Understanding Centos ~ Hosting issues

[The Restorer]

I have got a VPS, (specs: Centos 5.x x86_64, Centos 5.x i386, cPanel, Unlimited User Accounts, 60 GB Storage, 1 TB Monthly Transfer, 768 MB Guaranteed RAM, 1.5 GB Burst RAM).

I rely on my developers to manage this VPS but recently I have found my developers to be a little bit unresponsive to the server administration issues. I think this is the right time for me to get acquainted with server administration. Could you suggest any useful book/manual that I can buy from amazon and get an understanding of Centos/cPanel etc?

 

[vc]

You can try "The Definitive Guide to CentOS" but from my experience, it's best to use a problem/solution approach where when you have a problem, you google it and find the best possible solution to your problem.

Another suggestion is, do all your learning on another cheapo vps or old computer that you have at home. You don't want to try anything on your "production" vps. Things will always go wrong when learning (or else you're not learning).

Good luck!

 

[Winleet]

Just read a couple tutorials on some forums. It is not hard to manage a server.

 

[iHubNet-Matt]

It is not to hard manage the server but you may need to do hard work to learn things. It is better to find some online tutorials to learn things. Once you learn the basics you might buy an advanced book for reference. But the Internet could be a better reference

 

[libertyreservehostin]

Server administration is not that difficult. You said your developers used to manage yuor VPS but you must have some know how of managing VPS if that is the case then go for server administration. Server administration is not that difficult you will quickly learn it and besides google is your friend

 

[XeHSean]

Why not hire a server management company? Most of them offer services for quite cheap

 

[sote]

Since CentOS is based on RedHat, learning the RHCP(Red Hat Certified Professional) course material would be a great way for you to learn from the ground up, giving you a solid base.

Also, I highly recommend reading on Basic Networking, would help tons.
Get more familiar with linux, its always handy, use it on your pc, try different things, better experiment on your pc than your server :P
If you plan to change config files, always remember to backup, will save you a lot of heartache.
There's so much to learn, you can never know enough, read blog/forum posts, just keep learning everyday.
And most problems can easily found solved on google as problems tend to repeat themselves. All the best :D