ISPCP with Dynamic IP

[JCannon]

Ok, before I get flamed. I have looked through the forums, and couldn't find the answers I was looking for. BTW the search function on the site is nearly useless.

I am trying to setup to ISPCP server to testing purposes. Unfortunately I am having to set this up at home. Which means for most people setting this up at home means that they will be either setting this up behind NAT or setting it up with a public IP which is subject to change. My ip rarely changes but every once in a while my ISP will do an upgrade which changes my IP (sometimes). I know I can set this up with either option, but each has it's problems.

With NAT: This eliminates the problem of having to change the config every time the IP changes. However it is my understanding that the DNS functions will not work correctly.

Directly Plugged into the Cable Modem: This will give my ISPCP box an external IP, which should allow everything to work correctly. However every time my IP changes I will have to do alot of changing in my config. Now I have found in the forums where you can change the primary IP of the box, but it isn't a very simple process. If this is the only way to achieve this, than I can probably write a script that will automate this process where it will update every time the IP changes. (This setup wouldn't be too much of a problem because currently I have 2 accounts with my ISP, for load balancing, but I can dedicate one to this box if I needed to.)

I know, ISPCP isn't really intended for setting up in a home environment. I am primarily doing this as a test run with some of my more savvy clients, that have additional (non vital) websites. I would like to eventually move away from my CPanel server to ISPCP, but currently I don't feel that it is production ready. I would like to setup some clients on this box for TESTING, I would like to start receiving some feedback from everyday customers. As a developer, a lot of the time I would easily breeze over task that a normal user would find very frustrated. I think this would be a great opportunity to get some feedback, ultimately leading to being a better host. And better prepared when I switch over my Commercial Server.

I look forward to any ideas that you folks may have.

JCannon

[kilburn]

Since ispcp does not officially support behind-NAT-router configurations, your best bet to test how it would work on a real server is to set it up on your cable-public-dynamic-IP. Automating the IP changing process should not be any hassle (it doesn't look simple, but it is).

You can also get a "behind-NAT" ispcp installation to work by using the private IP during the installation. After the installation is done, and before creating any user inside the panel, modify the bind's templates (/etc/ispcp/bind/parts) and replace the IP-related tags (eg: {DMN_IP}) by your public IP address. Obviously, this is not a perfect solution either because (1) you can only use 1 public IP and (2) you also have to replace the old IP by the newer one in all the files found at /etc/ispcp/bind, /etc/bind, and /var/cache/bind. The replacing can be done using a simple sed command as shown though...

About IspCp being ready for production or not... it depends on your needs. I (and many others) am serving over 200 customers with IspCp

[JCannon]

The replacing can be done using a simple sed command as shown though...

What do you mean by this. By not being production ready I mean there are still alot of issues that I would like to see resolved, such as SSL Automation. And the User panel isn't as friendly as CPanel. I love ISPCP, I had it on a server while I was employed at a data center and had some rackspace and IP's I could play around with. I look forward to further development.

JCannon

[kilburn]

Quote:The replacing can be done using a simple sed command as shown at the end of the change ispcp's IP address howto though.

Hehe, fixed About the missing features, that's why I said "depending on your needs"

[mchutchy]

regarding the above messages, I've setup a home production ISPCP server with RD-PPPoE and DDClient to DydDNS.org. My question is instead of the acturall IP, can it not be the DynDNS address eg. nowhere.dyndns.org ==> 41.0.1.56 (Note*** I made this up, not valid for security purposes).

To ISPCP, I hope that you are going to offer more features like CPanel has, esp the DNS section where Admins/Resellers/Clients can modify the DNS records of the domain eg, CNAME, A records. I find I have to do alot of it via SSH.

2nd'ly, pity webmail does not auto place itself with the domains created, eg domainname.com/webmail

There are a lot of features that VHCS had which I see ISPCP does not, esp the billing section is one of the BIGGEst things I am looking for, to allow new clients to browse my server, and sign up online with proper billing in place....

[motokochan]

(01-10-2011 10:35 AM)mchutchy Wrote:  regarding the above messages, I've setup a home production ISPCP server with RD-PPPoE and DDClient to DydDNS.org. My question is instead of the acturall IP, can it not be the DynDNS address eg. nowhere.dyndns.org ==> 41.0.1.56 (Note*** I made this up, not valid for security purposes).

You need, at the very least, an IP to bind to and to use for DNS records. If you won't be using the provided DNS service, just use the internal IP and be happy. The web server doesn't care about the public IP, it checks the Host header sent by the browser.

This software is designed for hosting on a fully-connected server. That means a public (or at least static) IP.

(01-10-2011 10:35 AM)mchutchy Wrote:  To ISPCP, I hope that you are going to offer more features like CPanel has, esp the DNS section where Admins/Resellers/Clients can modify the DNS records of the domain eg, CNAME, A records. I find I have to do alot of it via SSH.

This was provided at one time, actually. It might still be accessible. I believe there were problems with it and so it was disabled by default.

(01-10-2011 10:35 AM)mchutchy Wrote:  2nd'ly, pity webmail does not auto place itself with the domains created, eg domainname.com/webmail

There is a HowTo on the documentation site with information on how to add that support.

(01-10-2011 10:35 AM)mchutchy Wrote:  There are a lot of features that VHCS had which I see ISPCP does not, esp the billing section is one of the BIGGEst things I am looking for, to allow new clients to browse my server, and sign up online with proper billing in place....

Look at the Enhancements board. There is at least one billing solution that supports this software.