How to Configure a VPS to Host a Website?

A VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting environment shares the advantages of both a shared, and a dedicated server hosting. It is among one of the various types of web hosting available in the market. This article provides a step by step overview of the entire set up process.

The very first step in order to take your website to the internet would be to have all of your web files on a web server. The set up and management of a server in this regard could be expensive and challenging. Through web hosting, you can rent space on a web server to take your website online. Choosing a VPS is therefore the initial step that ensures you have reliable support. ZoomCloud.net is one such VPS provider offering a multitude of options at affordable prices. Upon signing up, you will receive your log in credentials in your mailbox.

SSH to VPS

Once you log in, you need to SSH the user root to the IP address you have been provisioned by simply typing a command like SSH root@.

Change root password

Using the default password you received in your mailbox is not secure, so it is highly recommended that you change it. If everything works fine, you will receive a message stating: “passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully”.

Need to update system packages

Prior to installing Apache or PHP, you need to ensure all base OS packages are updated. Yum is a program that is commonly used for this.

Install Apache, PHP, MySQL and Perl

The next job is to install a web server (Apache) and code interpreters such as Perl/CGI and PHP. MySQL acts as the database server.

Configure IPTables on VPS

Once the above are configured successfully, you need to enable firewall on your VPS to add a layer of security. The IPTables firewall comes by default with the CentOS installation; however, it is disabled by default and needs to be turned on so that you are then able to make some firewall rules.

Set up WordPress

Now with all of the above steps done, you need to download the most recent version of WordPress. You would also require a SFTP client such as FileZilla. All you need to do is unzip the package and connect to the server as this will come in handy for all file transfers from your computer to the server. You simply need to choose all the files from the WordPress directory and get these uploaded to the public_html directory. As a next step, you need to go to the browser and hit your URL and follow the guide to complete the set up process.

A VPS hosting gives you more power and control similar to a dedicated server. On the privacy front, since you do not share your OS with others, no other websites are available on your server to potentially access your files. With respect to customisation, a VPS implies you have your own OS and server applications, such as Apache, PHP, Perl and MySQL, allowing for greater customisability. It also gives you added control by allowing you to restart your server without affecting other users who share the server as well. The memory usage and space management are also greater in VPS compared to share hosting.