Dismayed
I've been thinking about starting a tech blog. I've got some things to say that either other people in tech might find interesting or at least have figure out how to do certain things that could help other people trying to do the same things. I've also stumbled across some undocumented problems and have worked out the solutions, often with the help of very hard to find comments elsewhere on the web.
Even if no-one finds any interest in all of that, a tech blog would still be helpful to me in allowing me to have one place where I've stored all this gathered information.
I figured I'd use WordPress, it is fairly popular, seems robust and has some features I'd like to use. I have http://www.thoughtstream.com and I'm not using it for anything other than email and some file storage at the moment, so I thought it'd be a good place to host my blog. I could make it a subsection of the site if I ever start using it for other things again. I'm a Microsoft developer, so I have Thoughtstream hosted on a Microsoft platform. When I start developing for it, it'll allow me to use my knowledge of ASP.Net to make my site.
I looked up how to install and deploy WordPress on my site.
It ONLY uses MySQL.
My site has MSSQL. (SQL Server)
Did I mention the primary tech I'm going to blog about is SQL Server? No? It is.
After some research, I found that there's a way to host WordPress on a Microsoft Platform! Hooray! (details are here)
I contact my webhost to see if the package I have with them has the required software.
The response
Since you are under a Microsoft Business package, Wordpress will not run on this. All the system requirements of Wordpress are only supported in our Linux hosting packages.
You will need to switch your package to a Linux package.
Now, I'd mentioned I wanted to install Wordpress, but I'd specifically asked if my site had II7 or above
PHP 5.2 or above
SQL Server Express 2008 w/Tools or above
PHP Driver for SQL Server v1.1 or above
URL Rewrite 2.0 or above
and they didn't say a thing about any of those.
I tried again with
Wordpress will run on a Micorosft package if I have the criteria I listed in my email. I do not intend to switch to a Linux pakage, if you do not provide what I've listed, I'll either use a different blogging software or a different host. Would you please tell me what OS is running on my server, what, if any version of PHP, what version of SQL Server and if it has URL rewrite?
The response? (I'll bet you can already guess)
Wordpress will only run in our Linux Packages since Wordpress requires PHP and MySQL. Our MS Packages has MSSQL and can only cater ASP, ASP.Net only. Our advise to the customer is to change your package from Microsoft Package to Linux Package if you really want to use Wordpress.
I tried again, more explicitly this time
See the above link, Wordpress can run on SQL Server and IIS. Whether or not Wordpress will run on your system, I'd still like answers to the questions I asked. What version of IIS are you running, what version of SQL Server, do you have any Php running under IIS?
Finally a better response
Your server is Microsoft Server 2008. It is running MSSQL 2008 as its database. Also, PHP is not compatible on your server. ASP, and ASP.net are compatible.
So at least I now know the OS and version of SQL Server, though not the subversion. SQL Server has several different types.
The part about PHP? That's simply wrong. They may not offer it, but PHP isn't all that hard to set up under IIS, I've done it myself.
So now I have a choice.
What to do?
Even if no-one finds any interest in all of that, a tech blog would still be helpful to me in allowing me to have one place where I've stored all this gathered information.
I figured I'd use WordPress, it is fairly popular, seems robust and has some features I'd like to use. I have http://www.thoughtstream.com and I'm not using it for anything other than email and some file storage at the moment, so I thought it'd be a good place to host my blog. I could make it a subsection of the site if I ever start using it for other things again. I'm a Microsoft developer, so I have Thoughtstream hosted on a Microsoft platform. When I start developing for it, it'll allow me to use my knowledge of ASP.Net to make my site.
I looked up how to install and deploy WordPress on my site.
It ONLY uses MySQL.
My site has MSSQL. (SQL Server)
Did I mention the primary tech I'm going to blog about is SQL Server? No? It is.
After some research, I found that there's a way to host WordPress on a Microsoft Platform! Hooray! (details are here)
I contact my webhost to see if the package I have with them has the required software.
The response
Since you are under a Microsoft Business package, Wordpress will not run on this. All the system requirements of Wordpress are only supported in our Linux hosting packages.
You will need to switch your package to a Linux package.
Now, I'd mentioned I wanted to install Wordpress, but I'd specifically asked if my site had II7 or above
PHP 5.2 or above
SQL Server Express 2008 w/Tools or above
PHP Driver for SQL Server v1.1 or above
URL Rewrite 2.0 or above
and they didn't say a thing about any of those.
I tried again with
Wordpress will run on a Micorosft package if I have the criteria I listed in my email. I do not intend to switch to a Linux pakage, if you do not provide what I've listed, I'll either use a different blogging software or a different host. Would you please tell me what OS is running on my server, what, if any version of PHP, what version of SQL Server and if it has URL rewrite?
The response? (I'll bet you can already guess)
Wordpress will only run in our Linux Packages since Wordpress requires PHP and MySQL. Our MS Packages has MSSQL and can only cater ASP, ASP.Net only. Our advise to the customer is to change your package from Microsoft Package to Linux Package if you really want to use Wordpress.
I tried again, more explicitly this time
See the above link, Wordpress can run on SQL Server and IIS. Whether or not Wordpress will run on your system, I'd still like answers to the questions I asked. What version of IIS are you running, what version of SQL Server, do you have any Php running under IIS?
Finally a better response
Your server is Microsoft Server 2008. It is running MSSQL 2008 as its database. Also, PHP is not compatible on your server. ASP, and ASP.net are compatible.
So at least I now know the OS and version of SQL Server, though not the subversion. SQL Server has several different types.
The part about PHP? That's simply wrong. They may not offer it, but PHP isn't all that hard to set up under IIS, I've done it myself.
So now I have a choice.
- I can look for a different provider, one that has the specifications I need to run WordPress on a MS platform.
- I can look for different blogging software that runs on an MS platform. If anyone reading this has any suggestions, I'd appreciate them.
- I can get a new site with Linux just for the WordPress blog and figure out how to embed it in an ASP site.
What to do?