want to host with linux red hat enterprise, now what?

linux hosting with dual OS

[ilustrate]

i'm convinced that i want to start using linux on my p.c. i would like to eventually run red hat enterprise, but for now, i am probably gonna start with fedora core 4. o.k. well my p.c. is a dell 8300 with dual pentium 4's 3ghz, 1024mb ram, with an 80gb drive for programs and a 200 gb drive for storage. first question. i need to partition my drive. which one should i use for linux? i'm hoping i could just use my 200gb storage drive so that i can keep windows separate. what is recommended in my case? my aims are to run red hat enterprise. load it up with plesk reloaded, apache, php, mysql, a mail server and try to get my own hosting online from the house. my clients are small so i just wanna give this a try. will i run into any problems? could i keep linux running to host and still use windows? i'm probably fine with just learning how to get it all working and then just buy a server for running this but i really want to at least get this rocking and rolling with out having to buy another computer. what do you guys recommend? i'm a complete newb at linux.

[wheel]

I do most of that, it can be done easily. I actually run Mandrake linux (on both my desktop and servers) and it will repartition and set up the dual boot automatically during installation. I expect most of the current distros, including redhat, would have this as standard. (in other words, yes, you should be able to setup all your apache/linux/hosting stuff on your desktop, and serve from home).

However - you won't be able to dual boot. You can't 'run' both OS'es simultaneously, you boot into one or the other. So when you boot into Windows, apache and all your server stuff won't be running - all your sites will be down while you're on windows.

A better solution is to pick up a cheap computer - like say a 1ghz machine with 512 megs of ram and a 10 gig hd. Throw that in your basement/closet/whatever, and use that as your webserver by installing just redhat on it.

Then seperately do a dual boot on your desktop. Then you can run linux on your desktop (it's a dream, i tell ya :), no more lockups/reboot/virues/popups etc) without interfering with your webserver.

In short, you probably shouldn't mix the webserver and desktop. For example, you typically wouldn't install the gui and related tools on the web server - potential security issues. BUT! if you run linux on your desktop, you can ssh from your desktop to your webserver and run the gui tools from your desktop to admin your server. I use the gui configuration tools on my desktop all the time to do updates on my servers even though the server doesn't have the gui's installed.

[ilustrate]

cool, thanks for the response. lets say i get this working and for the sake of actually learning and getting this to work fine i do it on computer the way we described. how much bandwidth should i be using from my isp? i have a cable modem with 1024kb service. can you give me an idea how fast i can expect to get off of my computer and my current bandwidth?

[wheel]

Figure some very rough numbers. Take a gig of traffic, or 1000000000 bytes. If each page is a hog at 50K (50000 bytes), then you're looking at 20,000 page views to burn a gig of bandwidth. Say 750 page views a day to burn a gig a month. And you're suggesting that your sites are low traffic so maybe you don't even see those numbers - 750 pages a day to burn a gig a month.

Compare that with your neighbour on the left who's downloading porn, and the neighbour on the right who's downloading movies and music at a couple of gig's a day. Your ISP won't likely even notice the bandwidth.

A cable connection should serve that level of traffic no problem.

You have two big issues to deal with:
- is this allowed within the confines of your agreement with your ISP?
- you're going to want a static IP, not sure if that's feasible with cable. I have a static IP on my DSL home connection that costs me 2 to 3 times what a cheap webhosting account would cost.

[ilustrate]

i've checked in to it even more and have noticed that my ip already seems to be static. after about a week of reboots and even using other OS's, like linux knoppix, i still have the same IP. I'm using a cable modem so i guess this is an advantage, am i right? I talked to the manager at the cable company and told him that i wanted to run a server and he didn't even mention to me that i wasn't supposed to. I guess they don't have restrictions here. My ISP doesn't even have anything stipulated in the contract. I just read the whole thing. I guess the first step would be getting linux installed.

[mcavic]

There are several limitations when running a server on a residential cable or DSL connection.

1. Your IP is most likely dynamic. It usually won't change while the modem is on, but it can. This means that you'd have to update your DNS if the IP changes. And, your hits (and your email!) could possibly be directed at someone else's server in the interim.

2. 1024k bandwidth usually means downstream. You'll be serving web pages upstream, which could be quite a bit slower.

3. Cable companies can block inbound ports on a whim if you don't have business service.

What you suggest is a great project for tinkering. I run Fedora at home with apache, which serves a photo gallery site for my family. But for real sites, I'd strongly suggest a host (especially if you have clients to pay for it).

I use a VPS hosting plan, which runs $45/month, and basically gives me full control over the operating system, and unlimited domains.

[ilustrate]

you are right. after talking in depth with my service provider i found out about their current clients that have fixed ip's. i visited their sites and considering that they are just a few miles away the speed was horrible. i assumed that if i hosted locally my customers would have quicker speeds but that is obviously not the case. you are right a vps is definetly the way to go.