01 June 2012, 11:35

Hi, having had untold problems trying to set up mahara on a shared network as many other are also trying to do. I have come across the problem that a lot of hosting companies will not allow cron jobs to run on their shared servers. The main reason for this is because of the potential drain on the server resources. I have therefore concluded that the best solution is to hire a dedicated server which cost around £240 a month including VAT. I have been assured by John the top teckie at Zen Internet that with this type of package I can have the server set up and divided however I want.

The benefit of this would be that each control panel would come with a fully functioning copy of mahara already installed. All the user would have to do is to go into the cpanel, alter the web-site address and then go into the database and change the user password. to suit themselves. After doing this go into themes and choose a suitable theme.

To make this viable, I would need 11 other users who are willing to sign up to a hosting package with me. This would work out at £20 a month each including VAT. The dedicated server is fully expandable and obviously, the more people who are willing to sign up, the cheaper the overall monthly cost would be for all of us. My intention is to take the overall monthly fee plus VAT and just divide it by the number of members using the service. The server would be run on a committee basis where everyone would have an opportunity to join in the decision making function prior to any upgrades. Suitably qualified members could form the server administration team and look after its running.

Doing this would solve the cron job problem and also the cpanel problem of having to park or have an add-on a domain name that is different to the individual cpanel names because the cpanel name would be yourdomainname.com instead of yourusername.mydomainname.com and also solve the problem of having to do multiple logins etc.

Another benefit would be that the teckie management team (with your permission) could do multiple updates or when a solution to an issue is identified could very quickly apply that solution to everyones site in one go, or at least pass the information on to other members so that they can do it themselves.  Server wide configuration problems would obviously be solved for all members at the same time which is a great benefits to everyone.

John has worked on my version of mahara for the last month and has now installed a a fully functional copy of mahara on such a server and is holding it there for me until Monday 4th of June 2012 when I must make a decision as to whether to agree to the package or not..

I think that with the right people involved this could become a very viable project that benefits everyone concerned and may even get the hosting cost down to just a few pounds a month.

I would really like some feedback over the weekend not only from members but also from he mahara team before I make a final decision.

You can contact me at

[email protected]

if you are interested in this propostion.

Thanks for reading this post.

Steve