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There are a myriad of options, some commercially licensed and some open source, to effectively manage your server. These solutions, ranging from the simplest to the most sophisticated, can provide detailed control over your server resources, making you autonomous in managing your applications and your data.
If your system is in a completely virgin condition, i.e. it has just been installed from scratch and has no services running yet, you have the option to choose from a wide range of control panels. Some of the more popular and commercially available control panels are Plesk and cPanel. These tools are particularly useful for organizing and managing websites, databases and e-mail services, making these tasks much more intuitive and faster.
On the other hand, if your dedicated server has already been set up and used, you may need to hire a professional system administrator to set up and manage the necessary software. A systems administrator is an expert who can take care of the maintenance, optimization and security of the server, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and that performance remains at its peak.
If you are looking for a company that specializes in this type of service, you can do an online search to find one near you. Alternatively, you could consider the possibility of relying on our management. This option offers many advantages, including speed of execution and the experience of professional systems engineers.
The managed method has a slightly higher cost than autonomous management through Plesk or cPanel, with a surcharge of about 30 euros per month. However, the advantage lies in the time savings and reliability guaranteed by having your server managed by professionals in the sector. Furthermore, in case of problems or questions, you will always have a team of experts ready to assist you.
What is Plesk?
Plesk is a popular web hosting control panel, designed to provide an intuitive and user-friendly graphical interface that allows you to manage your server with ease. Through Plesk, you have complete control over your server resources, allowing you to configure settings according to your specific needs.
This tool offers a wide range of functions and options, designed and developed to meet the needs of both expert users and those less accustomed to server management. For example, you can manage domains, email accounts, databases, files, traffic stats, and more, all from one place. Plesk's versatility and efficiency have made it the most popular hosting control panel in the world, with a huge reach that includes over 15 million websites.
Plesk has a long history, with over 20 years of experience in the web hosting industry. This period of time allowed Plesk to refine its product, making it an option extremely reliable for anyone who needs to self-taught server management, without expecting extreme performance and at rather low costs.
What is cPanel?
cPanel stands out as the most popular web hosting control panel currently available on the market, thanks to its wide range of features and user-friendly interface. This tool offers an unmatched feature set, which includes website building tools, a file manager, and the ability to create and manage email accounts.
Additionally, cPanel offers numerous methods to remotely manage your server. Through its web-based interface, users can access their server from anywhere, provided they have an Internet connection. This feature is especially useful for those who need real-time access to their server resources, regardless of their geographic location.
cPanel is a web-based user interface designed specifically for Unix-based operating systems. It was developed by the Atlanta-based company cPanel, Inc. and has since continued to improve and refine its functionality to meet the needs of an ever-changing market.
The software allows the creation and management of websites on an Internet hosting service. This means that users can design, build and maintain their own websites using the resources of the hosting service they have subscribed to.
cPanel is widely used throughout the web hosting industry. Internet service providers and providers Dedicated Servers they often integrate cPanel into their offerings to simplify server management for their customers and failing the commitment that a system administrator should offer to provide the best performance. Similarly, many companies offering on-demand hosting services or website owners choose cPanel because of its ease of use and the wide range of features it offers.
Why prefer a systems engineer to a control panel?
Many may wonder why they should prefer a Linux system administrator with many years of experience over using a simple control panel. This is a bit similar to wondering why it is preferable to entrust the creation of your wedding photographs to a professional photographer, rather than to Aunt Assuntina armed with her new iPhone.
There is no doubt that control panels, given their ease of use and installation, allow you to create a website extremely quickly. However, the possibilities offered by these tools are necessarily limited. In fact, control panels are auxiliary tools and cannot in any way replace the experience and skills of a real technician.
While these tools can also be used by inexperienced users without particular difficulties, they may not be able to configure some server options or solve basic problems, such as when the server goes down or there is an error in the configuration of php, apache o NGINX, Cache, TTFB optimization, Geographical backups, custom script creation or DDOS attack mitigation.
In these cases, it is certainly preferable to contact a professional. That's why we recommend relying on a system administrator, who will be able to handle all the technical aspects and configure your server according to your specific needs. The system administrator will discuss your ideas and needs with you and make sure everything works perfectly.
Unlike control panels, a sysadmin can create a server configuration optimized for your specific needs and configure it to take all the worry out of you. If you manage a large number of servers, having a proper monitoring system in place is crucial.
For example, if your server uses a disk array for storage, you might want to create a RAID-10 volume so that if one disk fails, the array continues to retain data. Without proper disk or array health monitoring, you could risk losing valuable data without even realizing it. With a dedicated server, you can use any hardware compatible file system, such as ext3 or NTFS. However, it is vital to ensure that whatever file system you choose is compatible with the operating systems that will be installed on the machine.
Server monitoring is a critical function on Dedicated Servers. If something goes wrong, it can affect all users of the server and could even cause websites hosted on it to go down. Hence, it is crucial to have an effective monitoring system.
A professional systems engineer will be able to help you ensure that all of your needs are met. For this, please contact our company. With our professional management, you can improve the security and performance of your server. Don't hesitate, contact us today to find out how we can help you get the most out of your server.
