VHCS on Arch

bostoniman · 2006-03-13 03:22:35

I'm looking to put a hosting control panel on my server (obviously an Arch machine), and I have decided on using VHCS (www.vhcs.net). However, everything I'm seeing is that it's designed for use on a Debian or Red Hat-like system. Has anybody installed VHCS on Arch, and if so, how did you go about doing it?

Romashka · 2006-03-13 14:02:56

I'm going to setup VHCS on one of my VMware machines this week. I think there should be no big problems, as VHCS seems to have good architecture and uses C, Perl and PHP for different parts. Maybe some patches would be required. I'm going to release PKGBUILD on AUR when I'll do it.

We plan to use VHCS for our hosting business. Our admin is Debian fan but
I'll keep trying to change his mind. IMO Arch is very good for server, as it is not less secure than Debian, but much easier to maintain.

There is also another nice hosting solution - ISPConfig, but I want to try VHCS first.
Another way is home-grown hosting control system but it is not fast and easy to develop such system.

cactus · 2006-03-13 21:39:43

easier to maintain than debian?
I would disagree.
Easier to customize, yes.
Easier to get new versions of software for (more recent packages), yes.

But easier to maintain? I don't think so.
Debian is dead simple to maintain. You set it up once..then just update. Their slow release cycle, coupled with backporting of security patches into their stable versions, makes for something pretty rock solid (not such a moving target).

Arch is many things, but I wouldn't say it is easier to maintain than debian.

bostoniman · 2006-03-14 00:49:45

I don't know much about Debian, but I do know that a) my Arch servers run wonderfully, and b) it is easy to maintain, regardless of whether or not it is easier than Debian.

I tried ISPConfig, but I decided that, on the end-user side of it, it wasn't as simple and intuitive as VHCS appears to be.

Romashka · 2006-03-14 09:44:14

I said IMO.
In my opinion Arch is much easier to maintain than Debian.
I was running Debian on one of my servers. It was much harder for me to configure it. And after one of upgrades it became unbootable!
So I don't missed the chance to remove Debian and installed Arch instead.

bostoniman · 2006-03-21 22:32:54

I have managed to get as far as the installation of VHCS, and I'm at the part where it's time to start the daemon. I try to run '/etc/init.d/vhcs2_daemon start' and get the following error:

# /etc/init.d/vhcs2_daemon start
Starting vhcs2_daemon: /etc/init.d/vhcs2_daemon: line 30: start-stop-daemon: command not found

Here's the contents of that file:

#! /bin/sh
#
# skeleton      example file to build /etc/init.d/ scripts.
#               This file should be used to construct scripts for /etc/init.d.
#
#               Written by Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels@cistron.nl>.
#               Modified for Debian GNU/Linux
#               by Ian Murdock <imurdock@gnu.ai.mit.edu>.
#               Modified for Debian
#               by Erik Lehmann <erik.lehmann@vhcs.net>
#
# Version:      @(#)skeleton  1.8  03-Mar-1998  miquels@cistron.nl
#
# This file was automatically customized by dh-make on Mon, 22 Apr 2002 16:15:28 +0300

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/var/www/vhcs2/daemon/vhcs2_daemon
PID=/var/run/vhcs2-daemon.pid
NAME=vhcs2_daemon
DESC=vhcs2_daemon


test -f $DAEMON || exit 0

set -e

case "$1" in
  start)
        echo -n "Starting $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --start --verbose --exec $DAEMON -- -p $PID
         /etc/init.d/vhcs2_network
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  stop)
        echo -n "Stopping $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --stop --verbose --pidfile $PID --exec $DAEMON
        rm $PID
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  restart|force-reload)
        echo "Restarting $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --stop --verbose --pidfile $PID --exec $DAEMON
        rm $PID
        start-stop-daemon --start --verbose --exec $DAEMON -- -p $PID
        /etc/init.d/vhcs2_network
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  *)
        N=/etc/init.d/$NAME
        echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

exit 0

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-22 06:23:12

I'm at 90% of having VHCS done for Arch, I need heavy testing before i publish any PKGBUILD, if someone is willing to test with me please PM me

P.S: don't work on it guys, I've done everything from Configurations, rc.d script, vhcs2.conf (for arch) so if u want it fast, Help me with testing it

bostoniman · 2006-03-22 11:49:29

I'd be more than willing to help you test it. Is it in the testing repo yet?

Romashka · 2006-03-22 13:52:56

Thanks, _Gandalf_!

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-22 18:45:15

There's one problem that i couldn't fix yet, i'm not sure what's causing it, but I think it needs a patch, i'll be working on it the PKGBUILD is too large to post here, damn man u won't beleive how much hacking it needs, also i went to manual installation option coz with the Very Very Very low quality Makefiles and the hardcoding in them it wasn't possible to patch them all...

bostoniman · 2006-03-22 19:24:33

OK, well, as I said, I am more than willing to test it. Keep me posted.

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-23 02:17:53

Ok I have released the First Alpha pkg, it installs fine, everything went smooth, but i couldn't test it because i screwed my OS due to the hight number of tries, i can't reinstall now as am extremely tired... I need tester but WARNING, Do not install it on your workstation, instead use a test OS, there's a high possibility that it will break something specially for courier-imap and apache.... but i kindly need testers :oops:

To install it add my repo to your /etc/pacman.conf

[wael]
Server = http://w.nasreddine.free.fr/i686

now run

pacman -Sy vhcs

Now read carefully /usr/share/vhcs/README file

P.S: i will not post the PKGBUILD and the files now, they are huge and might get changed every minute, so i'll keep it untill at least i'm sure we are seeing VHCS page...

What i've done:
- Created rc.d script, works Great, daemon start, output a PID, stop, start and restart works
- Patched /etc/vhcs2.conf to work with VHCS2 paths and commands (Some still have to be verified such as pear dir
- logrotate file patched to work with Arch, Not tested but should work
- vhcs2_common_code.pl patched with http://vhcs.net/new/modules/mantis/bug_ … id=0000331 patch to correct the error related to perl-crypt-cbc
- vhcs2-setup.pl patched to work with Arch, changed crontab behaviour... Still need to be verified...
- main.cf, master.cf, proftpd.conf and authdaemonrc extracted with -vhcs prefix to prevent any conflict, user must manually overwrite the conf files with the VHCS version, I didn't do it in the install file because that violate Arch Packaging rules by overwriting user settings...
- rpl.pl patched to use /tmp/keys.tct instead of ./keys.txt and /usr/bin/gen-keys instead of ./gen-keys, both files are copied to /usr/bin and called after installation in order to create a unique hash key for every user..

bostoniman · 2006-03-23 02:42:46

_Gandalf_, I tried to pacman it on my server after adding your repo, and here's what it said:

error: cannot resolve dependencies for "perl-mime-tools":
       "perl-io-stringy" is not in the package set

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-23 11:10:06

perl-io-stringy is in community, sorry forget to mention that
:arrow: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?d … =1&ID=1870

bostoniman · 2006-03-23 11:42:05

OK, I've pacman'd it successfully. I was going through the steps outlined in the README, and when I come to this part:

Next stop would be vhcs custom configuration file
1) Postfix:
        cp /etc/postfix/main.cf-vhcs /etc/postfix/main.cf
        cp /etc/postfix/master.cf-vhcs /etc/postfix/master.cf
        cp /etc/authlib/authdaemonrc-vhcs /etc/authlib/authdaemonrc

I get the following result for authdaemonrc-vhcs:

# cp /etc/authlib/authdaemonrc-vhcs /etc/authlib/authdaemonrc
cp: cannot stat `/etc/authlib/authdaemonrc-vhcs': No such file or directory

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-23 11:46:29

Ok for sure yesterday i was seeing ghosts called VHCS lol, I have disbled this file how could i wrote a cp line for it
Sorry my fault, just ignore this line...

bostoniman · 2006-03-23 19:26:05

Ok, so ignore the error, or pacman VHCS again?

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-23 19:29:19

ignore the error, just continue what u were doing

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-24 13:43:49

So guys, I haven't heard from you yet ??

bostoniman · 2006-03-24 14:52:24

Ok, well, I've gotten along to the part where I'm trying to start the daemon using '/etc/rc.d/vhcs2 start' and I'm getting the following error:

# /etc/rc.d/vhcs2 start
Starting vhcs2:/etc/rc.d/vhcs2: line 19: daemon: command not found

_Gandalf_ · 2006-03-24 17:29:52

There's no vhcs2 in rc.d, there's vhcs2-daemon :shock: have i written vhcs2 in the readme ??

[root@nasreddine wael]# ls /etc/rc.d/ | grep vhcs2
vhcs2-daemon

bostoniman · 2006-03-25 00:36:44

No, I discovered that it was a remnant from when I tried to build my own.

bostoniman · 2006-03-26 22:41:16

Ok, a couple quick questions:

1) First off, I got the daemon running successfully, as far as I can tell. However, when I try to go to http://127.0.0.1/vhcs2 I get a blank page. No load error, no PHP code, no anything. Just a blank page. The same thing happens when I go simply to http://127.0.0.1 as well. I tried accessing it from a remote machine as well, but with the same result. Did you encounter this issue at all?

2) Where in the DAEMONS list in /etc/rc.conf should I place vhcs2-daemon? I'm not sure what it should come before and/or after, or if that matters.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-03-13 03:22:35

VHCS on Arch

#2 2006-03-13 14:02:56

Re: VHCS on Arch

#3 2006-03-13 21:39:43

Re: VHCS on Arch

#4 2006-03-14 00:49:45

Re: VHCS on Arch

#5 2006-03-14 09:44:14

Re: VHCS on Arch

#6 2006-03-21 22:32:54

Re: VHCS on Arch

#7 2006-03-22 06:23:12

Re: VHCS on Arch

#8 2006-03-22 11:49:29

Re: VHCS on Arch

#9 2006-03-22 13:52:56

Re: VHCS on Arch

#10 2006-03-22 18:45:15

Re: VHCS on Arch

#11 2006-03-22 19:24:33

Re: VHCS on Arch

#12 2006-03-23 02:17:53

Re: VHCS on Arch

#13 2006-03-23 02:42:46

Re: VHCS on Arch

#14 2006-03-23 11:10:06

Re: VHCS on Arch

#15 2006-03-23 11:42:05

Re: VHCS on Arch

#16 2006-03-23 11:46:29

Re: VHCS on Arch

#17 2006-03-23 19:26:05

Re: VHCS on Arch

#18 2006-03-23 19:29:19

Re: VHCS on Arch

#19 2006-03-24 13:43:49

Re: VHCS on Arch

#20 2006-03-24 14:52:24

Re: VHCS on Arch

#21 2006-03-24 17:29:52

Re: VHCS on Arch

#22 2006-03-25 00:36:44

Re: VHCS on Arch

#23 2006-03-26 22:41:16

Re: VHCS on Arch

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