Plesk 12 webadmin for Webhosting newbie

[SAngeli]

Hi,
contrary to classic shared hosting (which I have always used it for multidomain with DirectAdmin or cPanel) I wish to try growing up and purchase a VPS Cloud 1 hosting plan provided by OVH. I do not have a lot of experience setting up and managing an entire webserver. I have installed and customized a bit Ubuntu server at home. I was advised to choose Plesk 12 (webadimin) + either “CentOS 6” or “Ubuntu 14.04 Server LTS”.

OVH sales informed me that once I selected “Plesk 12 + one of the two above Linux OS”, I will end up with a Virtual Machine running a “ready to go” webserver. All I have to do is keep updating Plesk and Linux with stable packages and do all the customization and setups of my domains via Plesk. If I ever encounter any problem, just try to understand it and fix it if you know or just google around or ask on forums.

I wish to ask few decision maker questions, which will allow me to best discern.

1. someone told me that Plesk best runs with CentoOS. He manages with Plesk 12 several servers with CentOS and one with and Ubuntu; he reported me that the one with Ubuntu is a "biggest timewaster". He suggested me to opt for Plesk+centOS.
Others say that CentOS is sometime very difficult to manage and Ubuntu is far a better choice. I myself feel more comfortable/familiar with Ubuntu as have slightly use it locally at home.

Question: Which Linux distro should I choose for best performance but most important the least problems when updating OS or Plesk? Is indeed any real differences between Plesk+CentOS and Plesk+Ubuntu or not? I ask this because if chose I would opt for Ubuntu could but I am concerned with what could down the road happen.

2. Is indeed Plesk 12 webadmin capable of allowing me to fully manage my web servers, like setting up domains, emails, firewall, phpMyAdmin and so on?

3. When I obtain the prebuilt Virtual Machine, who determines which software is installed and which not? Is it Plesk or OVH? I ask this question in order to have Plesk to fully work for configuring and managing a website.

Any additional suggestions? Any reference I can find on the Internet that can help me?

Thank you

 

[IgorG]

1. It's up to you. If you are more familiar with Ubuntu - choose Plesk+Ubuntu.
2. Yes. More details can be found here http://kb.odin.com/en/121897
3. What sort of software do you mean? Plesk requires only standard minimal OS installation. All other included Plesk components can be installed/uninstalled in Plesk UI. Keeping OS up-to-dated - task of your Service Provider or your.

Three best sources of Plesk information:

1. Official documentation - http://www.odin.com/products/plesk/documentation/
2. Knowledge Base articles - http://kb.odin.com/
3. Plesk community on this forum.

 

[SAngeli]

Hi Igor,
thank you for your kind reply.
The reason for my confusion regarding the type of Linux distro to choose is because I read on the Internet that CentOS is extremely compatible with Software managements (like Plesk, cPanel) and this is why people choose this one.
On the other hand, I do not know it well and I know Ubuntu a little bit.

My question is: should I listen to what is written on the Internet and choose CentOS and start learning it or should I ignore this and go for Ubuntu?

I know both distros are compatible with Plesk but why some people say CentOS is better than Ubuntu when used with Plesk? Where is this coming from? Just esperienze?


Thank you

 

[IgorG]

I think this is just a topic of religion and belief. Someone prefer CentOS, and someone prefer Ubuntu...

 

[Faris Raouf]

Yeah. I like Centos for servers, and Ubuntu on the desktop.
My suggestion would be to go with Centos. It isn't terribly different to Ubuntu if that's what you are used to.
My gut feeling is that you are likely to have fewer problems with Centos - Centos 6 at least.

Did you know there's a live demo of Plesk? http://www.odin.com/products/plesk/hands-on-demos/

I would add some words of advice to what OVH has said though. Yes, as long as you keep the OS and Plesk updated, you should be fine and you can add domains and email to your heart's content. But don't stop there. Don't use it just as a tool. Investigate the OS and learn how it works, and you'll be able to keep your tool sharp

 

[SAngeli]

Hi,

I finally decided to choose CentOS 6.6 (final) + Plesk 12 Web Admin. I realized it is far the best choice for me, at present time. The majority of sites I visited have Plesk + CentOS.
I started collecting some info on the Internet on how to learn basic commands and how CentOS is structured.

Now I have to familiarize, when connecting to my VPS via SSH, with user environment (where are mail for domains stored, where is each domain stored for www), how to query CentOS for updates, learn how to update and keep OS updated without causing Plesk problems and so on.

Thank you