Starting new server for phpBB

[mknotultra]

I'm setting up a new dedi server for phpBB - personal not business use.

Does anyone have any comments on anything OS related that may impact on phpBB operation?
I'm familiar with red hat but as this will be my personal server I want a free os thats going to be simple
to set up and maintain and secure for phpBB
I'm not experience with ubuntu or the other well known ones - which do people prefer for this?
I can't forsee an OS problem with the forum but with computers you never know - especially as I'm starting from scratch.

I'm planning on setting up on a local windows system to develop on before selecting the online server OS
but don't forsee any major issue with that as I've done that before.
I've downloaded the latest phpBB 3 / PHP / Apache / mySQL and associated bits to begin locally so any comments
before I start online would be welocme.

thank you
mark.

[P_I]

Please be aware of https://www.phpbb.com/rules/#server-support

Although we are happy to help if possible, problems with server configuration (Apache, *nix, etc.) or general php coding may better be better asked at sites specifically dedicated to the support of the particular product involved. We are unlikely to have the same expertise in those areas as dedicated support sites.

[Helter Skelter]

A dedicated server is seriously overkill for a single or even a few personal phpBB sites. phpBB will run on any mainstream lamp. Step 1 should be to "harden" your sever before installing any other software. There are a ton of sites with tutorials on how to do this for nearly every os.
My main suggestion is that if your using a control panel that offers quick script installs for software like phpBB, such as Softaculous, do not use it. Your support options will be limited and updating in the future may be unreliable.

[mknotultra]

Thank you both for your replies.

I'm aware this is not an OS support forum - I was just hoping for any
comment on issues specifically related to phpBBS use on modern
OS's and any experiences good or bad in that respect given my
current lack of in depth experience with them outside of redHat.

I'm not seeking information on OS hardening for example - but
I would be interested in phpBBS hardening (etc)issues on different
OS's - that is not an issue for OS forums but a phpBBs one I think.
Hopefully that one example helps to explain my interest better than
my first attempt.

Helter Skelter
A dedicated server is required for my needs which are not simply
forum related - FWIW I won't be using front end software.

Perhaps if I ask it this way: If you all had experience of multiple
OS's running phpBBS which would you pick and are there any
you would avoid?

Thanks
Mark.

[Blacktiger63]

Well. It's not that hard to figure out.

If you are going to run a dedicated server for your forums, you want your forums to be stable.
So you need a stable OS and not one which is going to have the newest thing most quickly.

This means stay away from Fedora and Centos Stream for example. Also stay away from not much used OS systems like Mint, Mandrake and other which are not used on servers.

So in that case you're left with RH alikes like Almalinux and Rocky linux for example or with Debian and derelatives like Ubuntu.
Some Ubuntu also have new things, but it's popular.

If you have a dedicated server, next thing you want to ask yourself is how long you want to use that. Because RH alike do not have a build in OS upgrade system like Debian has. They ave an external system.
Debian and alike do have a build in upgrade system which you can use to upgrade to major other versions like Debian 11 to Debian 12.

The forums works just as good on Debian as it will on RH based systems.
So I would choose either for Almalinux 9 or if you want to upgrade your dedicated server later on without switching servers, and you don't have problems using apt as package manager, you might want to choose Debian (or maybe Ubuntu) so you can easily upgrade to a new version.