The Perfect Server - Debian Squeeze (Debian 6.0) [ISPConfig 2] - Page 5

15 Apache/PHP5/Ruby/Python/WebDAV

Now we install Apache:

apt-get install apache2 apache2-doc apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils apache2-suexec libexpat1 ssl-cert

Next we install PHP5, Ruby, and Python (all three as Apache modules):

apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 libapache2-mod-ruby libapache2-mod-python php5 php5-common php5-curl php5-dev php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-memcache php5-ming php5-mysql php5-pspell php5-recode php5-snmp php5-sqlite php5-suhosin php5-tidy php5-xcache php5-xmlrpc php5-xsl

Next we edit /etc/apache2/mods-available/dir.conf...

vi /etc/apache2/mods-available/dir.conf

... and change the DirectoryIndex line:

<IfModule mod_dir.c>

          #DirectoryIndex index.html index.cgi index.pl index.php index.xhtml index.htm
          DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml index.cgi index.php index.php3 index.pl index.xhtml

</IfModule>

Now we have to enable some Apache modules (SSL, rewrite, suexec, include, and WebDAV):

a2enmod ssl
a2enmod rewrite
a2enmod suexec
a2enmod include
a2enmod dav_fs
a2enmod dav

Restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

We have to fix a small problem with Ruby. If you install ISPConfig and enable Ruby for a web site, .rbx files will be executed fine and displayed in the browser, but this does not work for .rb files - you will be prompted to download the .rb file - the same happens if you configure Ruby manually for a vhost (i.e., it has nothing to do with ISPConfig). To fix this, we open /etc/mime.types...

vi /etc/mime.types

... and comment out the application/x-ruby line:

[...]
#application/x-ruby                             rb
[...]

Restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now .rb files will be executed and displayed in the browser, just like .rbx files.

In the next chapter (15.1) we are going to disable PHP (this is necessary only if you want to install ISPConfig on this server). Unlike PHP, Ruby and Python are disabled by default, therefore we don't have to do it.

15.1 Disable PHP Globally

(If you do not plan to install ISPConfig on this server, please skip this section!)

In ISPConfig you will configure PHP on a per-website basis, i.e. you can specify which website can run PHP scripts and which one cannot. This can only work if PHP is disabled globally because otherwise all websites would be able to run PHP scripts, no matter what you specify in ISPConfig.

To disable PHP globally, we edit /etc/mime.types and comment out the application/x-httpd-php lines:

vi /etc/mime.types

[...]
#application/x-httpd-php                                phtml pht php
#application/x-httpd-php-source                 phps
#application/x-httpd-php3                       php3
#application/x-httpd-php3-preprocessed          php3p
#application/x-httpd-php4                       php4
#application/x-httpd-php5                       php5
[...]

Edit /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php5.conf and comment out the SetHandler lines:

vi /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php5.conf

<IfModule mod_php5.c>
    <FilesMatch "\.ph(p3?|tml)$">
        #SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
    </FilesMatch>
    <FilesMatch "\.phps$">
        #SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
    </FilesMatch>
    # To re-enable php in user directories comment the following lines
    # (from <IfModule ...> to </IfModule>.) Do NOT set it to On as it
    # prevents .htaccess files from disabling it.
    <IfModule mod_userdir.c>
        <Directory /home/*/public_html>
            php_admin_value engine Off
        </Directory>
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>

Then restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

16 Proftpd

In order to install Proftpd, run

apt-get install proftpd-basic ucf

You will be asked a question:

Run proftpd: <-- standalone

For security reasons add the following lines to /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf (thanks to Reinaldo Carvalho; more information can be found here: http://proftpd.org/localsite/Userguide/linked/userguide.html):

vi /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf

[...]
DefaultRoot ~
ServerIdent on "FTP Server ready."
[...]

ISPConfig expects the configuration to be in /etc/proftpd.conf instead of /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf, therefore we create a symlink (you can skip this command if you don't want to install ISPConfig):

ln -s /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf /etc/proftpd.conf

Then restart Proftpd:

/etc/init.d/proftpd restart

17 Webalizer

To install webalizer, just run

apt-get install webalizer geoip-database

18 Synchronize the System Clock

It is a good idea to synchronize the system clock with an NTP (network time protocol) server over the internet. Simply run

apt-get install ntp ntpdate

and your system time will always be in sync.

19 Install Some Perl Modules Needed By SpamAssassin (Comes With ISPConfig)

Run

apt-get install libhtml-parser-perl libdb-file-lock-perl libnet-dns-perl libnetaddr-ip-perl libarchive-tar-perl

20 ISPConfig

The configuration of the server is now finished, and if you wish you can now install ISPConfig on it. Please check out the ISPConfig installation manual: http://www.ispconfig.org/manual_installation.htm

Before you install ISPConfig, there's one important thing you must do. Open /usr/include/stdio.h and replace getline with parseline in line 651:

vi /usr/include/stdio.h

[...]
   This function is not part of POSIX and therefore no official
   cancellation point.  But due to similarity with an POSIX interface
   or due to the implementation it is a cancellation point and
   therefore not marked with __THROW.  */
extern _IO_ssize_t parseline (char **__restrict __lineptr,
                            size_t *__restrict __n,
                            FILE *__restrict __stream) __wur;
#endif
[...]

If you don't do this, the installation will fail because of the following error:

htpasswd.c:101: error: conflicting types for 'getline'
/usr/include/stdio.h:651: note: previous declaration of 'getline' was here
make[2]: *** [htpasswd.o] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/ISPConfig-2.2.stable/install_ispconfig/compile_aps/apache_1.3.41/src/support'
make[1]: *** [build-support] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/ISPConfig-2.2.stable/install_ispconfig/compile_aps/apache_1.3.41'
make: *** [build] Error 2
ERROR: Could not make Apache

You can undo the change to /usr/include/stdio.h after the successful ISPConfig installation (but don't forget to change it back whenever you want to update ISPConfig!).

20.1 A Note On SuExec

If you want to run CGI scripts under suExec, you should specify /var/www as the home directory for websites created by ISPConfig as Debian's suExec is compiled with /var/www as Doc_Root. Run

 /usr/lib/apache2/suexec -V

and the output should look like this:

root@server1:~# /usr/lib/apache2/suexec -V
-D AP_DOC_ROOT="/var/www"
-D AP_GID_MIN=100
-D AP_HTTPD_USER="www-data"
-D AP_LOG_EXEC="/var/log/apache2/suexec.log"
-D AP_SAFE_PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
-D AP_UID_MIN=100
-D AP_USERDIR_SUFFIX="public_html"
root@server1:~#

So if you want to use suExec with ISPconfig, don't change the default web root (which is /var/www) if you use expert mode during the ISPConfig installation (in standard mode you can't change the web root anyway so you'll be able to use suExec in any case).

21 Links

Debian: http://www.debian.org/
ISPConfig: http://www.ispconfig.org/

Log in or Sign up