Newbie with Questions

[kspll]

Hey folks,

I'm new here. I'm a 31 year old web designer living in Canada. I recently got into fiddling around with raspberry pi and read that it's possible to use these for vps/dedicated servers. Side note, if this is possible I would use the pi for personal use only, not for hosting or anything like that.

So to begin, I really don't know anything about vps or dedicated servers. My websites are all hosted in a shared environment where I require very little technical background if an incident should occur. (Such as if my website goes down.) I basically just update my websites, take a regular backup, and nothing more.

I have experience in coding websites but I know absolutely nothing about vps/dedicated servers and server management. I would like to change that.

This is where you guys come in. I need someone to really educate me on vps/dedicated servers, how to use them, how to set them up, etc.. Basically all the ins and outs that I could possibly need to know. And of course, if you think the raspberry pi would be best used as a vps or dedicated server.

If any of you can help me with this I would be forever grateful. Thank you.

 

[zomgmike]

The best way to learn is to get in there and just do it. Running the serer itself is going to allow for learnable situations.

I recommend a VPS or dedicated server from a vendor that allows you to reinstall if necessary. A good way to have "Training wheels" (honestly can't really even call it that, you'll probably use it for life) is to add something like cPanel. That takes the general purpose server and turns it into a web hosting server.

I'd recommend the following general plan:
1. Rent a server with cPanel. Before anything else, get familiar with the tools like IPMI (or for VPS, the console) so that you know what your tools are if anything breaks. Reboot it a few times. Reinstall the OS. Install a couple different OSs. Familiar? Move on.

2. Run updates on the OS. Install and harden cPanel. There are plenty of tutorials out there for hardening a cPanel server, pick any of them and follow it. That will walk you through learning some basic commands and where things are in the control panel. The other nice thing about cPanel is that at this point, almost any problem is Googleable.

3. Set up a test website or two. This should be the most straightforward part with your background.

That should give you a good feel of what you're working with. If, at that point, you don't feel comfortable, don't put production sites on the server. Keep playing with server settings and learning what does what.

If you feel comfortable with where you are, then proceed with your customer sites.

 

[rebelnet]

kspill, fellow Canadian, welcome. Wow, i have been in hosting for 15 years and never once thought about raspberry pi. I guess it can work, you can load a Linux Kernal and then do what you need with it. If you are hosting it at home, use google DNS .. Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers.

let us know how it works.

i should add, i would not NOT reccommend this for clients or paid clients .. but like the idea

 

[kspll]

kspill, fellow Canadian, welcome. Wow, i have been in hosting for 15 years and never once thought about raspberry pi. I guess it can work, you can load a Linux Kernal and then do what you need with it. If you are hosting it at home, use google DNS .. Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers.

let us know how it works.

i should add, i would not NOT reccommend this for clients or paid clients .. but like the idea

Thank you! I'm not a web host so there's no worry about clients. It would be for personal use only. I thought it might be an interesting thing to try. I'll update back here with my progress!

 

[kspll]

The best way to learn is to get in there and just do it. Running the serer itself is going to allow for learnable situations.

I recommend a VPS or dedicated server from a vendor that allows you to reinstall if necessary. A good way to have "Training wheels" (honestly can't really even call it that, you'll probably use it for life) is to add something like cPanel. That takes the general purpose server and turns it into a web hosting server.

I'd recommend the following general plan:
1. Rent a server with cPanel. Before anything else, get familiar with the tools like IPMI (or for VPS, the console) so that you know what your tools are if anything breaks. Reboot it a few times. Reinstall the OS. Install a couple different OSs. Familiar? Move on.

2. Run updates on the OS. Install and harden cPanel. There are plenty of tutorials out there for hardening a cPanel server, pick any of them and follow it. That will walk you through learning some basic commands and where things are in the control panel. The other nice thing about cPanel is that at this point, almost any problem is Googleable.

3. Set up a test website or two. This should be the most straightforward part with your background.

That should give you a good feel of what you're working with. If, at that point, you don't feel comfortable, don't put production sites on the server. Keep playing with server settings and learning what does what.

If you feel comfortable with where you are, then proceed with your customer sites.

Thank you very much for all of your advice! Can you suggest any decent providers that will allow a reinstall?

 

[Artashes]

Thank you very much for all of your advice! Can you suggest any decent providers that will allow a reinstall?

Your best bet would be to ask the providers you like directly. It'll serve a double purpose:

(a) you would understand how quick the provider is at answering your questions;
(b) you'll get your answer directly from source.

You can scan through these forums for special offers and see what matches your budget.

VPS Hosting Offers
Dedicated Hosting Offers

Don't be afraid to ask as many questions to companies that you are interested in.

 

[XiNiX]

Are you planning to learn Linux ?

 

[Leech]

What are you planning to do?

 

[cat5]

Did you go ahead with this or purchase a vps in the end? Would be interesting to see how well a pi would manage hosting a website.

I have a pi zero w here still un used, I might try give it a go myself! I'd imaging my connection speed here would impact it badly however, 8mbps download 0.5mbps upload is no fun!

 

[WebHostFeed]

Doesn't Scaleway use Odroids for small dedicated servers? At-least at one point they did.

 

[Marcohat]

Choose a host who understands your specific needs, and who can sit down with you and talk about what your needs are, and how that host can accommodate for those needs.

 

[Harv45]

Or... Another option is to be with a provider who would allow you to meet your requirements for the long haul.

I don't get why people think they has to go with a shared provider, then go a VPS provider, then possibly even again for a dedicated unit. Heck depending on the provider you may be able to have a solution tailored to your needs without even having to worry about swapping platforms yourself (aka they do it in the background for you).

 

[ughosting]

Having used Raspberry PI's in the office to power the Stats screens I can tell you that they are NOT ready for anything production.

Their 2 GBs of RAM are too limiting. (These were Pi 2s)

If you do want to Colocate small servers, I can recommend Intel NUCs.

That's what I use now to power my stats screens (cheap 42" LED TVs) and the extra £100 per device was well worth it in not having staff mess around getting Pi's working every couple of days.

 

[Harv45]

Having used Raspberry PI's in the office to power the Stats screens I can tell you that they are NOT ready for anything production.

Their 2 GBs of RAM are too limiting. (These were Pi 2s)

If you do want to Colocate small servers, I can recommend Intel NUCs.

That's what I use now to power my stats screens (cheap 42" LED TVs) and the extra £100 per device was well worth it in not having staff mess around getting Pi's working every couple of days.

Or if your talking about SoCs what about Intel's atom series? Aren't those supposed to be entry level servers?