Hi, I can spin up for free a Windows VPS (win server 2016 with graphical interface or win server 2022 core version since it has only 1GB of RAM). The problem is that outside of Linux I have absolutely no experience. I would like to try hosting something also on Windows server just to take away some load from other machines or even just to learn something new.
Therefore I have the following questions:
*Is there any starting resource for windows selfhosting you can recommend? I would love if a list like the awesome selfhosted existed for services that can run on windows.
*Is there anything non-enterprise for which a windows server would provide any advantage over Linux?
*Does anyone self hosts on windows server? Can I ask what you use it for?
Thanks
I have little experience with windows (web)servers and more with linux.
I have no idea why someone would want to set-up or manage a windows server. It’s just pain if you previously did it with linux. Everything sucks. Where to find log messages, how to upgrade a php version and get that used by the webserver, backup, maintenance, how to write short and useful scripts for maintenance, the mixture of config files and lack thereof, and it needs double the resources.
I wouldn’t do it in my spare time. I’d rather work on a way to get that OS in that VPS replaced… (My personal oppinion.)
Yes, that’s also my feeling at the moment. Not an option to move to Linux unfortunately (it’s a Microsoft offering for academic staff). I was hoping for some fun suggestions, If nothing comes to mind it will just become the backup server of the backup server or just stay off and save electricity.
Install docker for windows containers and play around and see what you can get running? I ran pretty much all the same containers as I do on linux when I was using windows server. 1GB of RAM is going to be the big limiting factor.
Install Windows Subsystem for Linux and pretend windows doesn’t exist
In my experience, there’s a reason most things on the internet are not hosted on windows.
That said, you’ll want to look at IIS as a starting point.
Honestly, I think you’d be better served learning/understanding docker and just get that up and running in windows to host stuff instead. Managing windows hosting is a bizarre mix of hoping between quasi gui property windows and control panels.
I totally agree. If I could choose, I would have preferred my seventh personal Linux server instead of a windows machine but that’s what Microsoft offers to me. I fear that Docker, which I use all the times on Linux, would probably have too much overhead on windows. I still have to deal with a small size VPS. I have not many chances to run a Linux VM on top of windows to host docker and expect to have resources left to run a container with it in 1 GB of RAM.
I will defined look into IIS for web server/reverse proxy though. Thanks.
Just bear in mind that microsoft.com is hosted on Linux. If Microsoft don’t host their own website on IIS, why would anyone else?
Yeah exactly. Also: there’s more Linux on Azure than windows, and AWS hosts more windows than all of Azure.
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protip: if you have RDP open, you WILL get hacked.
Is it that bad? I mean, I am not much concerned myself as I would not leave the port open to anything but a small IP range, but I thought that the protocol was fine once a random long password is used.
Restricting to a few source ips makes it pretty safe. The RDP protocol is pretty secure, but it is a common one for zero day vulnerabilities, and software makers often do dumb things that break it’s security. So the general advice is to never expose RDP to the internet at large.
No, use a VPN to connect to the server, then connect to RDP inside the VPN.
I would always recommend this, no matter what! Same with SSH, just keep this closed to the outside world!
