This guide explains how to change the PHP version available for the sites on your Web Hosting Infomaniak.

Preamble

• It is possible to switch from an old and potentially vulnerable PHP version to a recent one, but you will no longer be able to revert to this vulnerable version for security reasons.
• The change is effective immediately and permanently.
• Refer to this other guide if you are looking for information about configuring the PHP version used in SSH.
   

Change the PHP version used for a website

It is possible to easily modify the PHP version used for an entire website:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product.
3. Click on ‍ More information.
4. Click on Modify:
   
5. Select the desired PHP version:
   
6. Click on Save at the bottom of the page to save the change.

This guide explains how to add a MySQL/MariaDB database, create or modify users and how to find all the necessary parameters to configure your scripts and CMS on a Web Hosting.

Manage databases

To access the database management page of your hosting:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product.
3. Click on Databases (or MariaDB if necessary) in the left sidebar:
   

Databases

Under the Databases tab, you can:

• Create a MySQL/MariaDB database by clicking the Add a database button.
• Import, export or restore a MySQL database by clicking on the dropdown arrow ‍ to the right of the Add button.

Users

Under the Users tab, you can:

• Create a MySQL/MariaDB database user by clicking the Add user button.

Configuration information

This is also where you will find the required information to configure CMS or web applications:

• The name of a database (for example XXXX_dbname)
• The username of a database (for example XXXX_username)
• The password for the database username (the one you chose when creating the MySQL/MariaDB user reset if you have forgotten it)
• The MySQL/MariaDB server for databases / the host name / hostname (for example XXXX.myd.infomaniak.com) with its version (5.7 for example)

User rights, shared servers & Cloud

• With read permissions: “SELECT”
• With write permissions: "INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, LOCK TABLES"
• With admin rights: "CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE VIEW, SHOW VIEW, REFERENCES"
  • + "CREATE ROUTINE, ALTER ROUTINE, EXECUTE, TRIGGER, EVENT" on Cloud Server only (refer to this other guide for more information)
• With no rights: the user will not see the database appear in phpMyAdmin

Web application databases

• Refer to this other guide about WordPress.
• Refer to this other guide about Joomla.

This guide explains what you need to determine as a website visitor if you encounter a 403 error in order to resolve the issue.

What is the 403 error?

The HTTP 403 error code generally means that access to a resource is denied to the client by the server.

In which case does this error occur?

The user is not authenticated: the server requires the user to identify themselves to access the resource. This can be the case for private pages requiring authentication, for example.

The user is authenticated but does not have the necessary permissions: the server recognizes the user but does not authorize access to the requested resource due to permission or role restrictions. This cause of error 403 may be an incorrect permission issue, on a folder or a file. For a folder, the error message is of type "403 Forbidden", for a file, "failed to open stream: Permission denied". In this case, you must check that the permissions of your folders/files are correct, namely a minimum of 644 for a file and 755 for a folder. Learn more

The user's IP address is blocked or restricted: the server may block access to a specific IP address for security reasons, protection against attacks... Learn more

The requested resource does not exist on the server: in this case, the server returns a 403 error instead of a 404 error to avoid disclosing confidential information. If you are trying to access your homepage or a part of your site by entering an address of the type www.domaine.xyz or www.domaine.xyz/dossier/ make sure there is a homepage named "index.html or .htm or .php" placed in the correct location (at the root of your FTP space, in the /web directory, or in the /dossier/ directory). Learn more

Moreover, check that there are no uppercase letters in the file name, all file names or folders present must be in lowercase, without accents or spaces.

Script-related error: if you were running a script, filling out a form, or uploading a file online and you receive this type of message:

Accès interdit!
Vous n'avez pas le droit d'accéder à l'objet demandé.
Soit celui-ci est protégé, soit il ne peut être lu par le serveur.
Si vous pensez qu'il s'agit d'une erreur du serveur, veuillez contacter le gestionnaire du site.
Error 403

The cause may be a filter that prevents the unwanted use of scripts by spammers. Indeed, the Infomaniak antivirus blocks the uploading of files via scripts or via FTP. This concretely means that when a hacker sends a file identified as a virus via a form, an unsecured script or via FTP, its installation is directly blocked, the file is not uploaded to the server and the upload generates a 403 error.

In case of a false positive, contact Infomaniak support by providing the URL of the page where you encounter this error message to precisely diagnose the origin of the problem.

However, there are many other cases in which you might receive a "403 forbidden" message for various reasons (PHP scripts, Perl, mod_security, .htaccess, ...).

This guide explains how to add an additional website to an existing Infomaniak hosting plan.

Introduction

• The hosting can be on a shared web hosting plan or on a Cloud Server Infomaniak.
• The additional site can be either:
  • a second domain name (e.g. domain2.xyz),
  • or a subdomain (e.g. abc.domain.xyz) of a domain name you already own.
• In this multisite/multidomain management (virtual host), the total disk space and resources of your hosting are shared among your sites/subdomains.

Access site management

Prerequisites

• If the 20 website slots offered in the web hosting are already in use, order additional websites.

To access a web hosting plan to add a site:

1. Click here to access the management of your products in the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product.
3. Click the blue Add button.
   
4. Choose the optional content for the new site (A)‍ or no specific installation (B)‍:‍
   
5. Click on Next.
6. Choose the domain type to assign to this new site:
   1. an already acquired domain name
   2. a subdomain created from an already acquired domain name
   3. an available domain name and to order
7. Enter the domain name (domain2.xyz, for example) or the subdomain.
   
8. Choose the advanced options if needed, including:
   1. By default, the new site is added to the directory /sites/domain2.xyz on your FTP server.
   2. To manually set a different directory, check Set location manually and specify the path and name.
   3. Create a new folder if necessary:
      
9. Click on Continue.

This guide details the technical and administrative aspects of hosting multiple websites on the same platform.

Technically speaking

A hosting encompasses multiple websites. It is therefore possible to add several websites to a hosting (multi-site/multi-domain management). In this case, the resources of the hosting (disk space, databases, script execution time and memory, etc.) are shared among the different websites of the hosting.

The basic Serveur Cloud plan includes a certain number of hostings (e.g., 5) and a higher number of websites (e.g., 20). In this example, this means you can create 20 websites (with 20 different domain names/subdomains) that you can freely organize across your 5 hostings.

Administratively

In terms of organization on the Infomaniak Manager, management and access rights cannot be assigned to a specific website on a hosting plan. A user you add to the organization will not be able to have a right limited to a single site; they will always access the entire hosting plan.

However, it is possible to create an FTP user restricted to a specific folder (in this case, it should be limited to the folder containing the site).

Limited management of one site among others on the same hosting can also be considered directly within the tool used for the site (WordPress user management for example).

Read also: https://news.infomaniak.com/quel-hebergement-web-choisir/

This guide explains what a web host like Infomaniak is and specifies its role and limits of intervention.

Infomaniak, web host since 1996

According to Wikipedia, a web host is a company that provides Internet hosting for computer systems to individuals or entities that do not wish to do so themselves.

Infomaniak is also…

• … decades of experience in hosting and online solutions
• … more than a million users in Switzerland and Europe (CHF 36.5 million in revenue in 2022)
• … a company certified ISO 27001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001 and committed to sustainable development
• … 100% Swiss-made technological expertise with data hosted in Switzerland
• … a rich knowledge base and customer support available

Responsibilities and limits of intervention

As a web host, Infomaniak installs, secures, and keeps servers up to date, updates its web interfaces (Manager) and guides its clients in the use of services.

However, **Infomaniak does not intervene in the content of the servers or the development of websites**.

Technical support limitations

The technical support cannot help you with…

• … solve issues related to site development or its updates
• … implement solutions (migrations, complete installations)
• … manually install WordPress
• … take control of your computer remotely

but can assist you with…

• … solve issues related to the infrastructure or the Manager
• … clarify certain processes

A Premium support and a migration service are available for more demanding needs.

Find external help

For help with your site's content or organizing your emails, use the Infomaniak tender platform which lists over 1000 verified professionals, or consult the directory.

This guide explains add a new domain name to a website Infomaniak.

Preamble

• When you add a new domain name to a website, we talk about related area but also of aliases.
• An alias domain in this case is an additional domain name, also linked to an existing site.
  • To make the website domain.xyz be reachable with a whole other domain name like private.abc e.g., add private.abc as the alias of the website.
  • Second example, so that the site domain.xyz can also be reached with www. domain.xyz, it must be added as an alias to the domain domain.xyz In this example, domain.xyz is the parent site of the alias www.domain.xyz In general, the alias www is already added automatically and now...

Add an alias to an existing site

Prerequisites

• If the domain name (intended to become alias) or its DNS area is managed by Infomaniak, everything is OK. If not:
  • Domain name registration A must point to Infomaniak.
  • To simplify, you canentrusting the management of the domain to Infomaniak.
• It is also necessary that the future alias is not already so, in which case it will have to be the disconnect from the current site in advance (i.e. synonym).

To add an additional domain that will be linked to your website:

1. Click here in order to access the management of your product on the Manager Infomaniak (Need help?).
2. Click directly on the nameallocated to the product concerned:
   
3. Then click on the chevron ‍ to develop the game Areas of this site.
4. Click on the button Add Domain:
   
5. Enter the domain name(s) to be added, separating them by the key Enter.
6. If the alias or its DNS area is managed by Infomaniak, it is possible to automatically update DNS entries In the opposite case, make any changes to your registrar or transfer domain name management to Infomaniak.
7. If you have an SSL certificate like Let's Encrypt e.g. you can ask the update here to include the new names.
8. Click on Validate to complete the procedure:
   

To define the alias as the main domain, take note of this other guide.

This guide concerns inbound and outbound traffic permissions between different hosts at the database level.

Access...

... to databases external to Infomaniak

From a Infomaniak Web hosting, it is possible to make MySQL queries to external servers without restriction.

... from the outside to the Infomaniak databases

Access to Infomaniak databases from outside the infrastructure is only allowed with a Cloud Server (you need to open port 3306 in TCP / inbound in the firewall).

Allow external connections on MongoDB

Regarding MongoDB, you need to disable the local_only option from Fast Installer:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product.
3. Click on Fast Installer in the left sidebar.
4. Click on MongoDB.
5. Click on the action menu ⋮ to the right of the relevant object in the displayed table.
6. Click on Configure:
   
7. Disable local_only:
   
8. Save the changes.

This guide explains how to activate or deactivate maintenance mode on a website of an Hosting Infomaniak.

Introduction

• Maintenance mode allows you to display a custom message to your visitors, for example while resolving a technical issue.
• It is also possible to specify IP addresses that can bypass this page.
• An email is sent to the users of the Organization.

Enable maintenance mode

To activate a page that temporarily replaces your usual homepage:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product.
3. Click the toggle switch to enable the maintenance page:
   
4. Confirm the activation of maintenance mode.

Customize the maintenance page

To set up a page with your chosen message:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product.
3. Click on Maintenance Page in the left sidebar.
4. Click on ‍ Create a page or on the Customize button if it already exists:
   
5. Format the text of your choice.
6. Configure the display using the elements on the right.
7. Click on Save to avoid losing your ongoing edits.
8. Click on Save & Activate to publish the page:
   

Allow IP addresses

It is possible to display a site even with maintenance mode enabled. To do this, it is necessary to enter the IP addresses of the computers that need to bypass maintenance mode:

1. Activate maintenance mode according to the procedure above.
2. Go to the maintenance page configuration page (see procedure above)
3. Under Maintenance on the right, click on Insert my IP address to allow your computer to display the site without maintenance mode.
   • It is also possible to manually enter the IP addresses to authorize.
4. Click on Save and publish.

Disable maintenance mode

To disable the message that appears on your site during maintenance:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product.
3. Click either the Disable button or the toggle switch to disable the maintenance page:
   
4. Confirm the deactivation of maintenance.

Alternative method for WordPress

It is not recommended to activate the Infomaniak maintenance page above to then work in WordPress.

It is recommended to install a WordPress extension (there are dozens available) dedicated to maintenance within the CMS itself.

Alternatively, you can add the code <?php $upgrading = time(); ?> to a new empty file named .maintenance (the dot before the file name is important) placed on the server at the root of your site, which will disable all your pages except the WordPress homepage.

This guide explains how…

1. … generate a CSR and private key to request a third-party certificate from a Certification Authority (CA),
2. … import this certificate for your Infomaniak site, using the CRT obtained from the CA.

Preamble

• Although Infomaniak offers all the SSL certificates you might need…
  • free Let's Encrypt certs for personal sites (only possible with sites hosted at Infomaniak),
  • DV certs from Sectigo for professional/private sites that are not registered in the trade register,
  • EV certs from Sectigo for companies registered in the trade register,
• It is also possible to install an SSL certificate obtained elsewhere (intermediate certificate from a certification authority of your choice), custom or self-signed certificates.

1. Generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request)

A CSR (Certificate Signing Request or Certificate Signing Request) is an encoded file containing the information necessary to request an SSL/TLS certificate.

It must be generated on your side to ensure that the private key remains under your control, using for example OpenSSL.

Adapt and run the following command from a terminal application (command line interface, CLI) on your device:

openssl req -utf8 -nodes -sha256 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout domain.xyz.key -out domain.xyz.csr -addext "subjectAltName = DNS:domain.xyz, DNS:www.domain.xyz"

Explanations

• newkey rsa:2048: Generates a new 2048-bit RSA key.
• keyout domain.xyz.key: Specifies the file where the private key will be saved.
• out domain.xyz.csr: Specifies the file where the CSR will be saved.
• addext “subjectAltName = ...”: Adds additional domains via the SAN (Subject Alternative Name) extension, necessary to include all desired domains in the certificate (the main domain domain.xyz + any other associated domain or subdomain, such as www.domain.xyz).

After generation, you can check the contents of the CSR with the following command:

openssl req -in domain.xyz.csr -noout -text

This allows you to verify that all domains listed in subjectAltName are correctly included.

Once the CSR is generated, you can send it to the certification authority (CA) to obtain your SSL/TLS certificate.

2. Import the external certificate

Once validated, the CA issues a certificate (domain.xyz.crt) and sometimes an intermediate certificate (ca_bundle.crt). To access SSL certificate management:

1. Click here to access the management of your product on the Infomaniak Manager (need help?).
2. Click directly on the name assigned to the relevant product.
3. Click on SSL Certificates in the left sidebar.
4. Click the blue Install a certificate button:
   
5. Choose the custom certificate.
6. Click on the Next button:
   
7. Import your certificate and private key, either by importing the .crt and .key files or by copy-pasting.
8. Click on Complete:
   

Alternative command to generate a self-signed certificate (optional)

If you want a local certificate for testing purposes only or without going through a CA (not recommended for production), you can use this command:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout domain.xyz.key -out domain.xyz.crt -addext “subjectAltName = DNS:domain.xyz, DNS:www.domain.xyz”

This generates both a self-signed certificate (domain.xyz.crt) and a private key (domain.xyz.key). However, self-signed certificates are not recognized as valid by public browsers or systems. They are only suitable for internal or development environments.

Import an intermediate certificate

When adding a custom SSL certificate, it is possible to import the intermediate certificate (by importing the .crt file or pasting the data provided by the certification authority):