Glossary

Concise definitions of the key terms and concepts used throughout the TurboStack documentation.

A quick reference to the terms you will encounter across TurboStack, grouped by topic. Where a term has a dedicated page, follow the link for the full details.

Core objects

Term Definition
Host A single server and the configuration it should run. It is the central object you work with. See Hosts.
System user An operating-system account on a host that owns files and runs applications. Applications are configured beneath a system user. See Applications.
Application (vhost) An individual site or application running under a system user, with its own domain, application type, PHP version and TLS certificate. See Applications.
Group A reusable set of settings, such as SSH keys or security rules, applied to many hosts at once. See Groups.
Template A pre-built host configuration you can apply to new hosts to save setup time. See Templates.
System type How a host's server is managed (customstack, cpanel, directadmin or windows), which determines the tabs and options available. See System types.
Client A customer account that owns hosts, groups and templates. You only ever see the resources of the account you are signed in to. See Accounts and access.

Platform, tools and features

Term Definition
TurboStack Platform Hosted Power's platform for managing your hosting infrastructure, usable through the GUI, YAML (Source view) or the REST API. See TurboStack Platform.
Customer Center Hosted Power's customer portal for your account, services, domains, billing, contacts and support tickets. See Customer Center.
TurboStack CLI (tscli) The command-line tool on every TurboStack server for managing live services and common admin tasks (caches, firewall, email, logs) over SSH. See TurboStack CLI.
Backups Scheduled and on-demand backups of a host's files and databases, with restore to a chosen target. See Backups.
Monitoring Fleet-wide health and alerting across your hosts, plus per-application uptime checks. See Monitoring.
Migration Hero A tool that pulls an existing site from an external host into TurboStack. See Migration Hero.
Cloning Copying an account's files and database to another system user, for example to make a staging copy. See History.
Staging A non-production copy of a site used to test changes before applying them to the live site.
User system service A long-lived application process (queue worker, message-queue consumer or background job) run as a per-user systemd service that restarts on failure and survives logout. See System services.

Configuration and deployment

Term Definition
Publish / Deploy Saving and applying a host's configuration to the server so the server matches your intended state. See Publishing changes.
Full Publish A complete deployment that re-applies the whole configuration (Save & Full Publish), used after larger changes or to be thorough. See Publishing changes.
Full & Reset Deploy A full deployment that also permanently removes anything you deleted from the configuration (Save, Delete & Full Publish), destroying the associated data. See Publishing changes.
Revision A saved snapshot of a configuration, recorded each time you save, that you can review and restore. See History.
Source (YAML) view The raw-YAML editor for a configuration, kept in sync with the GUI editor. See The Source (YAML) view.
Credentials The server and per-account access details for a host. See Credentials.
Desired state The configuration you define for a host as the intended end result; TurboStack deploys the server to match it. See Introduction.
Wildcard certificate A TLS certificate covering all subdomains of a domain (*.example.com); it requires the DNS validation challenge. See TLS certificates.

Health and security

Term Definition
Health Live monitoring for a host: top issues plus CPU, memory, disk and service checks. See Health.
Threat Center The host tab that surfaces security findings and vulnerabilities detected on that host. See Threat Center.
TurboShield TurboStack's web-traffic protection: rate limiting, bot classification, search-bot verification, known-exploit blocking, attack detection with auto-expiring bans, and an optional bot challenge. Enabled by default. See What is TurboShield?.
TurboRadar Runtime security detection and scanning that runs after deployment, reporting findings to the Threat Center. Enabled on every host. See Security overview.
Firewall A managed, stateful firewall that automatically blocks malicious IP addresses from brute-force attempts and web attacks, with auto-expiring bans, while honouring your allow-list. See Security overview.
PrivateNet A secure, encrypted private overlay network (a mesh Virtual Private Network, or VPN) connecting your managed servers. See Networking.

Security findings and scores

These terms appear in the Threat Center, where you read and act on a host's security findings. See that page for how to interpret and prioritise them.

Term Definition
CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) A public, unique identifier for one specific known security weakness in software, written CVE-2024-12345. It names the weakness; the scores below say how urgent it is.
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) A severity score from 0.0 to 10.0 for how much damage a weakness could cause if exploited (9.0+ Critical, 7.0-8.9 High, 4.0-6.9 Medium, 0.1-3.9 Low). It rates impact, not likelihood.
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) A percentage (0-100%) estimating how likely a weakness is to be exploited within 30 days. 80% or more is shown as "Likely exploited". It rates likelihood, not severity.
KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities) A public catalogue of weaknesses confirmed to be under active attack in the real world. An "Exploited (KEV)" badge is the strongest signal to fix immediately.
Risk score A single number TurboStack calculates by combining KEV, EPSS and CVSS, so you can prioritise without weighing each score yourself. The vulnerabilities list is sorted by it, most urgent first.
IoC (Indicator of Compromise) Evidence that a host has already been breached, most often a malicious file (web shell, backdoor, skimmer) found on disk. Always treated as Critical.
Vulnerability A known weakness in your software or its dependencies that an attacker could exploit. Usually fixed by updating to the "Fixed in" version.

Applications

Application types you can deploy. Each has a deploy guide with example YAML - see Deploying applications.

Application What it is
Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce A PHP e-commerce platform (MySQL, Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, Redis, Varnish). See Magento.
WordPress A PHP content management system (CMS) for applications and blogs (MySQL, Redis). See WordPress.
Shopware A PHP e-commerce platform (MySQL, Redis, Varnish). See Shopware.
Drupal A PHP content management system (MySQL, Redis). See Drupal.
Laravel A PHP web-application framework (MySQL, Redis), with your code deployed via Git. See Laravel.
Akeneo A PHP Product Information Management (PIM) system (MySQL, Elasticsearch, Redis). See Akeneo.
OroCommerce A PHP B2B e-commerce platform (MySQL, Redis, RabbitMQ). See OroCommerce.
Craft CMS A PHP content management system (MySQL, Redis). See Craft CMS.
Nextcloud A PHP self-hosted file-sync and collaboration suite (MySQL or PostgreSQL, Redis). See Nextcloud.
Odoo A Python Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and business suite (PostgreSQL), run behind Nginx. See Odoo.
Medusa A Node.js headless commerce platform (PostgreSQL), run behind the Nginx reverse proxy. See Medusa.
nopCommerce A .NET e-commerce platform (Microsoft SQL Server), run behind the Nginx reverse proxy. See nopCommerce.
GitLab A self-hosted DevOps platform, run on Kubernetes and set up by Hosted Power through Support. See Self-hosted platforms.
Advanced Database Monitoring TurboStack's database query-performance and metrics monitoring, run on Kubernetes via a monitoring master server. See Self-hosted platforms.

Technologies

The open-source building blocks TurboStack provisions and manages. Each has a "what is" and a "configure" page - see Technologies.

Technology What it is
Nginx The default web server and reverse proxy. See Nginx.
Apache An alternative web server (apache2) for apps that need .htaccess or Apache modules. See Apache.
PHP The server-side language behind most applications; multiple versions per application. See PHP.
PHP-FPM The FastCGI Process Manager that runs PHP behind the web server; its worker pool handles requests.
Node.js A server-side JavaScript runtime, run as a process behind the reverse proxy. See Node.js.
Python A general-purpose language, run as a per-application process behind the reverse proxy. See Python.
Ruby A dynamic language, run as an isolated per-user process. See Ruby.
.NET Microsoft's open-source runtime for web apps and services, run behind the reverse proxy. See .NET.
MySQL A widely used open-source relational database (TurboStack runs Percona Server for MySQL). See MySQL.
MariaDB A MySQL-compatible open-source relational database.
Percona Server The performance-tuned MySQL and MongoDB distributions TurboStack runs.
PostgreSQL A standards-compliant open-source relational database. See PostgreSQL.
MongoDB A document-oriented NoSQL database (Percona Server for MongoDB). See MongoDB.
Microsoft SQL Server A relational database used by .NET applications. See Microsoft SQL Server.
Redis An in-memory data store for object cache, sessions and queues. See Redis.
Varnish An HTTP full-page cache that accelerates PHP storefronts, configured with VCL. See Varnish.
Elasticsearch A distributed full-text search and analytics engine. See Elasticsearch.
OpenSearch An open-source, Elasticsearch-compatible search engine. See OpenSearch.
RabbitMQ An Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) message broker for asynchronous task and job queues. See RabbitMQ.
Docker Runs a containerized application on an application, with Nginx proxying to the container. See Docker.
Kubernetes A lightweight container orchestrator for running containerized workloads. See Kubernetes.
Reverse proxy Nginx forwarding public traffic to a backend application process or container. See Reverse proxy.
Process manager A supervisor (such as Supervisor or PM2) that keeps long-running app processes and queue workers alive.
Buffer pool The in-memory area MySQL/InnoDB uses to cache data and indexes; the main database performance tuning knob.
Swap Disk space used as overflow when a server runs out of RAM; heavy swapping slows the server.

Web serving and performance

Words that appear throughout the technology and troubleshooting pages.

Term Definition
Backend The application process behind the web server that actually builds a response: a PHP-FPM pool, a Node.js or Python process, or a container. Nginx takes the visitor's request and passes it to the backend.
Upstream The backend address Nginx forwards a request to, declared as an upstream block in the Nginx configuration. "The upstream is down" means the application behind Nginx did not answer. See Reverse proxy.
Document root (docroot) The directory the web server serves a site's files from, usually public_html. See Change your Nginx docroot.
Worker One process that handles one unit of work at a time. A PHP-FPM worker is a single PHP process handling one request at a time, so the number of workers is how many requests a site can process at once. A queue worker does the same for background jobs.
Consumer A long-running process that takes messages off a queue and handles them, for example an OroCommerce message-queue consumer. See RabbitMQ.
Cache hit ratio The share of requests answered from the cache instead of the application or database. A low ratio means requests are missing the cache, so PHP and the database do the full work. See Why is my site slow?.

Email terms

Terms used on the Email deliverability and SMTP error codes pages.

Term Definition
Hard fail (-all) An SPF record that ends in -all tells receiving servers to reject mail from any server it does not list. A soft fail (~all) only asks them to treat it as suspicious.
Alignment The DMARC check that the domain a reader sees in the From address belongs to the same domain that passed SPF or DKIM. Strict alignment wants an exact match; relaxed alignment also accepts a parent domain or a subdomain.
MailFROM domain The domain the sending server gives in the SMTP MAIL FROM command (the envelope sender). SPF checks this domain, and the reader never sees it.
Header From domain The domain in the From: address shown in the reader's mail client. DMARC alignment compares it with the MailFROM domain or the DKIM signing domain.

Abbreviations and acronyms

A quick expansion of the abbreviations used across the documentation.

Abbreviation Stands for
AAAA Quad-A record (the DNS record that points a name at an IPv6 address; the A record does the same for IPv4).
ACME Automatic Certificate Management Environment (the protocol Let's Encrypt uses to issue certificates).
AI Artificial Intelligence (software that answers questions or generates content; AI crawlers collect pages to train such software).
AJAX Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (a browser technique that loads data in the background without reloading the page).
AMQP Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (the messaging protocol RabbitMQ uses).
API Application Programming Interface (how software talks to the platform). See API reference.
APM Application Performance Monitoring. See Monitoring.
CC Carbon Copy (extra recipients who also receive an email or the replies on a ticket).
CDN Content Delivery Network.
CI / CD Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (an automated pipeline that builds, tests and deploys your code).
CIDR Classless Inter-Domain Routing (an IP-range notation such as 203.0.113.0/24).
CISA Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (the United States agency that publishes the KEV list of exploited weaknesses).
CLI Command-Line Interface (text commands run over SSH; see the TurboStack CLI).
CMS Content Management System (such as WordPress or Drupal).
CNAME Canonical Name (a DNS record that points one name at another name, shown as "Alias" in some interfaces).
CPU Central Processing Unit (the server's processor).
CRM Customer Relationship Management (software for tracking customers, leads and sales, such as Odoo).
CSR Certificate Signing Request (submitted to a certificate authority to buy a certificate).
CSS Cascading Style Sheets (the files that control how a web page looks).
CSV Comma-Separated Values (a simple spreadsheet/export file format).
DAL Data Abstraction Layer (Shopware's layer between the application and the database).
DAV Distributed Authoring and Versioning (the WebDAV protocol for working with files over HTTP; CalDAV and CardDAV are its calendar and contacts versions).
DB Database (the short form used in command names, log output and configuration keys).
DDoS Distributed Denial of Service (an attack that floods a site to take it offline).
DI Dependency Injection (how a framework wires classes together; Magento compiles its DI container in production mode).
DKIM DomainKeys Identified Mail (an email-authentication signature). See Email.
DMARC Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (an email-authentication policy).
DNS Domain Name System (translates domain names to IP addresses). See Connecting your domain.
DNSSEC Domain Name System Security Extensions (signed DNS answers, so a resolver can detect a forged reply). See DNS management.
EAV Entity-Attribute-Value (the flexible database model Magento uses to store product attributes).
EdDSA Edwards-curve Digital Signature Algorithm (the modern SSH key type, used by Ed25519 keys). See Add an SSH key.
EOL End Of Life (a version that no longer receives updates or security fixes).
EPP Extensible Provisioning Protocol (the protocol behind domain registrations; the EPP code is the authorization code you need to transfer a domain).
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning (business-management software such as Odoo).
ESI Edge Side Includes (a Varnish feature that builds one page from separately cached fragments).
FPM FastCGI Process Manager (the part of PHP that runs your code behind the web server; always written PHP-FPM).
FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name (a complete hostname such as www.example.com).
FTP / SFTP File Transfer Protocol / SSH File Transfer Protocol (file upload methods; SFTP is the secure one).
FTPS File Transfer Protocol Secure (classic FTP wrapped in TLS encryption; not the same as SFTP).
GB Gigabyte (a unit of storage or memory; 1 GB is 1024 megabytes).
GC Garbage Collection (a runtime freeing memory it no longer needs; heavy GC pressure slows an application down).
GD The GD Graphics Library (the PHP extension that resizes and converts images; ImageMagick is the alternative).
GeoIP Geographic IP (locating a visitor's country from their IP address).
GUI Graphical User Interface (the web interface of the TurboStack Platform, as opposed to YAML or the API).
HSTS HTTP Strict Transport Security (a header that forces browsers to use HTTPS).
HTML HyperText Markup Language (the code a web page is built from).
HTTP / HTTPS HyperText Transfer Protocol (Secure) - the web protocol; HTTPS is the encrypted version.
IIS Internet Information Services (Microsoft's web server).
IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol (for reading email).
IoC Indicator of Compromise (see the security table above).
IP / IPv4 / IPv6 Internet Protocol address (a server or visitor's network address).
JS JavaScript (the programming language that runs in the visitor's browser).
JSON JavaScript Object Notation (the data format the API uses).
JVM Java Virtual Machine (the Java runtime that Elasticsearch and OpenSearch run on; the memory it reserves is called the heap).
JWT JSON Web Token (a signed token an application uses to recognize a signed-in user or service).
LTS Long-Term Support (a release that keeps receiving fixes for an extended period, so it is the safe choice for production).
MB Megabyte (a unit of storage or memory; 1024 MB is 1 GB).
MX Mail Exchanger (the DNS record that says which mail server receives a domain's email).
NoSQL A non-relational database model (such as MongoDB).
OCSP Online Certificate Status Protocol (how a browser checks that a TLS certificate has not been revoked).
OOM Out Of Memory (when a server runs out of usable memory). See Out of memory.
OPcache PHP's compiled-code cache, which speeds up PHP by reusing compiled scripts.
ORM Object-Relational Mapping (a library that maps database tables to objects in your code, such as Laravel's Eloquent).
OS Operating System (the software a server runs on, such as Debian or Ubuntu).
OSI Open Systems Interconnection (the seven-layer network model; layer 3 is the network layer and layer 7 the application layer).
OWASP Open Worldwide Application Security Project (the non-profit that publishes the OWASP Top 10 list of the most common web application risks).
PDF Portable Document Format (the document format used for invoices, labels and exports).
PEM Privacy Enhanced Mail (the plain-text file format for certificates and keys, starting with a -----BEGIN line).
PFX Personal Information Exchange (a .pfx file bundling a certificate and private key).
PHP PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (the programming language most web applications on the platform run on).
PIM Product Information Management (product-catalog software such as Akeneo).
PM2 A process manager for Node.js applications that keeps them running and restarts them after a crash.
POP3 Post Office Protocol version 3 (an older protocol that downloads email to one device; IMAP is the modern choice).
PTR Pointer record (a reverse-DNS record mapping an IP address back to a hostname).
QR Quick Response code (the square barcode you scan with a phone camera). See Two-factor authentication.
RAM Random Access Memory (the server's working memory).
RBL Realtime Block List (a public blocklist of IP addresses and domains known for spam). See Email deliverability.
REST Representational State Transfer (the style of the TurboStack API: ordinary HTTP requests returning JSON). See API reference.
RSA Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (an older public-key algorithm, still supported for SSH keys and certificates).
SEO Search Engine Optimization (the work of making a site rank well in search results).
SES Simple Email Service (Amazon's service for sending bulk email).
SLA Service Level Agreement.
SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (for sending email).
SNI Server Name Indication (lets one IP address serve certificates for multiple domains).
SPF Sender Policy Framework (an email-authentication record). See Email.
SQL Structured Query Language (the query language for relational databases).
SSH Secure Shell (encrypted remote access to a server). See SSH access.
SSO Single Sign-On (signing in with one identity, such as GitHub or Google).
STARTTLS The mail-protocol command that upgrades a plain connection to an encrypted TLS one.
TCP Transmission Control Protocol (the connection-based transport protocol behind HTTP, SSH and database traffic).
TLS / SSL Transport Layer Security, formerly Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) - the encryption behind HTTPS. See TLS certificates.
TOTP Time-based One-Time Password (the six-digit code an authenticator app generates, valid for about 30 seconds). See Two-factor authentication.
TTL Time To Live (how long a DNS record or cache entry stays valid).
TXT Text record (a DNS record holding free text, used for SPF, DKIM, DMARC and domain-ownership checks).
UDP User Datagram Protocol (a lightweight transport protocol without connections, used by DNS and VPN traffic).
UI User Interface (the screens you click in, as opposed to a command line or the API).
URL Uniform Resource Locator (a web address such as https://example.com/page).
VAT Value Added Tax (the European sales tax; your VAT number appears on your invoices).
VCL Varnish Configuration Language (the rules that control Varnish caching).
VIP Virtual IP address (an IP address that can move between servers, so a standby server can take over).
VPN Virtual Private Network (a private, encrypted network). See Networking.
WAF Web Application Firewall (filters web requests to block attacks). See Security.
WHM WebHost Manager (the server-wide administration interface that comes with cPanel). See System types.
XSS Cross-Site Scripting (a web attack that injects malicious scripts into a page).
YAML YAML Ain't Markup Language - the text format used for a host's configuration. See The Source (YAML) view.

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