Hi everyone.

I just joined Linode yesterday. Wow, I have a lot to learn. I have been using a shared host for five years and I guess I was spoiled by having them do all the work behind the scenes. I've only got a little bit of experience with Linux.

Anyhow, I've got Debian installed, with Apache2, PHP5, and MySQL. I also got SFTP working.

A few questions:

1) With my other host (who I will be keeping my sites with until I understand Linode) I am hosting 3 domains on one account. Is it difficult to set something like that up here? I only have one domain pointed at Linode right now, and I'm not sure how to add more. Do I just add another DNS entry?

2) How do I access phpmyadmin? I'm assuming it is more complicated than just going to www.mysite.com/phpadmin otherwise that would be pretty insecure. But without cPanel installed I'm not sure how to access it.

3) What do I need to install to get email working? Will there be a webmail interface or will I have to add accounts using SSH? I have to admit, I'm not a fan of command line interfaces.

Anyhow, I like Linode so far, besides the mental exhaustion I'm suffering from now. lol Once I understand it better I'll move my sites here.

1. Go to DNS Manager, and click on "Add a new zone" (bottom right). Enter the domain name, your email address in the SOA field, and select the IP address to associate with it. Unlimited domains, piece of cake

2. apt-get install phpmyadmin (Make sure to select Apache during the install screen by pressing the spacebar on it) and navigate to http://your.ip.address/phpmyadmin

(Of course, you want it to be more secure than that. Look into adding self-signed SSL certificates to your server. Or in the meantime, just protect the directory with some .htaccess trick.)

3. If you can get away with Google Apps (Gmail on your domain for free), by all means use it and keep your linode email-free. That's one less thing to worry about. But if you want email on your own linode, find some tutorials about how to install Postfix, Courier/Dovecot, SpamAssassin, etc. Webmail is as simple as downloading your favoite webmail client (Squirrel? Roundcube?) and unzipping/uploading it to a folder of your choice.

Welcome to Linode!

You've definitely made the right choice for your first 'self managed' VPS.

To answer some of your questions:



In regards to the additional domains, you will need to point them to the Linode name servers just as you did with the first one, and create a new zone for each domain.

You can easily configure Apache2 to use virtual hosts for your domains. Take a look at the following link for a guide on how to do this:

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/412



It is actually that simple.
As root, run the following command:

apt-get install phpmyadmin

Navigate to http://www.yourdomain.com/phpmyadmin, and then enter the following credentials:

Username: root
Password: [your MySQL password you set for root]

If you have not set a password for MySQL or have forgotten it, then follow these steps to have it reset:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/recover-mysql-root-password.html



Depending on the specs of your Linode (and what else you intend on running on it), this might not be a feasible option as it will chew up a good chunk of your resources. As you are new to this, you might be interested at looking into having your mail hosted using Google Apps:

http://www.google.com/a/

It is free, stable, has excellent spam filtration, and provides 7GB+ in storage. In addition, it also provides POP3 and IMAP support, and has an easy-to-use web front end - So it sounds exactly like what you're after.

EDIT: hybinet beat me to the response! (I spent too much time tinkering with different formatting )

LunarOrbit, as for phpmyadmin there is a good thread on this forum here:
How to Secure phpMyAdmin? Tunneling?


In the case I only want programs (like php) to be able to send emails but not receiving them (because I don't mind having a me@mydomain.com), do you recommend sendmail or postfix or any others ?

I'd say most here would recommend the use of Postifx over sendmail - Mainly because it's easy to setup (with the use of postconf) and don't need to spend too long to get it working the way you want.

If all you want to do is to be able to send emails from your PHP app,

apt-get install postfix
postconf -e 'inet_interfaces = loopback-only'

will do the job. Just keep pressing Enter when the install script asks you questions. No further configurations to tweak.

Thanks array and hybinet.

I've just installed postfix from sources (I'm on slackware). I configured it to be a "send mail only postfix" as seen in the postfix doc. It works, I can send mails with php. Though, I had to compile php again because I was not able to make it accept the new "sendmail_path" value in php.ini.

Thanks everyone, you've been very helpful.

I've installed phpmyadmin but when I go to http://www.mysite.com/phpmyadmin I get a "404 Not Found" error.

I think I understand the multiple domain setup, but I'll maybe ask more questions when it is actually time for me to set that up.

I was actually looking at Google Apps for my mail, I like the idea because of it's great spam filter and the fact that I'll still get my email even if my server is down. "Don't keep all your eggs in one basket...", right?

Ok, I think I figured it out.

apt-get install phpmyadmin must be just part of the process. I downloaded phpmyadmin from the web and copied it to /var/www/phpmyadmin and now I can access it.

I still need to secure it, but it's a big step in the right direction.

Moved

Well I'm not sure how many here like the idea, if your new to linux and don't like the idea of cli's I would have a look into webmin. It does a great job of allowing alternative access to a great deal of the cli.

There is also a nice install script which will set up the server, mysql/php/apache/phpmyadmin all ready right out of the box. Although there is a limited range of os's it supports.

Totally agree, but there are even better alternatives if you want a cPanel-ish experience.

http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-serve ... onfig-3-p3

Just copy from the browser & paste into the terminal.

My 2 cents: rename the default /phpmyadmin url to something different. It helps a lot against harmful scanning software as they are looking for the default url. That is, phpmyadmin is really an exposed piece of software when it comes to vulnerability.

Or just put a .htaccess and a .htpasswd on it.

Yep this is just fine as well. However I found it a little annoying to auth myself twice to log in: once for the htaccess and once for the db.