Guidance for setting up a web server on my VDS

[Patriot]

I am in the process of testing running a web server on my VDS to host a game community website, email server, and provide fast DL. I already own the domain name and it’s registered with Godaddy. Current OS is Windows 2003 server.

So far I have WAMP Server 64-bit up and running (Apache 2.4.2 – Mysql 5.5.24 – PHP 5.4.3 XDebug 2.1.2 XDC 1.5 PhpMyadmin 3.4.10.1 SQLBuddy 1.3.3 webGrind 1.0) and have successfully created MySQL db through phppMyAdmin and installed WordPress. This is all just localhost for now, but everything works.

Before going any further though, I have some questions:

1. I’ve looked through the knowledgebase and other posts but have not found a guide for setting up a web server on an NFO VDS. Is there one on the forums that I’ve missed or can someone point to one on another forum?

2. For Windows 2003 Server is WAMP suitable for a production web server, or is another solution recommended?

3. How do you setup nameservers to point your domain to your VDS web host?

4. How do you setup mail service?

5. Security guidelines – what steps should be taken to secure the web and mail servers?

6. Any rough guidelines on how much memory/processor resources the web server will consume (1,860 visits and about 23k pages served over the last 2 weeks, but that volume should increase)


Thank you,

Patriot

[Edge100x]

1. I’ve looked through the knowledgebase and other posts but have not found a guide for setting up a web server on an NFO VDS. Is there one on the forums that I’ve missed or can someone point to one on another forum?

We don't have one on this site, but it sounds as though you're mostly there already

2. For Windows 2003 Server is WAMP suitable for a production web server, or is another solution recommended?

I believe it will work fine. Make sure that phpmyadmin is not exposed to the public, and making sure that all of your passwords are changed from the defaults.

3. How do you setup nameservers to point your domain to your VDS web host?

Usually the registrar provides DNS service. The procedure for setting it up varies from registrar to registrar. If your registrar does not provide DNS, our webhosting is one way to get a cheap DNS server.

4. How do you setup mail service?

This can be very complicated to do correctly. I would not recommend hosting your own mail server, in favor of 3rd party hosting such as Google. If you do choose to run your own, I am not familiar with Windows offerings, so I'd have to let the community chime in on that.

5. Security guidelines – what steps should be taken to secure the web and mail servers?

The most important thing is to keep server versions up-to-date at all times, as these are very highly targeted by hackers. You should also change all default passwords.

When it comes to the mail server, there are many other boxes you would need to check, including making sure the forward and reverse DNS entries is set properly, setting up SPF, setting up a spam filter, being absolutely certain that you aren't acting as an open relay, building up reputation with hosts so that they will accept your mail, setting up SSL/TLS access, and potentially adding a web interface (such as squirrelmail or roundcube).

6. Any rough guidelines on how much memory/processor resources the web server will consume (1,860 visits and about 23k pages served over the last 2 weeks, but that volume should increase)

Webservers typically use low amounts of resources, which is why our shared webhosting prices are so low. Your applications (PHP scripts, most commonly) will be the main resource consumers, and their usage can vary quite a bit. With your small number of views, you should be fine with any package in the short to medium term, and you can monitor usage as you grow to gauge how your needs change.

[Patriot]

Edge100x,

Thank you for the quick reply. As usual, your posts are concise yet thorough, and on point. Very helpful.

4. How do you setup mail service?

This can be very complicated to do correctly. I would not recommend hosting your own mail server, in favor of 3rd party hosting such as Google. If you do choose to run your own, I am not familiar with Windows offerings, so I'd have to let the community chime in on that.

Sounds like running a mail server is not what I need. The goal is simply to have email accounts based on my website domain name, like name@mydomain.net, admin@mydomin.net, etc.

Godaddy offers email hosting based on your domain, but for more than one address it costs almost as much as NFO's lite web hosting plan...oof! Google Apps offers a free package, but it includes Gmail ads...yuck. Frankly, I'd rather spend the money with NFO.

Can NFO's lite web hosting plan be used just for email while I host the website on my VDS?

6. Any rough guidelines on how much memory/processor resources the web server will consume (1,860 visits and about 23k pages served over the last 2 weeks, but that volume should increase)

Webservers typically use low amounts of resources, which is why our shared webhosting prices are so low. Your applications (PHP scripts, most commonly) will be the main resource consumers, and their usage can vary quite a bit. With your small number of views, you should be fine with any package in the short to medium term, and you can monitor usage as you grow to gauge how your needs change.

I didn't mention that the game servers use several MySQL dbs, one of which is for real-time stats, and then there is the wordpress db to feed the website.

Will the mysql db activity materially impact resource usage?

Thank you again for all your help,

Patriot

[Edge100x]

Can NFO's lite web hosting plan be used just for email while I host the website on my VDS?

Yes, it could. You could just use the NFO webhosting for DNS and mail if you wish, and point your subdomains to your VDS IP.

Will the mysql db activity materially impact resource usage?

It's hard to say in advance, since it depends on how much activity the servers have. It's also been a long time since I've tried running game servers on the same machine as stats, as we stopped doing it for performance reasons something like 8 or 9 years ago . I'd recommend giving it a try and monitoring the resources.

[{{Classic}}]

This can be very complicated to do correctly. I would not recommend hosting your own mail server, in favor of 3rd party hosting such as Google. If you do choose to run your own, I am not familiar with Windows offerings, so I'd have to let the community chime in on that.

You may wish to look into hMailServer: http://www.hmailserver.com/ to run on a Windows environment.