Linux Setting up a Linux based hosting service

I have decided to host my own websites from now on. (for the learning experience, besides, nobody goes to my sites anyway!)

So I've got my main desktop at my house that I'm going to use for everything. Is it possible to set it up as everything? (i.e. nameserver, webserver, mailserver)

If not, what do I need exactly? It would eventually be ideal to have a single name server, a single mail server, and two web servers, but that's three more computers than I have. (I will be getting some old servers in a month or so, but I'm impatient and want to start now)

What are the steps I should look into? (Not neccessarly every command I type, just general concepts to research)

Here's what my guess is:

1. install a good OS (slackware?)
2. obtain a static IP, which I'm working on and will hopefully have in a few weeks.
3. setup a nameserver like BIND 8
4. setup a webserver like apache/PHP/MySQL
5. setup a mailserver (any suggestions?)
6. setup any extra stuff like SSH/FTP/etc
7. build a website that makes me tons of money to pay for the bandwidth

EDIT: I've been told an athlonXP 2500+ is too much for a linux box, but if I'm hosting a website, would I need some dual CPU system with SCSI RAID? Or should I just shoot for a nice AthlonXP 3200+ system with SATA RAID in the future?
I'm hoping to wind up with 20 or 30 webservers in the next 3 or 4 years.

 

The 2500+ will be overkill for what you want to do but its never too much, and I wouldn't recommend using a desktop as a server too.
That said, yes one server can do everything you pretty much want it to do what my server does.

1. Go for whatever you like, doesn't matter with linux. Personally I use fedora core and have no problems.
2. Not absolutely necessary but it would make this easier.
3. Yep bind would be fine for this.
4. I use apache with php/mod_perl/mod_python/mod_ruby/jrun (coldfusion)/frontpage, its a bit overkill but meh.
5. My setup is a bit more complicated than your usual linux mailserver setup. I use postfix/mailscanner/spamassassin/clamav/fprot/courier-imap. Again questionably overkill. (Overview)
6. SSH comes with most distros/I used proftpd for my ftp server.
7. The difficult part, hosting is a largely overcrowded market.

Also lookup webmin for easier web admin of most of the listed apps.
And I hope you have a fair bit of linux experience otherwise this is gonna be some serious fun, took me 2 years on/off and several attempts to get it right.

 

Not quite sure if I want to do publicly offered hosting, so I'm not too worried about the overcrowded market. (just want to run my own stuff and learn while I'm doing it)

Oddly enough, my 2500+ runs better than the dual PIII (1ghz each) system running SCSI raid.

When you say you wouldn't run a desktop as a server, do you mean a desktop machine that is regularly used by an individual? If so, I definitely agree. But if you are saying regular desktop parts (i.e. Athlon XP CPUs w/SATA HDDs) are not good for a server, I'd like to know why.

I'm trying to decide what would be best for my linux setup, an easily upgradable simple system similar to my own desktop, or a professional-grade server that gets updated once every five years.

Anyway, cool, looks like I can't get the static IP with my service, and I'm not willing to buy out of my contract, so if you've got tips on running a nameserver with a dynamic IP, please let me know!

Thanks again for the tips!

 

Just as an FYI, you really don't need too much horsepower for a web server. To give you an idea, before I started working here, aomc.org was being hosted on a PIII 500 with a 20Gb IDE and 256Mb and was running Win2k Server.

 

Theres no problems with running desktop parts, that way that I read it was that it would be used as a desktop machine also which was why I said that I wouldn't recommend it. I just misread your post.

 

Nope, you didn't misread my post, I was actually just making sure that's what you meant. I know using a server for desktop tasks is bad, but I wasn't sure if there was a problem using desktop parts for a server. I just wanted to make sure before I made any purchasing plans.

And yes, I was running a webserver on my desktop machine, but it was for testing purposes only. IIS made Windows XP run slow as hell, but apache on linux didn't really impact it much. (but I'd rather keep my bandwidth to myself, so I'm going to probably just set up a desktop linux box I can remote into from other places for practice and file transfer when I'm gone)

 

As Dad was saying, you really dont need anything for running a web server. Unless your using some Server side script like PHP or ASP in windows you can run a happy client side website from a good ol 486 with a 500 meg hard drive. Just need the right software configuration. If its all perl and cgi based stuff then a linux system obviosly and not half as much power as you would for a windows server. My web server hosting a very hevy ASP site with an access database holding all its contents is an AMD 500 something, (see thats how much the speed matters to me!!!) with 128 meg of ram. This is ALSO my DNS, DHCP, Active Directory!!!! and fileserver! And my site still runs. But i really do think i should make myself a seperate webserver. (my mum will love me even more 4 computers on 24/7 in the garage!)
None of my servers are made using "server" bits, i do have one scsi enabled machine for a dat drive, that i dont actually use. So as far as learning/personal use where no one will die if the site is down for an hour. Anything thats stable is fine. But break out the big boys and go quad xeon 2.8 and RAID 10k scsi if you have the funds. Always more fun that way anyway!