ev1/dedicated hosting questions

I've never run my own server before, but it looks like I may have the money to do so soon.

my question is, how complicated is it? what all will I need to know? do you have any links that kinda go through things?

how hard is it to set up multile domains? add new sies? subdirectories? request a restart of the server? etc etc

is most of this done through an interface, or do I need to know how do a lot through ssh? I've people say "if something goes wrong, YOU have to fix it"... what exactly would I have to fix?

would I be better to stay on a virtual hosting package? :\

I could really do a lot of cool things with my own dedicated server, but I don't know if I know enough...

If you need to ask how complicated it is, then the answer is probably "pretty complicated"...

Running dedicated linux server is no different to remotely running a linux box over your LAN at home. If you've experience running a Linux box from the console, then you can do it remotely

How hard or easy it is to add domains, etc. all depends on which box you go for. If you go for a straight plain linux box, it can be a bit long-winded, and kind of a pain. If you go for one of the Cpanel boxes, it's real easy

Whether you're better staying on a virtual hosting package all really depends on your needs, and your experience.

If you've not messed with Linux before, and your regular hosting package suits your site's demands, then I'd stick with your current hosting, setup a spare machine at home with linux, and get playing with it over lan. Read around the ev1servers forums to see what common questions are popping up with their servers, and solutions to common problems.

It can be a bit daunting at first, but most tasks are fairly easily resolved

well, if it's a cpanel/ensim one, what all would I need to know? what can't they do?

I don't have much direct experience with linux, but I use some shell commands pretty often for my current host, and I learn fast.

I just don't want to move over there and find out I'm screwed :\

Well, first, I'd completely avoid Ensim boxes.. I've rented them in the past myself, and I know others who have, and they're just plain crap. They fall over under a heavy load (more than 3 people browsing the site at once, heh). They waste way too many memory resources and MySQL falls over, they're just more trouble than they're worth.

Cpanel just adds a nice neat interface for you to admin your site, and if you sell hostingon the server, it gives those people a nice neat interface

assuming I went with cpanel then, how much would I have to know to maintain the server/configure things/add databases/sites/etc?

I just don't know if it'll be too much for me or not

Through Cpanel it's pretty easy... It's pre-configured to maintain most things itself nightly. It does nightly, weekly & monthly backups of user accounts. Adding databases and administrating individual accounts can be done through those accounts' control panels. Adding sites is done through a root version of Cpanel (called WHM).

It's fairly point-n-click, although there will be some learning involved.

Like I said, the best bet is having a read through the forums at ev1's site, or cpanel.net, and I know there are many people here on Ozzu who have access to Cpanel (both from the admin side, and the regular user account side) who will be more than happy to help with specific questions.

But, if you feel your site needs the bandwidth & resources of a dedicated system, but you've not had that much experience adminning an entire server before, then cpanel is definitely the way to go

Owning your own server can be work. I am leasing a non managed server from http://www.serverpronto.com. They offer serval different packages.
You will need to know a lot about security.
I signed up with them they had me up and running in about 12 hours, but they do a basic install of redhat. It is very very important that you secure it asap. The only down side that I had is that I was at my day job when it came up, when I got home I started going through it to secure it and found that someone had already put a rootkit on it.

On that server I am using plesk as my control panel http://www.plesk.com. the control panel is pretty easy to use and does a lot of system side stuff.

Hope this helps a little
Newbie Greg

Running your own Server !
If your dedicated provider install Your Webmin control panel, i could say it is easy to manage your server BUT if you try to install a control panel to your server, it requires many skills, i dont offer you that before you learn Secure Shell and Linux Basics...

Also i offer you to get Ensim server which is really hard to crash once you have installed.

If you dont want to start a web hosting service,
you have to pay over $200monthly for a managed server or dont think to hire a server for 2,3 web sites!
From my experiences.

Ensim crashes on an hourly basis... the Ev1 Cpanel servers have Cpanel installed.

I have noticed that the Ensim never crashed for 6 months altough have over 350 domains...
Will you please confirm the log of the crash that you mean, interesting...[/quote]

It's difficult to confirm the crash when I ditched the Ensim box in favour of a CPanel box over 6 months ago...

I know many many people though who have gone for Ensim as the "cheaper option" when renting a server, then switched over to either Cpanel or a straight Linux box within 3-6 months.

If it's working for you, great. Good luck with it. But there's no way I'd recommend it to somebody who has no experience with it if they need a reliable server.

Is Ensim more cheaper than the Cpanel
Most of the dedicated providers gives Cpanel with the server for free! Max.$10 but Ensim Pro unlimited costs at least $50 per month .
Yes cpanel is more end user friendly but when you gone with Ensim , there is nothing to more that you need to be satisfied.

And yes , cpanel have a favor in this industry, we have too many request about Cpanel also and i confirm that to our customers that Ensim is more stable than Cpanel but as their requested we will think to split one more server with Cpanel too.
At the end business is biz.

does Ensim even support such fundamental things as subdomains yet? Without hacking the code?

Hacking?
I kept Ensim since 1998, the 3.1 version had had subdomains,
I dont know how to hacking subdomains but i had never heard or see that someone have hacked a subdomain of ensim!
As you know ensim have more closed the ways for the hackers rather than cpanel!
Have cpanel have ability add CNAME+A+NS records by admin panel also whom can bind 2 different datacenter with under one domain just via the Server Control Panel? Is it possible to that with Cpanel?
There is tomcat4 available with Cpanel?
I dont know HAVE CPANEL ADDED A RESELLER PANEL FOR SERVER ADMIN

User-level spam filtering?
Ensim Pro is the first control panel to give hosting service providers full control of spam at the user level. Other control panel solutions impose global spam settings that may not be applicable to all users, which could potentially result in the displacement of important e-mail messages.

Server-level virus scanning.?
HSPs can now keep their servers and their customers safe from e-mail borne virus attacks.

The industry's most detailed site bandwidth reporting?
allowing you to identify, bill and collect for all bandwidth your customers use.
Tools to quickly set up new users with minimal burden on your technical staff. These include a professionally designed user interface and quick start guides.

Advanced customization tools?
including an open API and custom skin development kit to extend and differentiate your hosting business.
Runs on standard Linux applications such as Apache, PhP, mySQL, PERL and Pro FTP. HSPs can make modifications, receive security patches and experience other benefits of the open source community.
A vast directory of more than 100 complementary solutions to further automate your hosting business.
MORE http://www.ensim.com/products/pro/linux.html

Cpanel cant competite wit ENSIM!
But it is not meaning of that Ensim is more populer and easy to learn how to manage it.

No, not CRACKING... Hacking the code == editing the code to make things work differently...

Cpanel has had a reseller panel for as long as I've been using it (which is a few years now, and yes Cpanel has DNS server administration. I have 100% control over all the DNS records my servers host. Yes, you can use Tomcat with Cpanel, but why would you want to? JSP sucks

Ensim never supported subdomains as long as I've used it up until at least 6 months ago when I quit using it.

Cpanel uses Spam Assassin, and the default settings can be overriden by simply editing ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs

It's up to the end user to protect themselves from viruses. Linux servers won't be infected by viruses.

Cpanel comes with several bandwidth reporting tools, and there are many additional ones that you can grab from http://www.freshmeat.net.

Cpanel already has a billion and one skins out there.

Cpanel kicks Ensim's ass. Plain and simple. EVERYBODY I know that has used it, has ended up hating it within a very short span of time, and ditching it.

But, whatever floats your boat