December 29th, 2009
harry
Every operating system offers you many useful commands for managing your server. One of them is chkconfig which is used to start / stop different daemons like nfs, cups, gpm etc… which are necessary for running certain applications. Usually there are many daemons which we don’t use but still they are executed and eats up necessary dedicated server resources. You can turn them off or can disable them and can save precious server resources for other productive task to get completed. Using chkconfig you can stop few services which you think are not necessary for you hence can free server resources which are required to run them.
As you can stop such daemons you can even start them as and when required hence you never get stuck in the middle.
We can use following chkconfig commands to stop / start services :-
let’s consider nsf daemon
chkconfig –del nsf ( –del removes nsf )
chkconfig –level 3 nsf off
now we have deleted nsf daemon form being executed and hence you have saved unnecessary server resources utilization required for executing such service.
You can use same command for disabling other services which are of no use for you.
December 28th, 2009
harry
cPanel team always tries to release new versions of cPanel control panel which are more stable versions and have better functionality, stability and features, recently they released 11.25.0 version which have many useful features for better dedicated server management.
You have two options for getting your cpanel updated. you can do it using WHM or from command prompt.. make sure you have root access to your server.
You can upgrade cpanel version from WHM. Follow the instruction :-
Login to WHM (Main >> Server Configuration >> Update Preferences)
If you want to do it from command prompt then following command will help you :- /scripts/upcp –force
You may have to face some error or some instability with your applications once you upgrade cpanel because some services may get stop working or may not get restarted.
In this case you can just need to clear your browser cache as you may use your old cached pages for accessing cpanel or or webmail or any application.
There’s also other solution, you can just fire following command /scripts/upcp –force
from your command prompt ( root access ) which should fixed any such error.
December 25th, 2009
harry
Colocating your dedicated server can be a good option for housing your expensive hardware at some reliable datacenter which will reduce overall server hosting cost. Many big organization have considered server colocation as an affordable & reliable option for hosting your server.
It presents an cheaper, attractive alternative to building and maintaining a sizable very expensive data center.
There are many benefits for keeping your hardware & network equipments off-site at some secure & reliable location.
Following are benefits of colocating your hardware at datacenter…
- Most important is the cost factor, it eliminate the up-front costs for setting up and building your own data center.
- You can deploy your required IT infrastructure based on your current network at much lower budget.
- Relocation :- If you are planning to relocate your company physically without affecting your network status then such colocated servers/hardware will help you avoid any sort of network downtime or other interruptions.
Well, though there are few benefits of colocating serves/hardware we should not avoid it’s disadvantages.
dedicated server colocation is not favorable if
- The overall space and load requirements for your company network is high.
- Your server hardware requires intensive management.
- If physical security is a major concern for your company.
Server colocation service providers will charge you depending on total physical space required, amount of bandwidth, amount of UPS protection, quantity and type of power distribution, and the degree of physical security needed, server management etc… hence you think as if server colocation is not a one-size-fits-all solution for data centers. it’s like choosing between buying your own house versus renting an apartment, your decision to maintain your own data center or hire a colocation provider should be weighed based on your current & future network requirements. Usually colocation is preffered for short term benefits for smaller organisation, but the option of colocating/housing servers and network equipment off-site should be evaluated after doing your research & homework.
When it comes for dedicated server hosting then keeping your server secure is most critical task and you should be give it priority. Usually large websites which are important for your business go for dedicated servers as you have total freedom, full server resources for use. Though we always take care of using very unique passwords for our server login still there are chances that your server may get hacked and all our website data may get vanished hence it’s better to have firewall with our servers.
Firewall :- You have two options like Software firewall and Hardware firewall. Technically specking it allows or blocks traffic into and out of a private network or the user’s computer. It closely work like a router program, which examines each network packet to determine whether to forward it toward its destination.
Firewalls are also used to keep internal network segments secure from outside internet world.
WEll, firewall can also be refered as application or device which allow or deny traffic or any incoming or outgoing connections based upon set of rules. Firewall prevents any network threats. It’s architecture is to block any vulnerable threats to the your Dedicated server. On a Linux server, we can also configure IPtables or CSF firewall through cPanel or can have hardware firewall like Cisco ASA, Coyote Linux etc where as on Windows dedicated server Windows Operating Systems offer in-built Firewall, famously known as Windows Firewall wich can be confired as per our requirements. However, we can also configure hardware firewall such as Cisco etc.
Usually webhost offers you Firewall as add-on option with your server at extra cost. You need to decided and will have to select required hardware as per your requirement and budget.
Sicne security is a very important for your web business and server you should do your homework and should choose suitable firewall ( Hardware or Software ) for your server.
September 26th, 2009
harry
ImageMagick is one of the widely used image editing software which is freely available. if you want to use it on your cPanel dedicated server then just follow the steps mentioned below for installing ImageMagick on your server.
- Login to your server as root.
- Create a new directory as below :
- mkdir /home/cpimins
- cd /home/cpimins
- wget http://layer1.cpanel.net/magick.tar.gz
- tar zxvf magick.tar.gz
- cd magick
- /scripts/installrpm ImageMagick
- /scripts/installrpm ImageMagick-devel
- sh ./install
That’s it, your UK Dedicated server will have ImageMagick installed and you can use it for all your graphics
September 25th, 2009
harry
cPanel control panel seems to be the most popular and widely used control pane.
If you want to install latest cPanel version on your linux server then you can follow the steps :-
- Login through SSH to your server and download cPanel installer script using following :-
http://httpupdate.cpanel.net/latest
- Give executable permission to downloaded file :
chmod +x latest
- Then simply run the script :
./latest
Usually installation takes approximately 1 hour to complete so back and relax !!!!
September 22nd, 2009
harry
If you are looking for freeing up your cPanel servers logs then just use following commands
Login to your linux server as root
root@harry[#]vi logs
echo > /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log
echo > /usr/local/apache/logs/access_log
echo > /usr/local/apache/logs/access_log
echo > /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log
echo > /usr/local/cpanel/logs/access_log
echo > /usr/local/cpanel/logs/error_log
echo > /var/log/exim_mainlog
echo > /var/log/exim_rejectlog
echo > /var/log/maillog
echo > /var/log/messages
echo > /var/log/messages.1
echo > /var/log/maillog.1
:wq!
root@harary[#]chmod 755 logs
root@harry[#]./logs
that’s all using above commands will empty all logs present on your server.
September 22nd, 2009
harry
You may want to install new cPanel theme for your linux cPanel server, you need to have root login details and you will have to login to your server as root user and will have to follow the steps :-
cd /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot/
mkdir -p cpanelappinstall
cd cpanelappinstall
wget -q http://www.cpanelskindepot.com/skindownload/cpanelappinstall.tar
tar -xf cpanelappinstall.tar
rm -f cpanelappinstall.tar
Then run http://server.hostname.com:2086/cpanelappinstall/install.php
and follow the steps… that’s all you have successfully installed new cPanel theme for your server.
Looking for installing roundcube on Linux cPanel Dedicated servers then you can just follow the steps given below !!!
Firstly we need to remove roundcube files/folders/databases from our server if we have any older version. Follow the instructions given below :-
” Uninstall/remove exiting RoundCube “
cd /usr/local/cpanel/base
rm -rf roundcube*
mysql -e ‘drop database roundcube’;
/scripts/upcp
Now try to download Roundcube version from its website which we can install on our server :-
Download latest version from :- http://roundcube.net/downloads. once downloded you need to unzip it (using WinZip or ZipGenius or tar -xzf roundcubemail-0.1.tar.gz) in the current directory.
Now we will start with installation procedure :-
” Install stall latest roundcube “
cd /usr/local/cpanel/base
wget -O roundcube.tar.gz http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/
roundcubemail/roundcubemail-0.2.1.tar.gz
rm -rf roundcube.tar.gz
mv -f roundcubemail-0.2.1/ roundcube
cd roundcube
chmod -R 777 temp
chmod -R 777 logs
We will have to create databases, database user and install the intial sql file. Use following commands :-
”Database Configuration”
mysql -e “CREATE DATABASE roundcube;”
mysql -e “GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON roundcube.* TO roundcube@localhost
IDENTIFIED BY ‘DATABASEPASSWORD’;”
mysql -e “FLUSH PRIVILEGES;”
mysql -e “use roundcube; source SQL/mysql.initial.sql;”
You will have to replace the roundcube password with ‘DATABASEPASSWORD’ field.
“Configuring RoundCube”
cd config
mv db.inc.php.dist db.inc.php
mv main.inc.php.dist main.inc.php
then open database configuration file using favorite editors like vi or pico, file name db.inc.php
vi db.inc.php
Find following line
$rcmail_config['db_dsnw'] = ‘mysql://roundcube:pass@localhost/roundcubemail’;
Replace it with $rcmail_config['db_dsnw'] =’mysql://roundcube:DATABASEPASSWORD@localhost/roundcube’;
Now open main.inc.php
vi main.inc.php
Find
$rcmail_config['default_host'] = ”; replace with
$rcmail_config['default_host'] = ‘localhost’;
Finally just restart mysql cpanel services on your dedicated server….that’s all 
you have installed Roundcube on your cPanel Dedicated Server !!!!
If you are planning to install Fantastico on your Linux Dedicated Server then you need to follow the steps given below. Well, firstly you need to get its license copy which you can install on your server.
cd /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot/cgi;
wget -N http://files.betaservant.com/files/free/fantastico_whm_admin.tgz;
tar -xzpf fantastico_whm_admin.tgz;
rm -rf fantastico_whm_admin.tgz;
also if you are using FreeBSD then you can follow the following steps for getting Fantastico installed on FreeBSD server : -
cd /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot/cgi;
fetch http://files.betaservant.com/files/free/fantastico_whm_admin.tgz;
tar -xzpf fantastico_whm_admin.tgz;
rm -rf fantastico_whm_admin.tgz;
Thus you have successfully installed Fantastico on your dedicated server which you can use for installing range of applications which are included within it.
