Web Hosting & Deployment

What you'll learn

Building a website is half the job. Keeping it online, secure, fast and recoverable, for years, is the other half, and it's where most small-business sites fail: expired domains and certificates, unpatched servers, "FTP deployments" that break the site, no backups (or backups nobody ever restored), and nobody noticing an outage until customers complain.

In this course you take the Harbor & Pine Bakery site from RNK-WEB-201 and run it in production, end to end:

• Domains and DNS: registrars, records, TTLs and migrations, and email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) so the domain can't be spoofed.
• Servers: a hardened Linux VPS with SSH keys, least-privilege accounts, a firewall, automatic security updates, systemd and logs, rebuilt from code with cloud-init.
• Web serving: nginx (and Caddy) as static server and reverse proxy, with correct caching, compression, security headers and rate limits.
• HTTPS: certificates, ACME/Let's Encrypt automation, HSTS, and readiness for shrinking certificate lifetimes (200 → 100 → 47 days).
• Deployment: immutable releases with atomic switching, health checks and automatic rollback; a sandboxed app service; CI/CD with GitHub Actions.
• Containers and platforms: a hardened Docker Compose stack, and how static hosts, serverless and PaaS map onto the same principles.
• Data and backups: RPO/RTO, 3-2-1, verified backups, retention, encryption and timed restore drills.
• Security operations: threat modeling, patching and access routines, log forensics, fail2ban, incident response.
• Monitoring and cost: external checks, SLOs and error budgets, actionable alerts, load testing, capacity math and cost control.

Everything is taught with a small, readable Python toolkit (DNS linter, TLS checker, nginx generator, deployer, backup tool, log analyzer, uptime monitor, load tester) and real, validated configuration files.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, you can:

1. Choose a hosting model with the right trade-offs and justify it with availability and cost arithmetic.
2. Manage domains and DNS safely, including migrations and email authentication.
3. Provision and harden a Linux server reproducibly.
4. Configure nginx or Caddy as a secure, cache-aware static server and reverse proxy.
5. Run HTTPS with automated certificate renewal and modern TLS settings.
6. Deploy with immutable releases, health checks, rollbacks and CI/CD.
7. Containerize an application securely and evaluate alternative platforms.
8. Protect data with tested backups that meet stated RPO/RTO targets.
9. Operate securely: patching, access control, log analysis and incident response.
10. Monitor, scale and budget a service with SLOs, alerts, load tests and cost controls.

Who it's for

• Web developers who want to deploy and operate what they build
• Freelancers and agencies offering hosting and maintenance to clients
• Small-business owners and IT generalists responsible for a website
• Graduates of RNK-WEB-201

Prerequisites

Comfortable on the command line; basic HTML/HTTP knowledge (RNK-WEB-201 Modules 1–2 or equivalent). No prior Linux administration required.

Equipment and software

The full setup guide, with verification steps, is in your learning materials when you enroll.

Format and study time

40 guided hours (10 modules × 4 h) plus ~12 h capstone. Instructor-led cohort, 5-day intensive, or self-paced with office hours.

Each scheduled class below states its own format, every meeting date and time, and its time zone.

What a seat includes

Curriculum

1. 01
   The hosting landscape

   4 h · Lab: Provider comparison, cost model and an architecture decision record
2. 02
   Domains, DNS & email authentication

   4 h · Lab: A fixed zone (0 errors), an email-auth audit and a migration plan
3. 03
   Linux servers & SSH

   4 h · Lab: A hardened server, rebuilt from cloud-init
4. 04
   Web servers & reverse proxies

   4 h · Lab: nginx serving the site and proxying the form API
5. 05
   HTTPS & TLS

   4 h · Lab: A real certificate with automated renewal, HSTS and a clean TLS check
6. 06
   Deployment & CI/CD

   4 h · Lab: Atomic deployments with rollback, a sandboxed service, a CI/CD pipeline
7. 07
   Containers & platforms

   4 h · Lab: The site in hardened containers + a platform comparison
8. 08
   Data, storage & backups

   4 h · Lab: Scheduled, encrypted off-site backups and a timed restore drill
9. 09
   Security & operations

   4 h · Lab: Log forensics, fail2ban, a tabletop incident and a hardening review
10. 10
    Monitoring, scaling & cost

    4 h · Lab: External monitoring, SLOs and alerts, a load test and an operations report
11. ★
    Capstone clinic & demo day

    Lab: Capstone project

Assessment and completion

Simply opening a lesson or a video never counts as completing an assessment. Completion is recorded only when the published requirements are met and your instructor has confirmed the result.

Course policies

• Late work: −10% per day for up to 3 days; one free 48-hour extension.
• Cloud costs: the labs fit in free tiers or a ~$5–$10/month VPS. Delete resources after the course. Students who can't use a cloud account can complete every lab with local VMs and Docker.
• Ethics and law: only scan, load-test or attack systems you own or have written permission to test. Never expose real personal data in lab reports. Violations are academic misconduct.
• Security of credentials: never share private keys or tokens in reports, chat or screenshots. Rotate anything you accidentally expose.
• AI assistants: allowed with disclosure; you must be able to explain every command and configuration line you submit.
• Accessibility: all materials are searchable PDF documents (Markdown sources available on request); accommodations on request.

Upcoming classes