Help with picking Server software

Just dragged a old computer from the closet. I would like some input as to what would be a good server set up as far as software. So many old articles hard to determine whats the "in" thing. I understand that making your own dedi server is probable not cost effective, unless your site is drawing some real good attention. A decent server at home would cost just in electricity more then a shared hosting five fold in some cases.  So with that aside, I still would like the input. NGINX, Apache, Ubuntu, Centos, Redhat, Fedora, Windows, or another Linux Server OS.

Here's the set up. Presently running Windows XP SP3

Supermicro 5XDPL-iGM with 2 Xeon 2.4gz 588 fsbus socket 6 CPUs Total 4 cores Hyperthreading

12 gig of Ram ECC

3- Seagate Cheetah Ultra320 SCSI hard drives set up in Raid 0 or 2- SSD 240gig drives ( I can swap out from another)

Not sure but it looks like a 1 gig ethernet

Please mention choice on control panel method or other additional software you believe worth mentioning.

I am thinking Ubuntu OS (latest supported) with NGINX using IPconfig and MySQL

Everyone has there own preferences. For me it's CentOS 6 with Apache, Mysql, ect. The default software that comes with the OS with all security updates applied.

Running a dedicated at home though is not recommend. A home network connection is not designed for server use. Even if the bandwidth is high, it is not a true bidirectional data circuit which will result in poor performance and high latency. Many internet providers block outbound port 25 which will prevent mail servers from working, and just the fact that your home router runs NAT presents it's own set of problems with port usage on your server, access to the outside world and your own home computers.

Yes Deano,  My provider Comcast blocks port 25 saying spam is a issue. They do allow another port for outgoing and incoming email asking for SSL encryption. They also do not allow Standalone servers for business use under their residential accounts. I was more thinking of it as a learning experience to eventual be able to manage my own dedi trying not to look like a noob. At first glance it looks like you need a Master's degree in Server Nomenclature in each.

Why Centos? Why Apache? Is it that CentOS6 is familiar or better GUI or more feature rich. As for Apache, I understand that it uses Cpanel which is also popular, but NGNX seems to be proven to be much faster. The lack of built in administration GUI seems to be its short falling. Many are using either a separate Admin or using NGINX client side and Apache as backend, so they can use Cpanel to manage. I would need to research that further to understand how that's set up.  Apache is more feature rich although from what I understand more aimed at resellers.

 If NGINX  just requires a larger learning curve, would it not make sense to try to provide a faster client side.

The monthly cost for me to run a single Home Server for HTTP would be just as much as the cost to have a site hosted on a dedi.

I am one that likes to walk near the edge as far as server configurations.  Current production dedi is running CentOS 7, MariaDB 10, Nginx 1.7.10 Mainline, Postfix 3.0.0, PHP 5.6.6 (PHP-FPM).  So far so good, the speed is really nice.  The server is an eight core with 32 Gigs of ram.

I would go with any enterprise edition of Linux as they are designed for stability over adding in additional features that may be nice on a home box.

As for a GUI, it depends on how much you know about Linux commands; which are based on the UNIX OS if you have used it.  At university I used UNIX and a lot carried over.  I use Webmin because I just need a basic GUI that helps with some tasks.  If you are thinking of having virtual sites; the developers offer other tools such as Virtualmin.

If you are wanting to use cPanel with Nginx, you will need to talk to others.  I know there are cPanel plugins for Nginx, cPanel may even be building Nginx support into cPanel; if they are not, I am sure they will as Nginx is gaining ground all the time.

I run Nginx as the main webserver, you can also set up Nginx as a proxy.  If you are looking at cPanel, it is not free, it has a yearly license.  You can do a search for free server control panels, there are a lot.  I don't like most of them; try the demos first if they have one.  Webmin doesn't get in my way since I mainly just need quick access to editing config files and starting and stopping services.

Many will use WHM/cPanel if they are wanting to resell server space; it makes it easier to handle that.  Webmin by itself does not handle reselling.

OS, I use CentOS because it is based on Red Hat Enterprise; the idea is to have a very stable OS.

I use CentOS because it is basically RedHat Enterprise. Just re-branded. I feel it is the most stable Linux distro there is other then Slackware which is what i started with, but Slackware is to complex for most beginners. I don't even know of any providers that offer it. But it is rock solid.

Fedora is to cutting edge so i don't feal it is very stable for server use. Ubuntu is also cutting edge which in my opinion makes it less stable for server use. You also need to keep in mind that Redhat, CentOS and Fedora software packages are RPM based. Ubuntu and Debian software packages are DEB. Both distro trees also are different in how the file system is laid out and where things are placed in the directory tree which is another reason i prefer CentOS because i am used to the layout of the directory tree.

I choose Apache because it's been around for years and i know it best.

They made changes to CentOS 7 on some of it's default software. So i won't use it until i get a chance to fully play with it. I prefer to stick with what i am used to and what i know.

Two big changes is going with firewalld over iptables; I disabled fireawalld and installed iptables because I know iptables and really don't see the use of zones in an internet facing server that will only be used for such.

The other is the change to systemctl; for the most part that is nothing that will keep you up.  In place of service nginx stop you use systemctl stop nginx.service

I am also seeing a slight change in the directory tree; nothing major.

Oh, CentOS 7 does not ship with mysql in the distro, they have changed to MariaDB; which I am embracing because I am getting tired of what Oracle is doing. even using the non Oracle java engine.

Sounds like this is more of a personal project, maybe with one low-traffic site on it, compared to a 24/7 production server expecting lots of traffic.  If that's the case then keep it simple and go with your choice of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.  Then I'd go with the more popular (and therefore well documented) software setup of LAMP with Webmin.  Setup sendmail and use a 3rd party email service for broadcasting emails to site members.

For hardware I'd use RAID 1 with a hot spare (or RAID 10 if you have 4 duplicate drives) rather than RAID 0 with your 3 320GB SCSI drives.  Consider setting up RAID 1 with your two 240GB SSD drives... I've yet to do that but in theory access should be very fast. 

Have fun... let us know how it goes... should be an awesome home server when you're finished :-)

I second the LAMP install...

I use centos because lots of the budget hosting services seem to install it and I have become used to it.  If you start with the LAMP stack that is based on Centos then you will already be familiar with Centos.

C-Panel costs you money down the line if you eventually have this hosted and it has its own set of problems.

Webmin, a C-Panel alternative, is FREE, and good for learning what is going on with your server, although you might want to eventually even ween off of that as well.

I would recommend a desktop install of Centos on any machine just so you can play with it and get used to using unix commands.  Google is your friend when it comes to looking for example commands, and sites like cyberciti.biz for examples and nixcraft.com for help...

cheers

I would go with a headless install because that is what you will have if you rent a server from a datacentre.  You can get use to using the command line when you are not using a control panel.

I would recommend a desktop install of Centos just to "play" with Linux..... and get used to line commands....

then exactly what geek_girl said "I would go with a headless install "