There are many ways to do virtual websites under linux. The technique I am going to use is multiple domains on one ip address. I also didn’t want to use system users for the virtual hosts. So I decided to use a mysql database to store the virtual user information.
Setting Up The Base Server
For a dedicated server start with the base server setup: HOWTO CentOS 6.x Base Server.
NOTE: If you don’t follow the base server setup then you may run into problems with this howto.
Install Softwre
We need to install is proftpd with mysql support. Type:
> yum -y install proftpd-mysql
Now lets download and install proftpd admin.
> wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/proftpd-adm/proftpd_admin_v1.2.tar.gz
> tar -xzvf proftpd_admin_v1.2.tar.gz
> mv proftpd_admin_v1.2 /usr/share/proftpd_admin
Configuring Apache
First we need to create a user called virtwww. We will also make the directory world writable.
> useradd -r -d /home/virtwww -s /sbin/nologin -c “Virtual websites” virtwww
> mkdir /home/virtwww
> chmod a+rwx /home/virtwww
Create the virtual host config file. We will use the name the brouser passes to us to determin the website to load. We also turns on compression. Create /etc/httpd/conf.d/virutal.conf with the following:
# compress all text & html: #AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/atom_xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-php AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-fastphp AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-eruby AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html UseCanonicalName Off RewriteEngine On RewriteOptions Inherit VirtualDocumentRoot /home/virtwww/%0
Restart apache
> service httpd restart
Make a directory with your server’s ipaddress as its name. Example
> mkdir /home/virtwww/192.168.1.100
Create a test index.html page in your new directory.
Configuring ProFTPD
Create the following proftpd config file
> mv /etc/proftpd.conf /etc/proftpd.conf.old
> nano -w /etc/proftpd.conf
# This is the ProFTPD configuration file
ServerName "ProFTPD server"
ServerIdent on "FTP Server ready."
ServerAdmin root@localhost
ServerType standalone
DefaultServer on
AccessGrantMsg "User %u logged in."
DeferWelcome off
DefaultRoot ~ !adm
IdentLookups off
UseReverseDNS off
Port 21
Umask 022
ListOptions "-a"
MaxLoginAttempts 3
MaxInstances 15
MaxClientsPerHost 3 "Only %m connections per host allowed"
MaxClients 10 "Only %m total simultanious logins allowed"
MaxHostsPerUser 1
AllowRetrieveRestart on
AllowStoreRestart on
User nobody
Group nobody
UseSendfile no
ScoreboardFile /var/run/proftpd.score
# Normally, we want users to do a few things.
<Global>
AllowOverwrite yes
<Limit ALL SITE_CHMOD>
AllowAll
</Limit>
</Global>
# Define the log formats
LogFormat default "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %s %b"
LogFormat auth "%v [%P] %h %t \"%r\" %s"
# TLS
# Explained at http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/modules/mod_tls.html
#TLSEngine on
#TLSRequired on
#TLSRSACertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem
#TLSRSACertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/proftpd.pem
#TLSCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!DES
#TLSOptions NoCertRequest
#TLSVerifyClient off
##TLSRenegotiate ctrl 3600 data 512000 required off timeout 300
#TLSLog /var/log/proftpd/tls.log
# SQL authentication Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) loading
# See README.DSO and howto/DSO.html for more details.
<IfModule mod_dso.c>
LoadModule mod_sql.c
LoadModule mod_sql_mysql.c
</IfModule>
# Define log-files to use
TransferLog /var/log/proftpd/xferlog
ExtendedLog /var/log/proftpd/access_log WRITE,READ write
ExtendedLog /var/log/proftpd/auth_log AUTH auth
ExtendedLog /var/log/proftpd/paranoid_log ALL default
SQLLogFile /var/log/proftpd/mysql
# Set up authentication via SQL
# ===========
AuthOrder mod_sql.c
SQLAuthTypes Backend
SQLConnectInfo proftpd_admin@localhost proftpd password
SQLUserInfo usertable userid passwd uid gid homedir shell
SQLGroupInfo grouptable groupname gid members
SQLUserWhereClause "disabled=0 and (NOW()<=expiration or expiration=-1 or expiration=0)"
CreateHome on
# Log the user logging in
SQLLog PASS counter
SQLNamedQuery counter UPDATE "lastlogin=now(), count=count+1 WHERE userid='%u'" usertable
# logout log
SQLLog EXIT time_logout
SQLNamedQuery time_logout UPDATE "lastlogout=now() WHERE userid='%u'" usertable
# display last login time when PASS command is given
SQLNamedQuery login_time SELECT "lastlogin from usertable where userid='%u'"
SQLShowInfo PASS "230" "Last login was: %{login_time}"
# xfer Log in mysql
SQLLog RETR,STOR transfer1
SQLNamedQuery transfer1 INSERT "'%u', '%f', '%b', '%h', '%a', '%m', '%T', now(), 'c', NULL" xfer_stat
SQLLOG ERR_RETR,ERR_STOR transfer2
SQLNamedQuery transfer2 INSERT "'%u', '%f', '%b', '%h', '%a', '%m', '%T', now(), 'i', NULL" xfer_stat
AllowStoreRestart on
AllowRetrieveRestart on
RequireValidShell off
Configuring ProFTPD Administrator
First lets create the apache config file and restart apache. The file has been set to only allow access from the local host. Change the access to meet your needs.
/etc/httpd/conf.d/proftpd_admin.conf
alias /ftpadmin /usr/share/proftpd_admin
<Location /ftpadmin>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1
Allow from ::1
Allow from 192.168.
Allow from 10.
# Allow from .example.com
</Location>
> service httpd restart
Edit the file /usr/share/proftpd_admin/misc/database_structure_mysql/db_structure.sql
Skip to the last three lines. Enter the desired password in these three lines.
Lets create the database and tables. Type the following.
> mysql -u root -p < /usr/share/proftpd_admin/misc/database_structure_mysql/db_structure.sql
Now type the following to do a little housekeeping for php5.
> chmod o+w /usr/share/proftpd_admin/configuration.xml
Now start proftpd. Be sure to also have it start at boot time.
> service proftpd start
Now go to the web interface configuration screen http://yourserver.tld/ftpadmin/configure.php
You will need to configure database access and some other settings.
Conclusion
That’s the complete setup. Proftpd Admin dose almost everything we need. You will need to create links for multiple host names pointing to the same directory. For example if your directory is ‘/home/virtwww/yourdomain.com’ and you want www.yourdomain.com to work then you’ll have to create a link called ‘/home/virtwww/www.yourdomain.com/’ which points to ‘/home/virtwww/yourdomain.com’.