New install

[Richard]

Looking to move some websites off a windows box

What distro would be best for Webserver use ?

Not the best anymore on command lines , so GUI would be needed

Ease of use for me is the best

Use will be some Wordpress sites , and some basic HTML sites

Nothing fancy

Thanks for any and all help

[Jason]

Hi Richard!

Welcome to the forums! This is a support-related post so I've moved this topic to that section.

Any Linux distro would be fine as a web server but I've never seen a web server setup completely graphically before. However, setting it up using the command-line is super easy (I don't know about the Wordpress stuff, that adds another layer, though I know it can be done). What you need to create is a LAMP server (Linux, Apache, mySQL, PHP). Linux is the OS, of course. Apache is the web server (there are others, too, but it's the most used).  mySQL is the database (which is used to store website data for on-the-fly dynamic pages). And PHP is the scripting language that is likely used by Wordpress and other platforms to create the HTML for those dynamic pages. Though this sounds complicated, it's not hard to get going, even on the command-line. I'd suggest Ubuntu Server 16.04.3 LTS as it will continue to get updates until April 2021. After that, you just upgrade.

After you set up the LAMP server, you can install Webmin to administer it. This will allow you to administer it using another computer on your local network via the web browser or outside your network if you have port forwarding on for that that port. Either way, you will need to set up the LAMP server to use a static IP address on your network. But don't worry about that yet. Get LAMP and webmin setup and we'll go from there. This guide will help you, including walking through you the Ubuntu install:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-install-ubuntu-server-16-04-and-the-web-based-admin-tool-webmin/

If you prefer, just do the Ubuntu install and come here with any questions you have, then we'll work on the next part.

[Jason]

Oh, and if all this sounds like too much, you can also just get a web host for as little as $5 a month and you can log in and use their graphical tools to administer the server. I use 1and1.ca because they're cheap (this website is hosted on it), but lunarpages.com has been really good to me in the past, too. They have better technical support than 1and1.ca and they use the industry-standard cpanel. 1and1 has their own interface. But both will also make installing WordPress a snap.

[cod3poet]

Honestly Ubuntu easiest to adopt and use. Next up in my books would be Centos as we use that in every job that I have had for websites and one of those jobs was for a 25k+ website web host.

But seriously Ubuntu gives you the Gui you are looking for and the tools you need to maintain those sites. And the documentation and community are top notch. Go for a stable distro 16.04 their long term offering stable simple and will not break magically. It takes intentional malice or blind button mashing to take it down.

[Jason]

Honestly Ubuntu easiest to adopt and use. Next up in my books would be Centos as we use that in every job that I have had for websites and one of those jobs was for a 25k+ website web host.

I was considering CentOS, too. Either of those would be fine, I think. Lots of guides to setting up LAMP servers on CentOS, too.

[Richard]

I have 6 different domains on the windows server now , so to move to a hosting service , would be great if I have only one domain .

I have my own little data center here , email and DNS servers running , as my current setup is getting long in the tooth , that’s why I ask , tried Debian , with no great luck here

As for command line , could be simple yes , but due to a bad car crash , for me now simple (GUI) seems to work the best for me right now ( why I use windows )

I will look more into the info you have provided , thank you

[Jason]

You can have multiple domains with a hosting service often without even paying extra (unless they have a lot of traffic). I have two domains on my host right now. The only extra cost was paying for the extra domain name.

[Richard]

Is there a program or option to watch traffic to the webserver , Sambar has net stat witch shows basic traffic to the server ( what domain was accessed , and what files )

I know of tail , but that’s a lot of info , just looking for simple

[Jason]

I'm sure there are monitoring programs like that but I haven't used them. Hopefully, somebody else can chime in on this.

[Richard]

ok have everything installed ... seems to be working , BUT when i go to a URL ie crdretail.com I get the root dir , even though its pointed to the right sub directory

it is doing it to all domains , they are pointed to the right folder under /var/www/html/domain name

now I can click on the domain folder and it will bring the site up ,

uder Document root /var/www/htlm/crdretail.com
address crdretail.com

( this done all under webmin)

thanks !

[Jason]

Are you saying that you got it working, Richard? Or is it still not pointing to the correct subfolder?

[Richard]

the system is up and running , but not pointing the the correct sub folder for some reason

[Jason]

Oh, okay. This is where I start to get lost. I know with Apache, having multiple websites on the same server is called virtual hosting. So you might want to look in webmin for something related to that. Basically, the configuration file for apache is changed so that each domain name points to a specific subfolder.

[Jason]

Maybe this would be helpful? I don't really know.

https://doxfer.webmin.com/Webmin/Name-Based_Virtual_Hosting

[Richard]

No matter where I look , I am having no luck !

I have deleted the VH and redone it , went to the web address and still shows me the root dir /var/www/ and the domains in it

I can click on the sbfolder and the webpage does run ...

I looked at the config files for the domains and they do point to the right /var/www/html/cmrk witch is the correct dir for the website , but for some reason apache will not go there , I dont know what I am missing here ...

I dont know if there is another program like webmin to try .. there where no errors in installing the OS or webmin 

Thanks for your help