Is renting a VPS a good idea to practise using the Linux terminal?

Mihai B.

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There are many VPS offers on this forum and i can select one for testing purpose. I recently installed Ubuntu and started learning the terminal after my website got issues with current web host last time. I think it is better to improve my hosting skill by renting a VPS to practise. What do you guys think about this idea?
 

VirtuBox

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Yes that's the best way to have good performances for cheap price.
To learn how to use Ubuntu/Debian or Centos, you can use VMware Player or VirtualBox to create a small VPS on your computer. So by connecting the VM to your local network, you will be able to connect it using SSH and to install what you want. Just make a copy of the VM to reinstall it when you want
 

LJSHost

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I was also suggest creating a vps on your own computer to learn the basics. If you have a dedicated IP at the connection you are using you can use your vps as a real server.
To be honest a low end vps is very cheap and you will have your server online 24/7 for you to learn with and host sites on.
 

CyberHour

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If you get your VPS from hosting provider who will config and install Control Panel (cPanel or Webuzo/InterWorx) like we do with our plans, then you won't really need to start learning Linux (except basic commands maybe).

The idea to get VPS is not bad at all, linux is powerful OS and of course VPS are OP vs cheap shared hosting.
 

StartVM

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StartVM
While for some people this is a fine solution, I think if someone is going to go past shared hosting, they should have at least a basic understanding of administration of the server their systems run on (unless of course they have an IT person). Not all hosts provide good management and the last thing you want is to get way to far in over your head and not know how to grab your files from your server or manage basic essentials.
 

GswHosting

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If you want to learn using ssh and configure linux and other staff like: installing LAMP, security and installing email server/client. You can use VM on your Personal Computer, even you can put your VM linux public (with static-dedicated ip address or with some dns find on net).
Or you can rent some unmanaged VPS Like OpenVZ for 10$/mo, and ask support to tell you where you made mistake.
 
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CyberHour

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Dear GswHosting,

What part of our reply looks like promoting our selfs ?

OP question is very clear to us " I recently installed Ubuntu and started learning the terminal after my website got issues with current web host last time. I think it is better to improve my hosting skill by renting a VPS to practise. What do you guys think about this idea?"

And what we said is that OP doesn't have to become system administrator in order to use VPS for his website. Because there are hosting providers who will provide fully configured VPS like we do under semi-managed service.

Learning Linux security is not something that can happen overnight from newbie.


GswHosting :"Or you can rent some unmanaged VPS Like OpenVZ for 10$/mo, and ask support to tell you where you made mistake."

In case there are still users who don't know what unmanaged VPS hosting means here is our short definition of this service:

Unmanaged Little to no involvement from service provider. Customers provide all maintenance, upgrades, patches, and security.

Because if Mihai rent unmanaged VPS and start asking random questions which have nothing to do with the technical part of the service then the replies he will receive will be something like "RTFM" or if they are more friendly with their customers "Google it".

We have customers who manage successfully to block their own access to their VPS(s) just messing with the firewall settings. We don't believe that Mihai want to have such or even worse issues.


If Mihai want to learn Linux for professional use he better start with VM for free before he rent VPS. Because learning linux just because you are with provider who is not suitable for you is not recommended. After all an webmaster should focus on what he is doing best or what he is making profit from. Which in our case is managing and running websites and not servers.

/Cheers
 

StackNetwork

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Renting a VPS to learn Linux terminal isn't bad idea, however you can just install a virtualization environment like VirtualBox, Hyper-V and create a VM by yourself, it's free and you get full access which means you can do anything you want.

Since you are just learning Linux terminal, and not doing business related things, I would not rent a VPS if I were you.
 

fwh

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There are many VPS offers on this forum and i can select one for testing purpose. I recently installed Ubuntu and started learning the terminal after my website got issues with current web host last time. I think it is better to improve my hosting skill by renting a VPS to practise. What do you guys think about this idea?
Obviously this is a good idea to check somethings (server configurations, installing addons, apps, software...etc) for your real websites running on the internet or gaining your web hosting skills. I'm also having 2 VPS packages for testing but I only use one for this purpose. Sometime we could use VPS that host real websites to check because if do some wrong configurations it can affect to your visitors or your websites when appearing errors.

Don't hesitate to go with your idea, it is a cool idea, buy a VPS package on the forum and check whatever you want before applying them to your running.
 

Luxin Host

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As mentioned above, its always a good idea to first install Ubuntu on your local computer using VM. This means no costs what so ever, you can test what ever you want on it with no limitations and also resting it should be no problem.

Once you become more advance and learnt the fundamentals then it would be a good idea to get a cheap VPS and try out everything on a live server.
 

Mihai B.

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Mihai B.
Simple steps to install Ubuntu on my PC using VM?
I am familiar with Windows and I don't know anything about Ubuntu.
 

vpsrus

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I believe the OP is a little confuse about virtualization, OS, etc... Let me try to explain in simple words:

There are 2 ways for you to install OS (operating system) one is using a software called VirtualBox you can download and install on your windows machine for virtualization then you will have to learn how to configure and also how to deal with OS ISOs (images), it is a good experience if you want to learn virtualization also you will have to deal with which Linux flavor you want to install on the VirtualBox, there are tons of Linux flavor the most known and used are Centos/REH and Debian/Ubuntu you will have to download them and install it.

Now if your intention is to learn only Linux I would say to you to rent a cheap VPS as a VPS comes with a control panel where you can choose what kind of Linux you want to install and learn, that is right they are different they in the end does the same but they have complete different commands and their files are locate in a different places.

What is the advantage that you have with a VPS:
You can install one flavor of the Linux and study then you go to your control panel choose another and reinstall with one click and you can check the difference between them.

Hope this help you to decided what to do.
 

ServerHand

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You can try installing Virtualbox for free and downloading ubuntu ISO and then mount it and learn the process from start to finish of installing Linux as well. Virtualbox is free and you could try multiple OSs as well. You might find you like one Linux vs another.
 

StackArcVPS

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Get yourself a VPS already. though virtualbox is an option but to test in real environment u could go with any cheap vps service and try and test your skills and refine them more and more. there is a lot to learn.
 

rocket

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Personally I started with an old machine I had laying around, moved to a VM on my PC if I wanted to try something quickly then moved to a VPS.

I'd recommend grabbing a cheap yearly KVM based VPS (so you can play around with different kernels etc) and play around with it. In fact, something like the Vultr $2.50 would be pretty good for learning with, I've not tried them personally though.

If you're not looking to spend anything stick with Virtual Box on your own machine.
 

David Beroff

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I am not sure Virtual Box has same features like you are doing on a real VPS

Agree that there are VPS plans are very cheap if you go with 512 or 1GB of RAM. That worth trying to learn or test your websites before moving to a new host.
 

rocket

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rocket
I doubt the OP needs the full functionality of a VPS such as the faster networking etc if they're just looking to practise with the terminal, most things can be done in a similar or even the same way in Virtual Box.
 

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