Centminmod vs VPSSIM

I want to save my time on configurations by installing a LEMP stack as Centminmod or VPSSIM.
I checked both sites and each one has its features but I have not used them yet in the past hence i have no experience with these.

Here's features of VPSSIM



Here's features of Centminmod



Does any give me a review, which one is better for my VPS? stable, secure, easy to use...etc?

harrygreen90 said:

I want to save my time on configurations by installing a LEMP stack as Centminmod or VPSSIM.
I checked both sites and each one has its features but I have not used them yet in the past hence i have no experience with these.

Does any give me a review, which one is better for my VPS? stable, secure, easy to use...etc?

Click to expand...

If you want a command line tools to setup your LEMP Stack, I recommend you to try EasyEngine.
You can read my thread about EasyEngine here : https://forumweb.hosting/13168-how-to-install-wordpress-with-nginx-and-redis-cache-on-a-vps.html

Easyengine = ubuntu
Centmin Mod = centos

Spin up a hourly vps i.e linode, DigitalOcean, vultr and try both for a few hours and see.

Centmin mod has a 123.09beta01 beta that you should check out it's going stable soon as i finish the site documentation update for it

Vpssim = centos but it is out of date and not regularly updated and security and performance wise behind centmin mod but best to try both and see for yourself

+1 for centminmod. The community (though a bit small) is very helpful, including the lead developer (@eva2000).

thanks @NickR

here's Centmin Mod 123.09beta01 shell based menu with minor improvements and additions since 123.08stable

i.e. expanded centmin.sh menu option 11
centmin.sh menu option 13 got re-purposed in latest beta

Centmin Mod web site has full page dedicated to recommended 3rd party @domain.com email providers like Google Apps/GSuite and MS Live/365 paid services as well as free providers like Zoho and full discussion thread on Centmin Mod forums. Uptime, security, reliability, anti spam measures and lower local server resource usage are all reasons to use such a 3rd party @domain.com provider instead of trying to host it yourself as cPanel does FYI, probably anti-virus/malware scanning of local emails via clamav/maldet and mailscanner like software could potentially raise your server's memory requirements by 4-8GB easily depending what type of emails you receive/send

Unfortunately, can't directly link to the pages due to forum rules here

Centmin Mod has it's own community forum where you can ask questions and I can give a more detailed reply (linking you to how to guides and documentation for Centmin Mod)

But Centmin Mod doesn't manage emails, you use a 3rd party service that you setup at domain DNS MX record level to provide @domain.com email functionality. Basically, you offload your domain's MX DNS records to a 3rd party provider so any emails to/from @domain.com go through that 3rd party's email servers and their high reputation mail server IP addresses. This reduces your server's resource usage too as mail serving, anti-spam and anti-virus management is handled by 3rd party servers.

But Centmin Mod isn't for shared hosting where you give other folks ssh access. Official site's FAQ item 2 outlines why and the details. It's mainly for single site owner (yourself) for use for your web sites you manage yourself as there is no ssh account isolation or site jailed/chroot isolation in Centmin Mod like cpanel/WHM has. I have over the years worked on several jailed/chroot user site/ftp/ssh isolated nginx solutions for Centmin Mod so there are plans in future - but that's way into the future and not ready yet.

example of using Zoho's free @domain.com email service setup https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/email-hosting-with-zoho.html

Email management is a tricky business as email deliverability and troubleshooting such issues can have factors outside of provided software. I provide and develop Centmin Mod for free to users so I don't have the time to delve into email deliverability or troubleshooting issues which may have nothing to do with software I provide i.e. spam blacklists, viruses, dkim, spf, dmarc policy misconfigurations or lack of such preventing emails from reaching your intended recipients. A 3rd party service is paid or solely focused on dealing with those issues. Though, Centmin Mod latest beta has an addon script to auto generate the server's main hostname's dkim and spf settings so you can manually add to your DNS settings to ensure better email deliverability for server outbound emails at server level.

Also for proper anti-virus/malware scanning of locally hosted email software, you will increase your server resources dramatically for memory, disk and mysql usage if you have considerable traffic. You can expect memory usage requirements easily increase by 2-8GB of memory if you want to properly host your own email @domain.com with proper anti-virus/malware, anti-spam etc. It's why you may have read cpanel/WHM like control controls have higher memory requirements as well.

Try running cpanel/WHM on 256MB VPS server for instance - you won't be able to ! Centmin Mod has minimum memory requirements and disk on official site's install page but on right CentOS 6 32bit OS you can run on 128-256MB VPS, for 64bit OS 256-512MB VPS server. CentOS 7 based generally needs min 1GB memory regardless of Centmin Mod or cpanel/WHM. So for CentOS 7 + cpanel/whm may need at least 2GB memory for the same site on Centmin Mod LEMP can get by with 1GB provided your site resource usage needs are met. Part of why this is possible is Centmin Mod doesn't handle @domain.com email management and the other part is because of LEMP - Nginx usage compared to cpanel/WHM LAMP - Apache usage.

Also uptime and reliability of 3rd party @domain.com providers like Google App/Gsuite, Zoho etc important. It makes moving between web hosts easier as your @domain email operation is unaffected as the mail server is off server. Even if you server is down, your 3rd party @domain.com email will still be operational and working uninterrupted

eva2000 said:

Email management is a tricky business as email deliverability and troubleshooting such issues can have factors outside of provided software. I provide and develop Centmin Mod for free to users so I don't have the time to delve into email deliverability or troubleshooting issues which may have nothing to do with software I provide i.e. spam blacklists, viruses, dkim, spf, dmarc policy misconfigurations or lack of such preventing emails from reaching your intended recipients. A 3rd party service is paid or solely focused on dealing with those issues. Though, Centmin Mod latest beta has an addon script to auto generate the server's main hostname's dkim and spf settings so you can manually add to your DNS settings to ensure better email deliverability for server outbound emails at server level.

Click to expand...

I read a few articles on Google and felt difficult in installing mail server or setup dkim, exim, dns on a VPS if I don't use a hosting panel like Plesk or cpanel.
Seem lemp or lamp stack is just for system admins who have more knowledge on server management.

eva2000 said:

Also uptime and reliability of 3rd party @domain.com providers like Google App/Gsuite, Zoho etc important. It makes moving between web hosts easier as your @domain email operation is unaffected as the mail server is off server. Even if you server is down, your 3rd party @domain.com email will still be operational and working uninterrupted

Click to expand...

I am using Google apps for emails on two sites, if I use Centmin Mod on my VPS, then how to add Google apps records (MX) like I added them in my cPanel?
I am wondering there is a place to add that.

or paid DNS providers like DNSMadeEasy

• Tutorials http://help.dnsmadeeasy.com/view-tutorials/
• MX Record Tutorial http://help.dnsmadeeasy.com/managed-dns/records/mx-record/

I use Amazon Route53 and DNSMadeEasy paid DNS providers for important domains and use Cloudflare DNS for less important or test domains.

For Namecheap and Google Apps/GSuite https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/subcategory.aspx/2234/google-apps

I played with Centmin, it fulfilled all my expectations of being a fast, lightweight & robust mechanism to manage my low end VPS (testing server).

I am in love with it.

I did try VPSSIM but idk, it just did not excite me.

nice @BlaZeX great to hear you're liking Centmin Mod