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VMTN_Admin
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ISPConfig Webhosting Appliance

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/342

Full featured and secure web- and mail hosting appliance with ISPConfig management interface.

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rhl2000
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I have built an Ubuntu 6.06 LTS appliance based on

HowtoForge.com's "The Perfect Setup - Ubuntu 6.06 LTS

Server" combined with the current ISPconfig.

I don't have any howto documentation yet, I assume

the documentation here might work...

But if someone wants a more up to date appliance,

drop me a line... appliance at dot.com

Your "Friends system" spam-deterrent mechanism blocked me. Also, I get "message not found" when I follow the instructions I got in a challenge Email response. So I left you a private message here...

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rhl2000
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hmpf! Here I am replying to myself... Smiley Wink

The ISPConfig appliance available here is not only based on an old version of Debian ("sarge" when it was the current "stable"), it runs a similarly old version of ISPCOnfig, 2.2.3 I think...

After the round of updates I just documented, I downloaded the latest stable version of ISPConfig, 2.2.14, and installed it on top of itself (which various online sources indicate should do a proper upgrade while preserving all settings).

Well.... it worked! On a nearly-idle host machine (2.4 GHz P4 with 2G of RAM) running VMware Server 1.0.3 on Debian Sarge, it took nearly 3 HOURS for this thing to compile. Il still needs complete testing, but a random sampling of admin menus revealed no issues ...

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rhl2000
Enthusiast
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(More replying to myself... (is that an echo I hear? Smiley Wink

Drats! The upgrade to ISPConfig 2.2.14 results in the following differences/issues:

At startup, on the console:

...

Starting ProFTPD ftp daemon: - setting default address to 127.0.0.1

proftpd

...

Starting web server: Apache2apache2: Could not determine the server's

fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.0.1 for ServerName

...

Starting ISPConfig system...

\[time stamp] \[alert] ispconfig_httpd: Could not determine the server's

fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.0.1 for ServerName

Editing /etc/hosts, /etc/hostname and /etc/mailname to use the new server and domain names I had previously given to ISPConfig (instead of server1.example.com) solved most of them. Still chasing the ProFTPD one though...

(Later: think I found it; in /etc/proftpd_ispconfig.conf, the IP address is an old one, from before I cloned the ISPConfig VM and gave a different IP address to the copy. I suspect I should have read the ISPConfig manual before embarking on an ambitious upgrading / VM cloning project...).

I'll be quiet now. Anyone have ANY feedback on this or my previous messages in this thread???

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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

--Errr... Good job?

Can we get a DL link ??

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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rhl2000
Enthusiast
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Quoting myself... :

>> I'll be quiet now. Anyone have ANY feedback on this

>> or my previous messages in this thread???

Now quoting kingneutron:

--Errr... Good job?

...

Can we get a DL link ??

Well, I was also hoping for some feedback from "dotcom", as well as maybe a download link to his Ubuntu-based version. But you're right, I should share MY efforts as well. Except....

I'm afraid the current end result of my experimentation is much too weird and untested for immediately sharing it widely. Also, I think I made several bad (or at least "non-optimal") choices in the process of adopting, then upgrading the VM as found in the Virtual Appliance Marketplace. First, I immediately changed network settings to match my network segment base address and router, and I have been wondering ever since if some of my upgrading troubles were partly caused by side effects of this change. Second, I changed the root password to the one I use on some machines of mine, and the domain name to one of mine. In fact, I did not keep an exhaustive list of all the customizing I did to this thing... Bad boy, bad bad...! Smiley Wink

For security reasons, as well as for clarity, I should "sanitize" this VM before I shared it publicly, and I am unsure I would do a complete job of it. Also, I should test the hell out of it before I share it, and I have not yet done so (just starting now...). Thus, for now, I was doing the next best thing by sharing the PROCESS I am going through.

What I may quite possibly do in a few days is to redo this process "from scratch" (i.e. starting from the VMTN download again), but this time keep the IP settings (I may rig a secondary router to support 192.168.1.x), keep the 386 kernel (at least until the very end), postpone installation of VMware tools (as they have to match the kernel), and document and TEST the result properly.

If that yields a clean and promising result, I will gladly share the zipped file. BTW, I have noted your mention of magaupload.com in this thread, but as far as I can tell from a first glance, one needs a Premium account to share with multiple recipients ($$?). I am sure we can find a better place for publicly sharing such a VM. Maybe a re-upload on the VMTN network, though I am somewhat uncomfortable with riding someone else's coattails by re-posting under my name something which originated with them. Ideally, I would like to received feedback (a "blessing"?) from "tadorna", who is the original packager and uploader, according to the appliance directory page... (YooHoo! tadorna, are you following this thread???)

In the meantime, I have been sharing my observations here, so anyone with the time, inclination and skills to duplicate (and quite likely improve) the process can do it for themselves if they are in a hurry. I will keep monitoring this thread for other feedback as well.

_ renald _

\_____/

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kingneutron
Expert
Expert

[[

BTW, I have noted your mention of magaupload.com in this thread, but as far as I can tell from a first glance, one needs a Premium account to share with multiple recipients ($$?). I am sure we can find a better place for publicly sharing such a VM.

]]

--Nar, I just send it to myself - and then share the link w/ others. Smiley Wink Sign up for a free account, you'll be alright.

--Torrents are nice...

./. If you have appreciated my response, please remember to apply Helpful/Correct points. TIA
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rhl2000
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Can we get a DL link ??

Me again. I know I tend towards verbosity... but for once, I'll be brief.

I now have what appears to be a nearly perfect updated version of this VM (Debian sarge fully up to date, and ISPConfig successfully upgraded to 2.2.14) , but minor issues remain that make it unfit for public release. However, I believe I have identified the original uploader (known as "tadorna" here) as Till Brehm, the "Super Moderator" of the ISPConfig forums at HowtoForge. I am now going to register an account there (in order to be able to post and receive replies) and seek assistance in resolving those last small nits. I also intend to consult with him and the author of ISPConfig ("Falko", I think...) about how best to re-release this VM.

Once I have cleared these last hurdles, I'll be back (sorry Mr Governator... Smiley Wink ),

_ renald _

\_____/

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rhl2000
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Here I go, quoting myself AGAIN... Smiley Wink )

I now have what appears to be a nearly perfect

updated version of this VM (Debian sarge fully up to

date, and ISPConfig successfully upgraded to 2.2.14)

, but minor issues remain that make it unfit for

public release.

I am now somewhat less certain that the issues are "minor"... And as for the forums at HowtoForge, after 12 hours I got 17 Views and 0 (zero) replies so far. Time will tell...

So am I setting aside that project for the moment. Instead, I will build a current one from scratch, using as a starting point the following tutorial, applied to a Virtual Appliance:

http://howtoforge.org/perfect_setup_debian_etch

To quote from the intro:

"In the end you should have a system that works reliably, and if you like you can install the free webhosting control panel ISPConfig (i.e., ISPConfig runs on it out of the box)."

There still remains the question of properly listing ALL changes that must be made to such a "canned" VM in order to customize it for one's domain(s) and IP addresses (including fresh certificates...).

There should REALLY be some kind of global customizing script that would take a set of values from the user, then apply all necessary updates in a coordinated manner. I'll have to give to some thought...

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psylem
Contributor
Contributor

Much of the instructions listed here are now outdated. Do not attempt to upgrade the guest OS without first reading this: http://www.us.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html

Chances are if you follow some of the instructions here you will screw up your virtual machine since the update repositories have changed a whole lot. I recommend updating to the last update in the sarge repository before attempting an upgrade to Etch. Infact you are probably better off installing Debian from scratch than using this appliance. It would probably take about as long as figuring out how to update this one.

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rduval
Contributor
Contributor

This VM has a non-production (2.2.3) beta version of ISPConfig. It has problems deleting domains, etc.

DO NOT USE THIS!

Why is it up here without a notice? Better yet, why not build it using the 2.2.21 release version.

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JDlugosz
Contributor
Contributor

>> --Please Let me know if this doesn't work.

It can't rebuild vmmemctl, as it needs the kernel headers.

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psylem
Contributor
Contributor

I've been using an updated version of this virtual machine for about a year now and finally decided to build a new one from scratch due to package dependancy issues preventing some updates. It really doesn't take long to create an ISPConfig server from scratch using the tutorials provided. Migrating the sites and mail was a bit of a pain however. I couldn't find any automated way of doing this. PM me if you want some tips.

During the migration I discovered a serious security flaw I though I should warn people about. It seems phpMyAdmin allows you to login as root using the default password set but the VM creator. If you do use this VM, please at least go in and change this password on the database and in the ispconfig configuration file.

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