NYCPHP Meetup

[Chris Snyder]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 5:36 AM,
lists at nopersonal.info<lists at nopersonal.info> wrote:

> I recently set up my first LAMP stack using Ubuntu--it seemed like the
> easiest option, and so far I love it. From now on this will be my local
> testing server.

Congratulations! I've always thought that system administration skills
are a necessary part of any web programmer's toolkit.

Read the online administration manuals for Ubuntu. Definitely read man
pages. No matter how dry they seem, the investment will pay off over
time.

You will definitely want a guide to Linux or Unix system
administration. Pro Linux System Administration was published in June,
and seems to successfully walk the line between the command-line and
point-and-click administration schools:
http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430219122

The classic guide to unix system administration is Essential System
Administration: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003432/


> I've installed OpenSSH so I can practice "talking" to Linux & MySQL via
> the command line from my primary computer. I intend to perhaps also
> install up some sort of FTP & mail server, if for no other reason than
> to understand how they work on the other end.

You could skip the FTP server and use SFTP, which you got for free by
installing OpenSSH. If you decide to set up FTP for the experience,
please make sure you use an SSL-enabled version. Ditto for your mail
services. Cleartext passwords are a strong indicator of an
irresponsible sysadmin.