Rackspace Cloud servers are ultra-reliable and robust cloud based servers that can be configured with a variety base OS images. This walkthrough will take you step by step through creating and setting a base install of the popular Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx). Later walkthroughs will pick up where this walkthrough leaves off with setting up common webserver platforms and frameworks.

We begin by logging into our Rackspace Cloud Server control panel.

1. Add new server instance.
2. Select Linux tab, then Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid).
3. Type a unique name to identify the new server.
4. Select the desired hardware. I started with the least expensive; it is easy to scale up later if needed.
5. The Rackspace panel will give you a pre-generated password. Save this for later reference.
6. While the server is building you will want to install an SSH Client. If you are on Windows we recommend Bitvise Tunnelier (free for individual use).
7. Once the server build is complete, you will get an email with the public IP address and the root/admin password for your new Linux server.
8. Open your SSH Client and connect to the new server with the public IP address as the Host, Default Port 22, root for the username, and the auto-generated password from earlier for the password.  On successful connection you should get a console command window.
9. The first thing we should do is changed the root password. Since the auto-generated one was sent unencrypted via email it can no longer be considered safe. At the console prompt, type the command: passwd and hit enter. You will be prompted for the new password twice. Be sure to use an unique password that is fairly long, contains a mix of letters, numbers and at least one punctuation character. Save the new password in a secure location.

At this point you will have a working base install of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid) running on a Rackspace Cloud Server. The next walk through will help take you step by step for Installing the LAMP Frawework stack.

LAMP is an acronym for the Linux Apache MySQL PHP stack, which is a very popular web development framework. This walkthrough will guide you step by step the process of installing a base LAMP stack on a clean Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) server. If you do not already have an Ubuntu server, our previous walkthrough Creating a Rackspace Ubuntu Cloud Server will take you up to the point that this walkthrough picks up.

SSH into your Ubuntu server (see our Ubuntu setup walkthrough if you need help with this step)

1. Update the installer source repositories by typing the following command:
   sudo apt-get update (hit enter)
2. Install Apache:
   sudo apt-get install apache2 (hit enter)
   Type Y to confirm.
3. Once the Apache install is finished, you can confirm it works by opening a new browser window and browsing to either the local or public IP (http://ip-address) of your Ubuntu server. You should see a page that says "It Works!" if all went well.
4. Install MySQL Server:
   sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.1 (hit enter)
   Type Y to confirm.
   Enter a new password for the root MySQL user. Be sure to use a unique password that is fairly long, contains a mix of letters, numbers and at least one punctuation character. Save the password in a secure location.
5. Install PHP 5:
   sudo apt-get install php5 (hit enter)
   Type Y to confirm.

6. Install the GD library for PHP:
   sudo apt-get install php5-gd (hit enter)
   Restart Apache:
   /etc/init.d/apache2 restart (hit enter)

7. Finally we now install the MySQL module for PHP:
   sudo apt-get install php5-mysql (hit enter)

Now we have a clean base install of a LAMP server running on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). If you are using a Hyper V server or the Rackspace Cloud, now would be a great time to make a snapshot backup of your server. We will pick up from here on the next walkthrough with installing and configuring Drupal.

ASP.NET has a built in website template system called Master Pages. The system offers a very flexible and easy to use solution for managing the portion of a website that will be re-used on more than one page of the site.

Most websites will use the same header, navigation and footer on almost every page of the site. Master Pages provide a simple to use, and simple to manage answer for this common problem. Master pages are not the only option for this problem. Some developers have taken the time to build their own templating system (usually when using another development language that does not already have one built-in like ASP.NET), and some web design software suites include a template system. For example, Dreamweaver includes a system called "Dreamweaver templates". ASP.NET Master pages work similar to the Editable Regions in Dreamweaver templates, but they offer a number of advantages.

1. The master pages are integrated into the content pages at the time of the user request. This means that unlike client side based templates, you do not need to re-apply it to every content page each time you change the master page.
2. The ASP.NET Master Pages are much more flexible than most other template systems. Among many other features, they allow for an unlimited number of nested template levels and allow for default content at each content region. While nesting is beyond the scope of this article, it is actually quite simple to implement. I will discuss how to specify default content below.

The template files in ASP.NET end with .master and are very similar to a standard .aspx page in that they can contain the same kind of page markup. The .master file will contain the code that you want to reuse on multiple pages.

In the example below you will see the Site.master default markup for a new Visual Studio Web Site. By default there are two Content Place Holders defined with the <asp:ContentPlaceHolder /> tags. The first one is titled HeadContent and contains a single line of default content. The second Content Place Holder is titled MainContent and uses the shorter close tag notation since we did not specify any default content for this region. Because the templates are actually merged by the web server at the time of the request, we need to include the runat="server" parameter as well.

In the sample Content Page below we tell the server that we want to use our Master Page by adding the MasterPageFile="~/Site.Master" parameter in the Page tag at the top. The Master Pages content will now automatically be used on this page of the website and all we need to do is optionally provide some custom content for our Content Place Holders. We do this by using a <asp:Content /> tag. The page below has supplied content for both of our Content Place Holders. Notice how the tags are matched to their proper corresponding Master Page tag by the ContenPlaceHolderId parameter.

If we request the page from the web server, below is the resulting HTML that is sent to the browser. The custom content was automatically merged with the template content contained in the Master Page, and then the ASP.Net Placeholder tags were stripped out and finally the server would process any other server side elements before sending the results to the client. Notice also that setting the Title parameter in our content page was still applied even though the title tag is actually outside of any of our Content Place Holders. Any code behind files (.cs or .vb) that are associated with the pages will get processed just fine. Another nice feature is that you can even specify a code behind file for your mast page that so that it can be used to insert server code that you want to get processed on every page.

Now if we decided we did not need to change the default content that we have for the header in our HeadContent Place holder, we would just omit specifying a corresponding asp:Content tag in our content page. If you omit a placeholder region in your page the server will then just use the default content from the master page instead, like below.

This is especially nice if you decide to adfd a new Content Region to a template after the site has already been published. You do not have to go back and add that region to every page the uses your template. Instead you would only need to update the pages where you want to specify custom content in your new content placeholder.

This article really just scratches the surface with what can be done with master pages. However many sites do not need any more complexity then this. Nested master page will come in handy when you want to build a section of subpages, say recipes for example, that will all have a very similar look, but still inherit from the Main Master Page to inherit the site's header, footer, etc.

Microsoft IIS Server 7.0 and up offers a lot of new features in regards to application security. One of the new features is the ability to assign each of your ASP.NET applications their own isolated Application Pool. This adds a lot of additional security because now we can also assign NTFS permissions for folders on a per application basis. This is a good thing because now when you need to give your ASP.NET application permission to read or write data to a particular folder, you don't have to automatically allow every other ASP.NET app on the same server to do so as well.

When developers that are new to IIS 7 first try to run an app they may get the error:

Access to the path 'C:\inetpub\MyWebSite\App_Data\MySiteData.xml' is denied.

This used to be fixed by simply adding the NetworkService account to the folder permissions . While it is still possible to configure your application to use the NetworkService account, it should be avoided. This older method does not allow you to assign folder permissions for ASP.NET on a per application basis.
When you create a new ASP.NET application in IIS it now will by default automatically create a new IIS App Pool with the same name and then assign it to that application. If this application will require ASP.NET code to be able to create or modify files on the server you will need to give it permission. The App_Data is one folder that often that often needs create & modify access.

NOTE: The instructions below are intended for Windows Server 2008 R2.
If you need help with Windows Server 2008 go here, and here for Windows Server 2003.

You cannot currently browse for your new IIS App Pool account in the GUI, however you can still assign the folder permissions by typing IIS APPPOOL\YourAppPoolName in the Select User or Groupsdialog box which is accesible by clicking Add... Once the account is listed, assign the permissions just as would do before with the NetworkService account.

Asking clients for their project budgets is a topic that I often see on design & developer forums. The consultants post that they would like a project budget when working on an estimate but are frustrated when clients are reluctant to provide it. The consultants usually post that they do not understand why this is. Before I became a consultant I was the IT Manager for several years at a non-profit organization. From that experience I can definitely understand a client's reluctance. In fact, I didn't understand why I should disclose my budget with a contractor until I became one myself.

From the client's perspective, there are usually two reasons that they may not want to divulge their budget. The most common reason is the desire to get the best price that they can. They fear that if they lay out how much they are willing to spend, then that is what the project will cost, and often they are right. Instead they are hoping that the contractor will just provide an estimate that is ideally less then what they were willing to spend. This is a basic concept and from the client's perspective it makes perfect sense.

The other reason a client may not want to discuss their budget is because they may not know what a suitable budget for their project really is. The fear is if they show what might be perceived as ignorance on the topic, then the contractor will take advantage of that, again resulting in them being overcharged. So far I haven't made much of a case for discussing a budget! However, that's because I think it is just as important for contractors to understand their clients' concerns as it is for the client to understand ours.

From the contractor's perspective, my goal is to provide a service or product to my client that both meets their needs and is priced at a point that is within their budget. The fact is that some projects can be performed at different levels of budget. However, this does not mean that the final result is the same. The difference is how much time and effort can be invested in producing and polishing that result. The budget is a key component in determining this. Another element that is often overlooked is that this is negotiable. I am more than happy to discuss options that may increase or decrease the cost. The budget just helps me to establish the initial project and what I can include at that cost point. My aim is then to produce the nicest product that I can within that budget. Without a budget I can only guess where to start, and that often results in an estimate that does not meet the needs of the client.

The budget always seems the most difficult to discuss when there is a new client / contractor relationship. Trust has not been established yet for the client, so this is only natural. Once trust has been established it is usually smooth sailing. The vast majority of my work is repeat customers or new clients that have been referred to me by my existing clients. If I were to take advantage of clients budgets, and provide results that were not a value to the client I could hardly expect them to hire me for more projects in the future, let alone expect referrals from that client. A smart contractor realizes that trust and integrity are key to future work and ultimately a successful firm.

Don't be afraid to provide your budget requirements to a firm when asking for an estimate. But at the same time, don't be afraid to ask for options that could reduce the cost. Make sure that you understand what those options are and whether they provide the value you expect at that price point. Then you can decide for yourself that the project features and polish are at a price that is a value to you and your organization.