This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
Each server keeps a site in its own file: a server block, a virtual host, a Caddyfile site, or an IIS binding. None of them is safer because of a slogan. This page names no browser tool. The pillar links the generators for a later draft.
Write the feature you need: a reverse proxy, a static site, or Windows authentication. The choice follows that feature and the team that will reload it. A migration is a later guide. Do not reload anything during the reading.
example.com in a sample is documentation. 192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the site and the feature.
- Name who will operate the server.
- Choose one.
- Leave the config draft to that server's how-to.
- Do not migrate.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Nginx vs Apache vs Caddy vs IIS goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A winner chosen from a slogan.
- A reload during the reading.
- Two servers half-configured.
- example.com left as the live name.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Nginx vs Apache vs Caddy vs IIS: One site. The reason is a feature. No reload happened. No second server was started. And this page does not migrate.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The site is named. The server is chosen. The reason is one sentence. No config was reloaded. And example.com is not the live name. If one of those fails, stop.
| Server | The site file | This page |
|---|---|---|
| Nginx | A server block | Does not reload it |
| Apache | A virtual host | Does not reload it |
| Caddy | A site block | Does not reload it |
| IIS | A binding | Does not connect |
# A choice, not a migration.
# Do not reload during the reading.
# example.com is documentation.Before you leave the host
Nginx vs Apache vs Caddy vs IIS ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
Tools for this guide
This guide does not name a browser tool. The pillar it belongs to links the calculators for the neighbouring work.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.