Dedicated server without CPanel?

[Jack Norton]

I'm still far from buying my own server :D
But I'm curious to know, from people who have one, if is possible to get away without buying the CPanel, Plesk or any other control panel they offer.
I'm asking because I saw very good deals from layeredtech, but they don't include CPanel.
Would be someone unexperienced in Linux/BSD like me able to manage the server without those panels? or they're indispensable?

Thanks for any clarifications!

[svero]

Well.. It's possible to manage a server without the control panels, but if you don't have any experience doing it you're in for an uphill battle. There's tons to learn and aside from the regular everyday setup you also have to be concerned with patching and maintaining the server for security reasons.

[Jack Norton]

Hmm ok then when I'll buy one I'll have to add those 25$/month for control panel :)

[Kai Backman]

I'm with Svero here. I run a barebones machine myself but I have been administering Linux boxes for ages. And I have an absolutely minimal setup (basically only ssh/www) to keep the support burden as low as possible. A non-local server is a pretty fidgety thing to keep going .. :)

[Jack Norton]

Hehe ok :) so those extra 25$ seems well spent :)

[MattInglot]

Sorta irrrelevant now since you did by CPanel, but for others reading this, the rule of thumb is, "if you have to ask, then you should be buying the panel".

I admin 1 server that doesn't have a control panel and it's certainly very possible but there is no way you can pull it off without previous experience or a VERY steep learning curve. Security is paramount and honestly with the time it would take to learn this stuff you could get a job at McDonald's and not only cover your server costs but make some extra crash on the side.

You can always get a new server next year and not get CP with it. You'll be a lot more up to the challenge then.

Good luck!

[nalenb]

I have a Windows 2003 server that I rent. I'm fairly sure I could do everything without the panel (I use Helm), however, since I host a bunch of friends, it's much easier on them and me to have a web panel app. So perhaps the answer depends on your use.

[chanon]

You might also checkout http://www.servint.com/vps. I'm currently using them and its been great. (IIRC Dexterity is using them too.) Its fully managed with very good support. Any problems you have, just email them and you will get a reply from a human in no more than 15 minutes.

The "Essential Package" is very low priced for what you get and you get CPanel free :D

I'm a Linux newbie also, and I asked around at Webhostingtalk.com and they advised me to go with VPS. It's good to know that if you do anything wrong that blows up the server, the friendly tech support guys (they're called NOCs) are there to save you - at no cost :D If you choose one of those unmanaged dedicated servers, you're gonna be absolutely on your own and if you really need them to fixup something on your server, it might even cost you!

Anyways, be sure to PM me if you are going to choose them :)

[Mike Boeh]

I prefer DirectAdmin to cpanel.... It's clean and simple, yet does everything i need to do. This forum is the only site on a dedicated server with DirectAdmin- hosted at cyberwurx, who is currently giving directadmin for free with their servers....
http://www.cyberwurx.com/unmanaged.html
They never have downtime- ultra reliable...

www.15minuteservers.com (http://www.15minuteservers.com) also gives directadmin for free, as does www.wholesaleinternet.com (http://www.wholesaleinternet.com)

[Jack Norton]

Thanks for the additional info. Those VPS look interesting indeed, even if for about 60$ I get "only" 200Gb monthly traffic :D
The difference from, for example, layeredtech is 800 Gb (they offer 1000Gb/month). Even if I'm not going to need all that bandwidth very soon, who knows? I prefer to have already a server who can handle all future games or possibly increase of traffic (like retro64 said, your game get featured on big portal and you have 10.000 download in one day!). Also I don't want to move everything again (change domain pointer, FTP everything, etc).
On the other hands, UBM is about 5mb and I get an average of 120-150 daily downloads, so it's about 22 Gb /month, I'd need 10 more games like that before really needing more than 250-300 Gb/month... :rolleyes:

Cyberwurx offer seems good too, even if a unmanaged server scares me a bit in case of hacker attack! there's somewhere screenshots of that Directadmin just to see how it looks?

NM, just found the official website with a demo, was easy!!

[Jack Norton]

Just played a bit with DirectAdmin and seems easy enough to use. Since there would be just a few domain on the server and nothing particular, I think it would be enough to use that, I agree with Mike on this one! :cool:

[nalenb]

I've been having good service with http://www.servermatrix.com/ Their current prices dont' seem great, but they run specials every now and then. I'm paying $85/month ($25 for Helm panel) for 80gigs of hd and 1.2 terra bytes of bandwidth per month. I hardly even tried and found 6-8 people to pay me $5/month to help offset the cost. A lot of options open up if you have complete control of the server. I am my own name server so I can host as many domains as I want without having to ask anyone for setup help. I can run whatever software I want on the server as long as I install it myself (game servers, mail servers, etc). Since I own the whole server I can offer packages like 1 gig of drive space/100 gigs bandwidth for just $5 :-) No one can compete with that, and usually you can find friends who need hosting. 10 Friends paying $5/month usually offsets the cost of the server.

[nalenb]

Oh, btw, I've heard you can buy a license for most of the panels for much less than paying $25/month. I've heard of people paying 60-80 for cpanel, and then you own it.

[Jack Norton]

Oh, btw, I've heard you can buy a license for most of the panels for much less than paying $25/month. I've heard of people paying 60-80 for cpanel, and then you own it.
That's very weird! Why then I should pay 25$/month when for 80$ I can buy it??

[Mike Boeh]

I believe that cpanel info is false. I do not think they offer full purchase licenses at all, for any price.

[Diragor]

Yeah, unless there's some kind of shady reselling going on somewhere, CPanel is WAY more than $60-80 bucks and there isn't really a lifetime license.

http://www.cpanel.net/dist.htm

[MattInglot]

Oh, btw, I've heard you can buy a license for most of the panels for much less than paying $25/month. I've heard of people paying 60-80 for cpanel, and then you own it.

That sounds incredibly shady. I've seen deals where you get CPanel free for as long as you stay with your server provider, but I have never ever seen a lifetime CPanel license. It would be incredibly unprofitable for CPanel to do this. Right now they are making ridiculous cash from this stuff and by the way things are going, it looks like they might be charging even more for the new CP Pro.

[Dom]

We do it the hard way (although we have built some PHP scripts to ease the pain) but a quick google for 'free linux control panel php' brings up (among others):

VHCS (http://www.molesoftware.com/www/index.php?i18n=en&pid=1&title=Produkte&sub=4)

<Edit: This seems to be for managing subdomains & the like on a server so probably not applicable. I'll keep looking tho cos I want the same thing!>
<ReEdit: Looking further, it does have all the standard thibngs for the client bit (email setup, FTP, MySQL, etc.) as well as the subdomain stuff. Neat!>

Not used it, but I think I will give it a go when we next upgrade our server.

As for managing a bare bones system, most hosting providers will give you free advice and support regarding security (it is in their interests to do so), and there is a wealth of information regarding running your own server at places like:

DevShed (http://www.devshed.com/)

My personal preference now is for Debian, as this was easier to manage than Red Hat, and less prone to falling over when you upgrade stuff (via the 'apt' tool). I know Red Hat can use the 'apt' tool, but when I tried installing & using it - I hosed my system :)

- Dom

[nalenb]

Sorry, I didn't mean cpanel per se. I use Helm (http://helm.webhostautomation.com/helm/pricing.asp) and you can buy a license for $299 or through my host I can pay monthly for $25/month. Now, of course some people have bought the license in the past and no longer need it, so they sell the license on ebay. I have no idea if this is legal or not (i.e. can the license be transferred), but people are doing it.

Actually here (http://www.cpanel.net/store/) it looks like you can buy a license to cpanel for $1500. I have no idea of what used cpanel licenses go for or whether or not they are legal.