Hopefully getting started Hosting. (Linux)

[KyonEXE]

Okay gang.  I am going to hopefully be quick and sweet with this post.  I am currently in the process of learning servers in general.  Now this may be a crazy thing.  I am sure most will disagree, but I decided to learn ubuntu server version 16.10.  I will post the current setup at the bottom.  This will be a TEST DUMMY, meaning that I am learning on this and seeing if I can even get to the point where I can look at the server from any computer I choose, whether it's out of the office, at some deserted island. (That somehow has internet, etc.)  I was hoping you guys on the awesome forum could help me condense my searches on what I need to know etc.  I am sure I need to learn SSH a bit and overall how to get my linux server to be seen at the moment.  That's as far as I got.  So hosting without having to give people my actual IP address, so using host name is good.  From what I have been gathering there is a host command in the terminal that I can use so I am most likely going to start from there.  Feel free to post pictures, brag about your server and how super totally awesome it is, anything like that.  And of course feel free to learn with me.  I will update on what I've done, maybe post pictures.  Make this a huge post.

 

What I have installed.

ubuntu server 16.10 on a dell poweredge t310.

16 gigs of RAM(I think it could be 8)

Xeon processor(4 core?)

Set up LVM to make it like RAID config 0 with striping (if I remember correctly, if anyone knows how to look at configurations on the hardware, etc let me know.)

Overall most definitely utter garbage haha.

 

But regardless.  Feel free to help, aid, post your personal server setup, etc.

Love you folks!  Hope all is well.  I will be in touch.

[deleted_member_030719]

Two very helpful sites:

• digitalocean.com
• vultr.com

They both have some very good tutorials and they'll help you learn to do what you want to do.

[KyonEXE]

Alrighty thanks a bunch   I am attempting to setup a Ghost server for imaging purposes.  I should have put that on the main post.  Will edit soon.

[KyonEXE]

Ohh very good.  Look what I found.

https://www.vultr.com/docs/how-to-deploy-ghost-on-ubuntu-16-04

Ohh huzzah.  Okay this will be a great start.

[Granular]

Giving others a host name is the same as giving them your IP as the name is meant to be resolved to an IP.

If your goal is toying around, I'd strongly suggest you do it on virtual machines. Either hosted on the server in question or your workstation. Being able to just make a copy of a freshly installed machine after you've borked something up saves you a lot of headaches.

It also prepares you for when you'll want to host some actually useful services, which would benefit from being isolated and easily migratable.

[Master Disaster]

Well SSH is just bash over the internet, anything you can do from a terminal you can do from SSH in the exact same way. Once you've got an SSH link you are effectively sitting in front of the server looking at a terminal.

 

SSH is always running in the background and can be easily connected to locally using the machines hostname and something like putty on Windows. I'd try it out locally before opening it to the outside world but giving SSH external access is as easy as forwarding a port.

[KyonEXE]

6 minutes ago, Granular said:

Giving others a host name is the same as giving them your IP as the name is meant to be resolved to an IP.

If your goal is toying around, I'd strongly suggest you do it on virtual machines. Either hosted on the server in question or your workstation. Being able to just make a copy of a freshly installed machine after you've borked something up saves you a lot of headaches.

It also prepares you for when you'll want to host some actually useful services, which would benefit from being isolated and easily migratable.

Well the thing that this is a test dummy regardless.  Also I don't really have a physical host to set up a VM.  That on in itself is a lot of work to setup for a complete novice wouldn't you say?

3 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Well SSH is just bash over the internet, anything you can do from a terminal you can do from SSH in the exact same way. Once you've got an SSH link you are effectively sitting in front of the server looking at a terminal.

 

SSH is always running in the background and can be easily connected to locally using the machines hostname and something like putty on Windows. I'd try it out to all before opening it to the outside world but giving SSH external access but giving it external access is as easy as forwarding a port.

Ah very good I've wanted to use putty for a long time.  That will essentially let me install programs I need on the server as well yes?  I think the biggest scare of the whole thing I hope to get a hang of is the terminal.  It is only command line with this server.  So to me it's intense and very fun at the same time    Got a crazy way of having fun according to a guy in the office.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, KyonEXE said:

Well the thing that this is a test dummy regardless.  Also I don't really have a physical host to set up a VM.  That on in itself is a lot of work to setup for a complete novice wouldn't you say?

Ah very good I've wanted to use putty for a long time.  That will essentially let me install programs I need on the server as well yes?  I think the biggest scare of the whole thing I hope to get a hang of is the terminal.  It is only command line with this server.  So to me it's intense and very fun at the same time    Got a crazy way of having fun according to a guy in the office.

Yep, like I said, ANYTHING you can do from a local terminal you can do over SSH.

 

BASH is quite honestly a nightmare, I've been using Linux for years and I still end up googling stuff (even if I think I already know) because one mistake and your install is borked. Also remember that anything you do is your fault, by that I mean its generally not a great idea to issue a command that your not 100% sure about and googling commands and entering them blind is never a good idea. Linux is incredibly complex and you can't guarantee that something that worked for somebody else will work for you.

 

I can't overemphasize enough how much of a good idea it is to keep a backup or even better do it in a VM with snapshots enabled because YOU WILL bork your install multiple times while learning.

 

Take it slow, learn the basics then progress onto the more complicated stuff.

 

And good luck.

[KyonEXE]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Yep, like I said, ANYTHING you can do from a local terminal you can do over SSH.

 

BASH is quite honestly a nightmare, I've been using Linux for years and I still end up googling stuff (even if I think I already know) because one mistake and your install is borked. Also remember that anything you do is your fault, by that I mean its generally not a great idea to issue a command that your not 100% sure about and googling commands and entering them blind is never a good idea. Linux is incredibly complex and you can't guarantee that something that worked for somebody else will work for you.

 

I can't overemphasize enough how much of a good idea it is to keep a backup or even better do it in a VM with snapshots enabled because YOU WILL bork your install multiple times while learning.

 

Take it slow, learn the basics then progress onto the more complicated stuff.

 

And good luck.

Very good.  I will look into virtual and what not.  Can I just use VirtualBox at home and will that run the same way?  I did find this as well.

 

https://www.vultr.com/docs/setup-your-own-dns-server-on-debian-ubuntu

 

Get a DNS set up and all that good jazz which to me would be a smart move.  I will find other tutorials learn the basics and make sure not to eff up my actual server.  Even though it is a dummy machine already ^^  Will update as I go.

 

And interestingly enough bind9 installs and sets up fine on my ubuntu 16.04 vmbox install, I haven't tested the next steps, but on the server side it has issues finding the config files associated with bind9.  Will have to look into that a bit farther as well, maybe set up a vmbox at home get that rolling.  ^^