Plain Red Hat Linux 9, Ensim Basic, Plesk 6, Ensim Pro 250, Cpanel :: CONFUSED!

[ABLady]

I'm confused as hell.

I've never had any experience with dedicated servers. But, pretty soon, I'm starting a site and would like to go dedicated off the bat.

I'm going to go with RackShack, EV1servers....

But, which one to get?

Plain Red Hat Linux 9
Ensim Basic
Plesk 6
Ensim Pro 250
Cpanel

Which is the best, easiest, to work with if you are a beginner?

[Steve Machol]

I prefer CPanel. I've seen a lot of problems with Plesk and Ensim.

[ABLady]

Thanks Steve,

A few years ago, I had a site hosted with VO, and even though the site was on a shared server, I think individual users had the CPanel interface. If I remember correctly, it looked pretty simple to use.

Is it pretty easy to setup MySql and do regular updates and stuff through CPanel?

[noppid]

I'd say you'd be very happy with the ease of use in cpanel. The mysql features are easy to use for adding databases and DB users. Just watch that drop button, there is no confirm. For updates and backups you'd be using FTP and SSH, these are not affected by by which panel you choose.

[RichM]

I am not quiet with you. cPanel/WHM updates automatically, no SSH required for updates unless it goes wrong.
Anyway i'd say go with cPanel.

[Viper4]

if i were you I would go with servermatrix.com cheaper and better

[Joshs]

cPanel >> *

[noppid]

I am not quiet with you. cPanel/WHM updates automatically, no SSH required for updates unless it goes wrong.
Anyway i'd say go with cPanel.

I wasn't clear. FTP to upload files to the site and ssh to login and do mysql backups. It's what I prefer at least.

[Pete99]

ABLady,

If you have no experience running a dedicated server, you're going to have more problems than you bargained for. You may want to find a 'managed' server solution that will do more than just patches and updates. Ev1/Rackshack have no managed solutions. They throw you a box, and you are on your own. Becareful!

My personal favorite is Ensim Pro. It's more secure than a cpanel box and easy to use, fun to add domains with. Been using it for the past 2 years and I love it.

Demo is on thier site. www.ensim.com

Good Luck!

[Joshs]

Oh, yeah, forgot, check out: www.servermatrix.com

[Marc Smith]

If you have no experience running a dedicated server, you're going to have more problems than you bargained for. You may want to find a 'managed' server solution that will do more than just patches and updates.

Yes, indeedy... I'm on my first dedicated - redhat 9 w/cPanel/WHM. I had a 'pro' set it up - or rather he said he knew what he was doing.

No need for details, but I will attest that if one has never managed a server they have a lot to learn.

I suggest you go through DEMOs of cPanel/WHM, Ensim and any other control panel you might want to use. See if you understand everything and if you understand some things which aren't evident (do you know when/why to make an 'A' entry?).

This is my first example with cpanel/WHM and it's OK, but I used to be able to do the little I needed to do via telnet/SSH.

I'm not a reseller, mind you, which makes a BIG difference. if I was a reseller, I would want an 'appliance'. But for me it's overkill to the extreme.

I'm on a Server Beach dedicated right now but I'm looking at moving to ServerMatrix in a couple of weeks.

[ABLady]

WOW! I'm flatered guys with all your help. Thank you.

I'm soaking all of this info in. I've also started to read this book on UNIX, which is helping with the basic stuff.

Everyone at some point was a beginner. Sooner or later we all have to cross that bridge. Better to do it from the start while you're site is growing than when it's so big that you get scared to do something new with it it.

[George L]

prefer Cpanel since they nearly completed support for RH Enterprise and Fedora OS which comes in handy after April 2004

[Dan Luria]

Like most people said, you should really consider a managed solution. ( Cue my repeating of what everyone has said. ) This way, the company takes care of your entire server for you, and you can do whatever you need without constantly worrying about whether it is up. ServInt has some nice 'WHT' specials on managed servers, or you could look at ServerBeach, which is the 'cheaper' servers from RackSpace, or ServerMatrix, which is the cheaper servers from ThePlanet. If you REALLY have money to spend, go to RackSpace.com. They charge $2/GB for bandwidth (which is VERY high in comparison of previously mentioned datacenters), but, however, their support is excellent (or so I've heard). As for control panels, you'll hear highly mixed results. The conclusions I've come to are --
cPanel: Customers like it! Lots of features, too.
Plesk: Very powerful, especially for administrators. You can check out the new skin on the Plesk 6.5 demo for Windows, and it's awesome. However, if something goes wrong, they charge $115/hr to fix it!
Ensim: Lots of people like this aswell, though I'm not crazy about it myself.
DirectAdmin: $299 for an unlimited license, and people say it's going to give cPanel a run for its money in the future. Again, I don't personally like it.
For OS's:
RedHat 9: They're discontinuing this line in favor of RedHat Enterprise Linux, so forget it.
Fedora: The development version of RedHat EL, not for productive servers.
RedHat EL: Expensive if bought directly, but probably your best choice.
FreeBSD: A Unix alternative, many people prefer it, though I've heard it's much harder to learn and administer.

That's all.

[ajk57]

CPanel / Whm is very easy.

The thing you have to watch is switching thems.
If you are a reseller, the WHM panel does not have all the features in each color theme.
On the host I used, 101server.com who I DON'T recommend, they don't have all the features on all the themes set up.
Only the default theme uses all the system operator features.