Ehcp Installation for a newbie

Question:

I’m running an ubuntu server at my house and I’d like to easily set up websites and manage MySQL DB’s. It looks like this control panel can help me with all that, but I want to be sure that everything works correctly. Do you have a howto or some way to walk me through the complete setup. I dont mean just ehcp, but also mysql and apache and what not, all the things i’ll need. I’m very new to linux and its a daunting task to say the least.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Answer:
You say ” I dont mean just ehcp, but also mysql and apache and what not, all the things i’ll need.”.
In fact ehcp installer also installs and configures apache, mysql, dns and almost all thing for a normal hosting operation.
So, by running ehcp installer, you will have apache, mysql, dns, php, mail server, all setup and ready to be used.
What ehcp does not install yet is: Spam protection, firewall. These may be seen as a non-essential for a beginner hosting operation, and since they require some complex configuration, They are not integrated into ehcp by default.

You may find text and video tutorials like:
http://howtoforge.com/set-up-ubuntu-server-with-ehcp-lamp-dns-ftp-mail
http://nethackz.com/how-to-quickly-set-up-a-web-server-environment-with-ehcp/

The second one installs ehcp into a virtual machine…

To download and install ehcp, copy and paste following on your linux console, then follow guidelines there:

get www.ehcp.net/download
tar -zxvf ehcp_latest.tgz
cd ehcp
./install.sh
#

if you need further assistance, follow these:
1st, follow guidelines on http://www.ehcp.net/helper/yardim/cats.php
2nd try forums here, on ehcp.net, you may search also,
3- at last chance, contact me again at info@ehcp.net or contact form on left menu.

See you.

Question:

Good Day

In reference to the above videos and tutorials, there is some important info missing, please could you help me:

There are inconsistencies in package retrieval on Ubuntu 9.04, is there a place I can get the screen logs from to see what is missing?

My server is on a non-routable network 192.168.x.x when prompted, do I use the public IP address (the fixed ip that is on the external interface of my ADSL router)?

Same as above but for the domains used – can I use a private domain – eg. *.local for the server and host publically accessible domains (just using example.com is a poor example as it is neither valid nor tells anything about setup)?

The tutorial video shows the same password being used for all requests, is this expected? I recall the prompts are for MySQL root, EHCP MySQL user and admin, are they all one and the same user – what is the specific password guidline (minimum length/complexity requirements) – I found only alpha-numerics work?

The video tutorial recommends Postfix/Courier setup as Satelite server, while the other documentation says to use Internet Server what is the difference and the trade-offs, can this be changed later?

All tutorials show private IP beign used and the video does not even show a working web page (shows a 404 as example?!?!). Further, the video has questionable value in terms of a guideline in my opinion, although not everybody may share this.

Do you have a framework or wiki template that users can complete a form to contribute to the documentation – ie, an easy way to add ‘How To’ for various platforms and document outcomes – I would like to contribute to this area of the product, with minimal fuss as I would like to give something back to your project, but also add clarity to an area I feel is restricting your product.

Cheers

Gund

Answer:

Hi,
you had many questions, so i will try to answer to clarify things:
1- logs: while installing ehcp, you see almost all apt-get output on your screen, that is a log at the same time. you may scroll back and see what is going. in ehcp installation, you may see some (only some!) errors such as related to libsasl or 1-2 packages… Because ehcp tries to install some alternate packages… Dont wory about these 1 or 2 errors. Maybe you may see the installation in apt-get logs.

2- ip:
if you want your sites accessible from outside: You should use public ip.
if you dont want any outside access, you may use your internal ip. this is used for internal, testing and intranet needs.

3- private domains: yes, you may use both public and private domains in your server. you may even host google.com but nobody in outside can reach you, you may just do a joke to your friends by pointing their dns to your server.. this case, they will see your google.com 🙂

4- passwords: As ehcp is primarily focuses on usability and easy installability, all passwords may be same, all may be default of 1234 if you do not change them. if you need more secure server, I recomend to choose some different password for all. I see some people even giving same pass to all, including server root pass. this is not a good thing. There is no limitation in passwords in ehcp, except sign # , which is forbidden because of some conflicts in systems.

5- postfix: I use and recomend Internet, I dont know about satellite one. maybe they are similar. You may change it later by command “dpkg-reconfigure postfix”

6- video tuts: using private or public ip is not important in terms of demostration. they are same. The one that sees a 404 page points the page to wrong url, the url should be http://ip/ or http://ip/vhosts/ehcp
i informed him about this. Even some parts may be confusing for some people, they all show you an idea about what is going on.. If you prepare a more understandable tutorial about installation, I would be happy. Btw, those tutorials are prepared by ehcp users or recomenders, not me.
One last thing: as ehcp updates to some newer versions, some tutorials may be a bit out of date, althaugh basic outline is same. Soon, i will release next version, with many enhancements.

7- Thank you for your interest in ehcp, and your contribution.
Once a time, i setup the wiki, and everyday, I had to deal with spam posts in the wiki. after that, i turned off posting on the wiki.
You may use this website, you may post topics, forum topics or blogs in this , on left menu, click on “create content” then choose type of content..
I will be glad to hear from you,

thank you for your ideas, contributions, suggestions.

Gundar:

This completes what I need to know. I did succeed, on ubuntu 8.04 and it looks good (I had to try a few times). I think you should get the wiki working so we can contribute to the documentation of your most excellent product.

Satelite install is for use with smarthost and differs from Internet use in that Internt use expects to send directly to receiving party.

Many thanks for your support.