Drew Burden

My web site was the latest in a string to find its way to vafo2240.indgeek.net, a 2U rackmount server sitting on a table on the first floor of the Loch Raven Building. Since I’m too poor (and/or lazy) to have a Web-based control panel on this server, all the VirtualHost nodes and zone files are edited by hand by the users of the server. This has some risks associated with it, like an instance that happened this weekend when Nick misspelled “DocumentRoot” and brought down the entire Apache server. Why has this not stopped me from forcing my users to hand-edit their configuration files? It’s a good learning experience–for me and the users.

One thing I still can’t figure out is how to get Exim and Dovecot to differentiate between domains when accepting email. For example, of one were to send a message to drew@safetyguy.us, it would go to me. Although that’s cool and I get a free ride on other people’s domains, that’s not really the desired behavior. One of these days when I have some free time, I’ll dig through the configuration files on the server we have at Alphatek with DirectAdmin installed, which seems to do virtual email hosting quite flawlessly. I also still have yet to get SpamAssassin working with Exim, at least in the same way it works under DirectAdmin.

All this manual stuff is just the precursor to me studying for my RHCE certification. If I know my way around a Linux system, I can get the little piece of paper that says I know my way around, and then Eric wouldn’t seem so jumpy when I step in the server room or mention Linux. I personally think something like this is exciting and I don’t see myself giving in to any sort of control panel on any of my servers anytime soon. I like DirectAdmin and all because it’s really easy, but that’s in a case where we’re being paid to host web sites and quality is key. Since the only people on my server are me and my buddies, I’m sure we can deal with some experimentation. Right?

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Update 1: While writing this entry, I deleted a user (and its home directory) that had been moved to another server. Since I have httpd set to reload every minute, and a VirtualHost node pointed to that user’s home directory, Apache died. Oops. I’m learning, still.