Hello all!

I am a software developer stepping into web hosting business as well. I am wondering how many of you have used hSphere and what do you think about it?

I have used different control panels and like Plesk most. I am also quite impressed with feature list of Modern Bill as well. However, these solutions have to be integrated together to work as a whole. I am wondering what is better; tie up different specialized products together or use hSphere as a single point of entry. Additionally, are there any other applications similar to hSphere out there?

I would like to automate all possible functionalities wrt web hosting. This includes remote DNS, eMail and DB hosting, which as far as I know lacks in Plesk. Even Plesk master server isn't fully automatted or provide as much control as hSphere seem to e.g updating multiple remote DNS servers in a go.

Any suggestions and feed back will be highly appreciated.

Regards
Nauman

Forgot to mention few things.

- I currently have one server from LT with Plesk 100 domains and Power Pack. I considering getting another server from Soft Layer or perhaps switch this current one to SL.
- My budget is tight for startup so would prefer a cheap solution that I can extend in the future.
- I would prefer prebundled apps that can be installed from the control panel. Most important in this respect is a good CMS, BB and polling/survery application.
- I prefer FreeBSD. Its a must so the application must support it.

Regards
Nauman

H-Sphere is the only control panel we use. You can get screen shots from there site here: http://www.psoft.net/. We've tried others but prefer a scalable multiserver control panel, plus you don't have to integrate anything else.

H-Sphere is IMHO, the best control panel solution available. In fact, it's not even a control panel, it's complete web hosting automation. Not to mention, in the long run you will save lots of money by running it.

H-Sphere is every bit as good as every says. The learning curve is disgustingly large, but after you've reached the peak everything is smooth sailing. With H-Sphere, you can count on less requests for support, less random bugs & things breaking, less frustration. These savings allow you to devote more time towards adding quality & services to your offerings.

A few pointers though. If you are just started with a single box then make sure that it is a VERY good single box. A celeron, even the newer ones, is not even going to begin to cut it. What you'll want is dual core or dual proc with plenty of ram. If it helps, you can wait before "going live" and then upgrading, but you need to have the power. You can always add more servers latet but moving the control panel can be a serious pain ina production enviroment so don't cheap out on your first server.

Also, before going live you may want some kind of raid on the server. For a single box setup, I would stay away from raid 5, raid 1 or 10 is preferable. Also, of LT and SL, I think that softlayer is the better company for web hosting servers right now assuming that you want unmanaged.

For info on FreeBSD & Hsphere check the forum at psoft.net. IIRC, someone installed, setup, and was running H-sphere on a FreeBSD 6.something box. The thing is though that is unsupported by psoft right now, so if a problem came up you would be on your own (a bad thing, I assure you). Support for 5 is around the corner (or possibly already there). I have no clue about support for the latest and greatest (unrelated, but I would like apache2 as well).

Thank you all for your feedback. So shall I presume there isnt any other solution that scales as easily as hSphere?

TheWebster, I am thinking of getting Single Processor Dual Cores from SL with 1GB for now. I personally prefer Intel but have nothing against AMD either. I have not read good comments about Intel's Dual Core processors. So I will probably get an AMD machine from SL. Any suggestions?

I need some more clarification on how hSphere works. The CP server, is that just for administrative purposes are does it provide domain level CP as well. Plesk CP only takes cares of domains on its local machine for domain level access. Does hSphere manages domain remotely?

Right now I am hosting my clients on a Intel P4 2.8Ghz with 2GB RAM from LT. It has Plesk 100 with action pack. I also have a Celeron 2.0 with 512MB RAM from LT. I am using these for launching pads. I have two options;
- Keep these servers as my hosting machines for now and postpone SL until smooth out a bit.
- Alternately, I can get a new server from SL immediately and move everything on that with hSphere.

Regards
Nauman

One more thing I need help with, that of policies. I have found references of a site that provides templated policies (Host Legal). However, they only deal with web hosting related business policies or at least thats the impression I got from their website.

Can some one refer me to a similar site that can write customized policies for me. I need policies not only for my hosting business but also for my ecommerce sites. I am putting this in a separate thread with more details. Any feedback here or there would be highly appreciated.

Regards
Nauman