A good tutorial for managing a server/VPS?

[Grizzly]

No, there is no need to have network+ and a+ certified people running a single VPS.

[manipulate]

Another clear example of someone showing off.

[Tim]

To be honest, for big projects like the OP's

Did you even read my OP post? I said it was for educational purposes, not a "big project".

And hosting it myself is out of the question, firstly IMO that is ridiculous to suggest as you cannot offer the security and protection of a data centre (I assume you mean hosting it at home because you said you can easily make “On the fly” changes as you have the server locally) and secondly you can't get even a 100mbps line to your house here in Australia and bandwidth is overpriced.

[Grizzly]

Yeah, he was just trying to show off Tim, never you mind him.

Honestly, what I did when I was learning server management I purchased the VPS managed. I then would google an issue until I found the solution. If I couldn't fix it myself I contacted the host. I suggest you do something like that. A lot of times you can find it on Google, but, when you come to an issue you can't fix on your own, it's better to be paying an extra $20 or so a month, than have to pay $50+/hour of work, especially when a lot of hosts have a minimum billing of 2 hours. Sorry I can't give you anything specific, but, your question isn't really that specific as there are so many moving parts with a server.

[DAMINK™]

I have talked to Crazy Domains on the phone about this and they do offer support (during working hrs)
This is supplied with the "basic" package and without managed support. So no need to pay the inflated prices they ask for.
Not sure of prices elsewhere but i imagine they would all be similar.
Good luck in which ever your choice is.

[Tim]

it's better to be paying an extra $20 or so a month, than have to pay $50+/hour of work

Yeah I am starting to see that, a managed server comes with apache and everything installed correct? Does an unmanaged one come with that? I would like to learn everything so one day I can run an unmanaged one.

Sorry I can't give you anything specific, but, your question isn't really that specific as there are so many moving parts with a server.

Ok, I'll clarify a bit more on what I think I need the help with, I am mainly looking for something to guide me through the initial setup and securing the server initially. After that I can just use google but no VPS providers I could find had a setup guide in their help documents.

Ps. Thanks DAMINK™, if you do purchace a VPS with them can you PM me a site your hosting on it so I can see how much faster it's going to be than over seas hosting.

[Grizzly]

Theoretically the server should come secured with whatever OS/control panel/apache installed on it. However, that's just a theory and is disproved by hosts every day, so I would check to make sure. At least with a managed server you should get everything set up for you, as you are paying the host to manage it for you. An unmanaged one should come with everything installed on the server, but, I wouldn't dare hazard a guess at security. The best way to learn is to do the things yourself. As I said, I started off trying things, if I couldn't get it right then I would open a ticket and request them to explain what they did. Most hosts love that, as it allows them to teach you what to do so you won't have to bother them next time.

[Tim]

Ok, would a VPS normally come with things like MySQL, mail and FTP setup or do I need to install all of that? Also, one thing I don't get is if I have a control panel such as cPanel or Direct Admin installed, does that take care of all the mail and everything? My question is really related to an unmanaged VPS running cPanel, does that still require much management apart from setting up and maintaining firewalls, etc.?

[Grizzly]

Yes, VPS's should come with MySQL, a mail, and FTP all set up for you. Generally if you get cPanel you get WHM along with it on a VPS, which makes managing the server a whole lot easier. It's quite easy to do a VPS reboot if something is going crazy (usually a reboot takes care of a lot of issues). The management thing really depends on the server tbh. And the amount of traffic you have going to it. Sometimes you will run into issues and sometimes everything runes fine lol.

[Tim]

Ok, thanks so much Grizzly, you have been so much help. I'll definitely rep you when I get 100 posts.