Basic Website PartB | Admin42Day

The Basic Website

Basic Site-Part B

revised: 25-Apr-2023

Perquisites:

Basic Server (Ubuntu 22.04 64bit) with Webmin linked to a domain-name: such as example.com.
Installed Firewall.
Installed FTP server
Installed iRedmail (includes Nginx Webserver)
Basic Site-Part A, completed.

Assumption: that one wishes to have in future a mail contact form integrated the basic web page, then one will setup with Nginx to link up with iRedmail. As iRedmail chooses the Nginx Webserver, the first section (Part B.1) explains the configuration of a website on Nginx. While the second (Part B.2) explains the same but choosing instead the Apache Webserver.

Warning: Don't install Nginx Webserver first before iRedMail, it will cause problems with the iRedMail installation that follows here.

Part B.1: Hosting the Website on a server with iRedmail and the Nginx Webserver

For Hosting the Website on a server with the Apache Webserver -- see page B2

Reference: Multiple-Sites on Nginx

Step01: (Assuming Nginx is installed) Create a website directory, in the name of the domain eg example.com in a user's home directory, eg /home/sammy. Logon via PuTTY, with the regular user. The user first needs to be part of the group of the webserver, that is: www-data

sammy@imega:$ mkdir example.com //replace example.com with one's own domain-name throughout all these steps.
sammy@imega:$ nano example.com/index.html
sammy@imega:$ chmod +r example.com/index.html //make the file 'readable'
sammy@imega:/home$ sudo chown -R sammy:www-data example.com //make the directory part of the webserver group

In the index.html file, 'Copy & Paste' the following:<html> It works!</html> Then Ctl+s to save and Ctl+x to exit.

Step02: Create a link to the webpage directory by continuing with this command:

sammy@imega:$ sudo ln -s /home/sammy/example.com /var/www/example.com

Step03: Enter Webmin [https://example.com]:10000] and go to [Servers]-> [Nginx Webserver]* and make changes to the following three configuration files; nginx.conf, 00-default-ssl.conf and 00-default.conf :

Note: If Nginx Webserver module doesn't appear, install the module. To install the Webmin Nginx Webserver module, go to [Webmin]->[Webmin Configuration]-.[Webmin Modules] and activate the button 'From ftp or http URL' and enter this link: https://www.justindhoffman.com/sites/justindhoffman.com/files/nginx-0.11.wbm_.gz or get it here.
Click on the button 'Install Module'
Return to the main menu and click on 'Refresh Modules' - all the server related modules should now appear and are active. Note: One may need to install HTML::Entities module (do so via Webmin ->Others ->Perl Modules). In doing so, fetch all the dependancies as well.

Change the configuration files with those lines in BOLD.

a. Nginx.conf (Click on 'Global Configuration' to access it and in the http section, make two changes.)
...
http {
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
include /etc/nginx/conf-enabled/*.conf;
include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

Step04: Create, via [Create Virtual Host], for each domain which is to host a typical website [port:80] by doing the following:

click on 'Create Virtual Host'
In the top dialogue box labelled 'Server Name': Enter 'example.com'
Paste the template contents (see below) into 'Config' section.
Change: server_name_; to one's domain: eg. server_name myexample.com www.myexample.com;
Change the root as per one's domain: eg. root /var/www/example.com;

Use the following template:

d. example.com

server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
root /var/www/example.com;
index index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}

Note: To view changes with webpages, it is often necessary to clear the browser cache. In Firefox, one goes to the top right-hand corner where the icon of three horizontal bars with give a menu: choose 'Settings'->'Privacy-Security'->'Cookies-Site-Data'->'Clear Data' and clear the 'Cached Web Content'

Step05: Confirmation of Success:
Entering one's domain (eg. example.com) in the browser, the response should be "It works!". Now to manage the website go to BasicSite-Extras.

For PHP-website, see the first steps with Wordpress setup

Part B.2: Hosting the Website on a server with the Apache Webserver

Reference:

Step#1
Enter Webmin [https://example.com]:10000], go to [Unused Modules]-> [Apache2 Webserver] and click on 'install'

Note: If it is a 'php'-based website, Go (via Webmin)to [Others]-> [CommandShell] and enter: apt install -y php libapache2-mod-php

Step#2: Enter Webmin [https://example.com]:10000], click on[Refresh Modules] and go to [Servers]-> [Apache Webserver]-> [Create virtual host] and enter the following:

*Note: If Apache2 Webserver module doesn't appear, click on "Refresh Modules".

Apache Config01

Apache Config02

For the port: Enter '80' and activate the left-side button.
For Document Root: Enter '/var/www/example.com'
For Address: Enter 'Example.com' and activate the left-side button.
Click on 'Create Now' and return to the same virtual server (eg. Address: Example.com)
From the above list of icons, click on 'Networking and Addresses'
For Server admin email address: Enter a preferred email eg. webmaster@example.com
For Alternate virtual server names: Enter 'www.example.com'then save. Go to Step04.

For an Apache PHP-based Website: ensure that the module 'PHP7.3' is active.

To test, replace example.com/index.html with index.php having this content:

Step04: Confirmation of Success:
Entering one's domain (eg. example.com) in the browser, the response should be "Hello World". Now to manage the website go to BasicSite-Extras.

BasicSite-Home	BasicSite-Part B
BasicSite-Backup	BasicSite-Extras