complete noob here

awshost · Post by **awshost** » 2010/08/26 18:36:06

Alright, so I just purchased a server that will have CentOS5.5 on it. This server is in the process of being built and is online hopefully no later than tomorrow. About the server:

Celeron 1.8 GHZ processor
1 GB of memory
Postfix installed
SSH Installation

used as a mail server, with low-level httpd on it for hosting custom scripts written to send out massive mail lists.

The objective of this server, is to allow me to offer the added service to my current hosting clients that have mailing lists of over 10,000 emails that send out every day except for holidays and weekends. When this is setup correctly, i'll have all mail for the clients who opt into the service routed through this new server by updating the MX record(s) on the main server.

Problem is, the company is building the server and installing Postfix, but they are not configuring it. They are also not installing or configuring a HTTPD or PHP5 onto the system. Being that I don't know how, i can't quite do it myself without first learning how. That brings me to here.

I've read that some *nix distributions work best with certain command line tools, though that Putty is widely acceptable. Esentially I will be managing this server myself through a windows computer. So I first need to get a program for my windows 7 x64 and a windows 7 x86 machine so i can manage the server remotely from home or the office. (64 bit at home, 32 bit at work) but which program(s) are a necessity?

The next step in this quest is first figuring out how to configure Postfix using that command line tool as I will never be right in front of the server itself to look at it.

Then installation and configuration of an HTTPD that will allow me to create multiple directories for multiple users/websites such as a regular shared hosting environment, only without the FTP server (which may come at a different time).

Then installation and configuration of PHP5, i would prefer both PHP4 and PHP5 with the ability to setup the default for each individual user. like my site would use PHP5, but your site on my server might use PHP4

getting Postfix, HTTPD and PHP4/5 to run as a service so that if i have to reboot the server for any reason at all, i don't have to login to the SSH and run them again.

So i'm guessing I need a lot of help in the area of linux, i've always used my Cpanel/WHM which won't be available on this server to do anything so that leads me to needing to learn basic, intermediate and advanced command line knowledge in a short ammount of time.

Any information that you genius Centos users can send my way is very appreciated.

Thanks.

hansolo · Post by **hansolo** » 2010/08/26 21:09:17

Server remote terminal connection trough SSH on server -> client on Windows is a very good VanDyke SecureCRT

Try look [url=http://kimmo.suominen.com/docs/ssh/]here[/url] or [url=http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6602]here[/url]

Post by **TrevorH** » 2010/08/26 23:48:05

Putty works pretty well from a Windows machine if that's what you need to use.

Almost everything can be configured from the command line if you're willing to learn an editor and get to grips with the config files manually.

My day job is to manage several dozen servers and I very rarely need to have physical access to them except in the event of a hardware problem.

Centos 5 comes with PHP5, Apache 2.2.3 and postfix 2.3.3, all available from the repository ready to be installed using `yum install httpd php5 postfix`. Pretty sure that all of them default to restarting on boot but that can easily be changed with the chkconfig command.

The Centos wiki is a useful source of good information.

awshost · Post by **awshost** » 2010/08/27 01:21:29

Okay so the server is online, I got putty to connect to it on root account.

They installed postfix, apache and php5 for me... but now i'm lost on how to manage it or configure anything...

i type help and it gives me a few commands but i dont see any that really help me out..

chuina · Post by **chuina** » 2010/08/27 03:22:35

[url=http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=47]FAQ & Readme First[/url] is useful for new members :-)

abednegoyulo · Post by **abednegoyulo** » 2010/08/27 03:44:22

Hi awshost!

You might want to consider reading [url=https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=47]these[/url] first. Please take note of the number 9 entry on the [url=https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=14274&forum=47]Readme First[/url].

There is a huge learning curve and you may deal with it by either learning how to do it or letting other persons deal with it. On the first option, time is what you will be spending (which in turn MAY also cost you money) and it may take months. On the second option, you will just be spending money. Basically you are the only one that can decide which is the best route.

If you are willing to try the first option, then the documentation on [url=http://www.postfix.org/documentation.html]postfix[/url] and [url=http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/]httpd[/url] will help you get started. If you have any specific questions on those, then its either ask the question here or the respective mailing list of [url=http://www.postfix.org/lists.html]postfix[/url] and [url=http://httpd.apache.org/lists.html]httpd[/url]. There is also the [url=http://www.centos.org/docs/5]CentOS Documentation[/url].

Welcome to the fora!

awshost · Post by **awshost** » 2010/08/27 17:08:59

and here i thought asking for some websites perhaps that could help me at least with the basis was 'realistic' as you say....

although i have learned the following since yesterday:

I've learned about the cd and ls commands to navigate the server file structure. very nice i like it.

i've learned about vi (though had a hard time with it -- still dont know how to save a file once i'm done editing)

i learned about nano, this one i l ike 'cause it's easy.. with this i edited my SSH MOTD

I now know how to restart my httpd, and postfix

There was an issue in the configuration of postfix, and as such it wasn't sending any mail what so ever. So I did recieve help on fixing that, and it seems to be fixed.

i can send mail through command line: echo "message" | mail -s subject me@example.com and i recieve the mail. i can also run a php script in the http and recieve the mail.

i've also learned that i can run a php script directly from the command line by using: php filename.php

A few things I've done, is I installed VSFTPD via yum, that is configured and working correctly.

I thought about installing squirrelmail and i did via yum, i even ran the config.php like it says to in the documentation for it, but i cannot access squirrelmail from the browser either from webmail or squirrelmail. i'm guessing this just means it's either setup completely wrong, or i've missed a step perhaps in the httpd.conf?

if it comes down to it and i need to 'uninstall' squirrelmail how does one go about doing that?

AlanBartlett · Post by **AlanBartlett** » 2010/08/27 17:44:51

[quote]
if it comes down to it and i need to 'uninstall' squirrelmail how does one go about doing that?
[/quote]
With the [i]super-user[/i]'s (i.e. [i]root[/i]'s) powers, just execute --

[code]
[b]yum remove squirrelmail[/b]
[/code]

awshost · Post by **awshost** » 2010/08/27 19:00:37

thanks for that command Alan. Taken down, and noted for future reference.

I finally got squirrelmail to register in the browser for the main IP, not for any users (though i havent actually added any virtualhosts in the httpd.conf file yet -- i hope thats all that'll take).

in postfix i added virtual host capabilities through txt files...

i followed this tutorial:

http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_postfix_virtual_hosting and it goes on here: http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_postfix_virtual_hosting_2

i didn't do any of 2 however.. didn't quite understand what it wanted me to do.

when i try to load squirrelmail in the browser and login it says:

Error connecting to IMAP server: localhost.
111 : Connection refused

im guessing this means postfix is not an imap server and i need to get one of those installed?

on another note with postfix and the updates i made via the tutorial above..

when i run useradd passwd , how do i tell it whether or not this is for FTP, Email (pop3, imap, etc) or if it's for SSH?

as some users will only be for FTP, others will only be for email and others will be for SSH

I think the tutorial above said that doing the changes it made, would make it so the user had to login via me@domain.com instead of just me, which allows the usage for me@domain.com, me@domain2.com, me@domain3.com, etc.

is my thinking on the line directly above correct when taking into account the changes made in the postfix main.cf file?

it is worthy to note that i do not have mysql installed on this server, as it is installed on a remote server instead to which i do not have root access to, only access to allow wildcard connection access.

markkuk · Post by **markkuk** » 2010/08/27 20:41:59

[quote]
awshost wrote:

im guessing this means postfix is not an imap server and i need to get one of those installed?[/quote]
Right, postfix is a SMTP server. The standard IMAP server in CentOS is [url=http://www.dovecot.org/]dovecot[/url].

[quote]
awshost wrote:
when i run useradd passwd , how do i tell it whether or not this is for FTP, Email (pop3, imap, etc) or if it's for SSH?[/quote]
You don't. Useradd creates a Linux user account that's not limited to any special purpose. If you want to create a FTP or email account that's not attached to a Linux user account (known as a virtual account), you must use special setups that are specific to each service program.

CentOS