We are in a somewhat similar situation - we're creating websites, servers are a necessary evil

Having gone from managed hosting to running our own servers (we use cPanel), we could never go back. It is obviously nice to have someone to call if things break, but a managed server is usually a very restricted environment. It is nice to have root access and the freedom to configure Linux / apache / php / MySQL exactly as we need it, but most importantly it allows us to implement our own server-wide backup solution. We use Linode's backup for disaster recovery purposes, but experience has taught us the hard way *never* to rely solely on the hosting provider for backups. On the managed servers this meant configuring backup on a per-account basis with various scripts and cron jobs, which was just too time-consuming.

We did run on a "true" cloud server at one point, but that experiment ended when we lost the server due to a backplane fault in the switch connecting the diskless servers with the storage network. If you go with a cloud server solution, you will want to examine the level of redundancy they provide very carefully to avoid this type of surprises.

We have a server with another provider that serves as a warm standby in case something happens to our Linode that we cannot fix quick enough ourselves. Linode support seems strictly limited to the hardware itself - a question we had about getting diskquotas to work with the CentOS kernel that Linode provides was rejected with a standard "this is not a manged service" response.

Tom

Panels provide a layer between you and the underlying system, which IMHO makes it a lot harder to fix things when they go wrong.

I am definitely not a Linux expert, but I manage to run my own mail and web server with multiple users. However, I am not trying to do anything complicated and usually manage to sort out most problems myself. These forums have been very helpful when I get stuck with something I can't work out for myself.

I would suggest getting the smallest available Linode and use it as a "play" system. Install and configure your own mail and web servers. You will end up breaking all sorts of things, but in the process you will end up with a stable and reliable system. More importantly, during this process you will learn how to fix most of the most common problems yourself and your system should be much more easily fixable than a broken cPanel system.

Ah, but I don't have to agree with a foreign standards body as to their definition They do look reasonable, however, and I'd point out that Linode meets every single one of the requirements NIST lists

I have ISPConfig installed. It has a few drawbacks but for out of the box easy to configure it's pretty good and the community is pretty active. If you do go that way though, I highly suggest you install on a fresh Linode with just the OS installed. No stackscripts. Also, I have heard some minor issues with following the Linode tutorials. If you Google your Linux Distro, and ISPConfig it'll usually lead you to howtoforge with installation instructions from the authors. I use Ubuntu 12.04 and manage a couple of sites, a few email accounts, and for the hell of it I host my own domains.

I can't remember why I didn't choose ISPConfig... I dont think I got far enough to test it after trying Virtualmin.

Here is an interesting blog about Webmin vs Cpanel (Virtualmin install witll install Webmin) http://www.forlinux.co.uk/expertise/kno ... s%20cPanel.

What I find reassuring for me is knowing Webmin does not change any system files, it is a completely separate system and so can also be uninstalled leaving all the config files intact and the sites still working, as opposed to Cpanel which heavily modifies the system (if what they report is true). Maybe this is why I get errors from Cpanel often due to its modification of system files. I much prefer leave the OS as it is, surely must be more stable.

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

Oh and as for support (the original question!), if you buy Virtualmin Pro then they provide support so that may be worth taking a look at, its not too expensive, but its per server. I need to ask them what this covers, if it is just Virtualmin, OR if they would extend it to other services installed by Virtualmin like Apache, MySQL issues etc. and even issues with the OS.

Although I dont like per server support plans, I have the opinion I should pay for time spent on problems not how many servers I have.

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

I have 2 small 'nodes, one I use Virtualmin (actually let it install everything but the base OS), the other I use ISPConfig. I'm not sure if I like one over the other yet- FWIW, I basically use them both for installation/configuration of websites much more than maintenance. I only turn webmin/virtualmin on when I need to use it, otherwise I stop it.

My biggest problem with panels is that they make it easier for me to break things, usually by hand editing a config file, though both panels I use are getting better/more tolerant.

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Chris Bryant

Never thought about turning them off when not in use. That may be a good idea, it must claw back some tiny ounce of resources and increase security somewhere! Oh on the other hand, users need webmail access, and some clients have their own clients and need to manage Users, so maybe not a good idead for me after all. Maybe on some servers, will keep it in mind. Thanks

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Web Development Agency in South Wales

One of the things I liked about ISPConfig is that it doesn't touch system files, obviously it changes Apache config files and the like. But if you want to uninstall ISPConfig, you just have to remove it's cron job and delete its directory. Then it won't bother you again. I think people have had some issues trying to install ISPConfig over a production site that is running already. That's when you're likely to run into problems. If you install ISPConfig and then add your web sites, email addresses, etc. you're good.

Look harder.

The VERY first page on their website states it's "Open Source, transparent, free".

What part of that is unclear?

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Either provide enough details for people to help, or sit back and listen to the crickets chirp.
Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.

Great informative thread

My adventure with Linode started around three years ago when I need some proper hosting for running JIRA (a bug tracking system) for our company that was accessible outside our company's firewall.

Fast forward a year, and I thought I'd investigate about using another dedicated Linode to host all my domains, websites, emails, etc.

After a fair bit of researching, I decided to go with it and started an install of Ubuntu with adding ISPConfig on top. It took me a couple of days tinkering around getting it to work how I wanted using a proper SSL certificate provided by an authority, getting a nice version of roundcube working for all the different email accounts on the different domains, etc.

I've been running that now for about a year, have around a dozen websites hosted for myself and some friends. ISPConfig is great in that it allows different levels so I could have a "reseller" set up, but as I'm not a Linux expert and providing support isn't my forte (both in terms of time available and experience), I don't offer any real SLA with the services I provide. Having said that, it's been absolutely flawless and I've extended the services running to now also provide proxy so I can browse the BBC Iplayer when out of the country, and things like that.

I've found that provided you're careful with what you install, how you install it and of course document it properly, it's pretty much trouble-free. I do have backups running so if ever I really make a mess or something terrible happens, I have all the emails, websites, etc, available to restore.

I'm now contemplating upgrading to Ubuntu 14 LTS, and can't decide whether to go for the upgrade or do a full reinstall as there were a few addons I put on and didn't work and not sure they've been cleanly removed, so a bit of spring cleaning won't do any harm. I guess I always have the option of temporarily having a second Linode to play with, get it up and running and then flick the DNS switch when I'm happy...

All in all, I've tried to stick to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", just ensuring that security patches are frequently applied. I don't host anything super super super confidential, but of course want to keep it relatively safe and secure. I have had the odd question or two on the Linode forums and also on ISPConfig, but have always received great "free" support from the volunteers.

About 5 years ago I had an app which was reaching capacity on the server it was running on. Jobs were taking longer and running into "start of day" so we pushed the start time earlier and tuned the code and tweaked and optimised and nursed it along; we probably got 20% more performance out of the code this way.

Then we were told our servers had to be decomm'd because they were too old (corporate policy). So we bought new ones... and our execution time dropped to a 1/3rd of what is was before. All that time and effort in code tuning could have been better spent elsewhere, just by buying a new server.

I've seen the same on linode; since the switch to SSDs some of my jobs are so so much faster that it means I don't need to try gaining that extra 20% speed.

On the other hand,I've also rewritten code to work 200% faster, and in one case got an order of magnitude improvement on large datasets (changed the O() order of the algorithm).

The trick is in knowing when to code optimise and when to throw hardware at the problem

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Rgds
Stephen
(Linux user since kernel version 0.11)