Any good server admin tutorials?

[michael]

Can anyone recommend any good tutorials for those who may be moving to an unmanaged dedicated server for the first time?

[TWD_Tony]

Originally Posted by michael

Can anyone recommend any good tutorials for those who may be moving to an unmanaged dedicated server for the first time?

If you need tutorials then my advice is DO NOT GET AN UNMANAGED SERVER!

It takes a lot of knowledge and experiance to be a server admin - why do you think they get paid so much

You may want to look at getting an unmanaged server and out-sourcing the management to a seperate company or just get a managed box from one of the many dedi providers.
Be very careful you read the small print of what is "managed" though

[michael]

Spoken as a true salesman Tony

However there are many whose requirements may mean the need for a dedicated server but who cannot afford to either go managed or outsource, although I am guessing outsourcing would be the cheaper of the 2.

And everyone has to start learning somewhere, right?

[TWD_Tony]

Originally Posted by michael

Spoken as a true salesman Tony

However there are many whose requirements may mean the need for a dedicated server but who cannot afford to either go managed or outsource, although I am guessing outsourcing would be the cheaper of the 2.

And everyone has to start learning somewhere, right?

LOL - I wasn't trying to sell anything, it's just that if you pay for an unmanaged box and it all goes wrong then the datacenter won't except "but I'm a newbie" as an excuse... they will just charge you a lot of money for a OS re-install.
There is a lot to managing a dedicated server - and even more to securing it... If you put an un-secured box on a network then you are asking to be hacked or have the box taken over by spammers, before you know it the DC will pull your server for TOS violations.

I am just trying to warn you (and others) about the risks of renting an unmamaged box and then not knowing the first thing about how to run it - you cannot do everything on the server via a control panel.

My best advice would be to get a cheap PC and turn it into a dedicated server - install Linux if you want a Linux box and then configure it just as a webserver would be configured and then learn from there.

[michael]

Tony, thank you for your reply - this was just a purely hypothetical question but your reply has brought up some very valid points which will be very useful for those embarking down this route.

Particulary good advice I thought, was your suggestion of setting up a practice box which will allow people to have a play about without the risk of anything nasty happening to their production sites.

[Host Master]

I got some older files I used for reference when I hosted. I'll paste those up if they are of use. May be out of date but brian can decide if they're ok for the site.

[Host Master]

Some good stuff here:
http://www.sitepoint.com/subcat/other-technologies

[TWD_Tony]

Originally Posted by michael

Tony, thank you for your reply - this was just a purely hypothetical question but your reply has brought up some very valid points which will be very useful for those embarking down this route.

Particulary good advice I thought, was your suggestion of setting up a practice box which will allow people to have a play about without the risk of anything nasty happening to their production sites.

Exactly - If you get a cheap / second hand PC and install Linux and all the software that a "real" server would have (the most expense here would be a cPanel or other control panel licence). You can then connect your normal PC to the test box and viola - you now have a dedicated server

[michael]

You know I might just take this idea onboard and have a play about with an old machine. Thanks again for the suggestion.