A few questions from a newcomer...

[jpetrov]

Hi guys... It's been nice, joining PowerVPS, and learning sooo much in just a weekend. I was a reseller for 2 years but still this is a different experience. I guess I will never go back to a reseller account. Since some of you are more experienced I would like to ask few questions:

- php.ini, my.conf and similar - what is really reccomended for cpanel 256mb vps? I have about 10 static and 5 dynamic sites with a little bw consumption. but i guess i will add some more sites. one of the things i did (with support) was eaccelerator - but since the vps is not loaded I can't tell the difference. I was thinking that maybe some of you with 256meg machines would share some tips on php and mysql optimisation

- integrated spam and virus control. I have cpanel spamassasin as default install, as well as cpanelpro clamav / calamavconnector. Both show up in cpanel. but i am a bit confused - some of you talk about configserver mailscanner, and rvskin has a different - amuzingly difficult instructions on some similar setup. Since I focus on business costumers it would be very important for me to have good antispam and antivirus solution for their emails. Overall I have about 50 email accounts and expect to double the number in the following 3 months. What are your experiences on memory challenged VPS as mine and could you please explain me the differences between spamassasin+clamav from cpanel, and the configserver / rvskin-instructed solutions. I would be very happy with a little hand-holding.

- all in all - for the first week, powervps gets a straigt A from me. Especially for the support.

J.

[elix]

Yeah, PowerVPS support is very nice :)

There isn't much you can do to the php.ini file other than a tweak for security:
disable_functions = "system,exec"

That'll fight some exploits and script kiddie scripts that try to gain root access..

for my.cnf, I use:

[mysqld]
max_connections = 800
key_buffer = 32M
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 64M
join_buffer_size = 1M
read_buffer_size = 1M
sort_buffer_size = 2M
table_cache = 1024
thread_cache_size = 64
wait_timeout = 1800
connect_timeout = 10
max_allowed_packet = 16M
max_connect_errors = 10
query_cache_limit = 1M
query_cache_size = 16M
query_cache_type = 1
skip-innodb

[mysqld_safe]
open_files_limit = 8192

[mysqldump]
quick
max_allowed_packet = 16M

[myisamchk]
key_buffer = 64M
sort_buffer = 64M
read_buffer = 16M
write_buffer = 16M

It just well..works :-).


For httpd.conf:

You may want to set the KeepAliveTimeout to 10 and Serversignature off for security reasons :-).

Good luck.

[PvUtrix]

have a look at the stickies on http://forums.cpanel.net , they have a few nice guides there...

[jpetrov]

And what about the second question... What do you have installed for antispam/antivirus on your VPS-es...

[Hvu]

antispam using SpamAssassin, I believe you can turn on this in cpanel.
http://spamassassin.apache.org

antivirus using ClamAV
http://www.clamav.net

These are for email. For anti-root kits and trojans I use rkhunter
http://www.rootkit.nl/projects/rootkit_hunter.html

[jpetrov]

I was thinking about what's the idea behind mailscanner and eximscan? and what differs them from vanilla clamav and spamassasin in cpanel.

[elix]

I was thinking about what's the idea behind mailscanner and eximscan? and what differs them from vanilla clamav and spamassasin in cpanel.
spamd doesn't check for viruses where as clamd does. I honestly don't think you need clamd.

[Tony]

http://www.rvskin.com/index.php?page=public/antispam is about the best multi-layered cpanel specific spam/virus solution out there.

[Fred]

tony, but this is a really hard thing to do in cpanel... I've configured my clamav and spamassassin without control panel with postfix on a freebsd vps and it was damn easy... but that cpanel config stuff is hardcore like Converge(!) or throwdown(!). :):)..

[jpetrov]

well you can always backup and give it a try in the low traffic hours... but damn it looks scary for me :)

[Tony]

tony, but this is a really hard thing to do in cpanel... I've configured my clamav and spamassassin without control panel with postfix on a freebsd vps and it was damn easy... but that cpanel config stuff is hardcore like Converge(!) or throwdown(!). :):)..


It's not as hard as you think it is. If you just follow the instructions on that page, it becomes a straightforward exercise. I should probably clarify; if you want this spam/av solution, you'll need to install it yourself - it can take over an hour to complete, and support cannot do this for you.

[jpetrov]

no - i understand that i can not expect this from the support. at least not for free. i was asking what is the best route to go.

[Hvu]

Cpanel is hardcore stuff, I have it on my dedicated servers as they sell more than Directadmin. DA is cake to configure and etc. Cpanel has more scripts than hotscripts.com. I'm scared to admin my cpanel server so I have an admin that takes care of it for me. (: I just play on my directadmin dedicated and my VPS. I dont know i'm just more comfortable with DA. Anyways you can have PVPS install it ^^

[jpetrov]

i am in the middle and surprisingly it is going well...

[Tony]

i am in the middle and surprisingly it is going well...


Told ya didn't I. ;-)

[jpetrov]

In fact it's quite long and boring... almost everything is predictable. Although I am almost 90 minutes and still not finished yet.

One remark.. in DCC install - search for wget in the config file and replace it with dltool. That would be the only PowerVPS specifics for now (and as I said it's almost over, and the queues for now are working quite all right.

[canuck]

I am anxious to see how it went jpetrov. :)

[jpetrov]

Another tip, restart exim manually after every step. after that use some of the servers email accounts to write a small mail to e.g. your gmail account. then reply back... and see if all is ok. look at the queues... I had some problems with textwrapping in one large config file and i solved it only thanks to the queue errors page.

[jpetrov]

Whew! All done...

Without any modification it eats about 12Mb of the RAM. It's quite powerful from what I can tell. I recommend it. If you get stuck I will try to help but TBH I did not have ANY problems so my experience is quite limited ;)

Total install time = 2hrs (at least for me).

Jovan

[canuck]

Thanks for the update Jova.

Regarding your comment on DCC install - search for wget in the config file and replace it with dltool. That's odd why wget would not work ?

Now I have to find the time and courage to do this....

[jpetrov]

TBH I was not sure - if your box is hardened some of the users can't access wget. I was not sure which user executes the script - just to play on the safe side - I replaced it with dltool... But I guess it would work just as same - since dltool = wget.

About the courage - I initiated a full backup before engaging into MySQL 4.0 -> 4.1 upgrade, as well as installing this "thing"... If something goes wrong - just restore.

[canuck]

I think I'm going to start looking for an ADMIN for my server that can do these installs and keep security up to date on a work/cost basis.

Just not quite conformtable with hiring someone outside PVPS. I need someone that is reliable and trustworthy. :)

At this stage of the game for me to do this mod would be possible but I would rather leave it to someone that can solve any associated problems resulting from it.

So I guess I will start looking ....