Questions/Concerns after installing ISPConfig 3.2 on Ubuntu 18 with Nginx

Hello again,
I am now starting up on upgrading my services through Nginx (have worked with Apache for a few years now). I have stood up a new server and followed this tutorial: https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/perfect-server-ubuntu-18-04-nginx-bind-dovecot-and-ispconfig-3/

Even though it appears that all is working, but I want your help to be sure before doing a lot more work on this new server. I have the following concerns/questions:

1. On section 6. (Mysql), the instruction is:


However, what I got was this:



I did comment the "[client-server]" line, as I interpreted this to be the same as the step in the tutorial. Is this OK? or should I worry or do something different?

2. On step 16, (Installing ISP Config, at the step where the RSA key is created to secure it, instead of showing (as in the tutorial) "Generating a 4096 bit RSA private key"


In my server, the output was only "Generating a RSA private key". Is this an error? Or an omission on my end to set it up? Would there it be any negative impact to the set up?



3. I was intending to upgrade the server to Ubuntu 20 after setting ISP Config up, but I would like your insight on that. Would you please advise me whether I should upgrade the OS or just keep it as-is?

4. On the same token, I noticed that Nginx installed as version 1.14 while there is a latest build (1.18/1.19) available. Is there a way to correctly upgrade versions?

5. And lastly, when I finished installing ISP Config 3.2.2. I remembered that there are dependencies to be installed, and then I went and did install them. Is that wrong? Should I re-do the set up installing the dependencies first?

At the point I'm at I can comfortably trash everything and re-do it all if needed, I appreciate your help!

 

There are several tutorials to convert apache to nginx and the one that I followed to convert my ISPConfig apache2 web server more than five years ago somewhere in 2016 was https://blog.schaal-24.de/ispconfig/ispconfig-apache-durch-nginx-ersetzen/?lang=en. I think I still maintain the nginx settings of Ubuntu 18.04 PST after updating to Ubuntu 20.04.1 somewhere at the end of last year.

I did not face #1 error. I would say, you have an incorrect steps somewhere but I am not sure whether that's really matter so long it works.

For error #2, I normally didn't bother entering any info for the self-signed certs and keep pressing enter because I prefer to use ISPConfig install / update to create the LE SSL certs which will overwrite all of the self-signed certs for ISPConfig server and all of its installed services.

For #3, I'd prefer the same approach as @Jesse Norell.

For #4, don't do that, use the one shipped with Ubuntu as they will patch it and version number doesn't matter.

For #5, always resolve all dependencies first whenever possible but fixing them later is also possible, provided you know what you are doing.

 

Great, thank you !

 

Great, thank you!

 

Well, I was about to ask something very similar. Would there be any advice from you guy for me not to?

 

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Hello, thank you for your advice & guidance, I looked at the tutorial to replace Apache with Nginx and I preferred not to upgrade the server currently in production, since I have this new, clean server available I´d go for installing from 0. I got it on each of your comments and this is helping me.

This first one attempt was a bit rocky, so I´m re-doing the full OS/ISPConfig install. let's see how it goes!

 

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Quick thought:

In following the advice and tutorial you just referred above, can I use this other tutorial and have Nginx and Pagespeed installed as well? (https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-install-nginx-with-google-pagespeed-on-ubuntu-20-04/)

 

The betterment needed, whether in terms of speed or security, if there is any, will be very very minimal IMHO compared to the trouble you'll be facing in keeping your nginx up-to-date.

Plus nginx is always improving its software for both speed and security, so why do you really need to trouble yourself for the very minimal betterment.

So I think you shouldn't install any nginx modules that need default nginx (re)compilation, but if you need the latest bleeding edge nginx, you might want to add its repo instead.

 

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Oh!, I do see what you mean!! I'll do without pagespeed. I do appreciate you pointed that out to me. Thank you!

 

Thank you Till, I did stand up my server with Ubuntu 20, Nginx and it appears to be running OK, I have also now installed nginx-extras. I´ll be testing and see if all is good.