ISPconfig and beyond

[rmccain]

I just got a server up with ISPconfig, and have found that GUI or not, it isn't immediately obvious how to setup sites with predictable consequences. It would be nice to have a howto that could lead a newbie through a typical scenario and explain the reasoning (or give links to other howtos, etc).

For example, deleting a user - ISPconfig can't completely delete a user. (my definition of completely - kill any reference so you can recreate the user from scratch to fix original config issues - I know this is not default behavior in normal operations) I had to go into the MySQL tables, find that users entry and kill the entire record so I could recreate them. There is a big difference between being a sysadmin of a fully functioning server that someone else setup and being the plankowner of that server.

A particular gripe I have is with email clients that tell you to contact your system administrator for setup info - and I'm the sysadmin and I don't have a clue!. This stuff gets really nasty when Windows clients expect you to navigate all these weird secure authentication options without understanding who can do what when. A flowchart or table would be very nice!

[ego]

http://ispconfig.org/downloads/manual_en/toc.html

[heymrdj]

I'm certainly hoping the GUI will be much cleaner in future releases. One of the things that actually makes me sit on the fence between VHCS and ISPConfig (if it wasn't for the fact ISPConfig is better in every other way) is the fact that I can work VHCS EASY. You know what everything does. ISPConfig I would rate near expert only on the GUI. It is VERY difficult to get it to do exactly what you want it to do.

[rmccain]

Manual? Well, yeah... I've read it... It isn't that great at covering the key issues to which I refer above.

Frankly, much more could be done.

For example; I just went through the process of getting SPF to work in my email. It's all about DNS, and if one uses a service such as EditDNS, the spf entry must appear as high up the nameserver chain as you can get.

So this is something way beyond the scope of a manual focusing on ISPconfig. Additions must be made on the authoritative nameserver for the domain. For redundancy, it is a bad idea to expect your server running ISPconfig to be the only location of DNS records. (thus, my registrar points to the EditDNS nameservers, and they point to my server)

To troubleshoot such a problem, you have to find and use the services of someone like the espcoalition.org website until you find the real problem and it starts working.

Finding an answer like that needs to be included in a HowTo, not buried down in some forum thread like this!

I don't even expect to go out and buy a book on the subject - it takes way too long to get in print, and the info is so obsolete as to be almost useless.