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I need basic server maintenance education

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I need basic server maintenance education
Greetings,

I am considering moving to a dedicated server. Six sites, none of which are complicated.

The main reason for the dedicated server is to get the HD space necessary to offer email service to our members, and to gain a little speed in the display of on online forums.

I have designed these web sites but I am not a server administrator. I am confident I can get the server up and running smoothly while I have the time for a steep learning curve, but I would like to know how much maint. is necessary to keep it that way? (given that the server dealers comes through with their end of the bargain - 99.99999% uptime!)



bob
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Re: [bob c3] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
If you don't really need to do much on your server (i.e everything you need is installed), then its pretty easy. Installing Perl modules is pretty simple too, as that can be done in SSH, but more complex products, such as POP3 software, WebMin, other admin apps etc, are a lot harder to install for the novice (such as myself)....

Your best bet, is to try what you can...but if you don't feel safe with it, then pay someone else to do it! Trust me, from previous experiences, its not worth trying to do it yourself! Crazy

Another thing, KEEP BACKUPS! I learned this the hard way last week, when my site was hacked, and the whole server had to be wiped to get it back online...a real bummer!

Andy (mod)
andy@ultranerds.co.uk
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Re: [Andy] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
In Reply To:
If you don't really need to do much on your server (i.e everything you need is installed), then its pretty easy. Installing Perl modules is pretty simple too, as that can be done in SSH, but more complex products, such as POP3 software, WebMin, other admin apps etc, are a lot harder to install for the novice (such as myself)....

Your best bet, is to try what you can...but if you don't feel safe with it, then pay someone else to do it! Trust me, from previous experiences, its not worth trying to do it yourself! Crazy

Another thing, KEEP BACKUPS! I learned this the hard way last week, when my site was hacked, and the whole server had to be wiped to get it back online...a real bummer!

apt-get install webmin
apt-get install postfix

A lot easier than installing Perl modules, I would of thought. But if you are going to install a few modules, it's worth looking into CPANPLUS.

However, best advice Andy gave you: pay someone to do it. Get mnaged hosting. If I needed to rewirte my house with new electrical items, I wouldn't do -- I'd hire an electrician. So why would I want to do the same for my own web hosting?

- wil
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Re: [Wil] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Thank you Andy and Wil,

believe me, i really do not want to get into this anymore than i have too. The managed servers are very expensive though. Twice as much and we are not a rich non-profit.



So far i am hearing two votes for managed.. It may be less time consuming in the long run to write grants and pay for the management. Crazy but that is no fun either...



Thanks again for your replies,



bob
Post deleted by Eraser In reply to
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Re: [bob c3] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
You sure you need managed dedicated hosting for 6 sites? Think this is an overkill? I'm running 9 sites on a shared hosting platform at the moment, which is "managed" ...

- wil
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Re: [Wil] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Wil,

The dedicated server is part of a plan to increase membership with our non-profit. The typical support rewards for donations are mouse pads, coffee cups, picture calanders, hemp grocery bags, etc. We are going to see if web services (ie high quality web based email, personal web pages, storage, etc.) will provide incentive for membership and centralize our membership for community announcements, etc. If we want to offer 25 meg boxes to 100 members that is already 2.5 gigs. That is where we are starting, and we hope that it will grow as a function of the # sent messages by members.

Ideally, I would get a shared plan with an extra 10 gig hard disk, but i have not seen this.



bob
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Re: [bob c3] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Sure, you can do this. The shared server I was talking about has about 8gig allocated to us, becuase I use it to do remote backups.

You should look again at those figures. I bet none of your clients would come near to 1/50th of the space you give them.

- wil
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Re: [Wil] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Wil,

I have not seen shared with large HD space. Did you have to do a custom deal to do that? How much does something like that cost? That sounds just like what we need.

The mailbox size - you could be right but I know several people who are unhappy about not being able to send large attachments. I try to get them to learn FTP but for some reason there seems to be a taboo with folks who do not do much with computers but email and shop.

bob
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Re: [bob c3] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Why not a Virtual Private Server?

http://www.venturesonline.com/hosting/vps.html

Smile

------------------------------------------
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Re: [bob c3] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Aha. Emailing large attachments. Yes, we've had and we continue to have problems with this. The conculsion I've come up with is no matter how hard you try to resolve things on your end, you will always run into complications. Mainly, the end user not being able to recieve large attachments. You're better off, if you don't want to educate them on FTP, install something like a multi-user FileMan or something that uses a simple web interface.

Regarding disk usage, the web host I am with currently allows you to mix and match various options. I can buy a block more of diskspace, a block more of bandwidth, a block more IP addresses. Whatever that suits me.

- wil
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Re: [Wil] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Wil, the hot news for me on disk usage/server plans is that i have found a few hosting companies who are willing to make us a good deal because we are a non-profit, i.e. free management and custom plans like you outline. Very cool.

Your comment about our email quandary has got me thinking. Maybe i should post a new topic or do some research because this is likely obvious, but if you don't mind a quick response, can this FILEMAN type stuff be integrated into the Gossamer mail program - say for example, so that a little dialog box can exist in the webmail interface that incorporates the functionality of fileman. A heading like "Hey, want to send a big attachment? Try this..."

Thanks again for your insights Wil,

bob
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Re: [bob c3] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
I'm not sure about this. I'm sure it can, you will just need to post a messgae into the FileMan or Mail forum, I think.

I've had some success with using FileMan with a client. She uploaded files through FileMan which defaulted to a web visible directory on the server. That directory was then password-protected with .htaccess so she could send the URL to her colleagues and have them all log in and view the files off the server isntead of clogging everyone's mailbox.

- wil
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Re: [Wil] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Dogtags, i think the companies i am negotiating with are going to provide me the virtual host as you suggest, they just don't offer it as a standard package.

Wil, i will do further investigation of this fileman question via the mail and fileman forums as I get further into this process.

Thanks to both of you for suggestions

bob
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Re: [bob c3] I need basic server maintenance education In reply to
Bob,

Just curious, What did you go with, what did you get and what did it cost?

Howard J. Brubaker
Wizcom, Ltd