Topic awaiting preservation: Webhost administration...

I'm not too sure about which forum to post this in, so if a MadSci thinks there's a better place for it, by all means go ahead

I vaguely remember reading about tom starting his own webhosting service on a server of his in the Server-Side forum (er, here), and was hoping he and/or anyone else could answer some questions...

A little background:
OK, a couple of the CS professors here are finally pushing to use *nix more (albeit SunOS) for various classes and purposes here in the lab. One of which is using one of the new servers (SunFire V480) to host all the websites for any CS classes that require the student to maintain online documentation of projects, the projects themselves, etc. All I have setup on the server is what was installed with Solaris 9 (Apache 1.3, whatever modules came with it... And I can't think of anything specific right now). After futzing with Apache, and various other things, I was able to get webpages to show up when and where I wanted (although I still need to setup php and mysql).

Now, I don't mind ftping stuff to the appropriate directory through the command line myself, but there are very few people in these classes that have ever even used ftp, much less through the command line. Basically what I've told them is to tough it out and learn, and since I practically live here in the lab I'll help when they need it and are here...
And for now at least, this'll work...

So at the moment, I manually create all the neccessary directories for each groups site, and they login to their home directory and have to cd to their web directory (/var/apache/htdocs/group_website_name), which isn't too much trouble.
And it's no trouble to chown each respective directory so that only the appropriate group can read/write/execute what they're supposed to, while still allowing everyone to view their webpages online. When I get a spare moment or two this semester (or next or whenever it ends up being) I'll write out a quick little shell script to ease the manual labor a bit (it gets pretty monotonous after the first couple sites).

But my question is this (since I have next to no experience administering a "web hosting service," and have only worked with a couple free hosting services myself)
Is there a a more efficient and/or effective way to administer everyones websites?
Is there an easier way for students/groups to edit their sites (without my having to create a web interface for them to use to upload files,etc)? (You'd be surprised at how many people know nothing about using the command line, and refuse to even try and learn it ... Then again, you probably already have an idea...).

Also, would anyone care to explain how web hosts work in general (primarily those running *nix, but Windows as well), mostly about creating ID's and access to the rest of the server (do they create user ID's on the server itself, or just somewhere in the webserver, or elsewhere?). The way I see it now, is that when you sign up, you get a user account on the server, and your home directory is your websites root folder. Anything like that? And if you ftp into the server, are you able to cd outside of your sites directory?

I'm sure I'll think of other questions I've had over the last week or so once I get more than 4 hours of sleep (BTW, that's my excuse if this doesn't make much sense or I'm just missing something ridiculously obvious )

Hi Lord_Fukutoku,

It's kind of late and I may not have read your questions properly, but, I will try to answer as best I understand.

It is not necessary to use a command line ftp clinet to access the unix server. Probably ftp is the best way to transfer files to the server, but you can do that from windows, mac or unix and there are ftp clients for all three with graphical user interfaces.

You could also try using programs like DreamWeaver or GoLive to design the web pages. I believe they have the ability to connect to the server and synchronize file on your computer with the files on the server.


The sever you want to set up is part of what is known as the client-server process. You set up a computer at a known address with programs attached to known ports. This computer becomes the server. The programs have the ability to receive transactions on the ports they are attached to an process these transactions. The program will then generally generate another transaction as a response.

Other computers can then connect to the known computer and send requests. These computers are clients and have programs which allow you to generate the requests.

For example, on the server you might set up a program that understands the HTTP protocol (like Apache or Xitami) . This program will automatically attach itself to port 80 and wait for HTTP requests. When it receive a request such as a GET, it grabs the gequested file from the hard drive and perpares it as another HTTP response which it sends out.

In the mean time, anyone who knows the address of your machine can run a browser which will create the HTTP requsests and send them to your server.

Other kinds of server programs you can set up on the server are FTP, gopher, telnet, ssh, rsh, e-mail, etc.

I'm sure there are several questions in your post I haven't answered, but this will get us started.

Feel free to ask more questions. I would suggest that you limit your posts to one or two questions though.




-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

quote:

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Is there a a more efficient and/or effective way to administer everyones websites?

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There are two answers to that question. The one that applies to you is dependent on these: Do you want to learn how it's done? Or do you just want to do it?

I can't help you with the first one. I can if you just want to get the task done.

What you're looking for a web server administration control panel. See this thread at HostHideout.com.

Actually, even if you want to learn it all your self or write your own scripts, reverse-engineering one of these might be helpful.

Edit: botched ubb link code... twice



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Thanks for both of those replies, and sorry I kinda just ran out after I posted that without any clarification on anything, but other 'projects' have come up... When I get these other things straightened out I'll come back to this thread.