got an instance at DigitalOcean . Let’s see how both perform… maybe I’ll switch later.

[naiqus]

Hi Markus.

My forum is running on the server from 1&1, the one what you mentioned 1 Euro per year.

It works quite well, but without Docker, you have to config the environment by yourself. Nevertheless, it is totally capable for Discourse.

[terraboss (Markus)]

Interesting. Would you like to link / write an step by step install guide for everyone?
How are easy is it to preform updates in your opinion?

Thx

[pl3bs]

No capacity for swap, and can’t get docker installed with AUFS… sounds like cheap openvz. I’ve heard it called 1&done before. You can use my script for a dockerless install, but won’t get support here.

[naiqus]

I’ve posted an installation guide on my blog, which is adapted from DigitalOcean’s . You could check it out from here.

[crazyhorse]

I am looking into a German hosting for Discourse and 1 & 1 offers it now in a "Discourse cloud app’, right now the minimum price is 29,99 €, SSL-encrypt inclusive.

[dax (Daniela)]

I think it’s a Bitnami installation and is not officially supported by Discourse, so if you run into problems you are alone…plus at much less price you can buy a VPS on another hosting that support docker

What does it mean if Discourse is installed via Bitnami?

We tried to install Discourse but had some problems as of the Docker container. As I am not the system administrator I do not know details about that. However, the administrator then found that an installation with Bitnami is possible and it worked without big problems. Still I ask myself what is the difference if you install it by using Bitnami or the regular way described here? https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md I realized that there must be some difference, e…

[crazyhorse]

Thank you so much for this information. I am trying to find a host who is offering a Data Processing Agreement, so I looked for a German one. But it doesn’t look like a good solution when any problem arises.

[dax (Daniela)]

The only german hosting that I know is Hetzner:

From Hetzner Terms and Conditions page:

5. Privacy

5.1 Our data protection practise conforms to the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) as well as the German Teleservices Act (TMG).

5.2 Personal data of customers will only be collected and used, if they are required for the creation, content arrangement or modification of the contractual relationship. The client is obligated to update these data in its online administrations interface.

5.3 The client’s Email address will only be used for information on orders, for invoices and – provided that the client does not object – for customer care as well as for our newsletter, if the client so wishes.

5.4 We do not give any personal client information to third parties, with the exception of our service partners as far as they are required to determine the remuneration and settlement with the customer.

5.5 The client has the right to information and a right to amend, to suspend or to delete his saved information. If deletion conflicts with a legal or contractual duty to save information, or other legal grounds, the information will be made inaccessible.

BTW all european hostings of UE will have to adopt the DPA soon or later.

@crazyhorse

SSL-encrypt

SSL is not a real problem because you can do it yourself:

Set up HTTPS support with Let's Encrypt

This guide is only for existing installs where HTTPS is not enabled. Following the official setup guide automatically enables HTTPS by default. So you’d like to add https to your Discourse absolutely free, courtesy of our friends at Let’s Encrypt? Is everything else on your site ready for HTTPS? Before you start, please bear in mind that for HTTPS to work properly, every single resource on the page must be HTTPS compatible. Consider your CDN, your social logins, your…

If you have problems you can ask support to @pfaffman (https://www.literatecomputing.com/) that can do all this things for you for a very low cost.

I know that Discorse itself have a plan to buy servers even here in Europe for their customers, but I do not know if they are already operational in this regard. (ping @codinghorror)

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

Discussion on colocating servers in Europe is here: Colocating servers in Europe, recommendations?. No decision has been made at this time.

[crazyhorse]

@Trash, thank you so much for this information!