What (not how) to get started with DA

O

OIL710

Verified User
Joined
Mar 24, 2010
Messages
17
Location
Australia
  1. English IS my first language.
  2. I write software for a living.
  3. I have spent 5+ hours reading DA help, this forum and have googled DA extensively.

I have FOUR DA VPSs each with multiple (in-house) web sites that do work using DA.

My beef with DA is not how do you do something, but what to do first.

DA is (to me) a bit like Joomla. To understand DA first you need to understand DA.

I have experimented with DA in my first three stes, and have managed to get them all up and running by going to RESELLER mode, and adding a package, a user, and then logged in as that created User and set up domains. This was a trial and error process all the way.

In my latest endeavor , I decided to loging as ADMIN, go to User Mode, added a domain (the singular one I wanted on this VPS), and all seemed to work OK. But when I plugged that domain name (after updating the NS details at the name registrar), all I could see was the damn page from Apache that said my server was working great but I should contact my Admin and upload some pages. Sh*t, I am the admin person and I had already FTPd the pages up to the site folder.

So, I went back to the tried and trusted method that works. I added 1 user with a name other than ADMIN, and added a package, and then the domain.

Now it all works.

But I am nearly convinced that the it should all have worked the first way I tried.

My conclusion, is that the DA help should have a page describing WHAT to do FIRST UP, not how to do it.

The interface IS clear enough and logical, it is just the getting started steps that FRUSTRATE me. And, from the several posts I see here, frustrate many newbies AND the people trying to help them.

[/rant]
OIL
 
Just regarding the website problem.. if you got that message is like the virtualhost for that domain isnt setup propely
 
virtual host is the configuration of apache and is in /usr/local/directadmin/data/users/USERNAME/httpd.conf

Not regarding vps setup
 
Thanks Andrea.

As I only started this new VPS a few days ago and have nothing of value to lose, I may try wiping everything out and starting over.

So I will follow the path that looks most logical...

Login, go tu USER mode, add my TOP level domain.

then I will check that .conf file you mentioned and see what I can find.

I think something NEEDs to be added to the DA docs about all this.

Oil.
 
this is not da related, or, for better say (sorry my english) is a sysadmin related.. so, you need to have more system administration skills for those kind of stuff.

For sure wipe the vps and start over should be a more efficent solution for a non-expert user.

Regarding directadmin's guides you can find all here:

http://www.site-helper.com/

Regards
 
SeLLeRoNe said:
Regarding directadmin's guides you can find all here:

http://www.site-helper.com/

Regards
Click to expand...

I have spent a lot of time around that site, but still I come back to is that some details on what to do first is needed there. For me, DA is well designed but newbie admins need a short page telling them What to do.

And your english is way better than my italian :) , so no apologies needed there. molte grazie.

Wry
 
well the main steps on a new directadmin installation should be:

define nameservers
add ips (if you got more then one or didnt added yet)
add additional ip to admin reseller and on reseller level put those ip as shared
define packages for user
add users/domains

this should be enough as basic step, maybe someone will add some usefull step that at the moment dont come up on my mind :)

Regards and prego ;)
 
Thanks, I think I ended up doing most of those steps, but will go back and check. I will also print that out for next time :-)

Wry.
 
@SeLLeRoNe

Looking at that list, I think I went first to Add a domain as the Admin User, but had not added the nameservers. I may be wrong, but I think that is what I did first.

Then I got several messages that "Named" had not started. That lead me to seeing the errors and I added an A record for the main server name. Then i was able to start named.

I got it all working, but it was mainly action after action until all worked.

Wry.
 
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