You're looking to start hosting a website.  This could be for yourself, you family, friends or as a full on business.  With all the choices out there, where to begin can be a bit daunting (even more than a bit).  Not too long ago, I was faced with this very thing.  I had been hosting my own website at home for a while and a collegue was in need of the same.  I was able to make a deal with a local data center, picked up a 1U server and started the madness that has ensued since.  The rest of this is going to be directed towards setting up a web/email hosting system as a business, for the sake of making money.  Not all of the software is going to be free.  I'll touch on setting up a totally free version in the next post.

I knew I wanted to go with a Linux OS and that was about it.  I started with Fedora, then tried OpenSuse (then shortly tried SLES), followed by Debian and then OpenBSD (not a flavour of linux, but i tried it anyhow).  Why no Windows server?  Well, for me it is simple, I want to be able to dig deeper than Windows will allow me to do should the need arise.  I did finally decide on an OS and the rest of the pieces.  They are:

- CentOS (now running the latest version 5)

- Apache (webserver)

- MySQL (database server)

- AtMail (Web based email system)

               Exim (mail/SMTP server)   
               Courier (POP/IMAP server)   
               Spamassassin (anti-spam software)   
               ClamAV (anti-virus software)

CentOS -- (CentOS Home) --  I'm a fan of RedHat based systems.  I find they are easy to set up, maintain, secure and if I need to assist someone else with a problem, I've found easiest for someone less familair with Linux than me to grok.  With the size of hard drives today, I have no issue installing an X window system and a GUI (gnome/kde) for management.  these have come a long way in recent years and work well.  Utilities can be installed via RPM (RedHat Package Manager) or using YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modifier).  The other reason I like CentOS is it is almost a straight accross clone of RHEL.  If I get into a situation where a customer needs to use a version of Linux that has some sort of corporate support, they can use RHEL and it will behave almost exactly the same.  This can come in really handy as you grow and have hardware needs that require some sort of commercial hardware that only has drivers for either RHEL (RedHat Enterprise Linux) or SLES (Suse Linux Enterprise Server).  A recent issue with Emulux drivers and a SAN (Storage Area Network) device comes to mind as an example.

Apache -- (Apache Home)  In my opinion there is no other web server to use.  Apache has been around since people have been serving web pages on a regular basis, there are a tremendous number of modules available for any sort of web based application you may want to build.  It is easy to secure manage and maintain.

MySQL -- (MySQL Home)  I really like MySQL for all database intensive jobs.  I work with it daily and have found I like it more and more the more I use it.

Exim -- (Exim Home)  I choose Exim for a couple of reasons.  First I am familliar with it and Second it is available in another package that provides a web based configuration utility.  I'll touch more on this later.

Courier -- (Courier IMAP Home) Again, familiarity and inclusion with AtMail

Spamassassin -- (Spamassassin Home) Spamassassin is the leading open source anti-spam software out there.  There are so many modules available for it, I would have to start two new blog posts to list them.  It really does a good job.

ClamAV -- (ClamAV Home) Similar to Spamassassin, Clam is the leading open source anti-virus software on the market.  They have become so popular and received so many requests for a commercial version, they now have one.  A fantastic piece of software.

AtMail  -- (AtMail Home) OK, the version of AtMail I am recommending isn't free.  They do have an open source version, but if your looking at setting up a system for profit, quickly and easily, I recommend their commercial version.  If your using CentOS, have GCC (Gnu C Compiler) installed and are connected to the web, the AtMail installation utility will tell you what you need for dependancies and if you agree, fetch and install them for you (using YUM).  This includes installing the dependencies for Exim, Courier, Spamassassin and ClamAV (as well as building and installing these for you). It has a nice web based admin panel as well as a nice web based mail client on top of these other packages.

OK, a couple of things you should know about my choices.  I have been working with the AtMail software package for about six years.  for the last 3.5 - 4 years, I have been contracting directly for them.  My opinion is almost certainly biased in this direction.  That being said, I wouldn't have come on board with them after working with them as a reseller if I didn't feel as strongly about what I was doing as I do.  All of these choices are my personal choices and what I recommend most of the time for clients of mine as well as clients of AtMail.  I have played with most of the other software package available that are in this same class (cost money and offer commercial support) and this is still my first recommendation.  Please remember, the entire focus of this post is convenience.  This convenience is a balancing act at best.  How can one set up a solution easily, securely and with the highest probability of success. All of this while at the same time allowing it to grow! I do think there is a better way to go about things, a way that is by far less convenient, costs no money (for the software end of things anyhow) and in my opinion is more secure.  This will be the focus of my next full post and would be what I would be recommending if my client told me they wanted it done right, from the ground up and security was the focus over convenience.

I know this is a bit to absorb in a blog post, I'll answer any questions posted in the form of a comment and you are welcome to email me directly with questions or just to tell me my methods are wrong because you have a better one....  I'm not afraid :-)  -> jason at mailtps dot com

 JB

So I've been dedicating a good bit of my time lately brainstorming a new product.  This has made me think about how I go about providing hosting to the very small number of people I do (some friends and family that need a business presence on the web and that is about it).  I loathe the idear of finding a one stop shop for all my offering needs as it were.  It is my opinion that the companies that have the resources to provide every possible tool and utility one may want to offer to their customers also have the resources to box those same people in.  By box in I mean that you don't get the source to the products you are running and you have no idea where to go if you have issues execpt through their tech support.  This may be good, it may be aweful and that almost assuredly will depend on the mood of the support person you speak with as well as your mood (don't ever forget how much your mindset and what you project going into a tech support call will effect the outcome of the call).

 Many shun open source products because they don't come with some level of tech support.  For a number of organizations this is just, they don't have the resources to bring on a full time admin or to dedicate a full time admin to one particluar task.  It may make sense to put the burden of support somewhere else. This area is so grey, really.  There are so many software vendors out there who provide only one product.  This may be email, this may be web services, this may be anti spam or anti virus protection, but in my opinion, these individual vendors are who we need to be looking to to provide a bundled product to our customers.  This takes careful consideration and the decision should not be made over night.  If you really need something right away, at least make sure you aren't getting locked into something you can't get out of if you change your mind in a month (or even a week). Then spend some time as you can and really dig into a few things that are options and re-evaluate your decision.  There is nothing wrong with changing your mind and your customers will understand (especially if your decision provides them with a better product).

 OK, this has kinda been all over the place.  The reason for all of that drivel will become apparent in the next couple of weeks.  I've been cooking up some real world scenarios on hosting solutions (mostly geared towards the would be hosting provider) that focus on the paradigm of convenience and secuirty.  I'll start on Friday with what I would do if I were starting from scratch and going to start up a small hosting company on my own.  The first one will be based on convenience.  What works best and is easiest to set up.  The second one (in a couple of weeks) will be based on security.  More to follow.....

jb

So the software company I devote most of my time to has just released an open source version of it's commercial offering.  This has maybe opened up the most ginormous can of internal battle worms for me in a loooooooooooong time.  It has really made me think of what made me get into this industry in the first place.  So what is "free as in beer"?  I hear this thrown around a good deal (more in the last couple of months internally).  Fron the context, I think most of  us can grasp what this is about, but as I've been hearing this in mixed context lately I thought I would dig in a bit further .  It seems it's roots  are from the first bit of an essay by Richard Stallman.

Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.

 I think this is such a wonderful statement.  I think all too often any more we get wrapped up in how free and/or open source software is going to effect our bottom line (the one defined by the no longer almighty dollar) and lose sight of what this can actually bring into our industry.  What is it going to take to tilt the scales back in the direction of free as in speech?  I mean we're taling about EMAIL here! Shouldn't free as in speech be at the top of what drives our decisions about how we deliver this to our customers?  Maybe it's not our place to make that decision for our customers?  I guess I feel it is our responsibility to provide these customers with that other thing that goes so hand in hand with freedom, choice. At the very least it is something to think about as we make these decisions.

jb 

****EDIT

i want to thank Mark below for pointing out something that often gets overlooked.  I should have dug a bit deeper before I started with this post.  I do believe I was objectionalbe and was giving my opinion about how and where things may go, but I could hvae been more cautious.  Please read his comments if you read this post.

 jb

So I've been reading and trying to keep up with what's going on with Sun and MySQL these last couple of months.  Seems like this has the potential to become another fantastic open source project that is moving towards closing some of it's source (some of the most wonderful parts of it's source).  While this has ovbious consequences, it also shows potential for much needed growth.  While we may loose some of the most wonderful things about MySQL availabe to us now as an open-source project, we very well may see some fantastic developments in how databases work and what we can do with them.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of closing the source on a project like this, but I'm also a fan of progress (a term used very loosely in mixed company such as this ;-) ), however there are a number of good things we may see.  Remember many of the applications (email, shopping carts, groupware colaboration and most anything with advanced dynamic content) rely heavily on a relational database for the backend to work.  While we have a couple of other open source projects to use for this, none are as popular as MySQL.

Just some stuff off of the top of my head for now.

 

jb