Several pre-sales technical questions

[Techie-Micheal]

I've been searching around for several hours for this, so please excuse me if my questions have been answered already.

- Getting read to acquire a 64bit AMD Debian server, any chance DA will work? Can we run DA in a 32bit virtual environment? What exactly is keeping DA back from working in a 64bit environment?

- Can DA do plus filtering? ([email protected])

- How hard/easy is it to add custom Apache and PHP modules/extensions? I've done a little reading on the customapache project, so I'm guessing we can just edit the build files to our liking? How will this affect updating for both DA and the software in question? If we can just build the software ourselves, why the customapache project? (Of course, have to put the files where DA expects them to be)

- Can we grab "normal" stuff from apt (mysql, gd2, imagemagick, bind, etc.) without having to compile everything? I've searched on that and have only found confusing information.

- How exactly does DA do virtual hosts? We currently have on our server the following setup:

/home/<user>/domains/<sub>.<domain>.<tld>/*

In other words, we have a domains folder that houses all the user's domains and subdomains as directories, which they themselves serve as a public_html folder.

- Email piping. I've found topics that only say they've tried it with little success. I realize Majordomo uses it, but from what I've found, users are having trouble. For example, [email protected] forwards to |/home/<user>/scripts/blah.php. I don't see a reason why that wouldn't work, but just want to be sure.

- Is it possible for us to replace MajorDomo with Mailman?

I may add other things as the person I'm working with and I think of new things, but I think that basically covers it.

 

[nobaloney]

- Getting read to acquire a 64bit AMD Debian server, any chance DA will work? Can we run DA in a 32bit virtual environment?

DirectAdmin supports only the 64-bit platforms on their page here; at the time of this posting it's only several versions of CentOS.

What exactly is keeping DA back from working in a 64bit environment?

For specific reasons you should contact the DirectAdmin folk directly; see here.

- Can DA do plus filtering? ([email protected])

DirectAdmin uses Exim as its MTA. It's possible to use plus addresses with exim, but it'll require a rewrite of various sections of the exim.conf file, and it won't be supported through the DirectAdmin control panel.

- How hard/easy is it to add custom Apache and PHP modules/extensions? I've done a little reading on the customapache project, so I'm guessing we can just edit the build files to our liking? How will this affect updating for both DA and the software in question? If we can just build the software ourselves, why the customapache project? (Of course, have to put the files where DA expects them to be)

You can add apache modules easily enough, as once they're installed, updating apache won't touch the main httpd.conf file. You can also add PHP modules as you wish; DirectAdmin is a compiled C++ program, and won't care.

The reason for customapache (and the soon to be part of DirectAdmin custombuild) is to make it easy to update apache and other hosting-platform daemons, and to change versions, etc.

- Can we grab "normal" stuff from apt (mysql, gd2, imagemagick, bind, etc.) without having to compile everything? I've searched on that and have only found confusing information.

MySQL and BIND run independently of apache, etc. (what I call the "hosting stack") and can come from anywhere, as long as your updates don't overwrite the configuration files. Other programs, part of the hosting stack, must be compiled into apache, and should be done the DirectAdmin way.

- How exactly does DA do virtual hosts? We currently have on our server the following setup:

/home/<user>/domains/<sub>.<domain>.<tld>/*

In other words, we have a domains folder that houses all the user's domains and subdomains as directories, which they themselves serve as a public_html folder.

DirectAdmin is quite similar except that inside the domain there are public_domain and other directories. There are also other directories under the user level, and also under the user level there's a public_html link to whichever domain was created last.

- Email piping. I've found topics that only say they've tried it with little success. I realize Majordomo uses it, but from what I've found, users are having trouble. For example, [email protected] forwards to |/home/<user>/scripts/blah.php. I don't see a reason why that wouldn't work, but just want to be sure.

We haven't had trouble with piping.
[/quote]- Is it possible for us to replace MajorDomo with Mailman?[/quote]
DirectAdmin won't care. But that should be taken both ways. Directadmin won't know Mailman exists. It won't create lists or manage the lists; you'll need your own system for that.

I may add other things as the person I'm working with and I think of new things, but I think that basically covers it.

Ask away.

Jeff