Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Ok, finally I go to Dedicated!! ^o^

[ttk_2k]

Well, after a long long consider and research, I've just picked a dedicated server and have it ordered...

I am really a newbie with dedicated server. I've had many experiences with shared hosts, and I'm really tired with the limited and little available resources on a shared hosting package. I know, it's totally different between shared and dedicated, but I just see that if I don't give myself a chance to touch it I'll never know how it works, and of course that what I'm interested in.

I had no experience with Linux, and I ordered a cheap one, it's 100% self-managed, just with simplest and default setups. Well I know I have to do backups by myself, and I have to take care of securities of hackers. To have less cost I have chosen to have no control panel. May be I will have to install a free WebMin, but I don't know if it's good or not.

Anyway, I'm nervous right away after I submitted the order, and I just can't find where to start.. I know my question is too stupid but are there anywhere that I can find basic tutorials for the new configurations?

BTW, I've selected CentOS as the OS, and of course, I had never touch it before...

Any advise and guiding words would be appreciated!! Thank youuuu!!

TT

[dhawton]

You should've installed it on a test enivornment near you to learn it. My suggestion is hire a company to secure your server for you and keep it updated until you can get used to it.

[ttk_2k]

Originally posted by Printf Daniel
You should've installed it on a test enivornment near you to learn it. My suggestion is hire a company to secure your server for you and keep it updated until you can get used to it.

Hi, are there any such companies for doing securities? How much will it cost to me? Thank you.

[dhawton]

There are many, I don't know of any specifically as I don't use them (I run FreeBSD systems and have enough knowledge to secure it down and keep it updated). Search the forums, they are referenced frequently.

[whitehat]

What you have done is similar to someone leasing a brand new car but yet never having been behind the wheel of a car before and not having a driver's license.

For your sake, I hope you did not cancel your shared account; otherwise, you jumped way ahead of yourself if you did.

You may want to consider some offsite chauffeur such as geeks4help.com to keep your box safe until you can manage it yourself.

Just my thoughts for you.

[ttk_2k]

Originally posted by whitehat
What you have done is similar to someone leasing a brand new car but yet never having been behind the wheel of a car before and not having a driver's license.

For your sake, I hope you did not cancel your shared account; otherwise, you jumped way ahead of yourself if you did.

You may want to consider some offsite chauffeur such as geeks4help.com to keep your box safe until you can manage it yourself.

Just my thoughts for you.

Thank you. I understand that. I'm now trying to learn as much as I can, my site is only an IPB forum, not very busy yet. I know it's very difficult to learn, I have some basic network and computing knowledge, and learned for programing.

Anyway, I must cancel my shared hosting, because I've just been informed that my IPB2 takes too much resource of the server. But I don't want to be hosted with that company anymore.

Poooh.. It might be very difficult, I believe, to start, especially at this time, but I'll try..

[askthexperts]

Congrats on your new server! With the limited experience you posess you probably should have at least gotten a control panel though....

There are several tutorial sites around, do a google search and you will find a wealth of information.

[infotq]

not to discourage you .. but I have to agree with
okanagantech. There are lot of things can be done using cpanel and WHM. Again if you need to install any specific module or have any specific requirement for your site to run... then there are lot of things which will need to be done as root and most importantly .. you should know what needs to be done.

Good Luck..

Let me know if I can be any help.

Thanks

[ttk_2k]

Thank you
I just need simplest php support, with Zend, which can let me run Invision Power Board 2, so should I have any special module or anything extra installed? Thanks!

[dhawton]

Webmin will help you out.. but definately hire an outside admin to help you out at the beginning.

[varg]

http://www.rack911.com
http://www.touchsupport.com
http://www.serverwizards.com
http://www.rfxnetworks.com
http://www.wemanageservers.com

These are the management companies I can think of off the top of my head.. and if you want to get to really know Linux to where you can manage it yourself you really should install it on a spare box at your house. That's really the only way to learn it.. I have only used Rack911 out of all on that list and Steve 'thelinuxguy' does great work.

[David]

I second rack911.

That said - I would recommend you see if your host can install a panel such as cpanel prior to you making it work, cpanel will handle some updates and shave a bit of the learning curve off.

[varg]

Actually, I recommend against 'learning' Linux with a control panel, sure it will help you with some of the updates but it has its down sides too. Too often, people get a box with Cpanel on it thinking it will be secure, when in fact Cpanel opens up more holes than any other CP out there simply because it's so popular. If you really want to learn Linux.. go check out some of the tutorials at http://www.webhostgear.com and install it on a spare box at home and until you have a 'good' feel for it, hire a management company. Before I sold my hosting company, I still outsourced our management simply because they know what they're doing and can often diagnose problems faster than myself. Just out of curiosity, which datacenter did you get your server at?

[ttk_2k]

Hi varg, and thank you all above for your replies.

I've just ordered at Layeredtech.com, I love their plans, and've heard they have good reputation, and I have just ordered the cheapest one with Celeron CPU and requested to install the CentOS.

I select CentOS because many people recommend it, and they support it, they don't support RedHat Linux.

I'm still waiting them to confirm the order and have the server setted up, and may be I'll hire a company to take care of the server at begining, and by the time I'll learn by my self.

[David]

varg has a great point, as always you should at least have a box at home you can test things out on and restore for free if something dies.