This topic provides best practices for setting up environments, building websites, transferring data, migrating simple application servers, and building high-availability architectures. If you want to configure simple application servers based on your business requirements, you can refer to this topic.
Set up an environment
Alibaba Cloud Simple Application Server provides application images and OS images. You can use application images to quickly deploy application environments. You can also use OS images to create simple application servers and set up operations and maintenance (O&M) environments on these servers. The following table describes the best practices for setting up an environment on a simple application server.
Scenario | Description |
LAMP is a popular solution stack for building web applications. LAMP is an acronym of the names of the four components that make up the stack: the Linux operating system, Apache HTTP server, MySQL relational database management system, and PHP programming language. | |
Ubuntu simple application servers provide only command-line interfaces (CLIs). If you want to use a graphical user interface (GUI) to manage the Ubuntu 16.04 OS, you can use Virtual Network Console (VNC). | |
Ubuntu simple application servers provide only CLIs. If you want to use a GUI to manage the Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 OSs, you can use VNC. |
Build a website
Alibaba Cloud Simple Application Server provides application images and OS images. You can use application images to quickly build websites. You can also use OS images to create simple application servers and build websites on these servers. The following table describes the best practices on building websites.
Scenario | Description |
Software management is a crucial part of the software development process. Mantis Bug Tracker (MantisBT) is an easy-to-use and robust open source software issue tracking and management system that can be deployed on LAMP systems. | |
WordPress is a blog platform developed in the PHP programming language. After you create a simple application server based on a WordPress application image, you can use the WPtouch plug-in for WordPress to build mobile blog sites. | |
On a simple application server where multiple websites are deployed, you can modify the Apache configuration files to point domain names to the websites. Then, you can use the domain names to access the websites over HTTP. |
Transfer data
If you need to manage data resources such as files and databases on your simple application server, you can refer to the following table to choose a tool based on your business requirements. The following table describes the best practices on data transfer.
Scenario | Description |
very secure FTP daemon (vsftpd) is a lightweight, safe, and easy-to-use FTP server software for Linux. You can use an FTP client to connect to your server and upload or download files. | |
If you want to remotely connect to a Windows instance for file transfer purposes, you can build an FTP server. | |
WinSCP is an FTP client for Windows machines. You can use WinSCP to connect to Linux servers and manage files on the servers. | |
Use DMS to connect to a database on a simple application server | If you want to manage a preset or self-managed database on a simple application server, we recommend that you use Alibaba Cloud Data Management (DMS). DMS provides an integrated solution that implements data management, schema management, user authorization, security audit, trend analytics, and data tracking. |
Migrate data between servers
If you want to migrate data between simple application servers or migrate data from a simple application server to an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, you can refer to the following best practices.
Migration scenario | Description |
If your simple application server is about to expire and you have created another simple application server, you can manually migrate the website data from the original server to the new server. | |
Migrate data from a simple application server to an ECS instance | If your current simple application server cannot meet your business requirements, you can use Server Migration Center (SMC) to smoothly migrate data from the simple application server to an ECS instance to obtain more flexible resource configuration solutions. |
You can migrate lightweight servers provided by other vendors such as Tencent Cloud, AWS, and HUAWEI CLOUD to Alibaba Cloud Simple Application Server by using SMC. |
Install SSL certificates
If a domain name is bound to your simple application server, you can install an SSL certificate on the server and configure HTTPS access to the domain name. This way, the data transmission protocol is changed from HTTP to HTTPS at a low cost. Authentication and encrypted data transmission are implemented on websites. This prevents data tampering or leaks during data transmission. The following table describes the best practices.
Scenario | Description |
Install an SSL certificate in the Node.js runtime environment | You can install an SSL certificate on a simple application server that runs the Node.js runtime environment and enable HTTPS access to websites. |
You can install an SSL certificate on a simple application server that runs a WordPress environment (such as WordPress 5.8) and enable HTTPS access to websites. |
Service interconnection
Simple application servers are automatically assigned to virtual private clouds (VPCs). Each VPC is an isolated virtual network. By default, simple application servers are not interconnected with other Alibaba Cloud services such as ECS and ApsaraDB, even if the services reside in the same VPC as the simple application servers. However, by default, simple application servers and Object Storage Service (OSS) resources that reside in the same region can interconnect with each other over internal networks. You do not need to configure service interconnection in this case. The following table describes the best practices.
Scenario | Description |
Implement service interconnection over the internal endpoint of an OSS resource | By default, simple application servers and Object Storage Service (OSS) resources in the same region interconnect with each other over an internal network. When a simple application server accesses an OSS resource over the internal endpoint of the OSS resource, you are not charged for data transfers. If your simple application server and an OSS resource reside in the same region, you can access the OSS resource from the simple application server over the internal endpoint of the OSS resource. |