How to Setting Up a Server

              This article teaches you, the reader, how to configure a GNU/Linux based server with three of the most important services that must be provided in a company, at home, a lab or anywhere else, both for clients and internal usage: web, database, mail. So it will be assumed that the idea is to host websites that use certain technologies such as a scripting language and a database (for dynamic sites), and also to act as a mailing tool, for sending and receiving email.
 

        Consider that this article only shows some of the basic features for configuring these services, each program has much more in depth options. Entire books have been written just about Apache or MySQL. So, don't just stay with what you learn here, play around, read, learn; system administration is all about security and performance, so there's a lot more to discover.

        I have also decided to show some optimization (tuning) techniques for a better performance. We will use only free/open source software in this article, thus,it is not necessary to buy commercial licenses. The software we will use is Debian GNU/Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP and Postfix. The first three are what is called LAMP, where the P can stand for various server side scripting languages such as PHP, Perl and Python. In general, it represents the open source web platform (both for developing and using it). I have been using LAMP and Postfix for years and must say that, after trying lots of other programs of the same sort, it is the wisest choice if you want a powerful, easy to use/configure/maintain and secure server environment.

        Why use Debian? I have always liked this distribution because it's easy to manage packages (programs) and system services. It is also very secure and stable, making it perfect for servers and any system that must run 24/7. It's huge package repository (over 15490) is more than enough to get the best use out of any computer system.

Why use Apache? Simple - it's currently the best, most secure and most used HTTP server. It also supports a huge amount of modules and extensions. Here are some specific benefits of Apache: support, efficiency, portability and customizability.

        Why use MySQL? It's logo says it all: The world's most popular open source database. This DBMS is reliable, powerful and easy to manage and use. Also, we will use it with Postfix for better integration and performance.

Why use Postfix? If you ask any systems administrator why he/she uses Postfix as a Mail Transport Agent (MTA) the answer will be it's easy and fast. Another great feature is it's security and the wide amount of operating systems it can run on (BSD, Linux, AIX, Solaris, OSX, etc.)