Virtualmin + Apache with Nginx Reverse Proxy

[DRE]

Are any of you using this set up and if your not using it with a control panel are you at least using apache with nginx reverse proxy? http://xenforo.com/community/thread...from-shared-hosting-to-vps.56071/#post-597687

Here are some guides:

How to Configure Nginx as a Front End Proxy for Apache
https://www.digitalocean.com/commun...nfigure-nginx-as-a-front-end-proxy-for-apache

Virtualmin with Apache and Nginx Reverse Proxy
http://hartlessbydesign.com/blog/view/206-virtualmin-apache-and-nginx-reverse-proxy.html

Setup Nginx as Reverse Proxy with Apache.
http://www.unixsurgeon.com/kb/setup-nginx-as-reverse-proxy-with-apache.html

Nginx As Reverse Proxy For APACHE
http://devw3.com/linux/nginx-as-reverse-proxy-for-apache

HowTo: Use Nginx As Reverse Proxy Server
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/using-nginx-as-reverse-proxy.html

Using Nginx as a Reverse Proxy to Get the Most Out of Your VPS.
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/using-nginx-as-a-reverse-proxy-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-vps.html

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

I have a sincere advise for you : Do not use digital ocean if you dont know how to move your site from a shared host to a VPS yourself.

How do you plan to deal with problems that arise after the move? Paying someone every now and then would cost you a lot more then getting a managed VPS. I would suggest getting a managed Cpanel VPS. There is hardly any use learning how to manage a server as rewards are few and the time you need to learn everything is going to cut down on the time you spend working on your website.

I dont mean to discourage you from learning new things but its not worth your time. Server management costs $30 a month for unlimited number of tickets. Search on WHT.


If you still decide to go for the DO set up then why use Apache atall? Have a read through this tutorial : http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/web/nginx

You wont be able to use .htaccess files while using nginx on its own.

I have used nginx are a reverse proxy to apache on DO but that is using Cpanel not virtualmin. There are two plugins available for Cpanel, one is free and the other one is paid and I have used both and they both work fine. I am not sure how you would do that while using virtualmin.

 

[DRE]

I have a sincere advise for you : Do not use digital ocean if you dont know how to move your site from a shared host to a VPS yourself.

How do you plan to deal with problems that arise after the move? Paying someone every now and then would cost you a lot more then getting a managed VPS. I would suggest getting a managed Cpanel VPS. There is hardly any use learning how to manage a server as rewards are few and the time you need to learn everything is going to cut down on the time you spend working on your website.

I dont mean to discourage you from learning new things but its not worth your time. Server management costs $30 a month for unlimited number of tickets. Search on WHT.


If you still decide to go for the DO set up then why use Apache atall? Have a read through this tutorial : http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/web/nginx

You wont be able to use .htaccess files while using nginx on its own.

I have used nginx are a reverse proxy to apache on DO but that is using Cpanel not virtualmin. There are two plugins available for Cpanel, one is free and the other one is paid and I have used both and they both work fine. I am not sure how you would do that while using virtualmin.

I can still edit .htaccess with nginx only being used as a reverse proxy. If all it's doing is serving static files then it shouldn't be that big of a problem?

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

Yes while using nginx as reverse proxy there is no problem using .htaccess files.

 

[DRE]

Why is it not worth my time though?

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

Its just my personal opinion. I personally believe that managing a server is best left to the professionals. Yes you will learn a thing or two but when you have a real problem to deal with you be again running for cover and be looking for someone to help you out which would cost you more money. A fully managed Cpanel VPS would take care of that headace. Anything on the server side would be taken care of and you can spend all your time working on your website.

If I was you I would move my site to a managed VPS and set up a new website on DO to experiment and learn. Not a good idea to put a live website at risk. An hours down time is some times enough to loose rankings.

 

[DRE]

I agree with you but I no longer care about rankings as I have in the past since my site's membership is mostly invite-only and mostly consists of friends I know in real life and a couple peeps I met online on other sites. They'll always be around. I just want to provide the fastest experience for em with as low as cost as possible. That's why I'm looking at what's the fastest and even wondering if I should give Facebook HHVM a try.

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

Ok I get the idea.

The simplest thing to do to make page loads faster would be to use cache. Xcache works well and there is also a tutorial some where on this forum about how to set it up with xenforo. You can also use the Minify CSS and Fetch public templates as files settings that are built into xenforo itself (Options > Performance > Scroll down to the bottom of the page and those two settings are there).
Once you have these things in place your pages should fly.

The more complicated you make it, more things you would have that could go wrong. I personally like to keep things as simple as possible. I dont even use a custom template on any of my forums (barring a couple) and the only modification that I ever do (on xenforo) is taking off the xenforo logo and replacing it with my site name thats all. It pays to keep things simple. No plugins atall.

 

[DRE]

I agree that caching does help make pages load faster but I planning on hosting at least more than one site on my server so I'm trying to go really, really fast. I was doing some researching and found G-WAN so instead of playing around with Facebook HHVM, I want to give G-WAN a try instead since HHVM doesn't have namespace support and @King Kovifor says that some addons rely on namespace support.

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

Good that you are trying different things. Do update after two months about what you settle down with in the end

 

[DRE]

I'm looking at this: http://www.knownhost.com/managed-ssd-vps-packages.html

SSD-2 Plan. Managed VPS w/cPanel. 2GB Guaranteed RAM, 30GB RAID 10 SSD Storage.

Debating on whether to go with their Litespeed which is $12 extra or pay a coder to install NGINX Reverse Proxy.

 

[DRE]

http://www.knownhost.com/specials.html

"No specials are available for SSD VPSs at this time. Please check back later."

lol nvm.

 

[rdn]

How about: https://www.linode.com/managed/

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

Thats a lot of money and I am not sure if its even dedicated resources. Depends what virtulization they use.

Have a look at this : https://www.ovh.ie/dedicated_servers/kimsufi.xml
Dont worry too much about SSD.. Just live everything on RAM and you be fine. Yes SSD does make a lot of difference but if you get the 20 euro one with 2 drives then just tell them to do a raid 0 for you. It would speed things up for you.

These are unmanaged hence the low prices. Network I can tell you is pretty good but really depends where your target audiance is. If you are targeting anywhere in Europe or North America then they have a data centre in Montreal and two in France. Check latency to each one of them to see what suits you.

Managing yourself is going to be a pain in the begening so if you want just spend $29 a month with platinumservermanagement.com and they will take care of most things. They do need you to have Cpanel though.

There are companies who would do it for $8 to $10 a month as well but you get limited number of tickets and would take care of your server no matter what control panel you use. Not recomended but if you dont want to spend the $29 then this could be an option.