Preferred Linux Distribution for VM

[MMG8]

Greetings!

I'm a non-tech trying to get some info for my IT Manager in Hong Kong.  We have a developer who created a Process Wire site for us and we want to host it ourselves on a virtual machine using our Azure cloud platform.  

According to my IT Manager, ProcessWire is developed with PHP5, a common/popular language on the Linux platform.  He advised: "although ProcessWire can run on a Windows server, since it's based on PHP it’s best and most efficient to run on the Linux platform."  He is asking the preferred Linux distribution for PW.  Any advise or link to a installation guide would be appreciated.

Many thanks,
David

[adrian]

Hi @MMG8 - welcome to the forums.

I would agree that in general you are better off with a Linux server over Windows. As for the distribution, I have always gone with Debian, which in case you don't know is the basis of Ubuntu. I don't think it will really make that much difference to you, but Debian would be my recommendation. You may find some useful info in this article: http://inthebox.webmin.com/choosing-a-linux-distribution-for-web-server which compares Debian, Ubuntu, and CentOS.

[MMG8]

Hi Adrian,

Thank you for the warm welcome and valuable info!  Always hard being a newb!

This thread mentions ServerPilot.  Seems like it would make it easier for us to do the install and monitoring.  Thoughts?

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/10421-hosting-recommendations/#comment-104380

Thanks again!

[adrian]

3 minutes ago, MMG8 said:

Hi Adrian,

Thank you for the warm welcome and valuable info!  Always hard being a newb!

This thread mentions ServerPilot.  Seems like it would make it easier for us to do the install and monitoring.  Thoughts?

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/10421-hosting-recommendations/#comment-104380

Thanks again!

I haven't used ServerPilot, but I have heard it's very helpful if you are new to server management. I know it works with Digital Ocean, but assume it can be setup on any Linux box.

Perhaps you'd be better off with a fully managed server environment, rather than having to manage everything yourself. I am not the best person to answer this as I have always managed my own servers, but I am sure those with more experience in managed servers will chime in shortly.

[pwired]

Here you go:

http://www.ubuntu.com/server

 

[MMG8]

41 minutes ago, adrian said:

I haven't used ServerPilot, but I have heard it's very helpful if you are new to server management. I know it works with Digital Ocean, but assume it can be setup on any Linux box.

Perhaps you'd be better off with a fully managed server environment, rather than having to manage everything yourself. I am not the best person to answer this as I have always managed my own servers, but I am sure those with more experience in managed servers will chime in shortly.

You may be right on this as not sure about patches (I understand there are a lot less updates for PW then WP) and other on going maintenance.  Are there any Process Wire "managed hosts" you can recommend?  Don't want to violate any spam rules on this, but couldn't find much via Google.

[MMG8]

44 minutes ago, pwired said:

Here you go:

http://www.ubuntu.com/server

 

Thank you!  This should be what we need to get started.