Just another example of the very high-tech skills and generosity of sharing one finds at FreeVPS.us. After my less than satisfactory experience with PHPMyAdmin configuration with VestaCP yesterday, I searched for a tutorial on PHPMyAdmin at FreeVPS.us, and found a brilliant one by Hidden Refuge – a lead Admin of FreeVPS.us. This was his response to my inquiry about steps to follow in VestaCP. Basically he thinks a panel is a security risk. He then goes on to explain exactly what phpMyAdmin is in simple language and how he is using it. I’ve used phpMyAdmin for many years and this was the first time I really understood how it works:
phpMyAdmin itself is a unzip and use application. It is not much more or less than a WebGUI to manage MySQL so you don’t have to always login into your server and use the commandline mysql tool. It has no real installation process other than extracting the files.
If I need phpMyAdmin I only use it for initial setup such as creating the MySQL user and database for the software I host. I don’t have it facing the public. It is behind TLS and a lockdown to a static IP address. So only I can access it over the static IP address and no one else. I install it exactly like in this guide.