By Obrittian on

Is it difficult to manage a server on your own if you've never done it before? Un-managed servers are far less expensive, could anyone give me a few pointers? maybe some website links or book suggestions

Comments

demeritcowboy’s picture

demeritcowboy commented

Your question is a bit like asking:

"I have this guitar here and I want to record a song, but I've never played guitar before. It would be much cheaper if I didn't have to pay a guitar-player to play it for me. Can I do it myself?"

So the answer is yes but it will take you a long time to learn to play the guitar well enough to record a decent sounding song.

Also you WILL make mistakes while you are learning, so you also need to decide if it will be okay for your users if you make some mistakes.

Obrittian’s picture

Obrittian commented

So you would compare the difficulty of managing a server to learning to how to play a guitar? I was hoping I could learn in about a week, which is when I planned to promote my site.

Additional details: Linux Virtual Server
OS: Ubuntu
Control Panel: LX Admin
VPS technology: Open VZ

A few things I would like to know:
Transfer Process
What are the key things I should focus on learning in order to manage my server
How long it generally takes to get the hang of managing a server w/out site crashes....

Everyone on this site has been a great help so far. This is an area where I feel the people that can help me is significantly reduced. If you have experience in managing your own Linux VPS Please help me. It is my final step before I began site promotion.

If it takes longer than a week, I am still willing to learn. That type of knowledge is well rewarded.

demeritcowboy’s picture

demeritcowboy commented

Ah, I see. I originally thought you meant colocation vs managed hosting, whereas this actually is managed hosting, and they've given you an admin control panel.

So I'd be surprised if the FAQs or tech support at your hosting service wouldn't be able to provide assistance. They might not give specific help with Drupal, but as far as transferring files they should be able to help. Shouldn't take long.

As for crashes, the only thing I can think of would be a limit on the RAM they assign to PHP. If they only give 8MB you might want to ask that to be increased. Other than that, don't install beta or unstable modules and you'll be fine.