Set up a production-ready web server
Firstly, what do we mean by “production-ready”? We’re taking the assumption that you’re setting up a server with some critical data, where wasted time means wasted money if it were to collapse or otherwise break down. Uptime is paramount to a fully functioning web server.
Of course, there are a lot of different types of Linux-based operating systems to choose from, so what would make a good base for a web server? Well, we need it to be rock-solid stable, with few breakages (and preferably none at all) during a package upgrade or kernel installation.
Debian or Ubuntu are both good choices for this, and while there isn’t anything actually stopping you using Arch or Gentoo, they’re probably best avoided – we’re looking to make it rock-solid, rather than anything like a Jenga tower. Statistics show us that over 80 per cent of websites and web applications are powered by open-source web servers. With stability being one of Debian’s main points, it’s easy to see why we’ve chosen to use it for this tutorial.
Server choice
You may have heard the term ‘LAMP stack’ when referring to web servers; this simply means a collection of software including Linux, Apache (the HTTP server itself), MySQL (for database management) and a ‘P’rogramming language such as PHP. An
