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https://github.com/markc/hcp_bs5

A super lightweight Hosting Control Panel for Ubuntu and Debian Mail, Web and DNS servers
https://github.com/markc/hcp_bs5

bash-scripting control-panel debian dns-server dovecot hcp mailserver nginx-php-fpm nginx-server php8-features postfix powerdns ubuntu ubuntu-server web

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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A super lightweight Hosting Control Panel for Ubuntu and Debian Mail, Web and DNS servers

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README 

        
# NetServa HCP (WIP, being rewritten for PHP 8.3)

Copyright (C) 2015-2024 Netserva HCP (AGPL-3.0)



NetServa HCP is a lightweight Web, Mail, and DNS server with a PHP-based Hosting Control Panel for managing multiple virtually hosted domains. It's designed to run on the latest Debian or Ubuntu systems and supports both SQLite and MySQL as backend databases.



## Key Features



- Minimal resource requirements: runs in as little as 256 MB RAM

- Ideal for LXD containers, Proxmox virtual machines, and small VPS instances

- Built on [NetServa SH] shell scripts



## Components



- Web Server: nginx with PHP FPM 8+

- Mail Server: Fully functional IMAP/SMTP with personalized spam filtering

- SSL: LetsEncrypt integration

- DNS: Optional PowerDNS for local or public DNS services

- Database: Choice of SQLite or MySQL

- Interface: Built with Bootstrap 5 and DataTables



## Hosting Control Panel



This project is ideal for small VMs, CTs (containers) or VPS plans.



- [NetServa HCP] does not reqire Python or Ruby, just PHP and Bash

- Fully functional IMAP/SMTP mailserver with personalised Spam filtering

- [LetsEncrypt] SSL enabled [nginx] web server with [PHP FPM 7+]

- Optional [PowerDNS] installation for local LAN or real-world DNS service

- Always based and tested on the latest release of [Ubuntu Server]

- It can use either [SQLite] or [MySQL] as database backends

- A fresh SQLite based install uses about 70MB ram (without Wordpress)

- An optional "compiled" single file PHP script is less than 200KB in size



## Usage



The PHP web interface relies on the [NetServa SH] scripts being installed on the

primary and target hosts so the first thing to do, as root...



    cd # as root

    git clone https://github.com/markc/sh .sh

    .sh/bin/shm install

    . .shrc



This installs the `SH` (Shell Helper) aliases and scripts into a `/root/.sh`

directory and activates the environment variables and special aliases. See the

[NetServa SH] repo for more information about how to use these aliases and

scripts directly. This `HCP` project is just a web based frontend for the `SH`

system which does all the real provisioning and management work.



The next step, after installing the `SH` scripts, is to make sure the current

host has a hostname and a domainname. The domainname needs to be valid if using

a publically accessible server and that needs the assistence of a real DNS

service. Otherwise, if using a local LAN with private IPs (like 192.168.\*,

10.\* or 172.\*) then you can make up any domainname as long as your are

consistent within your local LAN. Using something like `netserva.lan` is a good

candidate unless you prefer something else. The hostname of your current host

computer is usually determined when the OS is installed but can be changed by

editing `/etc/hostname` and making sure `/etc/resolv.conf` has a reference like

`search netserva.lan`. Once you get results like this...



    ~ hostname

    myhost

    ~ hostname -d

    netserva.lan

    ~ hostname -f

    myhost.netserva.lan



(where `myhost` and `netserva.lan` are your real or made up names) then continue

on with the next step.



Now we "normalize" the host by using `setup-host` which updates the primary

hosting **Desktop** or **Server** system to Noble 24.04 (unless `os release` is

defined.) using the current `hostname -f` unless a **hostname.domainname** is

passed in as the first `[domain]` argument...



    Usage: setup-host [fqdn] [(mysql)|sqlite]



We can now setup the actual NetServa SH/HCP system for testing so, for example,

if we use something like `c1.netserva.lan`, where `c1` will be the container

label and `netserva.lan` can either be a real domainname (if the server has a

public IP) or whatever internal LAN-wide domainname you care to use...



If the installation procedure can detect an externally available public IP then

it will attempt to install a LetsEncrypt SSL certificate so that the web server

can be accessed via `https` and the mail server will be SSL enabled and ready

for real-world deployment. Otherwise a self-signed certificate will be installed

The mail, web, sftp and HCP login credentials will be available in

`cat ~/.vhosts/$(hostname -f).conf`.



The essential configuration settings for the default server will be inside the

container (example only for a local LAN domain called `netserva.lan`)...



    lxc exec c1 bash

    cat ~/.vhosts/$(hostname -f)



Or, if you already have a containter or remote server ready to use after a fresh

Ubuntu or Debian install then you could install the entire NetServa SH and HCP

system by ssh'ing into the target system and...



    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/markc/sh/main/bin/setup-sh

    # cat setup-sh

    . setup-sh

    setup-all



This may take 5 to 15 mintes to complete depending on the bandwidth available to

the target server. Once finished you should be able to go to

`https://c1.netserva.lan/hcp` and login to the HCP web interface using the

simple sitewide HTTP `sysadm/1234` authentication first then the real admin

username and password available with `cat ~/.vhosts/$(hostname -f).conf`.



## Config Override



The main `index.php` file is actually the configuration for the entire program

so that the rest of the PHP files could actually be included from anywhere else

on the system (not just from `lib/php`) if the `INC` const is changed. To

override the default settings (so sensitive information is not committed to some

Git repo) a config override file can be put anywhere (the default being

`lib/.ht_conf.php`) in which an array is returned where any of the top level

property array values can be overridden. First review the main [index.php] file

top level properties then compare below as an example of how to override these

property values...



     ['email' => 'YOUR@EMAIL_ADDRESS'],

        'db' => ['type' => 'mysql', 'pass' => 'YOUR_MYSQL_PW'],

        'out' => [

            'doc'   => 'YOUR_SITE_LABEL',

            'head'  => 'YOUR_SITE_LABEL',

            'foot'  => 'Copyright (C) 2018 YOUR_SITE_LABEL',

        ],

    ];



which would change the default email address (for forgotten password etc) to

your email address, set the database to use MySQL with it's password and change

the site titles and footer copyright notice. The SH/HCP system will use MySQL by

default so if you use...



    setup-all $(hostname -f) sqlite



for an extremely lightweight system (minus Wordpress) then use a

`lib/.ht_conf.php` override file like...



     ['email' => 'YOUR@EMAIL_ADDRESS'],

        'db' => ['type' => 'sqlite'],

        'out' => [

            'doc'   => 'YOUR_SITE_LABEL',

            'head'  => 'YOUR_SITE_LABEL',

            'foot'  => 'Copyright (C) 2018 YOUR_SITE_LABEL',

        ],

    ];



Another alternate option for a MySQL password is to create a simple plain text

file called `lib/.ht_pw` and put ONLY the MySQL password in that file but of

course using `lib/.ht_conf.php` instead allows you to modify or extend any of

the top level properties in `index.php`.



The point of the config override is so you can keep doing a `git pull`and update

the HCP web area (either from the NetServa repo or your own fork) without

interference from locally updated files, and `git push` (to your own git repo)

will not upload passwords to a possible public git repo.



## Athentication



During installation five random passwords will be auto-created in

`/root/.vhosts/$(hostname -f)` along with a `/root/.my.cnf` with `DPASS` if

MySQL is being used. Example...



    ~ grep PASS ~/.vhosts/$(hostname -f)

    APASS='LheTZOT8eYCrlAk8'  # Admin HCP password

    DPASS='axVps7OIXb7VY4uT'  # Database password, if using MySQL

    EPASS='a5cBBxXL59uAyJkc'  # SMTP/IMAP password for admin@$VHOST

    UPASS='D8G3RgpBgSetyG4o'  # SFTP password

    WPASS='LheTZOT8eYCrlAk8'  # Wordpress admin password, if using MySQL



The initial `sysadm` user has access to most of the server with SUDO permissions

to the provisioning scripts in `/root/.sh/bin/*`. This user also "owns" the

default `YOUR_DOMAIN/adm` web area with the NetServa HCP web interface. All

extra virtual hosts will be owned by `u1000 u1001 u1002 etc` system users which

will be chrooted, or locked into, their respective VHOST web area. For

instance...



    ~ shhost

    sysadm  c1.netserva.org                          /home/u/c1.netserva.org

    u1001   netserva.org                             /home/u/netserva.org

    u1002   netserva.com                             /home/u/netserva.com

    u1003   netserva.net                             /home/u/netserva.net



where the above resulted from...



    ~ newlxd c1.netserva.org

    # then SSH/exec into the container and...

    ~ addvhost netserva.org

    ~ addvhost netserva.com

    ~ addvhost netserva.net



The authentication point being that using SSH or SFTP (ie; from Dolphin) to this

server as...



    ~ ssh -p9 [email protected]

    # or for KDE kio

    sftp://[email protected]:9/



would result in access to the whole (non-root) file system whereas...



    ~ ssh -p9 [email protected]

    # or for KDE kio

    sftp://[email protected]:9/



would chroot or lock access to the `/home/u/netserva.org` area with no

possibility of using SUDO so folks only interested in working on a web site have

reasonably safe access to only that web area.



`sshm` can be used on the host to manage local SSH keys making logging in

to a container or remote server much easier...



    ~ sshm h c

    Create a new SSH Host file in ~/.ssh/config.d/

    Usage: sshm create   [Port] [User] [Skey]



_All scripts and documentation are Copyright (C) 2015-2024 Netserva HCP and

Licensed [AGPL-3.0]. See [Copyright Notice](docs/02_Copyright.md) for full details._



[NetServa SH]: https://github.com/markc/sh/

[NetServa HCP]: https://github.com/markc/hcp/

[AGPL-3.0]: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html

[Bootstrap 5]: https://getbootstrap.com/

[DataTables]: https://datatables.net/examples/styling/bootstrap4/

[index.php]: https://github.com/netserva/www/blob/master/index.php

[nginx]: http://nginx.org/

[PHP FPM 8+]: http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.fpm.php

[Plasma Desktop]: https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/

[Proxmox]: https://proxmox.com/

[LetsEncrypt]: https://letsencrypt.org/

[PowerDNS]: https://powerdns.com/

[SQLite]: https://sqlite.org/features.html

[MySQL]: https://mariadb.org/

[Ubuntu Server]: https://ubuntu.com/download/server/