The Linode Library does a great job of explaining how to get up and running.

Let me explain how things have been going so far. First of all, Linode has a great collection of tutorials and documentation called the Linode Library. Many of the guides contained within this library don’t even apply specifically to Linode, so they’re great resources if you’re running a Linux server at home or an another VPS provider.

Picking the datacenter

The “Getting Started” article does an excellent job of explaining how to get up and running on Linode. This is where I recommend you start. One of the first choices you’ll have to make is the datacenter. This is something you didn’t have to worry about with shared hosting, because the company you were hosting with chose it for you ¹. If you’re not familiar with datacenters or the inner workings of Internet hosting, the datacenter is the physical location where your server will reside. Generally, you want to pick the datacenter that is closest to you and the core audience that your website will receive. If you’re hosting a website that is targeted towards users in the United Kingdom, you’ll want to put your Linode in the London datacenter. While the choice of datacenter isn’t mission-critical, you will experience a slight difference in network latency ² and possibly network speed ³ from datacenter to datacenter.

If you’re not sure which datacenter to pick, you can conduct a couple of tests to find out which datacenter(s) have the lowest network latency and the fastest transfer speed. To test transfer speed, go to this page, and download the files from each datacenter, one at a time: http://www.linode.com/speedtest/

You don’t need to download the entire file. Simply watch the download speed, and wait until it stabilizes. I would recommend downloading at least 40% of the file before you conclude that the speed is stable. Record that stable speed, and move on to the next datacenter. Keep in mind you’re looking for major differences here – it’s expected that there will be minor chance variations between each download.⁴

Next, you’ll want to do a network latency test. This is fairly simple. Open up a console or command prompt on your home computer. If you’re on Windows, this is done by pressing Win+R, typing cmd, and hitting enter. A command prompt will pop-up. For each datacenter, type the command ping followed by the domain name of the datacenter test server (london1.linode.com, newark1.linode.com, etc.). For example:

ping atlanta1.linode.com

You should get a response like the following:

Pinging host77.linode.com [63.247.71.196] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 63.247.71.196: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=49
Reply from 63.247.71.196: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=49
Reply from 63.247.71.196: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=49
Reply from 63.247.71.196: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=49

Ping statistics for 63.247.71.196:
 Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
 Minimum = 47ms, Maximum = 54ms, Average = 50ms

What you’re looking for is the average response time. In this case, it’s 50ms. Repeat this for each datacenter. Again, you’re looking for relatively large variations. A variation of a few milliseconds is most likely just due to chance and won’t be at all noticeable in the real world.

Again, you’ll want to pick the datacenter with the lowest network latency (response time) and fastest transfer speed. Don’t fret too much, though – you can always move your Linode to a different datacenter later.

Picking the Linux distribution

The next choice you’ll have to make is which Linux distribution you are going to use for your Linode. Linode recommends Ubuntu for beginners, which also happens to be their most popular distribution. This is a great choice considering that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS was just released and is perhaps the best and most polished release of Ubuntu to date. If this is your first dip into Linux (which I’m guessing it is, considering that you’re moving from shared hosting to a VPS), then you’ll probably want to choose Ubuntu.

There is one catch, however. If you’re planning to use cPanel (the most common control panel with shared hosting and the one that HostGator uses), you’ll have to use CentOS. For whatever reason, cPanel will only work on CentOS. This isn’t all bad, however – CentOS is one of the most reliable and stable distributions out there. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the latest and greatest in terms of software packages, so you may have to do some extra work down the line. You should also note that while cPanel was free with your shared hosting, now that you’re running your own server you’ll need to purchase an external cPanel VPS license if you want to use cPanel. These are about $15/month, and Linode does not sell them, so you’ll need to purchase it somewhere else and install cPanel yourself.

If you don’t feel like spending $15/month on cPanel, but you still want a control panel, don’t worry. There are plenty of free control panels out there that have most, if not all, of the functionality of cPanel. These will be covered further in a later article. If you want to install one now, Linode has tutorials.

Continuing the setup process

Once you’ve picked a Linux distribution, the Getting Started article will guide you through installing that distribution and setting up the rest of your Linode.

You may run into some confusion over the hostname and FQDN section. Don’t worry; this will be the subject of my next post.

I will miss you, giant blue alligator.

But that’s not important. I’m jumping right to it for my first post, so stay with me. I recently purchased a brand-new VPS from Linode, and I over the next week or so I plan to migrate all of my webhosting projects to it (Completely self hosted! Yeah baby!) as well as set it up for use as a development server and perhaps some other cool stuff. The thing is, going from a shared hosting environment to a full-on VPS (which functions like a dedicated server) is hard. You have to learn essentially how to configure a server from scratch, how to keep it secure and updated, and generally how to keep it running and working well for the foreseeable future. These are unmanaged servers, so while you get ultimate flexibility, you also get ultimate responsibility. Linode manages the hardware and network infrastructure, and that’s it. It’s up to you to take care of everything from the OS and up.

As such, my plan is to post a series of articles that will serve as an extended guide for migrating from a shared hosting environment (in this case HostGator) to Linode. From what I’ve seen so far, Linode’s guides do an excellent job of explaining what you need to know to get up and running, but as I’ve already found out, there are parts that need clarification or could perhaps use more explanation. It’s these types of things that I plan to elaborate on. In cases where Linode documentation is more than enough, I’ll simply link to or quote the documentation.

Along the way, I hope to add a bit of personal insight and opinion on Linode and the transition process in general. So while those looking for a guide will find what they’re looking for, you’ll also find insight and opinion on the process of transitioning from a shared hosting environment to Linode, and maybe you’ll even pick up a couple of tips about Linux system administration along the way.

I hope you enjoy the next few weeks. At the very least, I hope I do.