The Perfect Server - Ubuntu 20.04 with Apache, PHP, MariaDB, PureFTPD, BIND, Postfix, Dovecot and ISPConfig 3.2

This tutorial shows the installation of an Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) web hosting server with Apache 2.4, Postfix, Dovecot, Bind, and PureFTPD to prepare it for the installation of ISPConfig 3.2. The resulting system will provide a Web, Mail, Mailinglist, DNS, and FTP Server.

ISPConfig is a web hosting control panel that allows you to configure the following services through a web browser: Apache or Nginx web server, Postfix mail server, Courier or Dovecot IMAP/POP3 server, MariaDB as MySQL replacement, BIND or MyDNS nameserver, PureFTPd, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, and many more. This setup covers the installation of Apache (instead of Nginx), BIND (instead of MyDNS), and Dovecot (instead of Courier).

1. 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.  Before proceeding further you need to have a basic minimal installation of Ubuntu 20.04 as explained in the tutorial.

The commands in this tutorial have to be run with root permissions. To avoid adding sudo in front of each command, you'll have to become root user by running:

sudo -s

before you proceed.

2. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and Update your Linux Installation

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list. Comment out or remove the installation CD from the file and make sure that the universe and multiverse repositories are enabled. It should look like this afterwards:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal universe
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal universe
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates universe
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal multiverse
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal multiverse
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates multiverse
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates multiverse

## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu focal partner

deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security main restricted
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security main restricted
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security universe
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security universe
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security multiverse
# deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security multiverse

Then run

apt-get update

to update the apt package database and

apt-get upgrade

to install the latest updates (if there are any). If you see that a new kernel gets installed as part of the updates, you should reboot the system afterwards:

reboot

3. Change the Default Shell

/bin/sh is a symlink to /bin/dash, however we need /bin/bash, not /bin/dash. Therefore, we do this:

dpkg-reconfigure dash

Use dash as the default system shell (/bin/sh)? <-- No

If you don't do this, the ISPConfig installation will fail.

4. Disable AppArmor

AppArmor is a security extension (similar to SELinux) that should provide extended security. In my opinion, you don't need it to configure a secure system, and it usually causes more problems than advantages (think of it after you have done a week of troubleshooting because some service wasn't working as expected, and then you find out that everything was ok, only AppArmor was causing the problem). Therefore, I disable it (this is a must if you want to install ISPConfig later on).

We can disable it like this:

service apparmor stop
update-rc.d -f apparmor remove 
apt-get remove apparmor apparmor-utils

5. Synchronize the System Clock

It is a good idea to synchronize the system clock with an NTP (network time protocol) server over the Internet when you run a physical server. In case you run a virtual server then you should skip this step. Just run

apt-get -y install ntp

and your system time will always be in sync.

6. Install Postfix, Dovecot, MariaDB, rkhunter, and binutils

For installing postfix, we need to ensure that sendmail is not installed and running. To stop and remove sendmail run this command:

service sendmail stop; update-rc.d -f sendmail remove

The error message:

Failed to stop sendmail.service: Unit sendmail.service not loaded.

Is ok, it just means that sendmail was not installed, so there was nothing to be removed.

Now we can install Postfix, Dovecot, MariaDB (as MySQL replacement), rkhunter, and binutils with a single command:

apt-get -y install postfix postfix-mysql postfix-doc mariadb-client mariadb-server openssl getmail4 rkhunter binutils dovecot-imapd dovecot-pop3d dovecot-mysql dovecot-sieve sudo patch

You will be asked the following questions:

General type of mail configuration: <-- Internet Site
System mail name: <-- server1.example.com

It is important that you use a subdomain as "system mail name" like server1.example.com or server1.yourdomain.com and not a domain that you want to use as email domain (e.g. yourdomain.tld) later.

Next, open the TLS/SSL and submission ports in Postfix:

nano /etc/postfix/master.cf

Uncomment the submission and smtps sections as follows - add the line -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject to both sections and leave everything thereafter commented:

[...]
submission inet n       -       y       -       -       smtpd
  -o syslog_name=postfix/submission
  -o smtpd_tls_security_level=encrypt
  -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
  -o smtpd_tls_auth_only=yes
  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=no
#  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=$mua_client_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=$mua_helo_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=$mua_sender_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING
smtps     inet  n       -       y       -       -       smtpd
  -o syslog_name=postfix/smtps
  -o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes
  -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=no
#  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=$mua_client_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=$mua_helo_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=$mua_sender_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING
[...]

NOTE: The whitespaces in front of the "-o .... " lines are important!

Restart Postfix afterward:

service postfix restart

We want MySQL to listen on all interfaces, not just localhost. Therefore, we edit /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf and comment out the line bind-address = 127.0.0.1:

nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf

[...]
# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
#bind-address           = 127.0.0.1

[...]

Now we set a root password in MariaDB. Run:

mysql_secure_installation

You will be asked these questions:

Enter current password for root (enter for none): <-- press enter
Set root password? [Y/n] <-- y
New password: <-- Enter the new MariaDB root password here
Re-enter new password: <-- Repeat the password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] <-- y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] <-- y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] <-- y

Set the password authentication method in MariaDB to native so we can use PHPMyAdmin later to connect as root user:

echo "update mysql.user set plugin = 'mysql_native_password' where user='root';" | mysql -u root

Edit the file /etc/mysql/debian.cnf and set the MYSQL / MariaDB root password there twice in the rows that start with password.

nano /etc/mysql/debian.cnf

The MySQL root password that needs to be added is shown in red. In this example, the password is "howtoforge". Replace the word "howtoforge" with the password that you have set for the MySQL root user with the mysql_secure_installation command.

# Automatically generated for Debian scripts. DO NOT TOUCH!
[client]
host = localhost
user = root
password = howtoforge
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
[mysql_upgrade]
host = localhost
user = root
password = howtoforge
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
basedir = /usr

Open the file /etc/security/limits.conf with an editor:

nano /etc/security/limits.conf

and add these lines at the end of the file.

mysql soft nofile 65535
mysql hard nofile 65535

Next, create a new directory /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service.d/ with the mkdir command.

mkdir /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service.d/

and add a new file inside:

nano /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service.d/limits.conf

paste the following lines into that file:

[Service]
LimitNOFILE=infinity

Save the file and close the nano editor.

Then we reload systemd and restart MariaDB:

systemctl daemon-reload
service mariadb restart

Now check that networking is enabled. Run

netstat -tap | grep mysql

The output should look like this:

[email protected]:~# netstat -tap | grep mysql
tcp6       0      0 [::]:mysql              [::]:*                  LISTEN      51836/mysqld
[email protected]:~#

7. Install Amavisd-new, SpamAssassin, and Clamav

To install amavisd-new, SpamAssassin, and ClamAV, we run

apt-get -y install amavisd-new spamassassin clamav clamav-daemon unzip bzip2 arj nomarch lzop cabextract apt-listchanges libnet-ldap-perl libauthen-sasl-perl clamav-docs daemon libio-string-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libnet-ident-perl zip libnet-dns-perl postgrey

The ISPConfig 3 setup uses amavisd which loads the SpamAssassin filter library internally, so we can stop SpamAssassin to free up some RAM:

service spamassassin stop
update-rc.d -f spamassassin remove

To start ClamAV use:

freshclam
service clamav-daemon start

The following error can be ignored on the first run of freshclam.

ERROR: /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log is locked by another process
ERROR: Problem with internal logger (UpdateLogFile = /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log).

8. Install Apache, PHP, phpMyAdmin, FCGI, SuExec, Pear

Apache 2.4, PHP 7.4, phpMyAdmin, FCGI, suExec, and Pear can be installed as follows:

apt-get -y install apache2 apache2-doc apache2-utils libapache2-mod-php php7.4 php7.4-common php7.4-gd php7.4-mysql php7.4-imap phpmyadmin php7.4-cli php7.4-cgi libapache2-mod-fcgid apache2-suexec-pristine php-pear libruby libapache2-mod-python php7.4-curl php7.4-intl php7.4-pspell php7.4-sqlite3 php7.4-tidy php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-xsl memcached php-memcache php-imagick php7.4-zip php7.4-mbstring php-soap php7.4-soap php7.4-opcache php-apcu php7.4-fpm libapache2-reload-perl

You will see the following question:

Web server to reconfigure automatically: <-- apache2

Configure database for phpmyadmin with dbconfig-common? <-- Yes

MySQL application password for phpmyadmin: <-- Press enter

Then run the following command to enable the Apache modules suexec, rewrite, ssl, actions, and include (plus dav, dav_fs, and auth_digest if you want to use WebDAV):

a2enmod suexec rewrite ssl actions include cgi alias proxy_fcgi

a2enmod dav_fs dav auth_digest headers

To ensure that the server cannot be attacked through the HTTPOXY vulnerability, I will disable the HTTP_PROXY header in apache globally. Create a new httpoxy.conf file with nano:

nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/httpoxy.conf

Paste this content into the file:

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    RequestHeader unset Proxy early
</IfModule>

Enable the config file by running:

a2enconf httpoxy

Restart Apache afterward:

service apache2 restart

If you want to host Ruby files with the extension .rb on your websites created through ISPConfig, you must comment out the line application/x-ruby rb in /etc/mime.types:

nano /etc/mime.types

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

(This is needed only for .rb files; Ruby files with the extension .rbx work out of the box.)

Restart Apache afterwards:

service apache2 restart

9. Install Let's Encrypt

ISPConfig 3.2 has built-in support for the free SSL Certificate Authority Let's encrypt. The Let's Encrypt function allows you to create free SSL Certificates for your website in ISPConfig.

Now we will add support for Let's encrypt.

apt-get install certbot

10. Install Mailman

ISPConfig allows you to manage (create/modify/delete) Mailman mailing lists. If you want to make use of this feature, install Mailman as follows:

apt-get -y install mailman

Select at least one language, e.g.:

Languages to support: <-- en (English)
Missing site list <-- Ok

The error 'Job for mailman.service failed because the control process exited with error code.' can be ignored for now.

Before we can start Mailman, a first mailing list called mailman must be created:

newlist mailman

[email protected]:~# newlist mailman
Enter the email of the person running the list: <-- admin email address, e.g. [email protected]
Initial mailman password: <-- admin password for the mailman list
To finish creating your mailing list, you must edit your /etc/aliases (or
equivalent) file by adding the following lines, and possibly running the
`newaliases' program:

## mailman mailing list
mailman:              "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman post mailman"
mailman-admin:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman admin mailman"
mailman-bounces:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman bounces mailman"
mailman-confirm:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman confirm mailman"
mailman-join:         "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman join mailman"
mailman-leave:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman leave mailman"
mailman-owner:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman owner mailman"
mailman-request:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman request mailman"
mailman-subscribe:    "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman subscribe mailman"
mailman-unsubscribe:  "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman unsubscribe mailman"

Hit enter to notify mailman owner... <-- ENTER

[email protected]:~#

Open /etc/aliases afterwards...

nano /etc/aliases

... and add the following lines:

[...]
## mailman mailing list
mailman:              "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman post mailman"
mailman-admin:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman admin mailman"
mailman-bounces:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman bounces mailman"
mailman-confirm:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman confirm mailman"
mailman-join:         "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman join mailman"
mailman-leave:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman leave mailman"
mailman-owner:        "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman owner mailman"
mailman-request:      "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman request mailman"
mailman-subscribe:    "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman subscribe mailman"
mailman-unsubscribe:  "|/var/lib/mailman/mail/mailman unsubscribe mailman"

Run

newaliases

afterward and restart Postfix:

service postfix restart

Finally, we must enable the Mailman Apache configuration:

ln -s /etc/mailman/apache.conf /etc/apache2/conf-available/mailman.conf

This defines the alias /cgi-bin/mailman/ for all Apache vhosts, which means you can access the Mailman admin interface for a list at http://<vhost>/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/<listname>, and the web page for users of a mailing list can be found at http://<vhost>/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/<listname>.

Under http://<vhost>/pipermail you can find the mailing list archives.

Activate the configuration with:

a2enconf mailman

Restart Apache afterward:

service apache2 restart

Then start the Mailman daemon:

service mailman start

11. Install PureFTPd and Quota

PureFTPd and quota can be installed with the following command:

apt-get -y install pure-ftpd-common pure-ftpd-mysql quota quotatool

Edit the file /etc/default/pure-ftpd-common...

nano /etc/default/pure-ftpd-common

... and make sure that the start mode is set to standalone and set VIRTUALCHROOT=true:

[...]
STANDALONE_OR_INETD=standalone
[...]
VIRTUALCHROOT=true
[...]

Now we configure PureFTPd to allow FTP and TLS sessions. FTP is a very insecure protocol because all passwords and all data are transferred in clear text. By using TLS, the whole communication can be encrypted, thus making FTP much more secure.

If you want to allow FTP and TLS sessions, run

echo 1 > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/TLS

In order to use TLS, we must create an SSL certificate. I create it in /etc/ssl/private/, therefore I create that directory first:

mkdir -p /etc/ssl/private/

Afterwards, we can generate the SSL certificate as follows:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 7300 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem -out /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem

Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <-- Enter your Country Name (e.g., "DE").
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:<-- Enter your State or Province Name.
Locality Name (eg, city) []:<-- Enter your City.
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:<-- Enter your Organization Name (e.g., the name of your company).
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:<-- Enter your Organizational Unit Name (e.g. "IT Department").
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []:<-- Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the system (e.g. "server1.example.com").
Email Address []:<-- Enter your Email Address.

Change the permissions of the SSL certificate:

chmod 600 /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem

Then restart PureFTPd:

service pure-ftpd-mysql restart

Edit /etc/fstab. Mine looks like this (I added ,usrjquota=quota.user,grpjquota=quota.group,jqfmt=vfsv0 to the partition with the mount point /):

nano /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/mapper/server1--vg-root / ext4 errors=remount-ro,usrjquota=quota.user,grpjquota=quota.group,jqfmt=vfsv0 0 1
/dev/mapper/server1--vg-swap_1 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

To enable quota, run these commands:

mount -o remount /

quotacheck -avugm
quotaon -avug

 Which will show the following output:

[email protected]:/tmp# quotacheck -avugm
quotacheck: Scanning /dev/mapper/server1--vg-root [/] done
quotacheck: Cannot stat old user quota file //quota.user: No such file or directory. Usage will not be subtracted.
quotacheck: Cannot stat old group quota file //quota.group: No such file or directory. Usage will not be subtracted.
quotacheck: Cannot stat old user quota file //quota.user: No such file or directory. Usage will not be subtracted.
quotacheck: Cannot stat old group quota file //quota.group: No such file or directory. Usage will not be subtracted.
quotacheck: Checked 13602 directories and 96597 files
quotacheck: Old file not found.
quotacheck: Old file not found.
[email protected]:/tmp# quotaon -avug
/dev/mapper/server1--vg-root [/]: group quotas turned on
/dev/mapper/server1--vg-root [/]: user quotas turned on

12. Install BIND DNS Server

BIND can be installed as follows:

apt-get -y install bind9 dnsutils haveged

Enable and start the haveged Daemon:

systemctl enable haveged
systemctl start haveged

13. Install Vlogger, Webalizer, AWStats and GoAccess

Vlogger, Webalizer, and AWStats can be installed as follows:

apt-get -y install vlogger webalizer awstats geoip-database libclass-dbi-mysql-perl

Installing the latest GoAccess version directly from GoAccess repository:

echo "deb https://deb.goaccess.io/ $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/goaccess.list
wget -O - https://deb.goaccess.io/gnugpg.key | sudo apt-key --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/goaccess.gpg add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install goaccess

Open /etc/cron.d/awstats afterwards...

nano /etc/cron.d/awstats

... and comment out everything in that file:

#MAILTO=root

#*/10 * * * * www-data [ -x /usr/share/awstats/tools/update.sh ] && /usr/share/awstats/tools/update.sh

# Generate static reports:
#10 03 * * * www-data [ -x /usr/share/awstats/tools/buildstatic.sh ] && /usr/share/awstats/tools/buildstatic.sh

14. Install Jailkit

Jailkit is used to jailed shell users and cronjobs in ISPConfig. Install jailkit with apt:

apt-get -y install jailkit

15. Install fail2ban and UFW

This is optional but recommended because the ISPConfig monitor tries to show the log:

apt-get -y install fail2ban

To make fail2ban monitor PureFTPd and Dovecot, create the file /etc/fail2ban/jail.local:

nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

[pure-ftpd]
enabled  = true
port     = ftp
filter   = pure-ftpd
logpath  = /var/log/syslog
maxretry = 3

[dovecot]
enabled = true
filter = dovecot
action = iptables-multiport[name=dovecot-pop3imap, port="pop3,pop3s,imap,imaps", protocol=tcp]
logpath = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 5

[postfix]
enabled  = true
port     = smtp
filter   = postfix
logpath  = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 3

Restart fail2ban afterwards:

service fail2ban restart

To install the UFW firewall, run this apt command:

apt-get install ufw

16. Install Roundcube Webmail

To install Roundcube Webmail, run:

apt-get -y install roundcube roundcube-core roundcube-mysql roundcube-plugins roundcube-plugins-extra javascript-common libjs-jquery-mousewheel php-net-sieve tinymce

The installer might ask the following questions:

Configure database for roundcube with dbconfig-common? <-- Yes
MySQL application password for roundcube: <-- Press enter

Don't worry if you do not get these questions and a warning about the ucf script, that's ok.

The ucf warning that you will get on the shell can be ignored, it has no negative impact on the installation.

Then edit the RoundCube apache configuration file.

nano /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/roundcube.conf

and remove the # in front of the Alias line, then add the second Alias line for /webmail and add the line "AddType application/x-httpd-php .php" right after the "<Directory /var/lib/roundcube>" line:

# Those aliases do not work properly with several hosts on your apache server
# Uncomment them to use it or adapt them to your configuration
Alias /roundcube /var/lib/roundcube
Alias /webmail /var/lib/roundcube
[...]
<Directory /var/lib/roundcube>
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
[...]

And restart apache

service apache2 restart

Then edit the RoundCube config.inc.php configuration file:

nano /etc/roundcube/config.inc.php

and change the default host to localhost:

$config['default_host'] = 'localhost';

and the SMTP server to:

$config['smtp_server'] = 'localhost';

and

$config['smtp_port']  = 25;

This prevents that Roundcube will show server name input field in the login form.

17. Install ISPConfig 3.2

We will use the ISPConfig 3.2 stable build here.

cd /tmp 
wget -O ispconfig.tar.gz https://www.ispconfig.org/downloads/ISPConfig-3-stable.tar.gz
tar xfz ispconfig.tar.gz
cd ispconfig3*/install/

The next step is to run

php -q install.php

This will start the ISPConfig 3 installer. The installer will configure all services like Postfix, Dovecot, etc. for you.

# php -q install.php

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____ ___________ _____ __ _ ____
|_ _/ ___| ___ \ / __ \ / _(_) /__ \
| | \ `--.| |_/ / | / \/ ___ _ __ | |_ _ __ _ _/ /
| | `--. \ __/ | | / _ \| '_ \| _| |/ _` | |_ |
_| |_/\__/ / | | \__/\ (_) | | | | | | | (_| | ___\ \
\___/\____/\_| \____/\___/|_| |_|_| |_|\__, | \____/
__/ |
|___/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> Initial configuration

Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (Focal Fossa)

Following will be a few questions for primary configuration so be careful.
Default values are in [brackets] and can be accepted with <ENTER>.
Tap in "quit" (without the quotes) to stop the installer.

Select language (en,de) [en]: <-- Hit Enter

Installation mode (standard,expert) [standard]: <-- Hit Enter

Full qualified hostname (FQDN) of the server, eg server1.domain.tld [server1.canomi.com]: <-- Hit Enter

MySQL server hostname [localhost]: <-- Hit Enter

MySQL server port [3306]: <-- Hit Enter

MySQL root username [root]: <-- Hit Enter

MySQL root password []: <-- Enter your MySQL root password

MySQL database to create [dbispconfig]: <-- Hit Enter

MySQL charset [utf8]: <-- Hit Enter

Configuring Postgrey
Configuring Postfix
Generating a 4096 bit RSA private key
.......................................................................++
........................................................................................................................................++
writing new private key to 'smtpd.key'
-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <-- Enter 2 letter country code
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: <-- Enter the name of the  state
Locality Name (eg, city) []: <-- Enter your city
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: <-- Enter company name or press enter
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: <-- Hit Enter
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []: <-- Enter the server hostname, in my case: server1.example.com
Email Address []: <-- Hit Enter
Configuring Mailman
Configuring Dovecot
Configuring Spamassassin
Configuring Amavisd
Configuring Getmail
Configuring BIND
Configuring Jailkit
Configuring Pureftpd
Configuring Apache
Configuring vlogger
Configuring Metronome XMPP Server
writing new private key to 'localhost.key'
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <-- Enter 2 letter country code
Locality Name (eg, city) []: <-- Enter your city
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: <-- Enter company name or press enter
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: <-- Hit Enter
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) [server1.canomi.com]: <-- Enter the server hostname, in my case: server1.example.com
Email Address []: <-- Hit Enter

Configuring Ubuntu Firewall
Configuring Fail2ban
[INFO] service OpenVZ not detected
Configuring Apps vhost
Installing ISPConfig
ISPConfig Port [8080]:

Admin password [admin]:

Do you want a secure (SSL) connection to the ISPConfig web interface (y,n) [y]: <-- Hit Enter

Generating RSA private key, 4096 bit long modulus
.......................++
................................................................................................................................++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <-- Enter 2 letter country code
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: <-- Enter the name of the  state
Locality Name (eg, city) []: <-- Enter your city
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: <-- Enter company name or press enter
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: <-- Hit Enter
Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []: <-- Enter the server hostname, in my case: server1.example.com
Email Address []: <-- Hit Enter

Please enter the following 'extra' attributes
to be sent with your certificate request
A challenge password []: <-- Hit Enter
An optional company name []: <-- Hit Enter
writing RSA key

Symlink ISPConfig LE SSL certs to postfix? (y,n) [y]:  <-- Hit Enter

Symlink ISPConfig LE SSL certs to pureftpd? Creating dhparam file takes some times. (y,n) [y]:  <-- Hit Enter

Generating DH parameters, 2048 bit long safe prime, generator 2
This is going to take a long time
.............................................................+.........................................................................................................................................................................+...................

Configuring DBServer
Installing ISPConfig crontab
no crontab for root
no crontab for getmail
Detect IP addresses
Restarting services ...
Installation completed.

The installer automatically configures all underlying services, so there is no manual configuration needed.

Afterward you can access ISPConfig 3 under http(s)://server1.example.com:8080/ or http(s)://192.168.0.100:8080/ (HTTP or HTTPS depends on what you chose during installation). Log in with the username admin and the password admin (you should change the default password after your first login):

The system is now ready to be used.

18. Virtual machine image download of this tutorial

This tutorial is available as ready to use virtual machine image in ovf/ova format that is compatible with VMWare and Virtualbox. The virtual machine image uses the following login details:

SSH / Shell Login

Username: administrator
Password: howtoforge

This user has sudo rights.

ISPConfig Login

Username: admin
Password: howtoforge

MySQL Login

Username: root
Password: howtoforge

The IP of the VM is 192.168.0.100, it can be changed in the file /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml. Please change all the above passwords to secure the virtual machine.

19. Links

• Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/
• ISPConfig: http://www.ispconfig.org/