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If you need to run some form of daemon for example, or some custom app in the background. Anything that requires more control over the environment, you won't find in a shared host.
I use and like both the linode and slice host libraries.
You're forgetting something. A shared host is inadequate for a bunch of applications not just because of the number of visitors. It might also be that it's too restricted for you. If you need to run some form of daemon for example, or some custom app in the background. Anything that requires more control over the environment, you won't find in a shared host. I use and like both the linode and slice host libraries.
I already have a shared host for my crappy little blog, so I was just going to develop this new thing in a restricted subdomain to see if I could get it to become what I want. I figured could create a minimum viable product there, maybe have a bit of a private beta to figure out if anyone wants to use the damn thing, then shove it on a VPS.
That said, I noticed after I made this post that both Slicehost and Linode are month-to-month no commitment type deals, so once the site/app (what qualifies to be called a "webapp" exactly anyway?) is sort of ready, I'll likely just throw $20 at the problem and start on the VPS and see where it goes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the recommendations. I hadn't really looked a lot into which VPS to use yet; I saw a post recently which linked me to Slicehost, so I checked it out without really having yet had the chance to do much comparison yet. I just skimmed over the linode library that you linked, and I am impressed. I was going to ask you for more information about installing and securing Apache (nothing against ngenix; I just hav…
I do! A killer tip too. The Linode tutorials teach you one way of installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL... but there is another. If you're using Ubuntu and you run the command "sudo tasksel", that'll launch a program that lets you pick from a bunch of preconfigured options. Need a LAMP server? Just "sudo tasksel" and select LAMP. Need a mail server? Same thing. Need an SSH server? Well, you get the idea. In the past, I'v…
The LAMP and LEMP (nginx instead of apache) stacks are two of the most popular.
(1) I achieve by just doing 'yum install nginx' on CentOS. (2) installs the similar way, but whatever I do, I just can't log in with ftp. I guess I need to configure virtual users also, so that I won't have to make a separate unix user for each ftp user that I might need, and keep them ftp users in a separate ftp config file.
Good question. I'm somewhat in the same boat as you, and I've found Linodes tutorials good. Check them out here: http://library.linode.com/beginners-guide/
An offtopic question if you dont mind.When should we think of switching from a VPS to a fully dedicated server?I have a forum with around 3k members and vBullentin and the forum will grow further rather fast in next two months.
The thing is, hosting a small server is probably going to cost you around $100/month anyhow, so if you can get by with a vps that costs less than that, do so.
A small server with a core2duo and 8GiB ram is maybe $500 in parts. Considering that it'll last for at least three years, that's not much, if you think you'll have a server for a while.
If you are renting your dedicated server, then obviously, money doesn't matter to you, or you are planning on only keeping the server for a month or two, and you shouldn't listen to me, because I don't know what that is like.
Don't do that, if you are unexperienced with linux. Most people don't realize that, when running a VPS, they become an administrator with all the responsibilities. If your VPS gets hacked, it is a danger for the whole net. My advice, go for a managed solution.
but, if you want to learn, and are willing to put in the time, I think a VPS is a good place to start. Dealing with compromised hosts (at the very least, shutting them down) is priced in to unmanaged VPS prices.
Don't do that, if you are unexperienced with linux. Most people don't realize that, when running a VPS, they become an administrator with all the responsibilities. If your VPS gets hacked, it is a danger for the whole net. My advice, go for a managed solution.
If you're looking for a hosted solution that's a step up from a bargain-bin, Dreamhost-like arrangement, consider something like Heroku or Google App Engine.
A server on Amazon (dedicated) is only about 70$/month, is that an option as well? Pretty much no maintenance, just restart if it crashes.
The problem is that if you take a "just restart it if it crashes" approach, the service will be very unreliable, and you're not allowing for analysing what went wrong. In fact, taking this approach, Amazon's EC2 images are a really bad option, because you lose any chance of gathering diagnostic info as soon as you switch them off - all the data vanishes at that point.
Secondly, if you're going for a long-running VM, Amazon's machines are very expensive for what they are; I pay roughly a third of what Amazon charge for mine. If you're using them as base load rather than on-demand peak smoothing, you're doing it wrong.
Don't do that, if you are unexperienced with linux. Most people don't realize that, when running a VPS, they become an administrator with all the responsibilities. If your VPS gets hacked, it is a danger for the whole net. My advice, go for a managed solution.
I sortof agree? if you don't know and /don't want to know/ how to be a SysAdmin, don't get an unmanaged VPS. use shared hosting if you don't have much money and fully managed VPSs or dedicated servers if you have a lot. (Note, /good/ fully managed servers should cost many times over what unmanaged solutions cost. that sort of thing is expensive to do well.) but, if you want to learn, and are willing to put in the tim…
My concern became that if I ever outgrew the shared host, which can happen for any number of reasons (bandwidth, needing to configure things in certain ways, etc.), I might not be able to afford to go full managed due to expense. I'm not expecting miracles for this thing financially, as it's just a minor itch I thought could do with some scratching, so full managed might never feel viable to me.
To be honest, becoming a sysadmin was never a big concern of mine, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I "don't want to know" how to do the job. I'm perfectly willing to learn, which is precisely why I created this post.
If I ever do get a VPS, it still won't be until at least a couple months from now, which gives me a reasonable amount of time to learn enough not to embarrass myself and to provide a decent foundation to learn more as I need to.
My top priority with this, and I hope I've made this clear in my comments here (I know I made it clear in my x-post to reddit) is that I want to be sure the system is secure. That is the reason I'm asking for help here, as I never had a doubt that I could get the system to a working state, but I don't have the expertise yet to know when I've left something in an insecure state, and that's exactly why I asked this question: to close that gap before it becomes a real problem.