Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Fourth - Web Serving
I think I have told you all about how much money I was spending on a monthly basis to get email and web services, if not, it was $50 a month. This might be fine and good as I had like 4 domain names, and 6 email addresses...but $50 a month = $600 a year.
So, as I set up this linux server, I decided to include the Web Server, HTTPD or Apache...
This was actually simple.
Install the Apache server or HTTPD
I took the HTTPD.conf file from a friend who is also using linux and Apache. I found out that I have to use what is called "virtual server" to have multiple web domains on one machine (one IP address)...his config file happen to also have virtual domains.
There are at least 2 files that have to be set up. The httpd.conf and the virtual domain files. Since I don't know squat about this, I have to learn. The way I learn best is to imitate...
I set mine up to look like his. It took me a while to understand all the settings I had to change to make his (a debian server) to match mine (a fedora server) and to match my machine settings (my server name and domains, IP address, firewall, etc)
With the help of the already in existence files and the setup info on the web, I got most everything set up, but it still wasn't working.
It turns out there was a problem with folder permissions. A friend hacked it out in under a minute.
This was something new to me, but files, directories and all things linux have permissions for both users and groups. A security thing.
Once that was done everything started to work just fine. I now have 3 of my Domains hosted at home, the 4th is not mine to host, it belongs to South Ogden CERT...we will have to find a new solution for them.
So now, all I have to do is put my webs back on the new server, and start serving up the stuff I had before...I still have a lot of content to add...but, well, that is how it goes when you don't have any time.
In any case, there are some great resources at Apachy.org on setting up your web server...if I can do it, ANYONE can...
So, as I set up this linux server, I decided to include the Web Server, HTTPD or Apache...
This was actually simple.
Install the Apache server or HTTPD
I took the HTTPD.conf file from a friend who is also using linux and Apache. I found out that I have to use what is called "virtual server" to have multiple web domains on one machine (one IP address)...his config file happen to also have virtual domains.
There are at least 2 files that have to be set up. The httpd.conf and the virtual domain files. Since I don't know squat about this, I have to learn. The way I learn best is to imitate...
I set mine up to look like his. It took me a while to understand all the settings I had to change to make his (a debian server) to match mine (a fedora server) and to match my machine settings (my server name and domains, IP address, firewall, etc)
With the help of the already in existence files and the setup info on the web, I got most everything set up, but it still wasn't working.
It turns out there was a problem with folder permissions. A friend hacked it out in under a minute.
This was something new to me, but files, directories and all things linux have permissions for both users and groups. A security thing.
Once that was done everything started to work just fine. I now have 3 of my Domains hosted at home, the 4th is not mine to host, it belongs to South Ogden CERT...we will have to find a new solution for them.
So now, all I have to do is put my webs back on the new server, and start serving up the stuff I had before...I still have a lot of content to add...but, well, that is how it goes when you don't have any time.
In any case, there are some great resources at Apachy.org on setting up your web server...if I can do it, ANYONE can...
