Online support for newbies
 

Hello All,

My question is where can I get low cost support for Red Hat 9? I just need some basic help administering a remote server through SSH, because I am not a command line user. I need someone to tell me what to type to do things like upgrade packages, check and start/stop services, install and config apps, change permissions, etc.

TIA

Isaiah, this is it...

You can get $0 online support by using Google and by posting your questions here.

If you Google, you'll find that most of your problems have been experienced and fixed by other people. It requires a bit of effort on your part, but it's also a good way to learn.

If you cannot find an answer, post the question here. Usually the answers are quick and accurate (if you've framed your question well...).

However, if you want to pay somebody to be at your beck and call, contact Redhat and find out what they offer. You can also search the Internet for people/companies who provide maintenance and support services for a fee.

Cheers
Joe.

OK then, I'll try here
 

Thanks for the response, Joe - what if I have a deadline to meet, and I need immediate help not a slow learning process, can I still get that here? Let me fire a few questions for starters -
why isnt courier-imap service running? how can I fix it?
why is php running in safe mode? how can I change it?
how can I upgrade the packages via ssh?

I have many others like these which I'll need answered quickly - thats why I thought free support wouldnt work for me because of the deadline

Like he said, google is your friend, came up with these:
http://www.pipeline.com.au/staff/mbo...ail-server.htm
http://www.flatmtn.com/computer/Linux-Imap-Courier.html
http://www.crucialparadigm.com/resou...-safe-mode.php

Don't know enough about RH package management to answer the last one.

Hey Isaiah36,

As far as I know Redhat 9 is now unsupported by Redhat. Maybe there is a third-party that still offers support. Have a google for "linux support contract" or somesuch, there are plenty of options out there.

As for your problems, doesn't redhat use "chkconfig courier-imap start" to start services? There is also a gui for starting services if I remember correctly.

I would recommend keeping safe mode on if it is a public server, but if you insist all you have to do is edit php.ini and change "safe_mode = On" to "safe_mode = Off" then restart your server...

Where are you upgrading packages from? Why is ssh necessary?

Thanks!
 

Makuyl - thats great stuff, lots of commands! but I asked for it - thanks!

Bulliver - using SSH because I dont have physical access to the server, its a 'virtual' RH9 with Plesk for web hosting management. I was hoping to use Plesk to do everything I need.
The output from "chkconfig --list courier-imap" is
0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
What is the command for starting it on boot by default?
Better still - will the graphical tools boot from the server, since I have X windows running on Mdk10.1 desktop? What is the command?
The packages I want to upgrade are PHP mainly, and Horde IMP, maybe Apache, Qmail, proFTPd, SSHd, etc - maybe the wget method or by uploading rpms by sftp and then installing them.

Many thanks again! you guys are being very nice with my dummy azz

googling for commercial support
 

I found several commercial support vendors, pricing seems to be geared towards enterprise and small biz - I will try to get something I can afford.