Planning A Web Server

[Kensu]

Hello all! I am planning on running a web server, but have encountered a few issues and want to learn a little more about my options before I continue.

 

Many years ago when I first started I was just running it to learn HTML and CSS under XAMPP. That's a little unprofessional and I now have the tools to make a better web server. 

For the past few years I have been using IIS through Windows Server. It's easy to use and has a lot of features, and was also already there inside the compressed server I was using that was also other things. However I came across a problem with IIS that I don't quite like. It's significantly slower than Apache. I haven't found a way to fix this, and it only slows down worse when installing Wordpress, which is what I love to work with.

 

After getting a new server computer recently, I am still limited on hardware (1 tower server, 1 1u server). It has 2 Xeon E5620's in it and 24GB 1333Mhz RAM in it. I figured that since I am limited on hardware we could just virtualize things through ESXI. So we have a DHCP/DNS/AD currently setup on a Windows Server VM (mainly used for single sign-ons through email servers and other things) and it is currently functioning as our DHCP server for our network.

 

Additionally, we have Debian setup to be the web core. I've never really worked with Linux before, so it took a little learning; but after a few hours of work and setup I got an FTP server to work so I could manage files on it without having to back to the machine and Apache running smoothly. I setup Wordpress (through apt, not manually) and PHP. It loads MUCH faster than IIS does. 

 

Since I can't find much on resolving this issue, I was coming to LMG forums to see if anyone else has dealt with the same problem, and to also learn more about Linux, IIS, and Apache. I would also like to learn about which version is the best version of Linux to use for a web server if possible. Would it be a better idea to keep everything how it is with IIS and keep using it, but setup Apache as a proxy since it will cache the site and then send it over faster to users?

 

also note: I have a third leftover server computer with a bad DIMM slot in it. It has 5GB of RAM and a Xeon X5550 that I will be installing Sophos/pfSense on eventually to work as a UTM.

[LtStaffel]

I don't know what the issue to resolve is

[Kensu]

Just now, LtStaffel said:

I don't know what the issue to resolve is

I'm sorry. I wasn't really clear enough in the post. I am looking for advice about Linux and also trying to see if there is a way to fix the long request times on IIS vs. Apache.

[LtStaffel]

Just now, Kensu said:

I'm sorry. I wasn't really clear enough in the post. I am looking for advice about Linux and also trying to see if there is a way to fix the long request times on IIS vs. Apache.

I don't think there will be much difference between Linux distros. It's only really a matter which you like better, yum or apt, as far as I'm concerned. I do not have experience with either IIS or Apache, I'm just a hobbyist and have never set up a web server. I'd imagine that Apache being open source and cross-platform compatible, and having so many features probably includes some technique that is making it go faster than IIS. https://www.upguard.com/articles/iis-apache That article says that IIS should be able to match Apache for the most part though. Therefore I'm going to guess that your speed problem is something specific to your hardware/software setup/configuration, which you probably already knew.

If Apache is faster though, why not just use it? In other words, why do you have to make IIS go as fast as Apache? Or in a few other words (lol), why is IIS being slower an issue that needs to be resolved?

[Granular]

I've a lot of Apache servers at work running on FreeBSD and Ubuntu VMs on Ubuntu hypervisors on the account of it having better hardware support.

I've started migrating some to docker containers because containers are more straightforward to maintain and audit and are easier on resources and I'd certainly recommend Docker if you want to make the most of your hardware, but you'll certainly be doing a lot of learning as they're not as intuitive as full VMs in my experience. In combination with being new to Linux, it might be too much.

And if you're looking for an HTTP caching server, I would recommend you go with Varnish instead of whatever Apache mod you have in mind.

[Kensu]

13 minutes ago, LtStaffel said:

I don't think there will be much difference between Linux distros. It's only really a matter which you like better, yum or apt, as far as I'm concerned. I do not have experience with either IIS or Apache, I'm just a hobbyist and have never set up a web server. I'd imagine that Apache being open source and cross-platform compatible, and having so many features probably includes some technique that is making it go faster than IIS. https://www.upguard.com/articles/iis-apache That article says that IIS should be able to match Apache for the most part though. Therefore I'm going to guess that your speed problem is something specific to your hardware/software setup/configuration, which you probably already knew.

If Apache is faster though, why not just use it? In other words, why do you have to make IIS go as fast as Apache? Or in a few other words (lol), why is IIS being slower an issue that needs to be resolved?

Slow websites bother me. I can host it fine, but I'd rather it be as responsive as possible, even if it's only getting a small amount of traffic. IIS just makes things easier because I am more familiar with it than Apache. Thanks for the article. I'll definitely read it.