Forum Moderators: bakedjake
i'm now using shared hosting for my site. my site reach the 20GB trafic for month and i need to move on to a dedicated server.
i'm considering moving to linux instead of windows.
my questions are:
1) what is the best linux version for webservers?
2) can i make my webserver also function as DNS server (and save the 50$ setup fee for "A Record")?
3) where can i found good document about setting up webserver on linux?
4) can i cotrol all the aspect of my server from home when i'm using windows OS at home?
5) what do i do with all my ASP pages in the search engines? is there a way to forward the surfers to my main page on the new server if they are requesting ASP page?
6) is there any importent aspect of moving to Linux server that i miss?
7) is it all realy free software, or i'll have to buy some software in order to make this thing running?
8) can anyone here tell me about his experince with moving from windows to linux?
i'm sure most of this questions already answered in this forum, but i searched the furom and couldn't find exact answers, so i'll appreciate any help.
thanks.
in my opinion you should look forward to someone you can talk face to face about your question and the complete task. i think in this (and other) forums you'll find a lot of information but you can't do this only by collecting infos - i assume your system must work.
nevertheless, on some questions i can give you little answers:
1) what is the best linux version for webservers?
the one which is best best configured.
2) can i make my webserver also function as DNS server (and save the 50$ setup fee for "A Record")?
yes, you can install and run a dns server on your machine. but you'll need adresses for so called dns-root-servers it can do it's exchanges of records.
3) where can i found good document about setting up webserver on linux?
first make your choice which webserver you'd like to use and then look forward for documentation and case-studies.
4) can i cotrol all the aspect of my server from home when i'm using windows OS at home?
you can remote-controll your servers shell with a ssh client. should be 'secure' when done right.
5) what do i do with all my ASP pages in the search engines? is there a way to forward the surfers to my main page on the new server if they are requesting ASP page?
you can map .asp requests to other scripts like php for example or you can install asp for linux (not shure how good this works).
6) is there any importent aspect of moving to Linux server that i miss?
depends on what you'll do with your server.
7) is it all realy free software, or i'll have to buy some software in order to make this thing running?
you've to pay your time you need to set it up, the bandwidth for downloading and in case of commercial software, you've to pay the software, too.
hope this helps a bit,
-hakre
You can get ASP for Linux (eg. Chillisoft). But it is not as simple as plugging in and letting the sites just work. Many features of MS ASP are not supported by Chillisoft and connecting to databases is a nightmare.
I would think twice if you have lots of ASP coding - have you looked at a Win 2003 server? (much cheaper)
i understand that i can make mySQL work on windows but i read that it's not that simple.
FreeBSD has a proven track record with high-volume websites, and Apache on FreeBSD and BSD/OS are almost exclusively listed in the top 50 spots on Netcraft's server uptimes list (most of these are running FreeBSD-2.2.x, so even way back then it was that good).
There is a port of apache that installs frontpage extensions for you, so you could administer portions of your webserver with FrontPage. Anything that runs on linux will run on FreeBSD just as well, and 99% of the time as native binaries.
i think the main question i'm trying to get answered is:
can someone like me, with zero expirance with unix systems should try to change to unix or stick with what i'm good at and pay the extra $'s.
>>>"can someone like me, with zero expirance with unix systems should try to change to unix"
Do you really need a dedicated server? There are many very reliable webhosts out there who will be happy to host you for a decent monthly fees much less than what any dedicated server will cost and it will save your time as well, the time that you will have to spend to keep the server updated and secured.
I don't want to offend you but properly securing a *nix box is not that easy.
It is another thing if you are doing it from the point of view of learning or if your site is growing so rapidly that it will out-strip all the good shared plans in near future. For the sake of learning the better way to start will be to load linux/unix on any old box in your home and try learning basics on that box before moving to your own dedicated box at a webhost.
MySQL works just great on Windows servers, never had a problem with it on 2000 and NT4.
about the shared host, i tried to find good host that will allow me 30/40 GB per month, but i couldn't find. maybe you can help me with that?
for now i think i got off the tree of *nix dedicated server.
i have two option: find a good shared host, or going for the win2003 dedicated.
thank you all for helping me getting the right decision.
Dave
>1) what is the best linux version for webservers?
Rather than using any of those plain vanila distros, I chose one of those specialized ones.. Two distro came to my attention, Clark Connect and Mitel SME Server (aka E-Smith). They were all designed to be easily configured webservers out of the box.
>2) can i make my webserver also function as DNS server
>(and save the 50$ setup fee for "A Record")?
You can, but personally, I use zoneedit.com.. Save the head-ache..
>3) where can i found good document about setting up
>webserver on linux?
Anywhere and everywhere.. All over the internet, google.com/linux and the distros' site I mention above.
>4) can i cotrol all the aspect of my server from home when
>i'm using windows OS at home?
As someone mentioned here earlier, you use SSH, you can access your server remotely and administer it. Using the specialized distro I mentioned above, you can even configure and maintain your server from remote via web interface!
>5) what do i do with all my ASP pages in the search
>engines? is there a way to forward the surfers to my main
>page on the new server if they are requesting ASP page?
Sorry, not sure about this one.. I suppose you can install chillisoft asp on the new server, or maybe migrate all to php/perl/jsp? Someone else here must be more qualified to answer this.
>6) is there any importent aspect of moving to Linux server
>that i miss?
Since you're from windows world (like me previously), you must unlearn what you have learn. What I mean is, in windows, the latest version is the best version.. Not so, on Linux, stick to the stable, proven mature. Heck, most people are still running on Linux kernel 2.2 ver. Only recently some people starts using 2.4.18 ver, even the latest stable is 2.5 and the most current is 2.6 ver. Liek red-hat is now ver 9, some people is still with ver 7.3 (I am)
>7) is it all realy free software, or i'll have to buy some
>software in order to make this thing running?
Depends, most of the tools and stuff are all free (except your time), and most of those commercial software, they have free or open-source/GPL versions. Usually, the open-source/GPL versions will have all the feaures that covers most of your needs, except on rare cases (which is very rare) only the you would consider commercial ones. One example is anti-virus, yes, there are free ones for linux, Clam Anti Virus comes to mind.
>8) can anyone here tell me about his experince with moving
>from windows to linux?
Pleasant.. Although with some head-bangings along the way, but that's usually after I found the answers and am cursing myself for being dense. :-P
Hope I've help some..
Will sys-admin for food
