Am I nuts?
I want to run Tomcat 5, Apache, IMAP mail, a possibly some video streaming.
Although, I'm totally confortable with Gentoo, and I'm a developer, I don't have much website admin experience. Am I getting in over my head with Apache and Mail, or is this the hosting service I've been looking for?
For example, I can easily install Apache
emerge -a apache
But, if I do this, I then have to configure Apache and make it secure. Is this going to take up too much time?
Can anyone give some advice from experience?
Thanks
5 Replies
> Although, I'm totally confortable with Gentoo, and I'm a developer, I don't have much website admin experience. Am I getting in over my head with Apache and Mail, or is this the hosting service I've been looking for?
One can get into Apache without too much trouble. There is a lot to configure, but you can get a basic webserver going relatively quickly and there is a lot of help on the web on how to configure it.
Mail, however, is a bugbear. It is like walking into a minefield.. something you should do with trepidation and hopefully someone with experience beside you! It can be rewarding, however, so if you do choose to get into mail just keep your eyes wide open and learn as much as you can!
I'm starting to talk myself into jumping in. But ….
What about Security? Basically, Apache, Mail, Tomcat, and the rest are all fun and games until you are outside your LAN. I'd hate to loose sleep because some port scanning script kiddies are pounding on my system for a password.
Any chance Linode helps with security like this?
Thanks
@genode:
Any chance Linode helps with security like this?
Linode only does filtering in layers 2 and 3 to stop network screwups. The Planet (Dallas datacentre) blocks some 'popular' exploit ports. HE (Fremont datacentre) doesn't block anything.
Nearly all Linode users run a netfilter/iptables firewall on their machine. FireHOL
@pclissold:
@genode:Any chance Linode helps with security like this?
Nearly all Linode users run a netfilter/iptables firewall on their machine.
Right, thanks for the reply. Good to know what I'm getting into.
I'm thinking I'll run just httpd, imap, a firewall and i'll use syslog-ng/stunnel to securely write logs to my machine in my LAN here at home.
Here's a helpful link
@genode:
@pclissold:
@genode:Any chance Linode helps with security like this?
Nearly all Linode users run a netfilter/iptables firewall on their machine.
Right, thanks for the reply. Good to know what I'm getting into.
I'm thinking I'll run just httpd, imap, a firewall and i'll use syslog-ng/stunnel to securely write logs to my machine in my LAN here at home.
Here's a helpful link
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/security/s … ndbook.xml">http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/security/security-handbook.xml
I'm currently running Gentoo (and have done so for over a year on the Linode) but will soon switch to Debian because of lower overhead. I.e., no source build overhead on the Linode.
Still, it's worked well for me so far. I do indeed run an iptables-based firewall, syslog-ng, amongst other goodies, and it has worked out great. (Along with Apache v2 + SSL, postfix for email, etc.)
If you need pointers with iptables rules, just post in a new thread. I'd be more than happy to assist, or the other users here. Also, if you're new to iptables, might want to look at tools like Shoreline (aka 'Shorewall') which is an OSS tool to build and maintain iptables configs.
Cheers.