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Managing Web Servers Made Easy

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PCQ Bureau
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ISPConfig 3, licensed under BSD, is an Open Source hosting control panel. It

seeks to soothe complications you might face during the set-up of different

services on public servers (Apache) such as DNS, multiple unique domain name

websites and email accounts on those websites. For instance managing a DNS

server using the config file manually is pretty difficult, which becomes much

simpler through ISPconfig. Setting up ISPConfig can be challenging, but after it

has been configured, using it is like a breeze. The steps for installation for

most Linux distros are similar.

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ISPConfig lets you configure different services through a web browser. In

this article we guide you on how to prepare a Red Hat based (x86_64) server for

its installation.

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Applies To: Web admins, ISPs Price: Free



USP: Multiple server control panel for admins


Primary Link:
http://www.ispconfig.org




Search Engine Keywords: ispconfig

From Apache web server, Postfix mail server, MySQL, MyDNS, Pure FTPd to

ClamAV, it lets you configure all these services and more through a web browser.

Common server administration and operation tasks, such as creating lots of new

user e-mail accounts, adding websites etc is also simplified.

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Configuring ISPConfig



The installation of ISPconfig is pretty well documented at its website, so

we are not going to take you through the entire installation steps. For this

simply refer to http://bit.ly/4IiUwr. Instead we will talk about some key

challenges that we found while giving it a try.

To install ISPConfig onto your systems you can simply download the .iso image

of the OS that you want to install. You can install ISPConfig3 on Fedora 12

x86_64, OpenSUSE 11.2 x86_64, CentOS 5.4 x86_64, Ubuntu 9.10, Debian Lenny (Debian

5.0) and Fedora 10. We installed it on Fedora 12 x86_64.

While installing the OS you need to keep a couple of things in mind. First

you manually need to give a hostname to the installation. This hostname should

correspond to the registered domain name which you have on the Internet. Then

you have to give a static IP address and a gateway to it. A DHCP will not work

as ISPConfig assumes that the machine should either have a static Internet IP or

a static LAN IP which can be Natted for external access.

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You can monitor the state of a server in real time. This feature is pretty

handy in real world usage and is not available with cPanel.

In our test bed, we didn't configure it with a live domain name, rather

tested it on our LAN with a random domain name. We gave 'server1. example.com'

as the hostname followed by the LAN IP and the gateway.

You have to install all packages and reboot. After this, disable the firewall

and then edit the “device param” and “DNS configuration”.

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Common errors



While installing suPHP, we got stuck in the

--with-apr=/usr/bin/apr-1-config

command.

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In case you face the same error, then run:

--with-apr=/usr/bin/apu-1-config

Next, you need to manually create the file “ /etc/suphp.conf

” and restart Apache.

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Once the configuration is over, check the panel by typing

the URL http://IP address:8080 or http://hostname:8080. Login with the default

username and password as 'admin'.

Other web hosting control panels

AlternC: Based on Debian GNU/Linux system, is an

open-source hosting control panel. It is a web-based control panel used to

manage user accounts, web services(e.g domains, emails, ftp accounts etc).

You can also customize the web panel quickly and easily with the help of

documented API.



Plesk:
To simplify the management and administration of web sites is one

of it's target. Apart from this, Plesk is used by leading hosting providers

worldwide for shared, virtual and dedicated hosting.



Cube Panel:
Available for Linux and Windows platforms, it is the

solution for the complete automation for your servers at a competitive

prices.



echoPanel:
ASP.net, browser based web server control panel that is

targeted to simplify your day to day hosting tasks. In it's secure and

simple interface you can create and manage Windows IIS Websites, DNS

Entries, Domain Aliases etc.



ASM:
Developed for UNIX web hosts, ASM is a web-based account manager.

The clients can manage services such as FTP accounts, POP3 accounts etc

without having to email support.



VishwaKarma:
A free web-hosting control panel for GNU/Linux systems.

Through a completely web-based interface, it permits control of domains and

email accounts.



Gnupanel:
This hosting control panel is specially designed to run on 32

and 64-bit Debian GNU/Linux web hosting servers. Some of the functionality

of this hosting panel includes provision for more disk space, FTP accounts,

database, directory security etc. Administrators can create public and

private hosting plans, the panle supports Paypal payments and use of an

integrated support ticket system. This hosting control panel is written in

PHP and is published under the GPL.



Baifox:
This hosting control panel works with many Linux Distributions.

It is a GPL control panel specifically designed for UNIX server

administrators, allowing them to configure and manage web servers. Baifox is

fully compatible with PHP4 and PHP5 is accessible using a HTML and

Javascript inteface.

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In case you are not able to login, then replace

vi /usr/local/ispconfig/interface/lib/config.inc.php

: Line 49

with the following line

set_magic_quotes_runtime(0); with

ini_set(“magic_quotes_runtime”,0);

Also replace,

vi /usr/local/ispconfig/interface/lib/classes/

tpl.inc.php: Line 1230

with

ini_set(“magic_quotes_runtime”,0);

and replace Line 1232 with

ini_set(“magic_quotes_runtime”,($mqrt));

In the table we compare ISPConfig with cPanel, a popular

web hosting control panel.

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