A
App : An open source application, which usually a customer would run on their own AppServer.
AppServer: A DomU configured for running Apps. Usually runs the NGINX webserver.
B
C
Canonical URL: A solution for solving issues related to duplicate content. If you have two webpages on your site that have duplicate content (for example, example.com/shoes/red and example.com/shop/red-shoes), making one of them the canonical URL tells search engines that you want that page to be the one displayed in search results over the other. The code for this would look like rel=canonical href= “https://example.com/shoes/red” />
canWork: CanTrust Canadian Business Platform. A set of curated Open Source Apps for business.
Chargeable Service: These are items that are outside of your support or service package, but still within CanTrust’s scope of work. All chargeable services are billed at $150/hour + GST with a minimum charge of one hour.
Colo: short for “collocation facility” which is a building with backup UPS and generator power, fast internet, and physical security. Customers rent “cages” in the colo which are sections of a server rack with a locking door for your servers. It’s like a nice apartment with servers with a nice view of the Internet for them. At CanTrust we use four Colo providers: Smartt in Burnaby, Arima and eSecure Data in Coquitlam and 3Z Networks in Mississauga.
D
Developer: Developers are website development professionals. Developers build websites, maintain websites, and repair websites. CanTrust requires that all websites have a developer assigned to conduct maintenance for your website. Here is our list of recommended developers that we like to work with.
Devops: The relationship and integration of development and your operations, often your overall IT operations. This can include managing your domains, connecting your email accounts, and other operational items. DevOps is outside of CanTrust’s scope of work and service offerings.
DNS: Domain Name system. The thing that converts a name like “example.com” to an IP address like 1.2.3.4 so that your computer can actually get there. DNS is essential when moving websites (we need into the customer’s DNS panel to change the site). It is also sometimes something we host for a customer, though we try and avoid that at all costs!
Dom0: A hypervisor (see “hypervisor”)
DomU: A virtual machine aka a VPS aka a “guest OS” . (see “hypervisor” above). DomU’s are virtual servers where we run customer services like websites, nextcloud, etc. It’s also how we run our big shared webservers (ctwebXX)
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H
Hosting: The components of a website include a plethora of files that make your website display pages, run scripts, and hold information in databases. Hosting at CanTrust refers to the exclusively Canadian located servers where all of your website files are kept. When you type a URL into your browsers, the URL retrieves the files from our servers to display your website.
Hypervisor: A physical server (“bare metal”) which then runs many Virtual Servers using Virtualization. In Xen (the virtualization we use), a Hypervisor is known as a “Dom0” (pronounced “dom zero”) and a Virtual Machine is known as a “DomU” (pronounced “dom you”)
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O
Onboarding: The process of a new customer coming on board. Includes everything from when the sale is landed through to their site being live. This includes may other activities (provisioning their services on a server), setting them up in billing and backend systems, sending them instructions, getting their site moved, optimizing/securing their site and follow-up after the launch to make sure they are stoked.
P
PIPA: Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) is legislation which sets out the ground rules for how private-sector organizations may collect, use or disclose information about individuals. The Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) came into force on January 1, 2004. PIPA provides individuals with the right to request access to their own personal information while providing private sector organizations with a framework for conducting the collection, use and disclosure of personal information.
PIPEDA: The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) – Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Provisioning: The process of installing something. So when we add new customers or someone buys something new, someone must provision it on the correct server.
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SSL Certificate: An SSL Certificate establishes an encrypted link between a web server and a browser and it ensure that all data passed between the web server and browser remain private (concepts taken from ssl.com). The indication of a valid SSL Certificate includes a sometimes green lock, and the “s” being added to the http ie. https://. As a courtesy, and because we want to see your site run at its best, CanTrust includes free SSL updates as part of your hosting package.
Support Tickets: We use “tickets” for managing your support requests. When you submit a service request through support.cantrusthosting.coop or via email at support@cantrusthosting.coop, our internal system creates what is called a “ticket” which allows us to communicate back and forth with you and amongst our team to resolve your issue as quickly as possible. Tickets also track progress, and also keep you looped in about what steps we are taking. Submitting a support request through these methods is the fastest way to get your issue resolved.
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U
Uptime: the percentage of time that a computer (in our case, your server) is working and available. We use this percentage to share with you our standard and expectations of what percentage of time your site should be up. It is our responsibility to meet this percentage with our best efforts. Uptime is the opposite of downtime.
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Webserver: A DomU configured for hosting Drupal/WP. Usually runs the Apache webserver.
WordPress: Is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database. Features include a plugin architecture and a template system, referred to within WordPress as Themes.
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Y
Yoast: Is a WordPress plugin that helps fill in your snippets and SEO
Z
Zabbix: CanTrust monitoring software. It monitors everything and call us when anything goes down. We have 2 set up in 2 different provinces for redundancy.