Question
I like to start a cloud hosting business using digital ocean platform to provide following following features.
Last year I started using AWS free 1-year trial to learn how the web server works and what people needs. Since AWS is a bit pricy as compared to the Digital ocean so I decided to move here. And I started learning python & js to build a platform to do the following things:-
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User will be able to choose CMS/web framework and server (openlightspedd/Nginx/apache). Openlightspeed serve will be set to default, and if the user wants they will be able to choose whatever server they want before starting a monthly subscription payment.
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Automation to add customer’s choice of the droplet to my account which will be isolated for each customer. Customers’ choice of the server (openlightspedd/Nginx/apache) will be automatically installed with other essential things to run it. Everything will be pre-configured and user can start using their CMS or Framework without any hassle.
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Free backup and CDN will be provided for every customer.
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I also like to provide the “auto healing process” in case something goes wrong with their server. (i don’t know how to build this though)
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If the user wants they will be able to configure their server manually too.
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Use will able be able to cancel their subscription whenever they want.
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A few months ago I discovered that WHMCS, Blesta and HostLaunch are web hosting automation service which I could use.
I don’t know whether I will be able to achieve these with WHMCS or Blesta. But with Hostlaunch, I certainly will not be able to do everything I mentioned here.
I’m currently using WordPress and I like to use web automation service on a subdomain. Is it possible?
After I complete my python project I like to transfer my customer’s account from a web hosting automation service to my python app. I don’t know where it is possible or not.
And if I decide to start this business with my python app will I be able to do all the things mentioned above with digital ocean with ansible and API?
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Hello,
Most of the things should be achievable with a web hosting billing system like Hostbill or WHMCS.
According to their official website, HostBill lets you automate the provisioning of DigitalOcean’s droplets, providing your customers with a nice client area GUI to control their services. The client panel offers a variety of possibilities, from creating and destroying the droplets to setting SSH keys and injecting them to Droplets. Admin area on the other hand lets you keep everything under control, from billing details, through the account lifecycle to client area sections access.
For more information, you can visit this page here:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tools/hostbill
If you prefer WHMCS you could use a module like this one:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tools/digitalocean-droplets-for-whmcs
The module provides a really wide range of features that would cover most of your needs.
Also, DigitalOcean provides an API that you could use to automate provisioning new servers, which you could use to automate tasks like server reboots in case that something goes wrong. However, for that, I would also recommend implementing a monitoring system that would alert you in case that something is wrong with your servers. I could suggest taking a look at the monitoring tutorials here:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tags/monitoring
Hope that this helps! Regards, Bobby