ISPConfig

[Eric Oyen]

Hmmm.
It seems to me like ISPConfig might be a bit more than needed for running a home server or two.

Now, as for my situation, I also am on a cox business class circuit (recently upgraded to 100 Gbits/sec downstream and 20 Gbits/sec upstream. The Nighthawk brand router I have in place for my firewall/wifi node is ok, but honestly, I would rather have a linux laptop running as the firewall. I could do a lot more with that than the current hardware (including having a speech engine running on it for those times when I need to do something in console mode). At least, with linux (or one of the *BSD’s), I have a lot more control over what I want to do.

Given some of the lessons learned over the years, I would have pass throughs on separate virtual subnets for external servers (like a tor node, web server, etc). Let the laptop be a dedicated firewall. Only two issues might make this a bit of a problem:
1. The laptop would have to have at least 2 ethernet ports on it, and as far as I know, that’s actually quite rare
2. Setting up virtual subnets answerable through a single ethernet device are a real pain.

Failing that, perhaps a small desktop machine (MicroATX with some spare slots, 4 GB of ram and a small SSD) would be more appropriate. Then I could add a 5 port ethernet card on a PCI—x slot and also have a couple of other goodies runnin.

Thoughts?

Also, will ISPConfig actually run under Linux or is it one of those silly windows only apps? I only ask this because I have seen the windows installer for it but haven’t run across the linux or BSD versions of it yet.

-Eric
From the Central Offices of the Technomage Guild, data center operations dept.


> On May 9, 2021, at 6:39 PM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> Thank you for your reply.  I'll checkout Ajenti.
> - - -
> 
> On 2021-05-09 13:24, Stephen Partington via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>> Ajenti might be a bit more what you are looking for. It is less ISP
>> hosting oriented, and more for general single-server management.
>> On Sun, May 9, 2021 at 11:09 AM Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
>> <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>>> I should have given more info.
>>> I am not a system admin I am a PHP developer.  I think I know a fair
>>> amount about Linux when it comes to PHP/MySql hosting.  For instance
>>> I
>>> used an old laptop to create a development environment using my Cox
>>> business connection and for DNS I use ZoneEdit.  I think it might be
>>> running Ubuntu 218.04LTS.
>>> Mail and DNS are beyond my limits.  I do understand DNS, however I
>>> could
>>> know more.
>>> About 6 years ago a friend built me a complete web server on an old
>>> desktop that way just laying around.  It worked well.
>>> Based on that I bought a Dell i3 with 8G of RAM.  I was going to do
>>> all
>>> my hosting locally ... I know foolish...  But it was a learning
>>> project.
>>> Fast forward 6 years or so and the i3 has never been used.  I'm
>>> pretty
>>> sure about 3 years ago I swapped the spinner for an SSD.
>>> Another friend who owns a data center asked me to evaluate ISPConfig
>>> maybe 3 years ago.  I found it confusing and there was little
>>> information available beyond what ISPConfig provided.
>>> So here I sit with and i3, a copy of Ubuntu 20.04LTS, and an
>>> Internet
>>> connection that does not block ports.
>>> Currently I am hosting my websites on a VPS that is managed by
>>> Plesk.
>>> Plesk is really nice and has so many features I'm sure I have missed
>>> some opportunity.
>>> Based on all of this I do not want to do away with my VPS I just
>>> want to
>>> configure that now old i3 and play around with it.
>>> What I am looking for:
>>> 1) Automate creating vhost accounts. ( I think I read that ISPConfig
>>> is
>>> a replacement for WHM and Cpanel)
>>> 2) Automate creating DNS zone files.
>>> 3) Automate creating email accounts.
>>> 4) Automate registering and configuring Let's Encrypt certs.
>>> Basically something that does for me what Plesk does for me.  I am
>>> not a
>>> mail man nor is DNS really something I would like to manage by hand
>>> -
>>> maybe sometime in the future.
>>> Thank You for All Your Feedback!!
>>> - - -
>>> On 2021-05-08 20:22, James Mcphee via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>>>> ISPConfig is a web application so other people can host websites
>>> on
>>>> your stuff.  It's a fat stack to maintain, and as such will take
>>> much
>>>> more time to work with than just standing up a webserver.
>>>> If you're looking at learning ISPConfig, then there's no
>>> alternative.
>>>> Things like it are cPanel and Plesk if you want that kind of
>>> thing,
>>>> but haven't decided on ISPConfig.
>>>> If you're just looking at standing up a webserver to do webservery
>>>> things, then i'd recommend not getting overly complicated.
>>> Install
>>>> just what you need so you don't end up with a giant stack to
>>> maintain,
>>>> instead of focussing on what you're trying to learn.
>>>> There aren't many details on what you're looking for as an end
>>> result,
>>>> so I can't offer much advice there.  Generally I stand up a
>>>> loadbalancer that takes traffic from the interwebs, and use that
>>> to
>>>> route to whatever server behind I feel like playing with that day.
>>>> But this is very specific to my use case, and not for everyone.
>>>> On Sat, May 8, 2021 at 7:22 PM Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
>>>> <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>>>>> I have a business account with Cox and they allow servers.  It
>>> will
>>>>> be
>>>>> public facing.  I would like to hear more about "it makes
>>>>> assumptions
>>>>> you may or may not be willing to accept.".
>>>>> Thank you for your feedback!!
>>>>> On 2021-05-07 21:19, Stephen Partington via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>>>>>> ISP config is really geared to running an external facing server
>>>>> and
>>>>>> become hosting. It's very good for that, but it makes
>>> assumptions
>>>>> you
>>>>>> may or may not be willing to accept.
>>>>>> On Fri, May 7, 2021 at 6:31 PM Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
>>>>>> <plug-discuss at lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>> I am considering configuring a "home web server" using
>>> ISPConfig.
>>>>>>> This
>>>>>>> is not a production situation.  It is for learning.
>>>>>>> Any thoughts?
>>>>>>> Thanks!!
>>>>>>> Keith
>>>>>>> ---------------------------------------------------
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>>>>>> --
>>>>>> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent
>>> you
>>>>> from
>>>>>> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze
>>>>> button.
>>>>>> Stephen
>>>>>> ---------------------------------------------------
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>>>>>> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
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>>>> --
>>>> James McPhee
>>>> jmcphe at gmail.com
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>> --
>> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
>> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
>> Stephen
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