Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : how difficult to manage a website without cpanel?

[surfmanjoe]

I know it is difficult for a unix newbie to manage a dedicated server without cpanel.

however, my question has 2 assumptions,

1) there is only one site on the server, running apache, php and mysql only

2) email service and DNS service are outsourced at other vendors.

so, I guess my task will be simpler, I may do all apache, php, mysql config jobs, so I am wondering is there any other difficult things need to be done?

thanks for any idea.

[JRSEOMarketing]

Only thing I can think that cPanel does ok is backups. But those are very easy to do with a simple crontab script and rsync.

If your only using apache/php and SQL.. I don't see why you would need cpanel.

cPanel is like Windows and DOS is compared to no windows

[sitesled]

It really depends on your depth of knowledge of the server software you're
working with. For many, the ease of use of cpanel is worth 20fold what
they pay for it. A lot of people forget the old days of waiting 2 days to have
an email account setup.. and things of this nature.

DirectAdmin is a good , cheaper cpanel alternative IMHO.

Best of luck. Don't make life too difficult for yourself.

Jay

[RackZen]

If you only need a few things setup (ftp, one domain added, etc.) it would be cheaper in the long run to pay someone $25-$50 to set all of that up initially for you. That way you would not have to pay the monthly fee for the control panel if you would not be using it.

Also, there are a few free control panels, such as Webmin, that allow quite a few features that might work well for your needs.

You can view screenshots at http://www.webmin.com/screens.html

[Abu Mami]

IMHO a control panel is essential for a newbie (and for not-so-newbies who aren't Linux experts). I'm using cPanel and it makes things much simpler. I wasn't happy with Webmin, but the last time I used it was about 4 years ago - maybe it's been improved since then?