Advise on setting up a web server 7

[kzn]

I would like to set up my own web server.
I have had a look at Red Hat 9. I am thinking of going down the SUSE 9.3 route. I have no real knowledge of Linux, but it is something I want to get into. I am planning to run Apache, Mysql and PHP.
I have also had a look at the SUSE9.3 manuals and I must say they look good. I would appreciate you comments

Thanks in advance..

 

[TrojanWarBlade]

Personally I use RedHat but I can't quite see why you would not consider RedHat Fedora Core 3 or 4. RedHat 9 is quite old now.
Setting up a webserver should be trivial since most distros configure a webserver (usually Apache) by default (at least in the server or everything installations).

Trojan.

 

[lgarner]

What sort of advice? When you install Linux, select the web server, MySQL server, and PHP packages. Done. Then configure it to your liking.

Beyond that, you'll need to ask more specific questions.

 

[Chacalinc]

well.. I recommend Ubuntu as your linux distro. Quite easy to use. After installed you just install all software as:

apt-get install apache
apt-get install php
apt-get install mysql

Cheers.

Chacal, Inc.

 

[pavNell]

try LAMPPIX
You boot from the CD, run an easy-to-understand security script and your ready to go!

 

[LawnBoy]

I like SuSE. As a stone cold newbie, I loaded SuSE 9.0, Apache2, and had a simple cgi script running in 1 day. Their manuals are good, and I really like YaST.

You'll notice that everybody has their favorite flavor of linux. Remember that the differences between distros are mostly config tools and "extras" that are thrown in.

 

[zeland]

After dealing with the LAMP stack for 2 years, all I can say is just go for any Linux distro that is easy for you to setup. As for A, M & P, you're better off compiling them from source as the pre-built packages available are usually nor very recent. There are quite a bit of nifty stuff you can do with in ver 5 of php & mysql.


--== Anything can go wrong. It's just a matter of how far wrong it will go till people think its right. ==--

 

[kzn]

Thanks every one. I have decided to use SUSE 9.3. Zeland I will take your advise and compile A, M & P.

I would like to ask one other question.
Once SUSE is installed, how do I harden the system and are there sites where I can get patches and updates from (like Microsoft have), or is there a good site that I can keep upto date with all the security issues.

Thanks in advance

 

[RhythmAce]

There are a few updaters that can be used with various distros of linux. Red Hat has their own but most of the others use yum or apt-get. As for security, you will notice that linux is a very secure operating system. Any time you allow the outside world to access your server you can be assured that a few will look for ways to exploit any weakness at all. The most common way is through scripts especially those run on the server side. Although php and mysql are very popular, they are also the most common avenue of attack. The developers of these are very aware of this and do everything in their power to make sure every security leak is fixed and updates made available. You can set yum or apt-get to check for updates nitely. It is up to you to make sure no sites being hosted on your servers are using scripts (such as bulletin boards)with security issues. Bottom line is, there is no single solution to this. You must constantly keep a watchful eye out for those who would take advantage of your system's vulnerabilities.

 

[lgarner]

You get the updates from Novell using Yast Online Update (YOU). Of course, this won't help for any products that you compile from source. Subscribe to the mailing lists for those products and then you just recompile them when a patch comes out.

RythmAce is right as far as any programs hosted on the server. PHP is as secure as anything else, natively. Your programs are what you must be most concerned about.

 

[Kozusnik]

If you're new to LAMPs, install webmin first. It will save you a lot of time. I've been running LAMPs for years and I still use webmin.

Mark