Server Setup

Well, It's been a week, but it looks the phase one of the server has been set up! I've gone with Ubuntu Server 7.10 running on an old AMD 3400+ server with 256m of ram. The site is served with Drupal running against a Mysql database. Not much, but more then enough to run this site :)

Server setup was fairly easy. Pulled an old box with motherboard from the archive, found some memory and a drive and was good to go. Pop in the Ubuntu disk and and turn on the power.

http://howtoforge.com/perfect_server_ubuntu7.10 is a good how-to to get ya started. If you follow this how-to it will show you how to install and then configure all the "LAMP" ( Linux Apache Mysql Php) services that a web server will need. This will include security and log monitoring software. Very good read.

After that your left with Drupal. It can be downloaded at the above site. Just follow the directions in INSTALL.txt and your up and running. That takes care of the first day :). After that, it's all about site design and content. I can't help much with content, but I do recommend looking at the different themes that are available at Drupal. And last but not least...don't be afraid to play around. If you find you don't like something it's pretty painless to remove it. I'm still not 100% happy with the machine. I would like to add a larger drive and from a layout stand point, this site is a joke, but hey, ya got to start somewhere!