Managed Hosting by maxcluster - our e-commerce stack

Web services, tools and functions

The stack is designed so that online shop operators and developers can draw on our best practices for Magento 1, Magento 2 and Shopware in particular. In addition, all tools can be managed via our self-developed interface "Managed Center". All tools and extensions are included in the stack at no additional cost - there are no hidden costs with us. Our customers should always get the best, which is why we only differentiate between the various Managed Service Levels. For this reason, we continuously replace our hardware, for example, so that every customer cluster runs on modern hardware.

With our Managed Services, we support our customers around the clock 24/7, even on holidays. We ensure constant maintenance and updates of all services in our stack.

We see our e-commerce stack as the basis for successful e-commerce hosting with performance optimisation. Test our stack and managed center in our demo.

Services and tools

NGINX or Apache web server

In our Managed Centre, our customers can choose between NGINX and Apache as their web server. The desired web server can be activated simply with a mouse click and used immediately without any additional configuration work. The advantage of NGINX is that static content is delivered faster than with Apache. The configuration of NGINX can be carried out very individually by our customers at any time via our Managed Centre.

However, most customers opt for the Apache web server, which offers the most convenient way of configuration with the .htaccess file and can be managed in our Managed Center.

Apache Tomcat

For applications in Java, Apache Tomcat can also be used as a web server. With Tomcat, web applications written in Java can be executed on a servlet or Java Server Pages basis. Tomcat can be installed via our Managed Center and managed via the Tomcat Manager.

PHP versions

Our e-commerce stack adapts to the needs of our customers and offers them the possibility to individually select the PHP version per vHost. Thus, modern CMS and current shop systems can be operated with the very high-performance PHP 7.4 version. The PHP 7.3 and PHP 7.2 versions are also still available.

Let's Encrypt - free SSL certificate

In our e-commerce stack, Let's Encrypt for HTTPS encryption can be activated quite simply with a mouse click. We have almost completely automated the validation and integration and thus offer you a stable and secure encryption between your shop and the customers. Learn more about the free SSL certificate setup with Let's Encrypt in our blog post: Free SSL Certificates.

Varnish with SSL Offloader

Different Varnish versions can be selected in the Managed Center and individually adapted for the desired shop application. The optimal start parameters can be selected directly depending on the shop plug-in or set individually as desired. Our editor can be used to check whether the configuration is "valid" and therefore executable. The special feature of our Varnish module is that an SSL offloader is started so that SSL pages are also delivered with Varnish. Here, the deposited SSL certificates from the web server are integrated directly and automatically in the SSL offloader. Functions such as "clear cache" or a "restart" can be carried out via the interface. By using Varnish, a considerable load can be taken off the hardware, thus reducing hosting costs.

Redis

With its simple and complex data structures, the extremely flexible and high-performance in-memory database Redis offers a multitude of possible applications. Depending on the scenario, our Redis instances can be configured completely individually or directly optimised for sessions or caching. The most important settings such as persistence, memory limitation or memory policy can be configured and changed at any time. We detect cache instances with excessive memory usage in monitoring and contact our customers.

Memcached

Unlike Redis, Memcached does not offer complex data structures and replication. Even though Memcached has lost popularity, there are scenarios in which precisely this simple data structure and multi-threading capability are needed. Memcached can be activated and used at maxlcuster with one click.

Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch can be installed at maxcluster in different versions and multiple instances. This means that additional Elasticsearch servers can be started with a single click and connected to a cluster for the purpose of load distribution or failure protection. Extensions can be added by the customer independently via the corresponding configuration files. Like Solr, Elasticsearch is customisable via a configuration file. Learn more about Elasticsearch in our blog post.

Solr

Our cluster hosting solutions have a pre-configured Solr server that can be started and configured within seconds. Solr is also available in different versions and can also be completely customised via SSH. The Solr Manager can be conveniently accessed or the password can be set via our Managed Centre.

Sphinx

Sphinx is another full-text search engine that can be installed and used directly with two clicks via our Managed Centre. No further configuration is required.

RabbitMQ

RabbitMQ is a widely used message broker for an asynchronous exchange of messages via message queueing. We would be happy to set up RabbitMQ as a service for you free of charge so that you can, for example, take orders in online shops and process them one after the other.

Vorinstallierte Tools für Magento und Shopware

For the direct start and easy administration of Magento and Shopware deployments, we have pre-installed some very helpful command line tools on all our web clusters. For our Magento 1 and Magento 2 customers, Magerun and Magerun2 from netz98 are immediately available. Shopware customers can also install a Shopware online shop very quickly with the Shopware CLI tools. WordPress can also be managed and updated very efficiently with the pre-installed WP-CLI.

Pre-installed tools for developers

For developers, we provide other tools such as Git, Composer, Lessc, Bower and Grunt on the web cluster. Modern web applications can also be developed and operated directly on our web clusters using Node.js or installed very easily with NPM.

Cluster Control

Cluster Control is our self-developed command line tool. With Cluster Control, server services such as Apache, NGINX, PHP-FPM, MySQL and Varnish can be restarted automatically. This allows you to automate recurring tasks and deployments and make your work even more efficient.

Cronjobs

Cronjobs can be created and executed via the Managed Center or via the command lines using Crontab. Via the Managed Center, commands and files or scripts can be executed, websites can be called up and sessions can be removed with a simple click of the mouse. Our customers can individually set the intervals at which these cronjobs are to be executed.

Profiling Tools

In our e-commerce stack, we have pre-installed the three most efficient profiling tools in our experience: Blackfire.io, New Relic APM and Tideways. These tools can be used to quickly find bottlenecks in the online shop, for example. Learn more about the three profilers in our blog series: Detecting bottlenecks with 3 efficient profiling tools.

SSH

We offer a fast and uncomplicated deposit of SSH keys via our Managed Centre. This enables an uncomplicated and automated connection to the web cluster. To increase security, an allow and block list can be maintained in the Managed Center, which allows IP addresses to be specifically released or blocked. In addition, the log files can be displayed and searched.

Monitoring and real-time monitoring

We monitor the hardware resources, the active server services and, on request, also web applications around the clock, seven days a week and every day of the year. You can be sure that even on holidays such as Christmas or New Year's Eve, we will respond to faults within the shortest possible time and ensure that your shop or web applications are accessible.

Resources

We monitor the system load, the available RAM and the storage space of the cluster. If a resource reaches a critical threshold, we scale it up to ensure continued stability.

Server services

All server services are monitored by us. If a server service fails, it is automatically restarted. If an automatic restart does not work, our internal monitoring indicates the error and we intervene manually. We independently check the error with a log analysis and correct it. Important key figures can be read transparently in the Managed Centre.

Website monitoring

We monitor websites through our monitoring via HTTP and HTTPS. If there are problems with the accessibility of the website, we first try to solve the problem independently and then contact our customers.

Conclusion: What advantages does the maxcluster e-commerce stack offer?

With our dynamically scalable high-performance architecture, on which all our Web Cluster products are based, we have created a reliable and stable solution on which our customers can realise their online shop. Based on this, we have designed an e-commerce stack that specifically serves to optimise the performance of online shops and simplify the work of developers. The range of pre-installed tools and web services is broad and offers our customers a wide range of possibilities to optimise their online shop even further and to adapt it to new challenges. For this purpose, we provide all relevant web services to support our customers in the best possible way. Our web services are already pre-configured and are partly available in different versions. In this way, our customers can easily integrate e.g. Redis into their online shop and immediately benefit from more performance.

Our tidy and clear interface "Managed Center" offers our customers and developers efficient access to parameters and configurations of the respective web services. By exclusively operating the web services on our own cluster, we offer our customers the highest level of security in terms of data protection and independence from other customers.

In order to simplify the work in development and maintenance and make it more efficient, we have pre-installed relevant CLI tools such as Magerun, SW and WP-CLI on all web clusters and thus offer the developers a simple and elegant way to install, manage and optimise the web shop or web application. In addition, we have also pre-installed very useful tools such as Composer, Bower, Grunt, NPM, lessc etc.

Our e-commerce stack is based on our proven experience and is regularly adapted and expanded. This gives us the flexibility to react to new trends. We can add efficient, new tools and respond to explicit customer requests. This allows us to flexibly meet the complex requirements of the different, individual shop applications in order to support our customers in the best possible way.

If you have any questions about our e-commerce stack, we would be happy to hear from you by emailing beratung@maxcluster.de or calling 05251/ 41 41 30.