CentOS

In this process, we will learn how Apache provides you with the option to allow your system users to host web pages within their home directories. This approach has been used by ISPs since the outset of web hosting and in many respects, it continues to flourish due to its ability to avoid the more complex method of virtual hosting. In the previous process, you were shown how to install the Apache web server, and with the desire to provide hosting facilities for system users, it is the purpose of this process to show you how this can be achieved in CentOS 7.

In this process, we will learn how to install and configure the Apache web server to enable the serving of static web pages. Apache is one of the world’s most popular open source web servers. It runs as the backend for over half of all the Internet’s web sites and can be used to serve both static and dynamic web pages. Commonly referred to as httpd, it supports an extensive range of features. It is the purpose of this process to show you how easily it can be installed using the YUM package manager so that you can maintain your server with the latest security updates.

So far in this segment, we have shown you two different forms of MTA. First, we introduced you to the Postfix MTA, which is a transport agent used for routing e-mails from a mail client to or between mail servers and delivering them to the local mailboxes on the mail server using the SMTP protocol. Then we showed you another type of MTA which sometimes called an access agent and which the Dovecot program can be used for. This delivers mails from the local Postfix mailboxes to any remote mail client programs using the POP3 or IMAP protocol.

In a previous process, you were shown how to configure Postfix as a domain-wide mail transport agent. As we have learned in the first process of Postfix that it only understands the SMTP protocol and does a remarkable job to transport messages from another MTA or mail user client to other remote mail servers or storing mails which are destinated to itself into its local mailboxes. After storing or relaying mails, Postfix jobs end. Postfix can only understand and speak the SMTP protocol and is not capable of sending messages to anything other than MTAs.

In a previous process, we learned how to install and configure Postfix as our domain-wide e-mail server. When it comes to working with e-mails, there are lots of different tools and programs available for Linux and we already showed you how to send e-mails through the sendmail program as well as the swaks utility. Here in this process, we will show you how to work with one of the most commonly used mail utilities in Unix and Linux, called mailx, which has some useful features missing in the sendmail package for sending mails or reading your mailbox.

Postfix is a Mail Transport Agent (MTA) responsible for the transfer of e-mails between mail servers using the SMTP protocol. Postfix is now the default MTA on CentOS 7. Here, as with most other critical network services, its default configuration allows outgoing but does not accept incoming network connections from any host other than the local one. This makes sense if all you need is a local Linux user mailing system and for sending out mails to other external mail servers from localhost too.

Working with the MariaDB or Postgres command-line shell is sufficient for performing basic database administration tasks, such as user permission settings or creating simple databases as we have shown you in this chapter division. The more complex your schemas and relationships between tables get and the more your data grows, the more you should consider using some graphical database user interfaces for better control and work performance.

In this process, we will learn how to configure remote access to a Postgres server which is disabled by default. Postgres employs a method called host-based authentication and it is the purpose of this process to introduce you to its concepts in order to provide the access rights you need to run a safe and secure database server.

In this process, we will not only learn how to install the PostgreSQL DBMS on our server, but we will also discover how to add a new user and create our first database. PostgreSQL is considered to be the most advanced open source database system in the world. It is known for being a solid, reliable, and well-engineered system that is fully capable of supporting high-transaction and mission-critical applications. PostgreSQL is a descendant of the Ingres database. It is community-driven and maintained by a large collection of contributors from all over the world.

Unless you are running your MariaDB database server to drive some local web applications on the same server hardware, most working environments would be pretty useless if remote access to a database server were forbidden. In many IT surroundings, you will find high-available, centralized dedicated database servers optimized in hardware (for example, huge amounts of RAM) and hosting multiple databases allowing hundreds of parallel connections from the outside to the server. Here in this process, we will show you how to make remote connections to the server possible.