Going onto a Dedicated Machine - PHP

[adamou]

Hey all! Well my project is fast picking up, so we need to move onto a dedicated machine. But the problem is - I don't even know where to begin!

So we are going with a Linux fully managed server, since it'll be cheaper and easier to manage in the long run (so I've heard) - I am not too strong with Linux; having never messed around with it or compiled for it.

So our dedicated host recommends the following OS's to us -

# CentOS
# Redhat version 5
# Debian
# OpenSuse
# Ubuntu
# Fedora
Which one would you recommend for hosting PHP in a Professional environment?

Though I am mostly comfortable with the Windows OS, they provide Windows 2008 Enterprise - is that a good web hosting platform? I think I am being influenced by many other biased opinions so I am unsure for myself...

We also want to host JBoss, I am not too familiar with it (we have a java developer) but I won't be speaking to him till end of this week so I thought I'd start doing some research - atm I'm a bit confused :x

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much!

[Jarrod1937]

I'd recommend going with centOS, its basically a free repackaged version of redhat. I'd recommend avoiding windows for hosting imo. I'm a big windows guy myself but its just not the best web hosting platform, that and there are many cool apps for hosting that are made primarily for linux. It looks like jboss (never heard of it myself) is made for redhat, so you should have no problem getting it working on centOS too.

[adamou]

thank you for that CentOS seems to be a good choice by the looks of it

[Ribeyed]

Hi there,

problem with the so called free Linux enviroment is that skilled people to maintain it are thin on the ground and before you start down your linux route think about the support costs. If you go down the MS route support is everywhere and you can get problems solved at a much cheaper rate.

There are hundereds of posts, topics, articles out there on this subject. I guess it mostly depends on what kind of application you are developing and where you are planning on taking your application in the future.

From where I'm standing the php/linux route is 10 years ago but with advancements in the MS developement suite; silverlight, IIS media services, azure etc. the future looks far superior. IIS can support php so if thats your choice of developement.

regards


Ribs

[criterion9]

Hi there,

problem with the so called free Linux enviroment is that skilled people to maintain it are thin on the ground and before you start down your linux route think about the support costs. If you go down the MS route support is everywhere and you can get problems solved at a much cheaper rate.

There are hundereds of posts, topics, articles out there on this subject. I guess it mostly depends on what kind of application you are developing and where you are planning on taking your application in the future.

From where I'm standing the php/linux route is 10 years ago but with advancements in the MS developement suite; silverlight, IIS media services, azure etc. the future looks far superior. IIS can support php so if thats your choice of developement.

regards


Ribs

Look for a managed host (they are very cheap). There is also many, many, many people with the skills needed to support the LAMP stack. IIS doesn't integrate well with PHP and probably won't ever completely. Why would you even consider more than doubling your hosting costs just so you can have an OS that is highly prone to breaking/viruses?

[adamou]

Hey there thanks for the reponse, we went ahead with the Linux host and its been fantastic so far - using WHM/Cpanel so I get almost complete root access but in an easy to use interface, and yeah the dedicated/managed server support isn't too bad just an extra $150 a month so we're roughly at $500 a month which is good - as its an 8core on a grid.

Though we are having one issue so far which we're trying to solve - trying to get seperate accounts to access the main directory but keep getting a permission denied But apart from that its been fantastic! Didn't realise all of the things could do with a dedicated machine