Our new Classic Linux environment in the cloud looks like this:
- Ubuntu Linux 20.04 (instead of the old CentOS 5).
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Virtualmin GPL control panel.
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Installatron to allow automatic installation of many software packages.
I picked Ubuntu because it remains much more up-to-date than CentOS, and has a lot more software packages included.
Virtualmin GPL was the only control panel I found that will peacefully coexist with the mailboxes and mail aliases in the rahul.net domain that we already have in the existing Classic Linux environment. This will let you keep your old email aliases in the new environment.
Virtualmin GPL seems to have quite a few bugs, but I think we can work around them. (I also tested Virtualmin Pro, the commercial version. Its advantages over the GPL version were not great, and it has the same bugs. May still upgrade to Pro in the future.)
Existing rahul.net mailboxes and websites will be (eventually) migrated. Virtualmin requires every account in the new environment to have least one domain of its own. So each Classic Linux username xxxxx will get a subdomain xxxx.onthisweb.com, which you can use or not use as you prefer.
Also, the Virtualmin environment, even though there’s a control panel, will focus on those who thrive in a command-line Linux shell environment. If you prefer to stay within a web interface, and not have to use the command line, DirectAdmin is the preferred environment.
If you previously had a DirectAdmin account, that is already available on the new server jade-new.rahul.net as previously announced.
Our billing system is in the process of being upgraded and transferred to a new server in the cloud. Once that is done, each existing customer will be asked to bring their account up to date by paying for two years of service. [Note 1] The price of services on the Internet has come down a lot. So two years at the old rate seems reasonable (maybe a bit too low) for many years of service up to now. In return for payment, your account will continue to get approximately the same level or service (or maybe more) for one more year.[Note 2]
Before that one more year expires we will have a new set of services and prices in place.
Also note that the new services are provided by a new legal entity, a Wyoming corporation called A2I Communications. So by migrating your services to the new servers you are agreeing to this. The upgraded billing system will be a new one owned by this corporation, and all bills will be paid there. Therefore don’t pay anything right now, to avoid confusion. Also, do not mail any payments to our old mailing address.
[Note 1] Any payments we got from you in the interim will be credited to you. You may end up with a refund if you already paid for more than two years. We’ll contact you with details.
[Note 2] Edited: Changed additional six months to one more year.