Installation Instructions for ISPConfig 2

hi till, can this be done in both of windows and linux OS?

 

I haven't tested this, but I think it should work.

 

hello falko,

i followed your tutorial to install and configure ispconfig2 in ubuntu server 9.10 and it has been working fine, but there is only console, no desktop by default. i install the ubuntu-desktop and vnc4server onto it in order that the server becomes the desktop, so i can more easily to operate the system, i.e. open multiple terminals, firefox browser etc.

do you think this is achievable? after done so, will the desktop application installed on top of the server have any impact to the performance of the server and the applications already installed in the server?

 

hi till, you mean copy the entire .VirtualBox/ directory to another PC? after done this, should any file within this directory need to be modified to adapt to the new pc? thanks.

 

hi till, in the new pc, there is a virtualbox application installed and several VM Harddisk created there as well. if i copy the VM from the other pc to this new pc, how should i update the files in the new pc, so that the VM from two different pcs have no impact to each other? thanks.

 

hi till, i was just successful to copy the VM from one PC to another PC and it works in the new PC, so please ignore my two questions for you today. one question: do you know how to decrease and increase the size of the virtualbox disk image? thanks.

 

i have below questions:

1) in sunvirtual box, when creating a VM, specifying the dynamically expanding storage virtual disk, e.g. 10G, the VM will have 10G maximum. how can we resize the virtual disk if found it not big enough later, without recreating another VM with larger virtual disk, say 50G? are there any safe ways to do this?

2) can update to ispconfig3 from ispconfig2? how comprehensive and helpful is the ispconfig3 manual for the installation and configuration of ispconfig3 and setup/config websites under it?

 

i plan to host multiple sites (with domain names like site1.com, site2.com, site3.com etc) in one physical server (through multiple virtual machines under sun virtualbox, each VM for one site) with one ispconfig 2/3 (in this physical server as well) installed in one of the VMs (setup/config all the sites under this ispconfig).

the physical server is behind one public static IP address through a router. each of the VMs has unique IP address (static or dynamic, depends on whether the router is DHCP or static).

the sites are drupal sites, integrating with different applications through drupal modules.

can i achieve this (i.e. host multiple sites under one physical server within one ispconfig 2/3 installed in the same physical server, through only one public static IP address) with this plan? otherwise, how should i modify the plan to best achieve the scheme?

the key things are a) with one ispconfig 2/3 installation; b) through one public static IP address c) in one physical server d) using VMs e) host multiple sites

 

first of all, you don't need user interface, CLI and webUI, should be enough!

Try this if you are interested in running virtual machines, and want a webUI to control the virtual machine.

Proxmox VE:
http://pve.proxmox.com

Here you can see installation video tutorial.
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_installation_(Video)

 

hello falko,

i'm reading the ispconfig 3.0.3 manual and have the below question:

i install everything in one server (ispconfig 3, host website, email exchange etc.).

in the DNS section of the manual, there is below statement:

a)
NS 1: Specify the hostname of the primary nameserver for the domain, e.g.
ns1.somedomain.com. Again, no trailing dot is needed. ns1.somedomain.com must point to the server that you selected in the Server field.
• NS 2: Specify the hostname of the secondary nameserver for the domain, e.g. ns2.somedomain.com. Again, no trailing dot is needed.

if my website is www.example.com and i install everything in one server, what should be the "hostname of the primary nameserver for the domain" and "hostname of the secondary nameserver for the domain"?

b) when creating a DNS zone, specify the email as [email protected], but after the DNS zone created, check the email field, it is filled with webmaster.example.com., not [email protected], is this ok?

c) in the below DNS records setup, for the "A|mail|{IP}|0|86400" and "MX|{DOMAIN}.|mail.{DOMAIN}.|10|86400", i should change the "mail" to "webmaster", because the email is [email protected]), right?

[DNS_RECORDS]
A|{DOMAIN}.|{IP}|0|86400
A|www|{IP}|0|86400
A|mail|{IP}|0|86400
NS|{DOMAIN}.|{NS1}.|0|86400
NS|{DOMAIN}.|{NS2}.|0|86400
MX|{DOMAIN}.|mail.{DOMAIN}.|10|86400

d) which of the below records have to be created
• A
• AAAA
• ALIAS
• CNAME
• HINFO
• MX
• NS
• PTR
• RP
• SRV
• TXT

 

hello falko,

in the "4.9.2 System" section of ispconfig 3.0.3 manual, go to System -> Server Config, under the Server tab, the Nameservers is filled with the default local IP addresses. should i leave it as it is or change to others? what should it be changed it to if it shouldn't be the default local IP addresses?

 

You should create an A record for ns1.somedomain.com and ns2.somedomain.com that point to your ISPConfig server. somedomain.com is a domain that you own and that uses a nameserver of your registrar, for example. In ISPConfig, you fill in ns1.somedomain.com and ns2.somedomain.com

That's ok.

No, this doesn't refer to the webmaster email account, but to the mail server for the domain which is named "mail" (-> mail.example.com).

Depends on your needs, but the DNS Wizard usually does it all for you.

Just fill in the nameservers that you see in /etc/resolv.conf.

 

hello falko,

for security, i.e. some people broke into my hosting system to change something (this happened several times so far), are there any ways to resolve this issue?

for hosting the websites in my home network, i'm using a static IP address provided by my ISP. if i swap to a Dynamic DNS provider to use the dynamic IP service, not the static IP from the ISP anymore, can the same website hosting functionalities still the same as what they are now, i.e. in the same one server, installed ISPConfig 3, host multiple sites with the same domain names as before (the ones i registered, not the ones provided by Dynamic DNS provider), host multiple sub domains, host email server etc? when updating the domain name registrar system to point my domain name to my hosting server, does it have to use a static IP address? moreover, can this approach resolve the security issue i mentioned above?

 

Install fail2ban and use secure passwords. Even better, use key-based SSH logins: http://www.howtoforge.com/ssh_key_based_logins_putty

I don't think it's a good idea to use a dynamic IP because whenever the IP changes, you have to change all DNS records, and you never know if the systems of your users cache DNS queries... And it's a very bad idea to run nameservers on a dynamic IP...

 

Yes, but then you need a glue record: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#Circular_dependencies_and_glue_records

 

i.e. the ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com could be the nameservers for the mydomain.com itself, don't need to use the nameservers provided by registrar or the other third party, right?

moreover, how could a glue record be setup for this?

 

in ispconfig 3 server, i setup the site, mysite.com. the directory of the site is /var/www/mysite.com. when browse the site, the /var/www/mysite.com/index.html page show up with "Welcome ......" message. but after several hours, when browsing this site again, the /var/www/index.html page show up with "It works! ......" message. so weird! since then, whenever browse the site, it always shows the same "It works! ......" message from /var/www/index.html. even though after i create another site in ispconfig 3, e.g. myanothersite.com, when browse this new site, it still shows the same "It works! ......" message from /var/www/index.html.

how can i fix this? what do the apache .htaccess, httpd.conf should be when new sites generated? which log files should i check to investigate the problems?

 

Usually there'S an option for this in your registrar's web interface.

This should give you the idea: http://www.howtoforge.com/ispconfig_dns_providerdomain_schlund