There are those times when you are required to produce an active internet server to support delivery of web content and relational database management systems services. My first choice is the Ubuntu headless server. This server allows enough flexibility to support Apache, Java, Grails, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Yii, Action Message Format (AMF) Flash Builder and Flex, (32 and 64 bit) thin client windows application and dot net web application servers. The RDBMS of choice is MySQL. The significance of using this approach is that it supports thin client windows application to become conversant with MySQL. This thin client does not require any additional middle ware layer such as ODBC or any other layer.
Another advantage of using Ubuntu is it supports practically all known web technologies and practically all domain specific languages (DSL).
On occasions I develop end user applications on the windows platform and the port them to the server via a web archive (WAR) file where Tomcat 8 application server hosts the allows access to the end user application.
On other occasions I develop shell scripts to invoke the desired commands which builds the application. This is typically used for Grails and Ruby On Rails applications. Also shell scripts are useful whenever a series of shell command need to be executed for various purposes.
Normally when I develop software the Eclipse IDE is the IDE of choice. There are those occasions when I use Delphi to develop 32 and 64 bit windows and OS X applications. Plus Delphi has the environment to develop all the mobile and tablet applications in a single platform development environment.
Webmin is a windows based GUI that provides a vehicle to perform almost all the system administration tasks required to keep your server current.
Below is a screen shot of the File Manager of Webmin.
Below is an example of the editor for Webmin.
Putty a secured shell server that is also used to handle other server administration tasks. The primary difference between Putty and Webmin is the lack of a GUI for issuing commands. Putty is strictly a command line shell.
The secure connection employed by Putty offers a peace of mind and a sense of security for an environment as powerful as the command environment.
Mr. Arch Brooks, Software Engineer, Brooks Computing Systems, LLC authored this article.