PDA

View Full Version : How do I get my webserver to have that nice GUI like GoDaddy?



em2ab
12-15-2008, 11:56 AM
I set up Apache2, MySQL, PHP5 and Ubuntu Desktop on my machine and forwarded port 80 on my router, now I can access it like a website with the IP. My question is how do I get the nice interface like the hosters so I can just click to create a new FTP account, database, user or whatever.

A790
12-15-2008, 12:01 PM
Most hosting companies use a variation of cPanel. I am not sure what it costs to license.

adam c
12-15-2008, 12:03 PM
Originally posted by A790
Most hosting companies use a variation of cPanel. I am not sure what it costs to license.

but you use cpanel for your clients no?

E36M3
12-15-2008, 12:24 PM
I haven't used it for years, but I used to really like webmin. I'm comfortable enough with command line unix that I would normally just do things directly, but this is helpful as a GUI (and free):

http://www.webmin.com/

Grogador
12-15-2008, 12:39 PM
Out of all the buggy, bloated, useless control panels, I hated www.directadmin.com the least. It's $29/mo and for any of these you need to be familiar enough with the system (as setup by the control panel) and backend stuff to fix it when it blows up.

em2ab
12-15-2008, 12:46 PM
I'm not hosting for anyone else, just my personal site(s). Is there any sort of license for any of these pay services that allow a single use?

Alterac
12-15-2008, 12:47 PM
xPanel

http://www.xpanel.com/

Grogador
12-15-2008, 12:48 PM
Originally posted by em2ab
I'm not hosting for anyone else, just my personal site(s). Is there any sort of license for any of these pay services that allow a single use?

They all have websites. These websites have pricing information.

A790
12-15-2008, 08:10 PM
Originally posted by adam c


but you use cpanel for your clients no?
I don't actually run a web hosting company. All of my servers have cPanel on them, but that is licensed through the company that I run my servers through. I don't know what they pay to license it.

Zero102
12-15-2008, 11:43 PM
Plesk allows a single domain for free, but honestly, its the gayest of the control panel software. Still, the migration wizard works to migrate your sites to cPanel if you ever want to pick up a license.

There are a couple GPL / open source alternatives that are quite promising, but since it has been a couple months since I last checked I will shut my mouth when it comes to opinions on them since I am probably out-of-date on them.

em2ab
12-16-2008, 10:44 AM
I installed Webmin and it looks okay, allows me to manipulate each domain I have running in Apache and also create databases/users. Seems promising, I just have to configure my MySQL and PHP5 so that they're working before continuing. This is pretty cool, I should have ditched Windows long ago.

Zero102
12-16-2008, 11:25 AM
If you are running your own linux web server make sure you change your SSH port from 22 to something else, and disable all public services you don't need.

From the web scripts side of things, make sure any and all open source scripts you run are updated IMMEDIATELY when there are updates available (many of these updates are to fix security holes, and people can grind through search engine data to find who is using old versions in a big hurry).

other than that, happy web hosting.

em2ab
12-16-2008, 11:44 AM
Originally posted by Zero102
If you are running your own linux web server make sure you change your SSH port from 22 to something else, and disable all public services you don't need.

From the web scripts side of things, make sure any and all open source scripts you run are updated IMMEDIATELY when there are updates available (many of these updates are to fix security holes, and people can grind through search engine data to find who is using old versions in a big hurry).

other than that, happy web hosting.

Cool, thanks. Having Ubuntu running will probably download and install any updates via Synaptics Package Manager as soon as they become available. I may not have to worry about them unless I'm mistaken.

Zero102
12-16-2008, 05:22 PM
Not quite..
Change the SSH port first thing, or if you are behind a router, don't forward it from outside (or at least forward it from a different port). Next, any open source scripts on your web pages (joomla, mambo, etc.) need to be kept up to date. Since the sources to these scripts are available compromises are found regularly in them. PhpBB is the most famous for this since the exploits are often file upload and file execution, and people use phpBB to turn your web server into a bot for various reasons. This is even more crucial if your site is indexed by any major search engines.

If you are running any open sources scripts (particularly CMSs or bulletin boards) then make sure you keep them up to date with any updates that come out for them. These are all provided by the script makers and AFAIK none of them are packaged with Ubuntu.

Hope this helps.

Grogador
12-16-2008, 05:23 PM
Originally posted by Zero102
If you are running any open sources scripts (particularly CMSs or bulletin boards) then make sure you keep them up to date with any updates that come out for them.

...don't forget their modules too.

em2ab
12-16-2008, 05:26 PM
Thanks. The only port I have forwarded (to my knowledge) on my router is port 80. Unless something was preconfigured, nothing else is forwarded.

I do run Joomla, PHPBB3, Gallery2 and Wordpress on my site, they're all open source. But I do keep regular patch updates which is good. I'll even sign up for their update emails so I know exactly when they're released and also set up remote access to the box so I can do patches from anywhere.

Zero102
12-17-2008, 03:13 PM
Most of those scripts let you patch them directly through their admin panels. I am not sure what you are using for remote access, but the best bet is to just do it over SSH. I like to forward my SSH to a port for another service (that I know won't be blocked at places I use). This way I can always reach it. Whatever you do don't forward it on 22.

If you want to know why, try it, then install logwatch or another log monitoring daemon and watch how many failed SSH logins you get. I did this for a while with my box at home, and at the beginning I was getting 5-10 failed logins a day, and after 2-3 weeks of this it suddenly jumped to 6000-15000 failed logins a day and stayed there for a few weeks (no root remote login and the password for the only remote account is 32 characters long, so I wasn't worried). You can use LFD or CSF to help block out people who try to brute force it, but the best bet is to just change the port and use secure passwords (read: over 12 characters).

ZedMan
12-19-2008, 12:12 PM
Here is a good little article about securing SSH:
http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Network/SecuringSSH
The only difference in Ubuntu I think will be
instead of:
service sshd restart
do:
/etc/init.d/ssh restart

420Ninja
12-26-2008, 05:33 PM
Another vote here for webmin, ive got it installed on all my systems and it does almost everything i need to do. But its no replacement for knowing how to use the console, and a lot of things i find easier to do that way. That and with these graphical UI's you don't receive a lot of the error messages that you need to know about. Or theres the fact that I still had to edit a lot of configs by hand because shit just doesnt work when webmin tries to set it up.