This guide concerns the installation of PHP extensions on Infomaniak Web Hosting.

Using Zend PHP extensions

• Zend Guard Loader is a PHP extension that allows you to run PHP scripts encrypted via Zend Guard.
  • Zend Guard Loader is installed by default for PHP <= 5.6 on all web hosting and is not available for PHP versions >= 5.6.
• Since PHP 5.3.x, the Zend Optimizer module has been replaced by ZendGuardLoader
• The ZendOPCache extension requires a Cloud Server configured with PHP 5.5 minimum

This guide explains how to enable the following functions on Web Hosting (in italics, Cloud Server only):

• proc_open
• popen
• exec()
• shell_exec()
• set_time_limit
• passthru
• system

Enable PHP functions

To access website 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 product concerned:
3. Click on Manage under Advanced Settings:
   
4. Click on the PHP / Apache tab.
5. Click on the toggle switches On/Off as desired:
   
6. Click on the Save button at the bottom of the page to validate the changes.

This guide explains how to restore backups of previous versions of your files and other web data from your Infomaniak hosting, and how to set up an effective backup policy if the automatically and freely provided backups no longer meet your availability or security needs.

Web Hosting (Starter, Shared, Cloud Server)

Refer to these guides to restore automatic backups:

• of an entire hosting (FTP + MySQL),
• specific files on the hosting,
• specific databases,
• of a Web Application (Wordpress & Apps),
• Cloud Server SSH crons.

Refer to these guides to backup and restore:

• hosting with Swiss Backup and Restic (advanced),
• WordPress with Swiss Backup,
• WordPress with an extension.

Also refer to https://faq.infomaniak.com/snapshot.

Hosting v1 (old 60 Go offer)

• View and/or download the automatic backup (versioning) of your data on your FTP space under /backups and /backup_mysql at the root of the domain (above /web).
• Restore this data.

Mail

• Restore messages from Infomaniak automatic backups.
• Restore contacts or calendar events.
• Backup the current content of an email account:
  • by downloading the current content locally,
  • by duplicating all current content to a backup box,
  • by copying future emails as they arrive to a backup box.

Domains / DNS Zones

• Restore deleted DNS records from Infomaniak automatic backups.
• Restore an expired domain in the redemption period.

This guide helps you resolve any issues with activating your Windows Server license.

Preamble

• Check for any ongoing issues on https://infomaniakstatus.com/.
• For Public Cloud specifically, the list of scheduled maintenance and ongoing issues is available at https://status.infomaniak.cloud/.

Modify the registered key

Open the Run utility (press Windows logo + R).

Remove the registered key

Run the following command:

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -upk

Add a new key

Reopen the Run utility and then run the following command:

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk {CLE/KEY}

Replace {CLE/KEY} with the key from your configuration below:

Activate Windows

Reopen the Run utility and then run the following command to associate the key with the Infomaniak activation robot:

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms kms.infomaniak.cloud

Reopen the Run utility and then finally run the following command to activate your Windows system:

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato

This guide concerns IonCube Loader, a PHP module that allows decoding of PHP scripts that have been encoded with IonCube Encoder.

Preamble

• IonCube encoding is used to protect the source code of an application and prevent its modification or illegal distribution.
• By using IonCube Loader, website owners can ensure the security of their code and content while allowing secure and easy distribution of their applications.

Using ionCube Loader

With shared hosting it is no longer offered. You can check this from the dashboard:

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 product concerned:
3. Click on Manage under Advanced settings:
   
4. Click on the PHP Extensions tab.
5. Click on ionCube Loader (if present in the list) to view the details:
   
   • Here, you will need to consider a Cloud Server.

In terms of free software for handling multimedia files, FFmpeg is a powerful and flexible tool. It can be used to convert, edit, and stream videos and audio.

However, using FFmpeg on shared hosting presents certain issues and limitations for both users and hosts.

You should opt for the Cloud Server offer for using FFmpeg.

You can also opt for the Infomaniak VOD/AOD service.

This guide explains how to securely and easily transfer files between Web Hosting and/or Cloud Server.

Preamble

• The FXP (File eXchange Protocol) is a method for transferring files directly between two FTP servers without the data passing through the local client.
• Using the FTP PORT and PASV commands, it allows establishing a connection between the two servers for faster and more efficient file transfer, thus saving bandwidth.
• However, this method can present security risks if the connections are not secured by FTPS, and it requires a more complex configuration compared to traditional FTP transfers.

Transferring data between servers

For example, you can use CrossFTP, a multi-platform software that allows FXP (as well as FTP, SFTP, WebDav, S3, OpenStack Swift).

This guide covers the ODBC functions of PHP.

Open Database Connectivity functions

These are the functions used to interact with databases via the ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) interface, a standard for accessing data sources uniformly. Here are a few examples of using the ODBC functions of PHP:

• Ability to read data from an external database and display it on your website
• Insert or modify data in an external database
• Perform complex queries on an external database

This guide covers ImageMagick, a powerful software suite for image manipulation, available on Infomaniak's Web Hosting and Cloud Servers.

ImageMagick and image manipulation solutions

Several tools are available to process your visuals (resizing, conversion, watermarks):

1. ImageMagick (CLI): the main suite usable via command line (via SSH); the modern command is magick, but the old syntax convert is still available.
2. PHP Extension imagick: this is the most common solution for websites (WordPress, etc.); it allows you to use ImageMagick directly in your PHP scripts.
3. GD Library: a lighter alternative, often pre-installed, ideal for simple manipulations (thumbnails, text on image).
4. PerlMagick: dedicated interface for Perl scripts to access ImageMagick features.

Paths and Commands

On Infomaniak infrastructures, ImageMagick is installed by default. The executables are located in the following directory:

/usr/bin/

Here are the main available commands:

To test the presence of the Perl module Image::Magick, you can use the following command:

perl -e 'use Image::Magick; print "Installed\n"';

This guide details the use of Crontab (crons via SSH), available only on Cloud Server, by default (there is also a task scheduler for all hosting).

Prerequisites

• The script files called by the cron must be executable (CHMOD).

Full path

Cron tasks do not know the absolute path (path). Calling PHP without specifying the full paths to the executable makes it impossible to execute the task. You must specify

/opt/phpX.X/bin/php

by replacing X.X with the desired PHP version (/opt/php7.1/bin/php for example).

Other operations

• List the crons of the SSH user in question:

  crontab -l -u NomUtilisateurSSH

• Edit the crons:

  crontab -e -u NomUtilisateurSSH

• Be notified by email of the result of your cron tasks (to be added at the beginning of the file):

  MAILTO=e-mail@domain.xyz

Restore a backup

Infomaniak backs up the crons of the last 7 days (once a day). In case of accidental deletion, contact Infomaniak support to request a restoration specifying the time and date of the deletion.

This guide details the header X-Frame-Options, used to protect your site against clickjacking (click hijacking).

Values for the X-Frame-Options header

This header tells the browser whether to allow or not the display of your page in a <frame> or <iframe> tag.

1. "DENY" : Complete prohibition. The site cannot be loaded in any frame, even from your own site.
2. "SAMEORIGIN" : Allows display in an iframe only if the parent site has the same domain as the content.

Implement the header

Via the .htaccess file (recommended for the entire site) :

Header set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"

Or via PHP (for a specific page) :

<?php
header('X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN');
?>

The modern alternative: Content-Security-Policy (CSP)

If you need to allow a specific external site (e.g. domain.xyz) to embed your content, do not use X-Frame-Options but the following header in your .htaccess :

Header set Content-Security-Policy "frame-ancestors 'self' https://domain.xyz"

This rule allows your own site ('self') as well as domain.xyz to display you in an iframe.

This document explains how to manage incoming and outgoing connections between multiple hosting environments, particularly for accessing databases.

Database connections between hostings

From a shared hosting

If you are using shared hosting (excluding the old v1 formula - 60 GB), you have the possibility to access databases located on:

• another shared hosting,
• a hosting based on a Cloud Server.

It is therefore possible to share a database, establish a remote connection, or even configure cross-access between hostings.

From a Cloud Server

With a Cloud Server, it is also possible to connect to databases hosted on another Cloud Server.

• In this case, make sure that port 3306 (TCP protocol) is open for incoming traffic in the firewall.

Note: Connections to databases hosted on a shared hosting are not possible from a Cloud Server.

From another hosting provider

This guide explains how to enable or disable the PHP function set_time_limit of a Web Hosting.

Preamble

• set_time_limit is a PHP function that sets the time limit for a script, in seconds; if this limit is reached, the script stops and returns a fatal error.
• set_time_limit cannot be used to set values beyond the script execution time limit (max_execution_time) defined in the Manager.

Enable or disable the PHP set_time_limit function

To access website 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 product concerned:
3. Click on Manage under Advanced settings:
   
4. Click on the PHP / Apache tab.
5. Click on the toggle switch On/Off as desired:
   
6. Click on the Save button to validate the changes.

Git and GitHub are available at Infomaniak with all hosting offers on…

• … Shared Web Hosting
• … Managed Cloud Server

and of course the Jelastic Cloud offer, which will allow you to integrate versioning in depth.

This guide covers the database management features available with Infomaniak hosting.

MySQL, SQLite, MariaDB, PostgreSQL…

At the Database Management System, the hosting supports…

1. … MySQL databases via PHP MySQL access or via Perl DBI+DBD::mysql
   • You can use MySQL as a database management system (DBMS) on Infomaniak servers.
   • You can access it either via PHP using the built-in MySQL database functions, or via Perl using the DBI and DBD::mysql modules
2. … MySQLI, the native MySQL access interface (PHP5)
   • MySQLI is a PHP extension that allows access to a MySQL database.
   • It is an improved and more recent version of the old MySQL extension of PHP, offering improved features and performance.
3. … SQLite 3.x
   • SQLite is a lightweight, standalone, and serverless SQL database engine.
   • Infomaniak servers support SQLite version 3.x, which means you can use SQLite to store data on these servers.
4. … MariaDB
   • MariaDB is a fork of MySQL and is often used as an alternative to MySQL
   • You can therefore use MariaDB as a database management system on Infomaniak servers
5. … the PGSQL module
   • PGSQL is a PHP module that allows you to connect to a PostgreSQL database
   • This specific feature allows you to connect to a REMOTE PostgreSQL database via PHP; this requires opening the appropriate port to the specific IP of the PostgreSQL database from the Infomaniak manager.

This guide explains how to obtain information about the presence of a caching system on a website using the curl command.

Preamble

• In the world of programming and system administration, it is often necessary to determine if a website uses a caching system to improve its performance.
• Caching systems like Fastly are commonly used to temporarily store data to serve it faster to users.
• By following these steps, you will be able to determine if a website uses a caching system to improve its performance and understand the operation and optimization of websites.

Using the curl command

curl is a command-line tool for transferring data using URLs.

The -svo /dev/null option is used to perform a silent request (-s), display detailed information about the request (-v) and redirect the output data to /dev/null to ignore it (/dev/null is a special device on Unix/Linux systems that acts as a trash can). -H "Fastly-Debug: true" is an HTTP header added to the request to request specific Fastly debugging information.

Execute the command

Run the following command from a Terminal type application (command-line interface, CLI / Command Line Interface) on your device:

curl -svo /dev/null [url] -H “Fastly-Debug: true”

and replace [url] with the address of the website you want to check.

If the site uses Fastly or another similar caching system, you will see specific debugging information in the command output. The details provided may include information about HTTP requests and responses, as well as information about the cache and performance.

This guide explains how to modify the disk space of a hosting on Managed Cloud Server.

Preamble

• The databases are installed on the same Cloud Server, so the disk space for the databases is not limited to the size of the hosting but to the total disk space of the Cloud Server.
  • To modify this total disk space, it is necessary to modify the configuration of the Cloud Server.
     

Modify the disk space of a Web hosting

To access the hosting on Cloud Server:

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 product concerned.
3. Click on the action menu ⋮ located to the right of the Web hosting concerned, in the Web Hostings section.
4. Click on Modify the disk space of the hosting:
   
5. Adjust the size according to the allocated and still available disk space.
6. Click on the Confirm button to validate the modification.

This guide helps resolve an error of type "Invalid query: MySQL server has gone away".

Preamble

• This type of error often originates from keeping a MySQL connection open without submitting requests for a period of time beyond which the connection is closed: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/gone-away.html
• The variables wait_timeout and interactive_timeout that control this disconnection are set to 30 seconds: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/communication-errors.html

Solutions

To avoid the "MySQL server has gone away" error, here are several possible approaches:

Verification and automatic reconnection

Before executing a query, it is recommended to test if the MySQL connection is still active. If the connection has been closed, you can automatically re-establish it before proceeding with your query. Here is an example in PHP:

if (!mysqli_ping($connexion)) {
mysqli_close($connexion);
$connexion = mysqli_connect($host, $user, $password, $database);
}

The function mysqli_ping() checks if the connection is still valid. If it is not, the script closes the connection and opens a new one.

Regular "Ping" sending

Another method is to run a script that regularly sends a "ping" to the database to keep the connection active. For example, you could create a scheduled task (cron job) that sends a light query, such as SELECT 1; at regular intervals.

Adjusting MySQL parameters (Cloud Server)

With a Cloud Server, you can increase the values of the variables wait_timeout and interactive_timeout from the MySQL menu of your server to extend the duration of the connection before it is closed.

This guide concerns Django, an open-source web development framework in Python.

Installing Django

It is possible to install Django on web offers such as VPS Cloud / VPS Lite: discover the different web hostings from Infomaniak.

This guide helps you find the public IP address of your device, which can be useful for certain support requests, among other things.

Display the public IP address on the connected device

Click here to obtain the public IP address of your device in IPv4 and IPv6 format.

Alternative methods

Visit ipinfo.io or ifconfig.me.

... on macOS

1. From a Terminal type application (command-line interface, CLI / Command Line Interface) on your device, run the command curl ifconfig.me and press enter.
2. The displayed address is the public IP address of the computer.

To automate the search for the public IP address, use commands or scripts that query services such as api.ipify.org ...