Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Manage

[iTom]

I know that it is better to get a managed dedicated server as there is less work for the user (me) if something goes wrong.

But what i am asking is, what normally goes wrong and how hard is it normally to fix it.

I have a National Diploma in Networking and Cisco qualifications, i have done basic server admin stuff but not web server stuff. So what should i expect needs doing on a none managed dedicated server?

Thanks, Tom

[Tailseh]

firewalls, kernels, broken software

lots of things

[gbjbaanb]

On a non-managed server, you will be expected to handle practically everything. Hardware issues will be the concern of the host, but you will still have to inform them your server is having difficulties before they will look into it.

That leaves all the software and network issues. You will be responsible for outgoing network issues, eg if your server is compromised and used to send out spam or used in a DDoS attack, you can expect to have it removed from the network.

Similarly, you should be proactively keeping an eye on logs and system status to prevent less obvious security issues.

You will also need to handle updates to the system software, but also the web sites software (eg a friend of mine had an insecure Joomla plugin on his site, so I had to patch it to stop the attackers and then tell him to update his site).

What else... backups - if you have a dedicated server and something catastrophic happens, the DC will reformat it and restore it to the state it was in when you receievd it - you'll have to restore your backups onto that.

I'm sure you'll get more responses that these!

[iTom]

So basicaly i would have to know how to do the following:

-Backups
-Firewalls
-Security Updates
-Bandwidth Monitoring
-General Server Monitoring

So my next question is where do people learn this stuff?

I have a server lying at home and i could install a webserver on that but would this actualy help as i would only be learning how to install stuff not actualy manage a web server as there would be no traffic / people trying to access the server.

Where did you lot learn?

Thanks, Tom

[iTom]

Also what is the most common linux distriubution people are using Redhat?

[PrimaryVPS]

Redhat/Fedora core, centos

[gbjbaanb]

I think CentOS is the most popular OS for webhosting, though fedora and debian are also popular.

Where to learn - the internet of course! Google for some of the things you've already mentioned and you'll get a heap of hits. Some of them will be relatively old (a lot for RH9 for example), but the principle is still valid.

If you go with CentOS, you can look at the documentation to at least get you started - http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/docs/

[LivinGeek]

Originally Posted by nuke13

So basicaly i would have to know how to do the following:

-Backups
-Firewalls
-Security Updates
-Bandwidth Monitoring
-General Server Monitoring

So my next question is where do people learn this stuff?

I think the best thing to do is hire a management team to do some "server hardening." This will put your server to ready status and allow you to learn on the fly. You can usually find a good group to do this for like $100/server and they should answer any questions you have as well.

[iTom]

Ok thanks for the info