Newbie Q: Is ispCP Omega the right tool for me?

[pete]

I followed this suggestion: Create a subdomain webmail for all your domains to access the webmail.

I was hoping it would allow me to access webmail using a link such as:

http://webmail.elegancenz.co.nz

To test this, I added webmail.elegancenz.co.nz to my hosts table and then activated the URL above, but with no luck.

Do I need to restart something?

I also wonder if I should change the DNS from my registrars DNS to my VPS? Updates might propagate quicker this way. Is this common practice or a big no-no?

[motokochan]

(12-17-2009 10:33 AM)pete Wrote:  To test this, I added webmail.elegancenz.co.nz to my hosts table and then activated the URL above, but with no luck.

Do I need to restart something?

You'll probably need to restart Apache if the instructions didn't include that step.

(12-17-2009 10:33 AM)pete Wrote:  I also wonder if I should change the DNS from my registrars DNS to my VPS? Updates might propagate quicker this way. Is this common practice or a big no-no?

It really depends on their TTL (think of this as the time the info stays in cache). In general, their DNS service will be more distributed and stable than that single server. If your sites are going to be small and low-traffic, there should be no harm in using it to serve DNS.

[pete]

I did restart apache2. I was a bit puzzled that everyone recommends to restart it by typing "apache2 restart" which didn't work for me (and instead gave me a list of command options which suggested I use "apache -k restart", but this didn't work either).

The way I got this working (I believe) was:

Code:

root@serifos:/# service apache2 restart
* Restarting web server apache2                                                 ... waiting                                                             [ OK ]
root@serifos:/# root@serifos:/# service apache2 restart

However, after doing this the url http://webmail.elegancenz.co.nz simply gets me to the normal website rather than webmail.

Apart from changing the DNS template as the guide recommends, here is what I planted in the file /etc/ispcp/apache/working/00_master.conf (using the correct IP instead of 1.2.3.4):

Code:

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
        ServerAdmin     pete@kapiti.co.nz
        DocumentRoot    /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail
        ServerName      admin.serifos.elegancenz.co.nz
        ServerAlias     webmail.*
        ErrorLog        /var/log/apache2/users/webmail-error.log
        TransferLog     /var/log/apache2/users/webmail-access.log
        CustomLog       /var/log/apache2/webmail-traf.log traff
        CustomLog       /var/log/apache2/webmail-combined.log combined

        <IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
                SuexecUserGroup vu2000 vu2000
        </IfModule>

        <Directory /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail>
                Options -Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from all
        </Directory>

        <IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
                ScriptAlias /php4/ /var/www/fcgi/master/
                ScriptAlias /php5/ /var/www/fcgi/master/
                <Directory "/var/www/fcgi/master">
                        AllowOverride None
                        Options ExecCGI MultiViews -Indexes
                        Order allow,deny
                        Allow from all
                </Directory>
        </IfModule>

        <IfModule mod_php4.c>
                <Directory /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail>
                        php_admin_value open_basedir "/var/www/ispcp/gui/:/etc/ispcp/:/proc/:/var/www/virtual/:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin"
                        php_admin_value session.save_path "/var/www/ispcp/gui/phptmp/"
                </Directory>
        </IfModule>

        <IfModule mod_php5.c>
                <Directory /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail>
                        php_admin_value open_basedir "/var/www/ispcp/gui/:/etc/ispcp/:/proc/:/var/www/virtual/:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin"
                        php_admin_value session.save_path "/var/www/ispcp/gui/phptmp/"
                </Directory>
        </IfModule>

</VirtualHost>

Where am I screwing things up now?

[motokochan]

(12-18-2009 08:30 AM)pete Wrote:  I did restart apache2. I was a bit puzzled that everyone recommends to restart it by typing "apache2 restart" which didn't work for me (and instead gave me a list of command options which suggested I use "apache -k restart", but this didn't work either).

On Debian and Debian-derived distros, it's "apache2ctl". Most others simply use "apachectl".

(12-18-2009 08:30 AM)pete Wrote:  Apart from changing the DNS template as the guide recommends, here is what I planted in the file /etc/ispcp/apache/working/00_master.conf (using the correct IP instead of 1.2.3.4):

Code:

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
        ServerAdmin     pete@kapiti.co.nz
        DocumentRoot    /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail
        ServerName      admin.serifos.elegancenz.co.nz
        ServerAlias     webmail.*
        ErrorLog        /var/log/apache2/users/webmail-error.log
        TransferLog     /var/log/apache2/users/webmail-access.log
        CustomLog       /var/log/apache2/webmail-traf.log traff
        CustomLog       /var/log/apache2/webmail-combined.log combined

        <IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
                SuexecUserGroup vu2000 vu2000
        </IfModule>

        <Directory /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail>
                Options -Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from all
        </Directory>

        <IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
                ScriptAlias /php4/ /var/www/fcgi/master/
                ScriptAlias /php5/ /var/www/fcgi/master/
                <Directory "/var/www/fcgi/master">
                        AllowOverride None
                        Options ExecCGI MultiViews -Indexes
                        Order allow,deny
                        Allow from all
                </Directory>
        </IfModule>

        <IfModule mod_php4.c>
                <Directory /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail>
                        php_admin_value open_basedir "/var/www/ispcp/gui/:/etc/ispcp/:/proc/:/var/www/virtual/:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin"
                        php_admin_value session.save_path "/var/www/ispcp/gui/phptmp/"
                </Directory>
        </IfModule>

        <IfModule mod_php5.c>
                <Directory /var/www/ispcp/gui/tools/webmail>
                        php_admin_value open_basedir "/var/www/ispcp/gui/:/etc/ispcp/:/proc/:/var/www/virtual/:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin"
                        php_admin_value session.save_path "/var/www/ispcp/gui/phptmp/"
                </Directory>
        </IfModule>

</VirtualHost>

Where am I screwing things up now?

While that is the right place to make sure your changes aren't overwritten, you might not have had it added to the Apache running copy.

Make sure that's also present in the Apache copy of the file.

[pete]

Now that all has been up for a while, I have a new problem:

Every now and again, I get errors in outlook when trying to access my pop3 mailbox.

I have no idea where to look for what is going on, but I'm a bit worried that it might be caused by an external attack. perhaps the system isn't secure enough. But surely, there should be some logs that would give me a clue.

Rebooting the virtual server normally resolves the issue.

Where should I go and look first?

[pete]

I discovered that my problem had to do with a postfix memory allocation error which prevented it from accessing the aliases.db.

As it turns out, I'm using way more memory than is allocated form me by the virtual machine hosting service I'm using (limit is 500MB). I checked what is running using the top command and found that I have two large apache2 instances, each clobbering 277MB. Also, MySQL should have very little work to do but still uses 144MB.

Am I doing something wrong? Can I force these processes to be more frugal?

Code:

PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
13770 www-data  18   0  277m 5036 1440 S    0  0.5   0:00.19 apache2
18199 www-data  15   0  277m 4980 1436 S    0  0.5   0:00.26 apache2
22015 mysql     15   0  144m  19m 5916 S    0  1.9   0:00.57 mysqld
31755 bind      22   0 69444  10m 2076 S    0  1.1   0:00.01 named
25710 vu2000    15   0 35532 9.9m 3240 S    0  1.0   0:00.18 php5-cgi
21768 syslog    15   0 34320 1352  976 S    0  0.1   0:00.50 rsyslogd
21542 vu2001    15   0 33752 7948 2864 S    0  0.8   0:00.64 php5-cgi
21543 vu2001    15   0 33752 7948 2864 S    0  0.8   0:00.58 php5-cgi
25711 vu2000    15   0 33200 7348 2828 S    0  0.7   0:00.22 php5-cgi
5950 vu2002    18   0 31136 5852 3872 S    0  0.6   0:00.00 php5-cgi
25708 vu2000    17   0 31136 5852 3872 S    0  0.6   0:00.00 php5-cgi
21540 vu2001    16   0 31136 5848 3872 S    0  0.6   0:00.00 php5-cgi
5952 vu2002    15   0 31016 3292 1252 S    0  0.3   0:00.00 php5-cgi
5953 vu2002    16   0 31016 3292 1252 S    0  0.3   0:00.00 php5-cgi
13765 root      18   0 12944 9320 2224 S    0  0.9   0:00.13 ispcp-apache-lo
13768 root      18   0 12928 9352 2224 S    0  0.9   0:00.20 ispcp-apache-lo
23564 postgrey  18   0 11652 8416 2772 S    0  0.8   0:00.08 postgrey
29847 root      15   0  8500 2724 2152 S    0  0.3   0:00.06 sshd
11881 polw      18   0  8100 5948 1484 S    0  0.6   0:00.28 policyd-weight
15987 polw      15   0  8100 5936 1476 S    0  0.6   0:00.08 policyd-weight
22480 polw      15   0  7964 5332 1004 S    0  0.5   0:00.01 policyd-weight
22479 polw      16   0  7836 5564 1248 S    0  0.5   0:00.03 policyd-weight
13769 www-data  18   0  6284 2140  584 S    0  0.2   0:00.00 apache2
23850 root      18   0  6284 3632 2072 S    0  0.3   0:00.02 apache2
11714 postfix   15   0  5996 1852 1464 S    0  0.2   0:00.03 qmgr
13767 www-data  16   0  5964 2064  516 S    0  0.2   0:00.00 apache2
7223 postfix   15   0  5860 1736 1388 S    0  0.2   0:00.00 pickup
11711 root      15   0  5848 1788 1424 S    0  0.2   0:00.14 master
21834 root      15   0  5564 1056  648 S    0  0.1   0:00.32 sshd
13823 root      18   0  4384 1888 1448 S    0  0.2   0:00.00 bash
23583 root      15   0  2780 1324  580 S    0  0.1   0:00.10 authdaemond
21758 root      20   0  2392  556  308 T    0  0.1   0:00.00 init
    1 root      15   0  2392 1336 1088 S    0  0.1   0:00.32 init
23579 root      15   0  2368  912  580 S    0  0.1   0:00.06 authdaemond
23580 root      15   0  2368  912  580 S    0  0.1   0:00.07 authdaemond
23581 root      15   0  2368  912  580 S    0  0.1   0:00.09 authdaemond
9431 root      18   0  2332 1104  876 R    0  0.1   0:00.00 top
23582 root      15   0  2148  640  344 S    0  0.1   0:00.06 authdaemond
23574 root      18   0  2144  716  560 S    0  0.1   0:00.00 authdaemond
21756 root      15   0  2084  868  680 S    0  0.1   0:00.02 cron
23595 root      15   0  1980  612  516 S    0  0.1   0:00.00 couriertcpd
23607 root      15   0  1980  612  516 S    0  0.1   0:00.05 couriertcpd
23605 root      18   0  1868  444  356 S    0  0.0   0:00.03 courierlogger
23627 root      15   0  1868  612  512 S    0  0.1   0:00.00 inetd
23573 root      25   0  1868  448  356 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 courierlogger
23594 root      18   0  1868  448  356 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 courierlogger
21750 root      21   0  1844  536  440 S    0  0.1   0:00.00 dd
13764 root      15   0  1744  480  412 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 sh
13766 root      16   0  1744  476  412 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 sh
21863 root      18   0  1744  536  444 S    0  0.1   0:00.00 mysqld_safe
22017 root      19   0  1660  536  460 S    0  0.1   0:00.00 logger
23885 root      18   0  1660  448  376 S    0  0.0   0:00.00 ispcp_daemon