palegray.net's Journal: How To Build a Linux VPS Host in 24 Hours

Everyone seems to be interested in server virtualization these days, from small developers to folks interested in starting a hosting operation of their own. Fortunately, there are a ton of options for setting up a virtualized hosting environment. I've written an in-depth, step-by-step VPS tutorial for turning any reasonably modern PC into a virtual private server hosting environment using the following freely available tools:

• Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS (base operating system)
• VMware Server 2.0 (virtualization suite)
• Debian Linux 5 (virtual machine operating system)
• ISPConfig 2.2 (hosting control panel)

Everything is documented with detailed configuration instruction and screen captures of major installation processes. The tutorial is aimed at helping small development shops take advantage of virtualization to create well-structured development, test, and production environments. Information technology professionals working in other fields will no doubt find the information useful as well.

In the near future, I'll be adding chapters and additional resource links that explain how to use additional virtual machines to create scalable database, mail server, and backup server envioronments that can easily be migrated from one physical VPS host to another. For now, I hope you enjoy getting started out with your first VPS setup.