Linux System Administration

73

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

An Initial Internet-Ready

Environment

One of Linux’s great traits is its flexibility. Commercial companies such as Cisco

have hidden Linux under very simple interfaces to make its Linksys routers and other

products user-friendly. We can do that, too.

ISPConfig (http://ispconfig.org), a user-friendly Linux project under a free software

(BSD) license, allows us to build a multifunctional, working Internet server from a

single downloadable application. Once we install it, we will have a tool that helps us

to configure and easily maintain a server that allows us to manage web sites; provide

domain name services; perform email and file transfers; and add users, administra-

tors, and others who can access the system for various administrative tasks. Oh, and

did we mention we can do all those administration tasks from a graphical interface?

We selected ISPConfig primarily because it allows us to deploy powerful server

applications on Linux without sacrificing any power or flexibility. Furthermore:

• ISPConfig uses standard daemons that come with Linux distributions. We’ll use

Apache for serving web sites, Postfix for email, ProFTPD for FTP, BIND for

DNS, and MySQL as the backend database.

• Installation of ISPConfig automatically configures the various server components.

• The packages included in ISPConfig work with most available distributions of

Linux.

• Standard packages from the ...