Install Instructions pd-admin v4

Preliminary remarks

This documentation describes how to install pd-admin using the pd-admin server environment, which contains the following components in the latest stable version:

  • Apache 2.x as Webserver
  • qmail as Mailserver (with Simscan, SpamAssassin and Clam Antivirus)
  • MySQL 5.x as Database-Server
  • ProFTPD as FTP-Server
  • Perlinterpreter
  • PHP-Interpreter
  • cgiwrap for secure execution of CGI- und PHP-scripts
  • Mailinglist-Manager ezmlm
  • Webalizer and awstats

We like to point out that the server environment is not part of pd-admin, but is freely available.

Preparation of the system

Pre-installation of components

To run pd-admin, you need a Linux system with a gcc and g ++ compiler, make and patch command installed.

Recommended pre-installed packages:

wget patch groff make gcc gcc-c++ glibc-devel libstdc++-devel zlib-devel zlib.i686 libgcc.i686 ncurses-libs.i686 glibc.i686 ImageMagick rrdtool

To avoid conflicts, server applications and other components of the standard server environment (Apache, MySQL, qmail or other mail servers, etc.) should not be installed. An exception here is the Perl interpreter, which may be replaced during installation.

pd-admin and the standard server environment were tested with the following Linux distributions in 32bit and 64bit architecture: SuSE, RedHat and Debian. The software should also be able to run under any other 32bit and 64bit distribution.

Before installing pd-admin, you should perform the network configuration of your server. Please also ensure that a hostname is set and it resolves to the IP address of your server. The pd-admin installation routine requires a working Internet connection as components are downloaded from the Internet.

Recommended system partitioning

The default server environment will be stored in /usr/local/pd-admin2. All user data and the MySQL-database files will be stored under /home. This should be taken into account for partition creation. Furthermore, it is advisable to outsource all directories which are writable to customers (for example /home, /tmp, /var /tmp) to a separate partion. If you want to use the backup function of pd-admin, you should also provide a separate partition for your backups.

Installation

Installationspackages for pd-admin can be found via the following URLs:

http://www.pd-admin.de/download/pdadmin_v4.tar.gz for systems with crypt()-passwordsystem
and
http://www.pd-admin.de/download/pdadmin_v4-md5.tar.gz for systems with MD5-passwordsystem.

Download the package to your system and extract it with the following command:

tar –xzf pdadmin_v4.tar.gz
or
tar –xzf pdadmin_v4-md5.tar.gz

Change directory and start the installation with:

./install-all.sh

For the installation you can choose between different series:

series architecture MySQL version
1 i686 4.1
2 i686 5.0
3 i686 5.1
4 x68_64 5.5
6 (beta) x68_64 5.7

Specific series can be chosen with

./install-all.sh -s X

Replace X with the number of your desired series. Default will be series 4.

After accepting the licence agreement you will be ask if you like to install the server environment. Answer this question with ''j''. Now every necessary server component will be downloaded and installed on your server. Last you will be asked for your hostname* and your ip address. If you have multiple ip addresses on your server, choose the primary ip address which also resolves to your hostname. Additional ip addresses can be configured later with the Master-Reseller account via the web panel.

Choosing the right hostname

You can assign any DNS-hostname you want. No domain should be used as hostname, which should be managed later in pd-admin. Instead of ''your-domain.com'' use for example ''server01.your-domain.com''.

You may want to set a wildcard-record for your hostname like *.<Hostname> (e.g. *.server01.your-domain.com). In this case all websites of your customers can be reached via http://www.<CustomerDomain>.<Hostname> (e.g. http://www.pd-admin.de.server01.your-domain.de).

Customization of the configuration file

After successful installation you may configure the software. This is done by editing the central configuration file ''/opt/pdadmin/etc/pdadmin.conf''. The meaning of the individual configuration variables is documented in this file. The configuration is already appropriately adapted to the standard server environment.

Configuration of backups

To enable the backup function, it is sufficient to set the following variables in the configuration file ''/opt/pdadmin/etc/pdadmin.conf'':

$backup_dir = '/path/to/your/backup-folder';
This variable is used to determine the directory in which backups are to be stored. The backup directory must not be in the home directory of a user created with pd-admin. If you use quotas on your system, the backup directory must not be under /home.

$backup_rotation = '3';
This variable defines how many days a backup of the most important system files (files in ''/etc'', ''/var/qmail/users'', ''/var/qmail/control'', ''/home/popuser'' and the template file of your Apache configuration) will be stored.

How many days your customers data is backed up can be set in the offer management.

Configuration of user quotas

pd-admin supports the configuration of user quotas. To be able to use them, the quota support in your Linux kernel must be activated, which is common in most Linux distributions. Also you must use ext3/ext4 as file system. In the configuration file ''/opt/pdadmin/etc/pdadmin.conf'' you also have to set the $quota_dev variable to the hard disk device on which the /home directory is located (for example, /dev/sda3). The correct device can be found with the command ''mount''

Licence installation

If you have bought a pd-admin licence you can obtain the licence file with the following command: ''/opt/pdadmin/bin/get_license.sh''

First steps in pd-admin

After successful installation and configuration you need to create a Master–Reseller account. This can be compared with a superuser on other systems: The Master-Reseller account has unlimited access to the resources of your server.

To create a Master-Reseller account you need to be root and execute the following command:

/opt/pdadmin/bin/create_reseller.pl ''<name> <surname>''

e.g. /opt/pdadmin/bin/create_reseller.pl ''Hans Meyer''

The account will be set up and you will be returned a username and password: With this data, you have access to the web interface for resellers, which is located at the URL http://server01.your-domain.com/administrator.

To access the end user accounts, see the URL http://server01.your-domain.com/customer. You will receive access data for this when setting up a domain in the reseller web interface.

Updating pd-admin and standard server environment

We strongly recommend to update pd-admin and the standard server environment periodically. Updates will be announced via our mailinglist news@pd-admin.de. You can subscribe to the mailinglist by sending a mail to news-subscribe@pd-admin.de.