I´m a Debian (Squeeze) noob setting up my first server at home. It has taken me more than a week (several hours per day) and it has been extremely rewarding.
First I want to thank the ppl on this forum that have been extremely patient with other noobs and let you know that the threads you participate in are essential for noobs to understand what the hell is going on with their system
What I would like to do is to post my schema and ask your opinion on it. Is there something that I could do better or something I should even change?
I want to be able to host blog sites, email, ftp, et.c. for people I know and also run Aegir (I read that Virtualmin and Aegir play along well) when the system is ready.
Notes and questions:
Apache creates Virtual Server from template using ns1.mydomain.com as a Master DNS Server Hostname
I read that the hostname should not be the FQDN, but I used it anyway. Please correct me if I´m wrong
I want to make a Virtual Server for mydomain.com but it´s in use by the system. Is there a way to make it happen?
Please post your thoughts. I made the diagram to ease the pain for future noobs and I will make edits to it in the end when my system is functioning properly.
Apache creates Virtual Server from template using ns1.mydomain.com as a Master DNS Server Hostname
That’s configurable in System Settings -> Server Templates -> Default -> BIND DNS Domain… you can set the DNS server in the “Master DNS server hostname” field.
I read that the hostname should not be the FQDN, but I used it anyway. Please correct me if I´m wrong
The server’s hostname should always be an FQDN… things can go awry when that’s not the case
I want to make a Virtual Server for mydomain.com but it´s in use by the system. Is there a way to make it happen?
Well, it’s easiest to handle that by starting from scratch… but, it is possible to import an existing domain into Virtualmin. You can do that by going into Add Servers -> Import Virtual Server. From there, you can tell Virtualmin to recognize an existing website as a domain within Virtualmin.
That’s configurable in System Settings -> Server Templates -> Default -> BIND DNS Domain… you can set the DNS server in the “Master DNS server hostname” field.
My notes and questions were pretty out of place without the schema … that´s exactly what I´m doing
The server’s hostname should always be an FQDN… things can go awry when that’s not the case
Great, there seemed to be different opinions about that. My Debian domain name showed (none) when using only server1 as host instead of server1.mydomain.com
Well, it’s easiest to handle that by starting from scratch… but, it is possible to import an existing domain into Virtualmin. You can do that by going into Add Servers -> Import Virtual Server. From there, you can tell Virtualmin to recognize an existing website as a domain within Virtualmin.
That sounds like a good solution. I intended to just put my personal site (mydomain.com) into /var/www but importing it will keep things clean and coherent.
I´m also wondering if I should skip the router and hook up the broadband straight into SERVER1. The router could then be plugged into SERVER1´s other NIC. Does that make sense?
That sounds like a good solution. I intended to just put my personal site (mydomain.com) into /var/www but importing it will keep things clean and coherent.
Well, just a word of warning that there could be trouble going that route
Virtualmin sets things up so that content is served out of /home. Whenever suexec is installed, it’s reconfigured to use /home as it’s, well, base of operations.
If you have content in /var/www, and you’re using the FCGID or CGI modes (which are the default, and are also more secure), suexec will get fairly unhappy about that and throw errors.
If there’s anything you can do to get your site into /home (which is where they go when creating a domain from within Virtualmin), that might be an easier route to go.
I´m also wondering if I should skip the router and hook up the broadband straight into SERVER1. The router could then be plugged into SERVER1´s other NIC. Does that make sense?
For that to work, you’d have to configure your server to act as a router. A server typically considers itself to be a final destination. Or it can generate traffic. But it’s not used to routing traffic through it from other systems. You’d have to configure it to route traffic as if it were a router. You can certainly do that, it’s just an additional step.
Although it’s recommended to have a server directly on the Internet with a public IP address – most folks with a network configuration like yours (ie, those trying to run the server and other systems such as desktops all on the same LAN) do what you’re doing, and plug all the systems into a router doing NAT.
Like you suggested I imported mydomain.com with Apache and used the server template to create the ZONE. It is now a Virtual Host. I have a couple of questions regarding the Master Zone files (see new schema file):
Is the TXT value necessary?
Is there any difference between using @ as a reference and the actual domain name?
Like you suggested I imported mydomain.com with Apache and used the server template to create the ZONE. It is now a Virtual Host. I have a couple of questions regarding the Master Zone files (see new schema file):
Is the TXT value necessary?
Is there any difference between using @ as a reference and the actual domain name?
Mismatched NS records
WARNING: One or more of your nameservers did not return any of your NS records.
DNS servers responded
ERROR: One or more of your nameservers did not respond:
The ones that did not respond are:
81.16.x.x
Multiple Nameservers
ERROR: Looks like you have less than 2 nameservers. According to RFC2182 section 5 you must have at least 3 nameservers, and no more than 7. Having 2 nameservers is also ok by me.
Missing nameservers reported by your nameservers
You should already know that your NS records at your nameservers are missing, so here it is again: ns2.mydomain.org. ns1.mydomain.org.
SOA record
No valid SOA record came back!
MX Records
Oh well, I did not detect any MX records so you probably don’t have any and if you know you should have then they may be missing at your nameservers!
WWW A Record ERROR:
I could not get any A records for www.mydomain.org!
I´m using 8.8.8.8 on my personal computer so maybe I´ll give it another day or so to clear the cache.