Re: getting started with web hosting

[Alan Mead <adm ipat com>]

At 01:16 PM 9/26/00 , you wrote:
> i would like to host multiple sites on my server and was wondering where 
> to start.  more specifically how to configure the server, what h/w 
> requirements i will need (including bandwidth), and what documentation i 
> can use to get up to speed with this.  right now i have a RH6.2 box on a 
> dedicated cable line.  thanks for any advice

Make sure Apache is installed with the rest.  You may wish to do the custom 
installation.  The newest RH 7 apparently bundles a secure server, which is 
nice.

I have a 486/66 with 40MB RAM running apache 1.3.12 (?) with mod_perl and 
some other stuff.  It also runs MySQL, Samba, and a few other daemons.  I 
would go NO lower and this wouldn't satisfy several popular sites 
(partially because of the limited memory).  When I bought a machine for 
serving a production website, I got a Dell Poweredge 1300 with a (single) 
PII 450, 256 MB RAM, and SCSI I/O.  It has plenty of power for a small- to 
medium-sized website.  I'm sure it would saturate your cable connection 
with static pages.

Your cable connection won't be a problem?  My @Home connection prohibits 
"running a server of any kind".  They scan me periodically too (although 
not yet port 80).  You will also have to rely on them for DNS service, 
which will be required for multiple virtual hosts.  You might want to look 
into availability monitoring software to see how well people from across 
the 'net can access your sites.

The next cheapest alternative around here is probably business DSL (a 
friend in Arkansas gets 5 IP's and DSL bandwidth for $90/mo).  Depending on 
how much throughput you actually get, this might suffice.  Next up would be 
co-location which would be spacious bandwidth for about $250/mo (my local 
ISP's price, YMMV).  I think a Fast Pentium with lots of ram, co-located 
could handle quite a few moderately busy sites as long as they weren't all 
heavily-database or CGI-driven nor graphics-based.

As for configuration, there is a lot of good info at 
http://www.apache.org.  Look under docs for virtual hosting.  Pick a type 
(I'm guessing name-based) and follow the examples.  BTW, you cannot have 
multiple secure websites on one IP on port 443.  Let us know if you have 
specific questions (or, the $179 RH 7 pro server comes with 30 days of 
apache support--whatever that is).

-Alan