Configuring a home web server

Hi friends, i found this forum and think this is the best forum for administrators. That's why i'm asking you. I need help configuring the web server. I have server PC (Centos), licensed CPanel. But I have problem with name servers. I have only one static IP. How to set up ns1 and ns2?

 

You can set both NS1 and NS2 to the same IP.

 

Thank you very much for quick reply. I have one external static ip and 2 server. 1-primary, 2-backup. Nameservers must be equal to external static ip or internal static ip? In web server providers there are 2 nameservers with different IP. Sorry for my bad English.

 

Dns should be on external ips. make sure that your bind process is listening to those ips.

 

Thank you for reply. I have only one External IP. I have to buy second external IP from my ISP?

 

Are you going to run your own DNS servers, or are you just going to set up DNS for pointing to your own server / ip? If the former, that's a bit more complicated, if the latter, that's quite simple, but you'll need a way to promote your records to a nameserver. You have a domain name, hence a host somewhere - you should be able to add the correct DNS records there (enter your ip into their dns-config)

 

Thank you PoPSICLe, i want set up own home server + backup server, i called my ISP for second static IP. Now i have only one. When they will give me second static IP, can i set up first one to Primary Server and second one to backup server.

 

Uhm - why do you have two servers running at home, and why do you need two IPs for that? (I'm assuming you only have one line into the house - most reasons why a home server is unreachable is that the line is down - that won't change regardless of how many IPs you have) - the whole reason for a backup is usually to have redundance in case of a fallout).

 

PoPSiCLe, you are true, i have only one line, i must buy another internet line from another ISP or i must ask for second line from my current ISP?

 

Well, if you want to have redundancy on the servers, you would have to have a proper second line set up. I dunno if your ISP is capable of delivering that (if it's an ADSL-line, often the limit is the phonelines, not the ability of the provider) - however, I'd think this is a bit over-the-top for a home-server setup - why don't you just offload the backup to a datacentre (or, better, do it the other way around, have the main server at a datacentre, and the backup at home) or something? Of course, if you can get a secondary line, by all means, but you still need to consider how critical it is to always have a server running - if it's very critical, you might need to invest in a generator, a UPS, surge-protectors etc., not only for the servers, but also for the modems and phone-lines (which will still be busted if they get stuck by lightning). I'm not trying to ruin it for you, just saying that the setup might be unnecessary, or overkill, depending.

 

Thank you for attention. I'm Web developer. But i have no experience in Server Administration. I have developed ERP (Enterprise resource planning) system for my client and bought dedicated server from USA. But there is a long distance between our country and USA. (slow ping) In that case ERP system is working slowly. That is why i want to configure own home server. In that case what can you offer me as a mentor?

 

I see - I would still recommend getting a local datacentre-solution, in that case, and redirect the user(s) to that if the latency is too high - that will provide several benefits:
1. you'll have a proper datacentre, with (hopefully) onsite techs to fix and maintain
2. you'll have dedicated lines, and redundancy etc. more or less built-in
3. if it's a decent datacentre, they'll also provide automatic backups, which can be a huge benefit
4. they might be able to provide you with proper control panels (Cpanel or similar) and ready-set-up images for deploying on your server so most of the setup is already done, and the rest can be easily provided via control panel
5. you won't have to have the hassle with running your own server, maintaining them, updating etc.

Also note that unless you have dedicated lines for the servers, and a good speed on those lines, and also your ISP has decent feeder lines to and from you, you might not get a huge benefit hosting anything at home - depends a bit on how many users / connections you're expecting - a normal home router buckles under 4-600 up to around a 1000 simultaneous connections (both outgoing and incoming) - also, the speed of ADSL (if that's what you have) fluctuates and depend a lot on the infrastructure where you live (the quality of the signal) and that the upload speed is usually crap (which you'll probably want to have a decent speed, since you're going back and fro with the client).

I'm btw not a server tech - I've just worked on quite a few over the years. I'm a tech-guy, and I can set up servers if I need to, but I'm more development and software setup on client computers and such.

 

You can use same IP for NS1 and NS2 both.

 

This is something that pops up from time to time, that gets me wondering. It is not recommended to run a server from home, especially one that is powering a full software suite such as cPanel. Take into consideration that most ISPs will block specific ports, beyond that 99.9% of ISPs prohibit running any type of server off of their lines.