Introduction and question :D

welcome @hitman

IP.Board setup is listed at http://centminmod.com/nginx_configure_ipboard.html and forum software forum at https://community.centminmod.com/forums/forum-software-usage.34/ and that is as far as I've done along with Getting Started guide http://centminmod.com/getstarted.html.

Further extensive VPS security is left up to the end user but what is setup by Centmin Mod out of the box including CSF Firewall http://centminmod.com/csf_firewall.html (thread https://community.centminmod.com/threads/csf-firewall-info.25/) is safe. This very forum runs Centmin Mod LEMP stack along with 17 out of 20 of my servers.

Hacking attempts would be from code in IP.Board so that's all on the forum software authors and end user's management of forum software updates and forum related security practices . Basically, no ones hacking your forum unless 1) you give them the keys (weak root user password, weak forum/admin user passwords) or 2) misconfigure your forums or 3) misconfigure your Nginx configuration or do something not recommended i.e. disable CSF Firewall

Also as download page says, you can also do a test install on test VPS first to get a feel. No one says you need to jump into the deep end first

 

It would be web app relative misconfiguration stuff like https://community.centminmod.com/threads/how-to-config-rewrite-in-joomla-3.659/ with correct way like https://community.centminmod.com/threads/tut-config-rewrite-and-run-in-joomla-3.737/. Unfortunately, I don't use Joomla so end users are left to figuring out specifics. I can give some basic advice there.

With IP.Board it's more complete as I have used the forum software hence http://centminmod.com/nginx_configure_ipboard.html i.e. taking note to rename admin directory etc.

Best advice is to setup a duplicate test forum beside the live to try out everything first. If unsure of something Nginx or VPS related, try it out on test VPS before live - that's basically what I do for any major changes even forum upgrades

 

the block.conf pretty much has explanatory comments in it - Github hosted .07 stable block.conf at https://github.com/centminmod/centminmod/blob/123.07stable/config/nginx/block.conf with top link to howtoforge article explaining them at http://www.howtoforge.com/nginx-how...jections-file-injections-spam-user-agents-etc

For more Nginx/PHP-FPM and MariaDB specific questions maybe this forum https://community.centminmod.com/forums/nginx-php-fpm-mariadb-mysql.21/ more appropiate or for install related at https://community.centminmod.com/forums/install-upgrades-or-pre-install-questions.8/

 

Email question best asked in this forum https://community.centminmod.com/forums/domains-dns-email-ssl-certificates.44/. And best long term solution https://community.centminmod.com/threads/free-yourdomain-com-email-accounts-alternatives.280/

see at very bottom of /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf the relevant settings for that

Code:

## limit number of concurrency connections per ip to 16
## add to your server {} section the next line
## limit_conn limit_per_ip 16;
## uncomment below line allows 500K sessions
# limit_conn_log_level error;
#######################################
# use limit_zone for Nginx <v1.1.7 and lower
# limit_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=limit_per_ip:16m;
#######################################
# use limit_conn_zone for Nginx >v1.1.8 and higher
# limit_conn_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=limit_per_ip:16m;
#######################################