The Perfect Server - Debian Wheezy (Apache2, BIND, Dovecot, ISPConfig 3)

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
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Last edited 05/07/2013

This tutorial shows how to prepare a Debian Wheezy server (with Apache2, BIND, Dovecot) for the installation of ISPConfig 3, and how to install ISPConfig 3. ISPConfig 3 is a webhosting control panel that allows you to configure the following services through a web browser: Apache or nginx web server, Postfix mail server, Courier or Dovecot IMAP/POP3 server, MySQL, BIND or MyDNS nameserver, PureFTPd, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, and many more. This setup covers Apache (instead of nginx), BIND (instead of MyDNS), and Dovecot (instead of Courier).

Please note that this setup does not work for ISPConfig 2! It is valid for ISPConfig 3 only!

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Requirements

To install such a system you will need the following:

• the Debian Wheezy network installation CD, available here: http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.0.0/i386/iso-cd/debian-7.0.0-i386-netinst.iso (i386) or http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.0.0/amd64/iso-cd/debian-7.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso (x86_64)
• a fast Internet connection.

2 Preliminary Note

In this tutorial I use the hostname server1.example.com with the IP address 192.168.0.100 and the gateway 192.168.0.1. These settings might differ for you, so you have to replace them where appropriate.

3 The Base System

Insert your Debian Wheezy network installation CD into your system and boot from it. Select Install (this will start the text installer - if you prefer a graphical installer, select Graphical install):

Choose your language:

Then select your location:

If you've selected an uncommon combination of language and location (like English as the language and Germany as the location, as in my case), the installer might tell you that there is no locale defined for this combination; in this case you have to select the locale manually. I select en_US.UTF-8 here:

Choose a keyboard layout:

The installer checks the installation CD, your hardware, and configures the network with DHCP if there is a DHCP server in the network:

Enter the hostname. In this example, my system is called server1.example.com, so I enter server1:

Enter your domain name. In this example, this is example.com:

Afterwards, give the root user a password:

Confirm that password to avoid typos:

Create a normal user account, for example the user Administrator with the user name administrator (don't use the user name admin as it is a reserved name on Debian Wheezy):