Need a Server to run ISPCONFIG on ! Look Here...

[jockstrap]

Folks,

You don't need to buy an expensive server or 2nd computer to run ispconfig and try it! Not sure if you are aware, but vmware have made their SERVER version FREE now!

What this enables you to do - is to run ispconfig on your existing windows machine as a virtual server!

It's fantastic for testing or even a permanent server...

Anyway - it's what I use and thought I'd let you know about it..
http://www.vmware.com

PS: There is even a section on the website where you can download pre-built appliances and someone has built an ispconfig appliance for you. So basically all you do is download the files and fire it up with vmware and you have an ispconfig server ready to configure and run!

Enjoy - cheers...

[edge]

This is how I've been testing OS'ese for some time now!
I'm not using "VMware", but "Parallels Workstation (http://www.parallels.com/)" (not free).

[till]

Folks,

You don't need to buy an expensive server or 2nd computer to run ispconfig and try it! Not sure if you are aware, but vmware have made their SERVER version FREE now!

What this enables you to do - is to run ispconfig on your existing windows machine as a virtual server!

It's fantastic for testing or even a permanent server...

Anyway - it's what I use and thought I'd let you know about it..
http://www.vmware.com

VMWare is really nice for testing, we use it to write the howtos.

PS: There is even a section on the website where you can download pre-built appliances and someone has built an ispconfig appliance for you. So basically all you do is download the files and fire it up with vmware and you have an ispconfig server ready to configure and run!

The appliance has been build by Falko and me, the highlights are that it has SuPHP and ChrootSSH enabled, these features are part of the next official ISPConfig release.

[edge]

VMWare is really nice for testing, we use it to write the howtos.



The appliance has been build by Falko and me, the highlights are that it has SuPHP and ChrootSSH enabled, these features are part of the next official ISPConfig release.

Till is there an ETA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_time_of_arrival) for the new ISPConfig?

[till]

Till is there an ETA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_time_of_arrival) for the new ISPConfig?

Within 1 week, maybe already on monday.

[edge]

Looking forward to it :-)

[todvard]

Seems, this is a day of virtualization

Microsoft announced the free Virtual PC 2004: here (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx)
VirtualIQ 525, a free web based vitrual machine management and monitor tool: here (http://www.toutvirtual.com/solutions/viq_525.php)

[jockstrap]

Seems, this is a day of virtualization

Microsoft announced the free Virtual PC 2004: here (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx)
VirtualIQ 525, a free web based vitrual machine management and monitor tool: here (http://www.toutvirtual.com/solutions/viq_525.php)


WOW! More toys to play with ....... he he he

[wr19026]

Within 1 week, maybe already on monday.

Will the "problem" with aliases (http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2081&page=4) that's causing the user@www.domain.dom headaches in RoundCube be solved in the new release?

[till]

Will the "problem" with aliases (http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2081&page=4) that's causing the user@www.domain.dom headaches in RoundCube be solved in the new release?

No. The aliases where written correctly in ISPConfig. I think we will not change ISPConfig just to work around the roundcube bug in reading the config file.

[jockstrap]

Will the "problem" with aliases (http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2081&page=4) that's causing the user@www.domain.dom headaches in RoundCube be solved in the new release?


Hmm - wr19026, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about the www - my roundcubemail is working sweet!

Yes, you have to change your identity once when the user is created, but that's it! ???

If you wish - I can setup an email userid on my test roundcube for you and you can have a play if you wish! Cheers - Jockstrap..

[pesja]

Yes the ISPConfig image is working great within VMware. I tested it for one week now. I only discovered two (minor) errors:

1. Webalizer isn't working on new domains. I tried the workaround as written on the forum, but still no luck. Webalizer doesn't make a stat subdirectory.
2. Also Munin isn't working within the VMWare image.

Maybe we can figure out what's the problem with this two issues. Maby the problem is that withing the VMWare Image host- and domainname are set to default (server1.example.com). Maybe the problem is the change of IP-, subnet and gateway adresses.

Who can help on this?

[till]

Yes the ISPConfig image is working great within VMware. I tested it for one week now. I only discovered two (minor) errors:

1. Webalizer isn't working on new domains. I tried the workaround as written on the forum, but still no luck. Webalizer doesn't make a stat subdirectory.
2. Also Munin isn't working within the VMWare image.

Maybe we can figure out what's the problem with this two issues. Maby the problem is that withing the VMWare Image host- and domainname are set to default (server1.example.com). Maybe the problem is the change of IP-, subnet and gateway adresses.

Who can help on this?

I will have a look at the issues in the next days.

[pesja]

thank's in advance Till.

[pesja]

Well Till,

Are you still looking at the problems with webalizer en munin on the VMWare Image or are you making a new one with the latest ISPConfig?

[falko]

He didn't have the time yet. You know we have a lot to do...
Maybe you can try to find out what's wrong yourself? Then it's not so stressful for us. :)

[pesja]

I'm sorry Falko but this was not the answer I expected from you.

I don't want to stress anyone. And I don't have the knowledge to fix those things. I only tested the image and find the problems I decribed. Till wrote that he was looking at it the comings days. So I ask him if he already had an clue. I like ISPConfig very much and this out-of-the-box solution even more.

[till]

I'm sorry Falko but this was not the answer I expected from you.

I don't want to stress anyone. And I don't have the knowledge to fix those things. I only tested the image and find the problems I decribed. Till wrote that he was looking at it the comings days. So I ask him if he already had an clue. I like ISPConfig very much and this out-of-the-box solution even more.

I was very busy the last week and we had some trouble with the last ISPConfig release which has cost much time too. I will post here when I had a chance to look at the issues in the vmware image.

[till]

''ve just tested the vmware image:

1. Webalizer isn't working on new domains. I tried the workaround as written on the forum, but still no luck. Webalizer doesn't make a stat subdirectory.

Webalizer works for me.

What output do you get when you run the following command as root user:

/root/ispconfig/php/php -q /root/ispconfig/scripts/shell/webalizer.php

2. Also Munin isn't working within the VMWare image.

Munin is working for me. You can access it on:

https://192.168.0.100:81/monitoring

(Change the IP to the IP of your VM)

[pesja]

1. ''ve just tested the vmware image:
Webalizer works for me.
What output do you get when you run the following command as root user:
/root/ispconfig/php/php -q /root/ispconfig/scripts/shell/webalizer.php


Erstelle Statistik Verzeichnis: /var/www/web3/web/stats
Erstelle Statistik Verzeichnis: /var/www/web4/web/stats

then I login with http://mydomain.com/stats

it gives the page: 404 Error - File not found!

When I logged in on the console I saw that for the first time there was a stats directory created on the websites. It didn't before.

So I run:
grep -i cron /var/log/messages

and

/root/ispconfig/php/php /root/ispconfig/scripts/shell/logs.php

and

/root/ispconfig/php/php /root/ispconfig/scripts/shell/webalizer.php

Finally it runs and I got statisticfiles. Now I hope that it will last. I'll keep you informed.


2. ''Munin is working for me. You can access it on:

https://192.168.0.100:81/monitoring

(Change the IP to the IP of your VM)"

I changed it to my public IP-adress and login with admin / ispconfig (I don't know how to change that password).

then it looks like it the loggin is correct but, after 10 - 20 seconds, it gives the page that it cannot find the server.

[falko]

1.

Erstelle Statistik Verzeichnis: /var/www/web3/web/stats
Erstelle Statistik Verzeichnis: /var/www/web4/web/stats

then I login with http://mydomain.com/stats

it gives the page: 404 Error - File not found!Is mydomain.com's document root in /var/www/web3/web/?


I changed it to my public IP-adress and login with admin / ispconfig (I don't know how to change that password).

then it looks like it the loggin is correct but, after 10 - 20 seconds, it gives the page that it cannot find the server.Please try with your LAN IP address (from within your LAN).

[pesja]

No luck for me. I thought it over and I came with the idea to begin from scratch an note down every change I make to the image in this topic. Please correct me when the procedure is not correct!!

I will use this parameters (fictive due to privacy reason):

public ipadress: 293.273.221.52
subnet: 255.255.255.248
gateway: 293.273.221.49

hostname: isp1
domain: morehost.net -> I pointed this domain to the nameservers ns1.morehost.net and ns2.morehost.net)

mail server: mx10.morehost.net (because my fallback mailserver I shall named mx20.morehost.net)

dns server -> For the domains I host for webdesign I use the external dns-servers of the domainprovider.
For the domains I host but customers want to make changes themselves the hostserver isp1 will function as master dnsserver.

1. Changes of the image:
===================
I changed the memory to 1024 Mb (size swapfile I will change in the future)
I Removed / Floppy / USB Controller and Audio
I Changed The Ethernet to Custom so I can use my public adress



2. Starting the image
================
This will take a while because it hangs when it wants to synchronize the clock. Also munin (Starting munin-node: takes some times because of the public routed ipadress (not set yet).
After more then 7 minutes I can login to the console.



3. Change the networksettings
=======================
I log in at the console i log in with root and ispconfig as password.
Then I start network_setup and change the following parameters:
language: en
ipadress: 293.273.221.52
netmask: 255.255.255.248
gateway: 293.273.221.49

After I enterd the IP adress of the gateway network is restarted, so now I can remote login with putty;
login as: admin
Password:ispconfig
admin@server1:~$ su root
Password:ispconfig

the server now gives this prompt: server1:/home/admin#



4. check / change network parameters
=============================
I use some of the items of "the perfect setup of debian 3.1"

a. check the network:
nano /etc/network/interfaces

gives this settings

---
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 293.273.221.52
netmask 255.255.255.248
network 293.273.221.48
broadcast 293.273.221.55
gateway 293.273.221.49
---

This seems OK.

Then I added 3 extra nameservers:

nano /etc/resolv.conf

search server
nameserver 194.151.228.18
nameserver 213.239.147.2
nameserver 217.115.195.45
nameserver 145.253.2.75
nameserver 193.174.32.18
nameserver 194.25.0.60

As you can see I add the first nameserver which is the nameserver of kpn.net
I also add two nameserver from my domainprovider.

The only thing I can't figured out is the issue "search server". Maybe I must changed it into "search morehost.net"?

After that I changed the ipadresses, hostname and domain into "hosts"

nano /etc/hosts

after the changes I got this:

---
27.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
293.273.221.52 isp1.morehost.net isp1

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts
---

After above changes I changed the host and domainname:

echo isp1.morehost.net > /etc/hostname
/bin/hostname -F /etc/hostname

after that I rebooted the isp1 hostserver it restarted a lot faster than before (nearly 1 minute).

After I logged in with putty I changed the postfix settings:

nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

and changed the following lines:

---
myhostname = mx10.morehost.net

---
#mydestination = mx10.morehost.net, isp1.morehost.net, localhost.morehost.net, localhost

The line above is marked out and I'm not sure that this must be. So I changed it in advance for experimental use

Now I also have to change the mailname into mx10.morehost.net. I can do that like this:

nano /etc/mailname and change the name into mx10.morehost.net

The last step is to modify the local-host-names:

nano /etc/postfix/local-host-names

And do this:

#### MAKE MANUAL ENTRIES BELOW THIS LINE! ####
mx10.morehost.net



5. Solving timesync problem
====================

Solving the timesyn problem (too fast or too slow) on the debian 2.6 kernel. In my case the time was running to slow (about 30%) On a double AMD Opteron with Ms Windows 2003 as a host. So I search at the internet en found a solution. But first I had to install the VMWare Tools on the debian Image:

apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386

Above line will install the kernel headers in order to function the VMWare tools correct.

Now on your server Console go to: VM, Install VMWare Tools, Nothing will happen but the Linux VMWare Tools ISO is now mounted on your virtual machine. Now mount the iso in your Debian box:

mount -t iso9660 /dev/hda /cdrom and copy the *.tar file to /root

cp VMwareTools-1.0.0-27828.tar.gz /root

Then untar the *.tar file and start the installation

cd /root
tar zxf VMwareTools-1.0.0-27828.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib/
./vmware-install.pl

For every question use the default answer. If you are, like me, using putty answer Yes when the installationprogram detects it and give some message about lost connection with remote control.

After a few minutes the VMWare tools are installed and we can modify param.h of the kernel:

nano /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-386/include/asm-i386/param.h

And change this line: #define HZ 1000

into

#define HZ 100

The next step I had to make is to add parameters to the menu.lst of the Grub bootloader:

nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

and search for the line: kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro

into

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386 root=/dev/sda3 ro clock=pit nosmp noapic nolapic

In order to make everything works you have to remove the ntpdate due to synchronizing conflicts

apt-get remove ntpdate


Then at last we have to do some editing into the Other Other Linux 2.6.x kernel.vmx configuration file. Look in it for this line: tools.syncTime = "FALSE" and change in into tools.syncTime = "TRUE"


That should do the trick
==========



So this were all the changes I made into the VMWare Image of ISPConfig. If I had to make more changes, I'm glad to read them in futher posts about this topic.

Into my next post I will go on with the settings into the ISPConfig administrator, so everybody had an good idea what I did wrong and affect the working of webalizer and munin.

[pesja]

So It's time to note down the settings within ISPConfig Administrator:

After I logged in (username admin / password: ispconfig) the first setting I changed is:

Management -> Server -> Settings

Server
=====
Servername : isp 1
Hostname : isp1
Domain: morehost.net
IP Adress: 293.273.221.52
Netmask: 255.255.255.248
Admin Email: admin@morehost.net

EMail
====
antivirus-Admin: admin@morehost.net

DNS
===
Default Ns1: ns1.morehost.net
Default Ns2: ns2.morehost.net

So, now I make a Reseller with the name Morehost Webservices
The only thing I changed is the allowance of MySQL databases (Tab Limits)

After that I make a new Client with the name morehost.net (the same name as the domain)
At last I make a new site with the name morehost.net

I don't change the hostname (www)
I marked the Create DNS and Create DNS-MX
I marked also CGI Scripts, Standard CGIs, PHP Scripts, SSI, FTP Access and MySQL.
At the User & Mail tab I make a new user, named admin:
- Email Adress: admin
- Username: admin
also marked Administrator

Advanced tab:
Email Alias: abuse postmaster hostmaster
Also marked MailScan and Spamfilter / Antivirus at the Spamfilter etc. tab.

Then I select DNS Manager en go to the site morehost.net
Then I select the records tab and added this A records:
- ns1 (293.273.221.52)
- ns2 (293.273.221.53)
- localhost (127.0.0.1)
- isp1 (293.273.221.52)

I checked the mx server isp1.morehost.net

Looks good to me. I know ensim and plesk and this DNS settings worked with them.

So I type morehost.net into http://www.dnsreport.com to check this domain:

Fails: Open DNS Server => I can fix this within bind : no problem
Fails: Reverse DNS entries for MX records => I have to look at this to fix this
Warn: Nameservers on separate class C's => I can't fix this, but is no problem
Warn: SPF record => I have to look at this to fix this.

But the rest seems okay and the mailserver gives all "pass"

==========

Later on I will test the settings of this domain, like email / monit / munin etc. I also want to test webalizer to work withing this image, but I have to wait at least 24 hours.

[pesja]

Well it's testing time of my modified VMWare Image but first I had to change some settings of minor problems:

1. Closing the "open" status of the master DNS-server (ns1.morehost.net)
================================================== =====

nano /var/lib/named/etc/bind/named.conf

and add the line

allow-recursion {
localhost;
};

into the "option" section
also add the same line at the masterfile of ispconfig (also into the "option" section):

nano /root/ispconfig/isp/conf/named.conf.master