Setting up Linux Web Server in Windows Domain?

[calpolymis1]

Hi. I'm considering installing a linux web server in our office. Currently we have 4 static IPs with 1 dsl line which is connected to our Windows 2000 server machine for networking.

I'm completely new to linux, and wondering how I can deploy the linux web server in this environment. Is it possible at all? If so, what would be the deployment plan? If there are some resources which I can learn from, it would be great. Thank you in advance.

 

[itsp1965]

There are plenty of resources out there.. just a google query away. You can setup Apache as your webserver, configure SAMBA if you need connectivity to your Windows domain (or for general Windows networking)
Bare in mind Linux has a bit of a learning curve. Be prepared to perform to do a lot of reading and testing before deploying your server into production.
HTH

 

[RhythmAce]

One of the greatest things about linux is that it is a very secure platform. This is why it is by far the most popular platform used for web servers. That being said, it is not the best idea to put a web server on a network as a regular node. You want to limit access to it via a small defined set of ports. For example, http traffic uses port 80. A web server such as apache listens on port 80 and will handle all requests coming in on that port. The way to set it up is to have it behind your firewall and forward only the ports you want to use like http, https, ftp, pop3, smtp and sshd. If you will be administering the server remotely using software such as webmin, then you may need to forward that port also. As itsp1965 points out, there is a steep learning curve between Windows and linux. If you don't have anybody who can administer a linux server, I would not open it up to the public. If there is noone with experience in web security, I'd definitely not go live until you are confident you can protect your server and network from outside attack.

 

[warmongr]

Congratulations on taking the first step toward migrating your infrastructure to the open source world. You've already received some great advice and here's mine. Putting up a web server for the sake of having a web server is not a reason to have a web server if that makes sense. Generally, Windows web server (IIS) is very friendly in environments such as yours where people are using web publishing tools to post to the site. Apache can be extended to accept these types of connections but as you've already been advised there is a lot to do up front. If you're a geek like me you'll enjoy yourself. My first task at my new job 8 years ago was to migrate our existing web services on IIS to Apache. I had no clue how to do it (but did not tell my boss this... I think he knew). This was a long, frustrating and arduous task with a lot of pitfalls as many of the pages posted to the site were FrontPage created and posted.

Apache does well in environments where you have database backends with PHP front-ends (or JAVA or name your favorite here). Take your time and you may end up like the folks on this forum.

... BTW we now virtually host over 100 domains on 5 servers at our location but it took time and expensive system adminstrators to build and maintain.

Warmongr.

 

[calpolymis1]

Dear repliers,

Thank you very much and sorry for my late response. I found answers today!;The notifications to my yahoo email were sent to the SPAM folder, and I thought no one had answered my question!

I have a mission to build a zen-cart based shopping mall within a few weeks, first on a commercial hosting server, then migrate it to our own Linux server-I've already purchased a server from dell but have to postpone the configuration until I'm done with this shopping mall development.

Once again, thanks and I'll be asking lots of questions in a few weeks Ciao, for now