If you would like to know how stuff works, learn something new and have a full control. VPS is the absolute solution for you.
Contents of this post: Introduction How this site is hosted What else I am hosting Is it like expensive Conclusion References
Introduction
Lets talk some basics first. Virtual private server eg. VPS is virtualized server in physical server. You lease virtualized server and cost is related on how much resources is needed. For example my VPS (which is hosting this website) have 2GB of ram, 2 CPU cores and 48GB of disk space. My server costs 20$ per month.
According to Chris Wiegman hosting has went through huge evolution. Wiegman reports that “in the mid-90s about the only services available to the masses to host a website fell along the lines of GeoCities”. Comparing that to present I can`t see any similarities. Wiegman mention that there are 4 main types of hosting: shared hosting, vps hosting, dedicated hosting and cloud hosting. All of those 4 have own strenghts and weaknesses.
My passion to Linux has led me to this point where I want to build everything by myself rather than buying reconfigured solutions. So my decision for hosting is VPS. I am going to explain how I make use of it. What kind of server I have and what daemons are required.
How this site is hosted
I have VPS hosted by Linode. On that server I am running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS linux distribution. Then I have made some security configurations, installed apache, mysql & php and wordpress. Finally I have made some dns related configurations.
- Leased VPS from linode.com
- Choosed Ubuntu as an operating system
- Some security configurations made to Ubuntu (there is nice guide to this on linodes docs)
- Apache, mysql and php installed (awesome guide nowhere else than in linodes docs)
- WordPress installed (my own guide to wordpress install)
- DNS settings made with Linodes DNS manager for tuukkamerilainen.com domain (my own guide to .tk domain and Linodes DNS manager)
- Virtual host configurations made to apache for tuukkamerilainen.com domain (my own guide to virtual hosts)
What else I am hosting
There is lots of other cool stuffs you can host and use. With just lamp stack you can run useful services like tinytinyrss and owncloud. At the moment I am also running mail server which means that mails sent to contact@tuukkamerilainen.com are actually handled by my own server. That is really cool stuff. It took some time to make mail server happen, but it was worth it.
- Mail server (surprise surprise there is brilliant stuff on linodes docs)
- TinyTinyRss reader (nice way to read news everyday)
- Owncloud (similar to dropbox)
- Backup solutions for personal use
- rakfield.com (my disc jockey site)
Is it like expensive?
It is not. I am paying 20$ per month of my VPS and 20$ per year of my domain. Actually I am paying littlebit of too much since Linodes cheapest solution costs 10$ and it would fill my needs. I might downgrade on future.
Conclusion
Lets say that you would like to have web site or couple of them. Just have them online and manage content. You are not interested about technical aspects or tweaking the performance. Maybe you feel like you are more valuable on building awesome content to your blog rather than when you are hacking with linux. If all this sounds like you: go for web hosting/shared hosting.When discussing different hosting methods Wiegman states:
In the end the type of hosting you pick depends on both your experience level and the number of visitors you plan on seeing at your site. The higher either one of those variables gets the more it will cost you. (Wiegman, C. 7.11.2011)
If you would like to know how stuffs work and learn something new or you just have very popular sites. VPS is absolutely the solutions for you. You might feel that 10$ per month is too much to spend on VPS since you might get nice web hosting package with just 5$ per month. In my opinion VPS gives you so many opportunities compared to web hosting that those 10$ are worth it.
Referenres:
Chris Wiegman 7 Oct 2011.Shared Hosting vs VPS vs Cloud vs Dedicated Server. http://www.chriswiegman.com/2011/10/shared-hosting-vs-vps-vs-cloud-vs-dedicated-server/ Accessed 2.10.2014
https://www.linode.com/docs/security/securing-your-server/
https://www.linode.com/docs/websites/hosting-a-website/
https://www.linode.com/docs/email/postfix/email-with-postfix-dovecot-and-mysql