Good, Cheap VPS Hosting for Total Newbie

[Rusty Snippets]

Howdy................ I've had a shared domain for years on a smaller host, only a personal site, but I want to try a VPS and learn the ins and outs of setting it up and running it. Just for fun, just for my education. It sounds like a big jump from shared hosting, so I will probably need to start out with a managed plan. How much control would I have over things with a managed plan? Am I able to get to the nuts and bolts of the system? Like root and ssh? Who would you recommend for this? Apologize if any of the terms I've used are incorrect, I'm a VPS Virgin. But I'm pretty excited about jumping into this new adventure!

 

[Rusty Snippets]

I've been looking at Linode.com, and maybe I should just jump off the deep end? I believe it's an unmanaged VPS, but there are a lot of tutorials to get me started. It looks like I can get a LOT more goodies for a LOT less by going in naked lol!!

 

[WSWD]

As far as the managed VPS are concerned, it depends. Some places will not give you root access (they don't want you screwing things up), some will. Just depends on who you go with. Another thing to consider is that most managed VPS companies require cPanel, thus your budget and VPS specs will both have to be increased to handle that. I don't know of any managed VPS company off the top of my head that doesn't require cPanel, outside of 3rd party management providers.

 

[Rusty Snippets]

Maybe I don't understand the VPS setup overall...................... if I "screwed things up", it would just affect MY server, no? What I'm getting at is, I'll be learning the hard way by trial and error I would imagine. Do I even "need" root to manage a VPS?

 

[WSWD]

That is correct. If you messed up, it would only affect your server. That's exactly what the managed VPS providers are trying to avoid by witholding root access. They don't want to waste their technicians' time (and the company's money) fixing problems the client created. They are there to manage your server and make sure everything is working properly, not to fix problems you create by either experimenting or not knowing what you're doing.

Yes, you absolutely need root access to manage your VPS. You could do most management things with a control panel, but of course installing the control panel requires root access.

 

[radu81]

Linode is great, and you can use serverpilot.io to "manage" your vps. I use this configuration for almost two years and I am glad with the results

 

[Rusty Snippets]

Linode is great, and you can use serverpilot.io to "manage" your vps. I use this configuration for almost two years and I am glad with the results

I jumped in with both feet lol!! Created a linode, installed Ubuntu 16.0.4 LTS, ran through the configuration tutorials up to connecting by ssh, securing the server, everything command line. Scary but fun!

 

[Jesepi]

Check out this too for managing a "headless" server: http://centminmod.com/ Though I believe it doesn't run on Debian/Ubuntu. You would have to use CentOS - I think the guy that develops it (@eva2000) posts here.

Linode is a great VPS provider - I've been with them for years with minimal issues.

 

[TPerry]

Maybe I don't understand the VPS setup overall...................... if I "screwed things up", it would just affect MY server, no? What I'm getting at is, I'll be learning the hard way by trial and error I would imagine. Do I even "need" root to manage a VPS?

Do you even need a VPS? If all you want to do is learn Linux, I'd strongly suggest installing something like VirtualBox on your computer and playing with it locally first.
The problem with "jumping in with both feet" on a live box on the internet is it's highly doubtful that you will completely secure your VPS, and then if it gets hacked, you've now gone towards poisoning that IP if it it's used for spam.

 

[eva2000]

Do you even need a VPS? If all you want to do is learn Linux, I'd strongly suggest installing something like VirtualBox on your computer and playing with it locally first.
The problem with "jumping in with both feet" on a live box on the internet is it's highly doubtful that you will completely secure your VPS, and then if it gets hacked, you've now gone towards poisoning that IP if it it's used for spam.

yeah I use Virtualbox on my laptop for local server testing first for Centmin Mod development - i.e. CentOS 7 install on virtualbox https://community.centminmod.com/threads/centos-7-0-install-on-virtualbox-guest-server.730/ and then save snapshot for virgin OS and do tests and revert snapshot back, and do other tests etc etc

Check out this too for managing a "headless" server: http://centminmod.com/ Though I believe it doesn't run on Debian/Ubuntu. You would have to use CentOS - I think the guy that develops it (@eva2000) posts here.

Linode is a great VPS provider - I've been with them for years with minimal issues.

yup CentOS only right now for Centmin Mod

 

[Rusty Snippets]

Do you even need a VPS? If all you want to do is learn Linux, I'd strongly suggest installing something like VirtualBox on your computer and playing with it locally first.
The problem with "jumping in with both feet" on a live box on the internet is it's highly doubtful that you will completely secure your VPS, and then if it gets hacked, you've now gone towards poisoning that IP if it it's used for spam.

Nope, don't "need" a VPS, but I have one now. I'm going to move 3 or 4 domains over eventually. I've followed the tutorials and have got one virtual server up and running, securing it as I go with their instructions on using Apache, MySQL and PHP security. Also using keys for ssh access and turned off ssh root access. Setup the firewall too. Oh, and hardening all of those services! Going slow but sure, learning a lot.