Change the location of the clients on ISPConfig3

[trex]

Hello everyone,

I need to change the location of the clients from /var/www to /home, well I've already moved the folders, created symlinks to replace the old ones, changed the settings in the ISPConfig control panel, but the problem I am facing now is to change the default location of the ftp users.

By default ISPConfig creates new ftp users to the /var/www/clients/etc. so I need to change that value in ISPConfig.

I am not sure what other values need to be changed or if any.

If anyone can help me with that that would be perfect.

Thank you all,
Alex.

[falko]

Originally Posted by trex

By default ISPConfig creates new ftp users to the /var/www/clients/etc. so I need to change that value in ISPConfig.

Doesn't it work with a symlink?

[till]

I need to change the location of the clients from /var/www to /home, well I've already moved the folders, created symlinks to replace the old ones, changed the settings in the ISPConfig control panel, but the problem I am facing now is to change the default location of the ftp users.

You are aware that this will cause suexec to stop working, so that websites scripts can not run anymore under the correct user?

By default ISPConfig creates new ftp users to the /var/www/clients/etc. so I need to change that value in ISPConfig.

Make sure that you cahnged the paths in ISPConfig under System > server settings > web

[trex]

@Falko
Yes a symlink worked for the web part. I was referring to something else (I will detail below).

@till
I was unaware that that will screw up suexec (that is way I asked what else do I need to change to make everything work).

By default ISPConfig creates new ftp users to the /var/www/clients/etc. folder I would like to change that default value displayed in ISPConfig to /home/clients/etc. so I dont have to edit it every time I created a new user.

Can I make all these modifications and still have a valid working server or should I just remake the whole server and have my /var/ on a larger disk.

I wanted to have all the clients on a larger disk independent of the main disk. But now I'm not sure I can do that without messing up ISPConfig or some parts of it.

So I am asking for your advice on what will be the best practice for this. (I intend on using this to start a micro-hosting company, as I dont have the necessary funds to buy a corporate solution, besides I dont like corporate solutions, I find ISPConfig to be more elegant in many ways than other corporate solutions.)

I am at the beginning of this long journey and I am sure that there are alot of things I am doing wrong, but I can learn by asking seasoned experts like your self's that know exactly what should or shouldn't be done.

I want to thank you all for your replies and for your future assistance.

And sorry I posted my thread in the wrong section.

Cheers,
Alex.

[till]

I was unaware that that will screw up suexec (that is way I asked what else do I need to change to make everything work).

The suexec path is compiled into apache, so you cant change that. The only option is to compile your own apache with a different suexec path. But then you loose the ability to update your whole system from the Linux repositories.

By default ISPConfig creates new ftp users to the /var/www/clients/etc. folder I would like to change that default value displayed in ISPConfig to /home/clients/etc. so I dont have to edit it every time I created a new user.

I explained in post #3 where this can be configured. But I wont do that if I were you, as you would have to recompile apache then too.

My recommendation is to reinstall the server so that it has a large /var partition as /var contains the website, mysql and email data on Linux servers. Large /home partitions are only needed on desktop systems, on web servers, the /home partition is normally empty.

[trex]

ok till, thank you very much for your answer since this is my only option without making anymore damage I'll re-do the whole system.

Thanks,
Alex.

[erosbk]

In my setup, /var/www is a symlink to /dataraid/www

This ensure suexec is working? how can I check? does it have any complication to work like this?

[till]

how can I check?

Select fastcgi as php mode in a website and enable the suexec checkbox. Then add a file test.php into that site with this content:

<?php
touch('newfile.txt');
?>

Open test.php in the browser, this should create a new file "newfile.txt" in the same directory. If this file is owned by the web user and client group of this website, then suexec works. If the file is owned by www-data or a similar apache user, then suexec does not work as expected.

[erosbk]

Working perfectly, is was created owned by webx:groupx. So, with this test, it is possible to move folders around and just make a symlink /var/www to ensure suexec will continue working...

I tried too create the file using a diferente path than /var/www, and it worked ok too.

<?php
touch('/dataraid/www/mydomain.tld/web/newfile.txt');
?>

With this test, should be possible to move everything to eveywhere, creating a symlink should be enough to keep suexec working... any more tests to do?

Thanks Till!

[abdi]

Alright, thanks for sharing that information. That answers part of my questions I had.