I am going to build a production server and am wondering the Perfect Server Manual install or the Auto-install is the way to go. I am a newbie to ISPConfig and am not sure which way to go. I'm also unsure about setting DNS records and what is needed. It will be a web-server and email-server to start, but, hope to add backup services, as well. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated/
Use the auto-installer, like @ahrasis mentioned. It's way easier than a manual installation with just a single command you run. The auto-installer tutorial lists the prerequisites for the installation at the beginning. You must e.g. have a DNS A-Record for the server hostname pointing to the IP address of the server and this server hostname must be a subdomain of your domain, so e.g. server1.example.com and not just example.com. The system must be clean and empty when you start, so do not try to install ISPConfig on a system where you already have other services or control panels installed and configured. https://www.howtoforge.com/ispconfig-autoinstall-debian-ubuntu/
for production.. use the auto-installer if you're new to ispconfig as you say though, and also possibly, new to linux.. i would also recommend running through the perfect server tutorial a few times in testing as well, just so that you are familiar with what packages are installed, where various config files are etc.. i'm not saying you're going to run into lots of problems, but it would be naive to assume there will never be a problem, and that familiarity would make it much easier for you in the long term.
That makes perfect sense, and thank you. We know enough about Linux to be dangerous we have always preferred Debian even for out desktops. But have to keep an Windows OS for some "rolling my eyes".
