Hello,

Can anybody tell me any good websites to learn how to run a dedicated server?? I want to do a lot of research before I buy my own server, and btw its not for a new hosting company, so please don't flame me about that. I am a 16 year old kid who wants to learn, and I have a few buddies and myself that can between us pay for the server.

Thanks
Jordan Blackburn

I recommend a linux administration book.

Don't remember the name, but there's a purple linux system admin book that is awesome...

Your best bet would be to pick up a cheap machine on ebay or from around your area, install what ever OS you want on your server. Make sure your network interface is setup correctly, then unplug your keyboard and monitor. Now do *everything* on that box via SSH from another machine, if you can go a couple of months without needing to plug in the keyboard and monitor then your in half decent state to admin your own server.

Things you should do while in this state is recompile your kernel (a couple of times), mess with firewall rules, configure various apps (apache, bind and what ever else you intend to run on the server)

Doing this will ensure you don't get slapped with OS reload fees and remote hands charges, it will also help give you the confidence you need to admin a remote box.

thats a great idea, i might try that.....

Here's a few sites
www.linuxguruz.com
www.linuxdevcenter.com
www.ndeepak.info
www.tldp.org
www.hostinglife.com

well save abit of you cash and start with a VDS / VPS both are the same. and you will have root access and all but the only thing is that you will save some $$ get a real small one save as much as you can and learn

where can i get a cheap, but good quality vps? also what is the difference between a vps and a dedicated?

something like "linux for dummies" out there?

(is a serious question)

Originally posted by eBoundary
Your best bet would be to pick up a cheap machine on ebay or from around your area, install what ever OS you want on your server. Make sure your network interface is setup correctly, then unplug your keyboard and monitor. Now do *everything* on that box via SSH from another machine, if you can go a couple of months without needing to plug in the keyboard and monitor then your in half decent state to admin your own server.

Things you should do while in this state is recompile your kernel (a couple of times), mess with firewall rules, configure various apps (apache, bind and what ever else you intend to run on the server)

Doing this will ensure you don't get slapped with OS reload fees and remote hands charges, it will also help give you the confidence you need to admin a remote box.

hi, eBoundary, i am very interested to do this, is there any specific reading material to recommand ? like web links, books, etc...i have got computers, but i have problem to network them together.

the best way is too jump in head first. Theory is helpful sometimes, but more often than not experience is far superior.

Just get yourself a fresh copy of an easy to use distro like Red Hat 9, Fedora or even Debian, and have a go as eBoundary said.

The best way to learn, is by doing it :)

Originally posted by fuse1982
hi, eBoundary, i am very interested to do this, is there any specific reading material to recommand ? like web links, books, etc...i have got computers, but i have problem to network them together.

pretty much any unix book at the book store will give you the basics, from there you need to search on specific topics. Trust me, if you want to do it today, someone already did it and documented it yesterday, it's just a matter of finding that doc.

there is a world of information on the internet regarding pretty much anything you would ever want to do on a server. If you find something that not documented yet then you will have a level of experience that will enable you to write that doc :)

VPS is a fully managed share of a dedicated server, based not on logical partitioning.

To manage a DS, you need three things:

1. Control panel
2. Some basic Linux commands + PUTTY and WinSCP3
3. Step-by-step guides

For the first one usually pays from $8.99 to 48.99 mo, the other two are free.

Originally posted by mp3sattack
something like "linux for dummies" out there?
(is a serious question)

Funny, I was just looking at the "Fedora for Dummies" at Borders. It has two versions, the regular and the thick 9 part server. Its probable that most of the stuff caries over into other distros.

Originally posted by Imago


1. Control panel


If you can *not* manage a server without a control you have no business running a server. Cpntrol panels are designed to be a tool to empower your users and reduce support requests, they are *not* a replacement for adminsitration skills.

Bringing a server online without the skills needed to manage it properly is irresponsible and puts every other user/server on the internet at risk. If your machine gets compromised and without proper administration skills it *will* get compromised it can cause a great deal of damage to a lot of people/businesses.

WHM (to take the admin side of the CPanel) is a management automation tool. It is designed to make the admin life easear, not to preclude knowledge of console language. If it is so important not to use control panels, then let us discard all browsers and visit the sites via telnet.

Yes, you can use them but you should at the very least understand how to administer the machine manually 1st.

Browsers are a user level application, much like MS Office, you're not expected to understand the word and excel encoding formats.

Unlike an administrator who is expected to run the server that other people rely on and should at the very least understand the technology that they are using.

If your mail server refuses to start where do you start looking? control panels generally don't give you enough information to diagnose the problem.

Apache chokes on a virtual host entry because the directory doesnt exist or some such issues that clearly shows up in the logs yet the control panel on blurts out the error "apache failed to start, please contact your administrator" How will you know where to look?

Control panels are known to give you default configuration files, configurations that are less likely to cause compat issues with other software. These types of configurations are generally not very optimized and are certainly not the most secure configurations you can use.

A control panel is in no way a replacement for administration skills and you can not get decent administration skills when you learn them simply because your working around control panel issues.

Webmin* is a good place for anyone to start.

To really master your server you must ;) know how to use the command line - thankfully you can review the webmin action log for a complete breakdown of the commands as would be issued on the command line (where applicable).

Very small list of command line tools / tricks

pico - editing config files etc (installed with package pine - a great email program)
grep - invaluable tool to find text within a file (thus locating the relevant file...)
> >> | << < - using redirectors and pipes (./configure --help | more)
man - manual pages are possibly the most useful resource you have for finding out how to use something. Try 'man man' for starters
wget - Need to download a file from a web page? (e.g. 'wget <protocol> prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/webadmin/webmin-1.130.tar.gz')


Anyone know a link to a more complete reference of command line tools and there uses

I agree with eBoundary

I do not like using control panels, but that's my preference.

I'd rather see what's being executed, and what it does, rather than have an HTML feedback of "Function executed successfully"

Control Panels don't help you learn anything about the operating system, and if you're going to do hosting and even for your own personal experience, learn the shell commands, it'll help you in the long run.

would installing redhat9 on an old computer thats currently running windows make any sence? also how easy would that be? also could you do everything you could do on that box on a VDS?

also how hard is it to really learn how to admin a linux server, it seems overwhelming at first.