Looking for some help setting up Magento

Question

I have been hosting several Magento websites via shared hosting for the last 24-months now. Setting them up is a doddle using cPanel etc. My web host simpleservers have let me down causing the production site to go down for 4 weeks! I then switched to shared hosting with 1&1 but similar problems with memory filling up just with a template and two products installed. I contacted Dell Business and they are delivering two top spec R420 rack servers for me to host the website myself. One server will run the database and the other the magento website. I've also upgraded to a Fibre Optic Broadband line with a static IP but need to help getting it all going. I've never set up servers before. Please can anyone recommend a suitable OS (I've been toying with the idea of Ubuntu Server as its got a GUI). Please can someone help...I have a limited budget but need to get up and running again!

BTW the site will have about 3 sub-designs and around 1000 unique SKUs.

Answer 1

In your case, I suppose it's fair to look at what you do have, a couple nice servers showing up capable of running serious solutions.

I think jumping right in and deciding to host yourself is going to give you headaches. Since you have the servers, maybe it would be worth your time to talk to some providers about co-location services. You get a box in their cage with a nice uplink as well as someone in the building to fix things if your server needs a disk swap.

Do this for a year or so and then, if you think you're ready, call the boxes back home and host it all yourself. At that point you might have learned a thing or two and can better provide your own infrastructure.

Answer 2

But to answer your question I would suggest Ubuntu. Definitely my favorite to use works with almost any program window servers are limited in my opinion.

Answer 3

I'd recommend Ubuntu or CentOS - but if the situation you described above is daunting already (meaning if you don't feel comfortable managing the servers) - Server configuration / Frontend Cacheing / Etc - Roshni's answer of switching to a VPS is probably the best solution. You definitely should not be having problems with memory in a store with two items. It may be propitious to post some logs and see why you are getting such load on your store, maybe other resources are being used.

Answer 4

Rather than having your own infrastruture, try AWS cloud based hosting of your site, it will free you from many activities also you can create backup if one your server is down also you can add resources as and when needed just on button clicks.

Answer 5

http://ubuntuserverguide.com/2014/06/how-to-install-lamp-in-ubuntu-server-14-04-lts.html

This explains how to set-up a LAMP Stack, how does it work for my two server set-up one running the website and other running the database?

Alex