I have 10 E-mail addresses spread across 3 domains - each domain currently requires a different account with my current host. $84./yr for 150 MB disk space; 10 G transfer.

I also have several blogs, all on Quam Plures. Could that blog app be loaded on Linode or will I have to switch to Wordpress?

I'd like to set up FTP to link to my Android Smartphone and also to serve documents, etc. to others via the Web.

None of these things are currently high-traffic

Is a single Linode account adequate or will I need a separate account for each domain?

I have been using Linux for over a decade and before that was a systems manager and systems analyst - though I've likely forgotten more than I ever thought I knew about networks and servers!

I am a little concerned about the administrative burden of maintenance ...

BTW: My preferred distro is Puppy Linux and I manage dpup Exprimo (current version 5x14) on four laptops and two netbooks. I am guessing that Debian may be the closest match but would default to most-user-friendly.

Thanks!

You can do all this on a single Linode. You will just need to configure your mail server (e.g., Postfix) and web server (e.g., Apache or nginx) to handle multiple domains. The Linode library can help you with that.

Based on the stated system requirements, Quam Plures should have no trouble running. You'll probably have to install it yourself, as it doesn't look like it's packaged for many (any?) distributions.

I'd recommend against installing an FTP server unless you have special circumstances that call for one. SSHD includes the ability to transfer files by SFTP, which is much more secure.

You will have to maintain things yourself; Linode does not manage the software on your virtual server. If you have prior experience, this should not be a huge problem, though you may have to re-learn some things. The Linode library, distribution- or application-specific help forums and mailing lists, and this forum are all resources you can use to get assistance.

Debian stable and Ubuntu LTS are both good choices because of the large amount of pre-packaged software and the length of time they continue to be supported with updates. CentOS also has a long support lifetime, but includes far fewer packages in the base repository. In a lot of ways, it's a matter of personal preference.

This brings up a question I never found the solution too, if you are using one linode box and one IP address for multiple domains how do you get reverse DNS to work?

A simple google search brought up a lot of people asking the same question, but not a lot of solutions.

What do you mean by "get it to work"?

The PTR record for your server's IP should point to your server's hostname.

It perhaps sounds like you're assuming that you'll be able to get the PTR record to point to the proper domain name of your NameVirtualHosts. This is quite impossible (or at the very least, incredibly difficult to implement).

The PTR record for your server has no bearing on its ability to serve HTTP(S) correctly, so I wouldn't worry about it.

anderiv is right; you can leave your reverse DNS pointing to liXX-YY.members.linode.com and should experience no ill effects. What is important is that liXX-YY.members.linode.com (or whatever name is in your PTR record) resolves to your Linode's IP address, which the Linode manager checks for and enforces if you try to change it.

Vance - just curious. How would you propose that one would even attempt to point your linode-provided hostname to another IP. None of us have control of that DNS zone - only Linode itself can make changes to that zone.

The mail servers hostname and reverse PTR should match if you plan on using it as a mail server. Multiple domain can be served by a single mail server without any issue. The mail server does NOT need to mach the other domains at all, just be consistent otherwise you will have problems with some of the larger mail providers in accepting your email.

In my case, I changed the PTR to match that of my mail server forward DNS name for that purpose. There is a setting in the Linode configuration to do that.

There are 3 domains hosted there now and will eventually have up to 25 including a mailing announce server and some special function mail processing systems.

_________________
Kevin a.k.a. Dweeber

Sorry, my statement was a little ambiguous. You are correct that you can't change your liXX-YY hostname to point to a different IP address. I was talking about changing the contents of the PTR record.

Imagine that your Linode's IP is 11.22.33.44 and its Linode-provided hostname is li11-44.members.linode.com. You could change your reverse DNS so the PTR record for 11.22.33.44 is foo.example.com instead of the Linode-provided hostname. However, to do this you must already have an A record established for foo.example.com pointing to 11.22.33.44. The Linode manager will check for this before allowing you to change the PTR record.