Hi everyone,

Good to make your acquaintance.

My name's Olly Connelly, aka the_guv from guvnr.com, where I blog about making the web, and making the most of it.

Several months ago I finally lost patience with shared hosting and went the unmanaged VPS route. I wanted this:-

"Serve multi sites & blogs on a budget .. at the fastest possible speed .. with the least downtime .. in the most secure environment .. and future-proofed for easy admin."

After toying with other solutions, cue Nginx. The problem was I'd barely used Linux, let alone set up a remote web server with scarce docs. Having trawled heaven-only knows how many sites and forums, I solidified my solution and set up my sites.

And I figured there'd be a lot of people like me, who were fed up of shared and wanted an economic yet superfast web host VPS solution. So I wrote the <a href="http://www.guvnr.com/web/web-dev/setup-unmanaged-vps-newbies-v-p-s-bible/" title="the ultimate VPS newbie setup guide">VPS Bible for Newbies</a>.

The only problem was the lack of a compatible control panel, so I have sought to negate that by writing an appendix, <a href="http://www.guvnr.com/web/web-dev/vps-admin/" title="no control panel, no problem!">VPS Admin for Newbies</a>, and most is now written, with half published.

I've plans also for some future posts about some more advanced configurations.

So, er, I guess it's about time I said hi :)

Naturally I hope this guide is handy for newer members of the Nginx community, that they can be as pleased as I with Igor's code, and as excited as its active online developers and followers.

But also, while the VPS setup process I've optioned is now widely tested by my site users, I'm really keen to encourage the views of senior Nginx users, and hope to improve this guide with your considered feedback, and most grateful for whatever input you can give.

So please let me know. And thank you.

I've got some specific questions too .. so I'm off to get stuck into the forums.

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http://guvnr.com .. now publishing the ultimate 40-part VPS/Nginx copy/paste guide ..

Set Up an Unmanaged VPS (4 Newbies) .. The V-P-S Bible .. (featuring Nginx) ..
http://www.guvnr.com/web/web-dev/setup-unmanaged-vps-newbies-v-p-s-bible/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2009 08:37AM by the_guv.

Hi and welcome.

Some initial feedback - first on your post above. We don't parse HTML in posts for security reasons and your links give 404's because of the end quote.

Now I haven't had time to read all of your posts (though what I did read is very informative and it is obvious that you put in *a lot* of time and effort), but my first humble suggestion is to get off of the legacy version of nginx (you are currently using 0.6.32 which is over a year old) and at least onto the current stable release (0.7 series is the current stable series). If you insist on using 0.6.x I would suggest the latest version (0.6.38 as of this writing) so as to be able to take advantage of the "try_files" directive in your rewrites (which maybe you might include with your app guides). Also the proxy and fastcgi cache modules are not available in 0.6.x if I recall correctly, and this is something that can potentially save a bit of effort on a busy site running with limited resources. Just a couple of thoughts that you can put in the bin if you like. :)

--
Jim Ohlstein

Hi Jim,

Thank you.

That's precisely the kind of thing I need to hear. Sometimes one cannot see the wood for the trees! What you suggest is so obvious I am inclined to kick myself.

I'll update the guide to reflect what is possible with the stable release, and add some notes about the development changelog. This won't be for a couple of weeks, but it will happen.

My intention is not simply to write this series and forget it, but to keep it updated.

Really appreciate that, and your welcome .. and the tip about my sig :P

Olly.

***************************************************************************************************
http://guvnr.com .. now publishing the ultimate 40-part VPS/Nginx copy/paste guide ..

Set Up an Unmanaged VPS (4 Newbies) .. The V-P-S Bible .. (featuring Nginx) ..
http://www.guvnr.com/web/web-dev/setup-unmanaged-vps-newbies-v-p-s-bible/

Jim Ohlstein Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> get off of the legacy version and at least onto the
> current stable release (0.7 series is the current stable series).

.. done Jim, er, a while back now! Tx again for feedback .. and keep it coming .. VPS Bible still growing!

***************************************************************************************************
http://guvnr.com .. now publishing the ultimate 40-part VPS/Nginx copy/paste guide ..

Set Up an Unmanaged VPS (4 Newbies) .. The V-P-S Bible .. (featuring Nginx) ..
http://www.guvnr.com/web/web-dev/setup-unmanaged-vps-newbies-v-p-s-bible/