A book to help you confidently setup and manage your servers.
I've wasted days on what should have been minutes.
Those miserable, stressful days lead me to learn more about Linux servers so that I could avoid that complete waste of time.
As part of that, I created Servers for Hackers as a newsletter to help teach what I've learned. That newsletter has since transformed to a full site with video tutorials, articles, and premium courses.
This book, however, is a collection of (and expansion on) the core material. It's what every programmer really needs to know about web servers. It's designed to get you familiar with server configuration, so you don't waste your time on broken servers.
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Sign up and you'll learn about how sudo & sudoer works, how to control file permissions, Apache with FastCGI, and PHP-FPM performance.
Updated for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
with new chapters and updated best practices.
Learn the details of Apache and Nginx configuration, including super-common gotchas.
See how to host your PHP, Ruby, and Python apps.
Learn the tools of security to properly secure your web servers.
See how to configure security updates, firewalls, configure user access, and details about Linux permissions.
Learn how to use Vagrant for local development. Set-up local self-signed SSL certificates, and install your dependencies.
Learn about production server concerns including handling logging, keeping processes (such as queue workers) alive, adding HTTP caching, setting up SSL certificates (regular and LetsEncrypt), and more.
Learn about load balancing and how it affects your applications, using Nginx or HAProxy.
See how to secure and configure multi-server setups. Learn how to setup MySQL replication.
"Chris is someone I can trust for advice while maintaining my own server provisioning services. I can heartily recommend this book for all who want to get a head start learning about server configuration and management."
- Taylor Otwell (and his hotdog)
36+ Chapters, 300+ Page eBook to get you running your servers without sweating the unknown.
Updated for Ubuntu 18.04!
Become the person who knows how to navigate web servers!
This book will help you manage your servers from local development to in-the-cloud production.
5 case studies with production-ready examples of advanced topics!
Server Quick-Start Guide
Get your server secure and production-ready in minutes.
Nginx for PHP & Static Content
Run Nginx in a real-world way - by hosting multiple sites on our servers.
MySQL Replication & Load Balancing
See how easy it is to distribute MySQL queries across a master-relica setup with load balancing!
Hosting Python with uWSGI + Nginx
PHP isn't the only game in town - get a feel for hosting a production Python application using Nginx and uWSGI.
Production Queues & Workers
See how to use Beanstalkd to setup your own production-ready queue infrastructure.
Production-ready examples of real implementations!
5 video series on automation, security, setup, and local development!
Ansible: Start to Production
Understand how simple Ansible is. Then automate everything.
First Few Minutes in a Server
What to do on every new server you spin up, get up and running quickly!
Monitoring Processes with Supervisord
See how to use Supervisord in production, including what to do with your log output.
Production SSL Certificates
See the gory details of purchasing, installing, testing SSL certs. Also see how to use LetsEncrypt for free certificates!
Vagrant Up & Running
Find out how to use Vagrant, beyond what the Hello World blog articles tell you.
See how I run and manage my servers from development to production.
Learn about important production concepts like configuration management and SSL certificates.
"I'm an experienced programmer but before checking out Servers for Hackers I've always been really intimidated by dev ops and system administration. Chris does an amazing job at explaining this stuff in a way that gave me the confidence to manage my own infrastructure."
- Adam Wathan
$55 $45
Just The Book
The core material, containing the base knowledge you should know to manage your web servers.
Updated for
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
$70 $59
The Book
The Case Studies
Production-ready examples you can implement into your servers and infrastructure immediately.
$120 $99
The Book
The Case Studies
The Videos
Production-ready examples you can implement into your servers and infrastructure immediately.
"It's hard to be a modern developer witout understanding basic dev-ops. Servers for Hackers is the absolute best resource to get started on your dev-ops journey; Chris has long been the person I turn to whenever I get myself lost in Nginx-land or MySQL hell."
- Matt Stauffer
When was the book last updated?
The book is updated for Ubuntu 18.04. The last major update was June, 2018. However, minor updates for spelling or corrections are ongoing.
Can I report issues or corrections?
Any questions, comments, issues, etc. can directed to the Github repository created for feedback!.
Is there a return policy?
Yep, you can return the book anytime for any reason with proof of purchase (usually your email receipt).
I'm Chris Fidao. I publish videos and articles for developers and their servers at Servers for Hackers. I also write the Servers for Hackers newsletter, which is read by over 20,000 programmers who want to learn about servers.
I'm also the author of Scaling Laravel, Shipping Docker, and the Deploy PHP! video series.