I am thinking of making the move from shared to vps and some of the information I have read is great but at the same time I am sitting here with my mouth wide open and scratching my head. So please excuse me asking the questions I am about to ask.

1.) If I go with linode as my vps service Will I have to install my own firewall protection?
2.) Do you do all the updates, patches etc or is that left up to us to do for ourselves?
3) How hard is it to set up for a novice such as myself to where I am used to everything being there already and just running with it. ( I do have experience with the normal things but never setting up a server )
4.) What is the major difference From webadmin than cpanel which I am used to?
5.) Last but not least what whould I need to install so i can run Mysql, PHP and a mail client? Do one of these operation systems handle all of that or do I have to install each one seperately?

All I am looking to host my Website which is not much although I currently use Post-nuke and mysql for 2 databases and a few downloads for the game we play and thats it just to give you a slight idea of what i will be doing with it.

Thanks
Doug

It really all depends on what distro you use... I personally am a big fan of Mandrake. When I choose the Mandrake small package, the only thing I had to install was mysql (webmin, apache webserver, OpenSSL, PHP, etc, are default installed)

-- Griswald

1
You are responsible for your own firewalls, however some common virus/trojan ports are blocked automatically. See the FAQ pages for a list.

2
caker gives us distros to install, we do the patching

3
get fedora (not RH as it's defunct).......... and things are pretty easy.
It might take a bit of getting used to if you've never been root before though.

4
I've never used cpanel, but webmin is very good........ it chokes on mysql
though imho, it's no subsitute for cmdline

5)
mysql php and mail come preinstalled. at least on my distro they did.

-Ashen

Long post coming.

1. Yes you will need to install your own firewall protection if you wish to do so. Depending on the distro you choose, it is usually very easy. I use RH9 along with the APF firewall, and it can be set up and running within about 5 easy commands and barely any tweaking at all!

2. All the patches are up to you to sort out. Patches are usually also very easy to apply - in RH9 it can simply be a case of apt-get update followed by apt-get upgrade.

3 and 4. This totally depends on what you are wanting to run and how in-depth you are willing to set things up. Continuing with RH9, you can simply find the package you want (eg. Apache, the webserver) and type apt-get install httpd, which will install it and copy files to the correct places. In the case of Apache, all you'd then need to do is start it using service httpd start and all the files in your /var/www/html/ directory will be accessible from your website! I made a post on setting up an Invision board forum from a basic Fedora installation here: http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=510 - after a couple of months messing around you'll be far more confident! Only one of the distros (RedHat 9 Large) comes with an X server pre-installed and working, meaning you can do everything graphically such as move files about, use a basic firewall, start apache, etc. You can opt for that or you can go for a more basic installation (say, RedHat 9 Small) and use SSH to sort everything out. This my seem daunting, but it's not so bad! A package called Webmin from www.webmin.com might interest you - it's a control panel which you can install free on your server to administer almost all aspects of it, such as how SSH behaves, or Apache or sendmail. Check out the site for more info. It's a good place to start as you can make changes in Webmin and look at the resultant changes on the actual configuration files

5. Now that I've realised what you want to do, I don't think you should have too much trouble! MySQL and PHP along with apache are handled in the link to my Invision board setup guide above, but I don't have too much experience with mail servers (check the sendmail forum here for that). Each would need to be installed separately, but they can usually be installed with a single command if you're using a nice easy distro.

I don't see any reason why PostNuke wouldn't work if Invision board does fine, and the mysql website will help you with any problems you might encounter.

Hopefully that's been slightly helpful. Most importantly, I'd say don't be afraid to jump in at 'the deep end', it's worth spending the time puzzling out this stuff

Cheers
Quik

Here's the thing. The point of a firewall is to protect internal servers (and other machines) from external threats, while allowing internal users to access them. But a linode is basically a standalone box on the Internet. If you don't want people accessing our webserver, don't run one, or don't listen on the external port. Ditto a mail server, etc. If you're not accepting connections on port 21, there's no advantage to blocking it with a packet filter.

Now, if you want to allow specific IPs to access specific services, you *might* want to use a firewall, but most apps have ways to limit the connection, usually in a more readable form than iptables.

Now I'm sure people with respond with examples of things you can do with packet filters that make sense in the context of linode. But for many people, and as a basic security guideline, its better to not run services that you're not using than to enable them and then block access.

_________________
The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world.
-- seen on the net

Thank you guys very much for responding to my email. It was very helpful in many ways. Now instead of racking out my brain I feel alot more secure. So my hats off to you all. I am pretty sure well 100% sure I am going to take the plunge and give it a whirl. Although if I do come back with silly questions from time to time please excuse me for that.

Thanks again
Eck

Silly questions are always welcome on the IRC chan.

Adam

Along with silly people who think we must live in the stone ages to support UNIX(r).

Bill Clinton

yeah, i just came back from there, but my silly questions were..., maybe too silly in the end i decide to read my own, such as this forum, certain post were very helpful through, i like it.
________
Ford consul history

Hi Quik

Where can I find a copy of the APF firewall application/script for my Fedora box? I've Googled, tried rpmfind.net, freshrpms/net and Freshmeat and found zip. Your help would be appreciated.

http://download.cheetaweb.com/

You may have limited success with the latest version(s). If they do fail to work, fall back to 0.8.6-1 and hopefully it should work fine

Please note that it isn't my site - but it seems to be pretty reliable!