The Perfect Server - Fedora 9

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 05/13/2008

This is a detailed description about how to set up a Fedora 9 server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters: Apache web server (SSL-capable) with PHP5 and Ruby, Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Dovecot POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc. This tutorial is written for the 32-bit version of Fedora 9, but should apply to the 64-bit version with very little modifications as well.

I will use the following software:

• Web Server: Apache 2.2.8
• PHP 5.2.5
• Ruby
• Database Server: MySQL 5.0.51
• Mail Server: Postfix
• DNS Server: BIND9 (chrooted)
• FTP Server: proftpd
• POP3/IMAP server: Dovecot
• Webalizer for web site statistics

In the end you should have a system that works reliably, and if you like you can install the free webhosting control panel ISPConfig (i.e., ISPConfig runs on it out of the box).

I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Requirements

To install such a system you will need the following:

• Download the Fedora 9 DVD iso image from a mirror near you (the list of mirrors can be found here: http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlists/publiclist/Fedora/9), e.g. http://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/iso/Fedora-9-i386-DVD.iso
• an internet connection...

2 Preliminary Note

In this tutorial I use the hostname server1.example.com with the IP address 192.168.0.100 and the gateway 192.168.0.1. These settings might differ for you, so you have to replace them where appropriate.

3 Install The Base System

Boot from your Fedora 9 DVD. Select Install or upgrade an existing system:

It can take a long time to test the installation media so we skip this test here:

The welcome screen of the Fedora installer appears. Click on Next:

Choose your language next:

Select your keyboard layout:

I'm installing Fedora 9 on a fresh system, so I answer Yes to the question Would you like to initialize this drive, erasing ALL DATA?:

On to the network settings. The default setting here is to configure the network interfaces with DHCP, but we are installing a server, so static IP addresses are not a bad idea... Click on the Edit button at the top right:

In the window that pops up select Enable IPv4 support > Manual configuration and give your network card a static IP address and netmask (in this tutorial I'm using the IP address 192.168.0.100 and netmask 255.255.255.0 for demonstration purposes; if you are not sure about the right values, http://www.subnetmask.info might help you). Uncheck Enable IPv6 support:

Set the hostname manually, e.g. server1.example.com, and enter a gateway (e.g. 192.168.0.1) and two DNS servers (e.g. 213.191.92.86 and 145.253.2.75):