Using the ACL in HAProxy for Load Balancing Named Virtual Hosts

Until recently, I wasn’t aware of the ACL system in HAProxy, but once I found it I realized that I have been missing a very important part of load balancing with HAProxy! While the full configuration settings available for the ACL are listed in the configuration doc, the below example includes the basics that you’ll […]

Generate a PKCS #12 (PFX) Certificate from Win32 CryptoAPI PRIVATEKEYBLOB

We had an accounting system that used a Microsoft Win32 CryptoAPI blob to encrypt/decrypt credit card information for recurring customer information. It was time for an upgrade to .NET land. Keith, the lead developer for this project, decided it would be beneficial to switch to x509 certificates for improved key management (and I wasn’t going […]

Cloud Hosting – Scaling Websites the Easy Way

One often has to make a choice when it comes to website hosting. You weigh the variables and decide on the best solution for your hosting needs. Cloud hosting makes this decision a WHOLE lot easier. Let’s break it down. Price. You want to get the best deal possible. Shared hosting probably comes to mind […]

How-to Backup Joomla! 1.5 to Amazon S3 with Jets3t

Introduction to backing up a Joomla website to Amazon S3 storage using Jets3t. We all know backups are important. I’ve found what I consider a pretty good backup solution using Amazon S3. It’s super cheap, your backups are in a secure location, and you can get to them from anywhere. For my backup solution, I’m […]

XenServer 3.2.0: Upgrade Debian Linux from Sarge to Etch

If you are running XenServer 3.2.0, then you have a built in Debian Sarge image. If you happen to want to upgrade an instance to Debian Etch (the latest stable build as of February 1, 2008), you should follow these steps. It isn’t a simple apt-get dist-upgrade command as other websites may have you believe. […]