Web Server Newbie Question

Hi all,

To give a background, I have been using cPanel for my web server. It's a shared host plan. As far as my knowledge goes, it runs on a Linux Server. I'm able to run the usual html/css/php scripts on the server.

However, I am trying to understand how to run Python scripts. In the process, I have stumbled upon words such as WSGI, mod_wsgi, mod_proxy, Gunicorn, Nginx. Because I am new to these terms, I can't help but feel overwhelmed.

Is there a site where these terms are explained in details? Appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

Google or just hire a server management company to take care of this for you.

 

Gunicorn and Nginx refer to VPS servers, all th rest are settings and parameters of VPS servers.

If you require a reliable VPS and a friendly support - contact us, we provide exactly that.

 

How does this automatically refer to VPS? It's completely possible to have both Gunicorn and or nginx running on any type of server, it being hosted, shared, VPS, dedicated, colocation - whatever. Also, no, the other are not parameters of VPS servers - they are parameters, yes, but not only for VPS. While I understand you're trying to sell your product, giving accurate info might be a smarter way to do it.

 

Thanks for clarification and advice. I replied basing on such ideas:
1) He already has a shared web hosting package with cPanel and wants to try something new to run Python on. Bigger shared hosting package is an option too, of course, while renting a dedicated server seems excessive.
2) Why would you use a load balancer such as nginx on a shared package? It can be done, but efficiency will be the same as if you use microscope for nailing wood. It can be done, of course, but why?
3) Main flaw of shared packages - they are shared, meaning you may lack resources exactly when you need them, and running scripts can sometimes run your RAM dry in seconds (even such light and fast as Python scripts on Gunicorn)
4) Dedicated server costs too much for the sake of pure testing, while KVM VPS package provides the exact amount of resources you ordered (without any interference with other users) and you have full control over them
5) The main benefit for a beginner would be a diligent support, able to help quickly if anything goes wrong. That is exactly what we provide.

Best regards.

 

Thanks for all your replies.

Based on what I know so far, load balancers such as nginx are necessary when I have two or more servers to balance the bandwidth.

Do you have any recommended resources to read up more? Thanks!

 

Are 2 servers really necessary? Chances are unless you're doing cpu-intensive tasks, have a ton of traffic at all times, or have very poorly written python, it should cruise along just fine. In any case, you can read up on HAProxy, that would let you set up a load balancer manually if you want to dig into that.

These days I usually recommend checking out AWS and setting up any number of EC2 (their vps servers) instances (2 in your case it sounds like) and then ELB (elastic load balancer). You can add and remove servers from this load balancer directly from the control panel, which is convenient.

 

Thanks Crath!

No, it's not necessary at this point. But I wanna find out how to handle servers as they scale up.

Haven used AWS yet, but will definitely look into it.