Directadmin Docs

Overview

System Requirements

Operating system

Operating systems supported by DirectAdmin and expected End-of-life dates can be found here.

DirectAdmin supports the following Linux distributions:

Running on the following hardware architectures:

  • 64bit AMD and Intel architecture, also know as amd64 or x86-64.
  • 64bit ARM architecture, also know as arm64.

Partition scheme

We suggest a simple partition structure of:

PartitionSize
/boot500 MB
swap2 x RAM but no more than 16 GB
/Rest of drive

For a less simple partition structure:

PartitionSize
/boot500 MB
swap2 x RAM but no more than 16 GB
/tmp1 GB.
/6 - 10 GB
/var8 - 20 GB. Logs, and Databases with CentOS
/usr5 - 12+ GB. DA data, source code, mysql backups with custombuild option
/homeRest of drive. Roughly 80% for User data. Mount with nosuid in /etc/fstab if possible.

Feel free to modify these numbers as needed. Debian store mysql databases in /home/mysql/.

Please have Basic development/compiling tools such as gcc, g++, and perl.

** Please do not install services such as Apache, PHP, MySQL, Ftp, Sendmail, etc., as we will do this for you. All we need is a CLEAN install of your operating system. **

We do not recommend installing DirectAdmin on an existing live production server. DirectAdmin does not convert existing data upon install.

Hardware

We highly recommend a processor of at least 500 Mhz even though DirectAdmin will run on slower systems. The more cores the better.

A minimum 2 GB of memory is required (4+ GB is preferred), with at least 4 GB of swap memory.

A hard drive with at least 2 gigabytes of free space (after the Linux install) is also required, not including any website data.

If you are expecting high traffic levels then you will need more memory, processor power, and hard drive space than we recommend here.

Intel and AMD should work fine. Solaris/Sparc will not.

Software

Please ensure SSH is installed and working.

The system kernel and filesystem must support quotas.

Authority Level

You must have root access on the server.

IP Addresses

At a bare minimum your server must have one static IPv4 IP address. However, for DNS control you will sometimes need at least two (2) IP addresses. With only one IP address you might be forced to use an external DNS service, depending on your registrar. -- this means web sites you create through the control panel will not propagate automatically.

DirectAdmin can be installed on a LAN using recommended auto mode.

Installing DirectAdmin: How is it done?

We will install DirectAdmin for you at no cost (free installs may not be included with bulk purchases). If you prefer to install DirectAdmin yourself, please refer to the DirectAdmin Installation Guide.

What Gets Installed?

Complete list of the 3rd party software which gets installed is listed in our main websiteopen in new window.

Need More Information?

You can e-mail questions to sales@directadmin.com or send an inquiry by visiting the contactsopen in new window page.

We are available Monday through Friday, 9 AM - 5 PM Mountain Standard Time.

You may also visit the forumopen in new window to see if your question has been answered there.

Common installation guide

We recommend running auto-installation mode per the installation guide.

Running the installation with predefined options

As many people need to install DA frequently, they might have a usual set of options that they want to use, and they may want to automate this process. The setup.sh does allow for this.

Basic options can be customized by exporting environment variables set to the desired values like so:

export php1_release=8.0

For PHP modules:

export php_imap=yes

Then run installation with the following command:

./setup.sh LICENSE_KEY

If more options have to be customized, it would be better to use a pre-defined options.conf file. For example, you may pre-set the hostname:

Hostname:

If the /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild/options.conf or the /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf files exist, the installation process will not use defaults because it will instead use the settings from your predefined "options.conf" and/or "directadmin.conf" files. So, copy them from another server, or download from a URL where you placed the options.conf and/or directadmin.conf files prior to installation:

mkdir -p /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild
wget -O /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild/options.conf "http://yourdomain.com/options.conf"
mkdir -p /usr/local/directadmin/conf/
wget -O /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf "http://yourdomain.com/directadmin.conf"

A sample call for the setup.sh script with environment variables:

cd /root/
wget -O setup.sh https://download.directadmin.com/setup.sh
chmod 755 setup.sh
DA_HOSTNAME="server.yourdomain.com" ./setup.sh LICENSE_KEY

Other environment variables that could be used:

  DA_CHANNEL : Download channel: alpha, beta, current, stable
   DA_COMMIT : Exact DA build to install, will use latest from update channel if empty
  DA_OS_SLUG : Build targeting specific platform: linux_amd64, debian10_amd64, rhel8_amd64, ...
    DA_EMAIL : Default email address
 DA_HOSTNAME : Hostname to use for installation
      DA_NS1 : pre-defined ns1
      DA_NS2 : pre-defined ns2

Additional environment variables that could be set non-empty value to take effect (for example, DA_SKIP_CSF=true):

               DA_SKIP_CSF : skip installation of CFS firewall
     DA_SKIP_MYSQL_INSTALL : skip installation of MySQL/MariaDB
        DA_SKIP_SECURE_PHP : skip disabling insecure PHP functions automatically
       DA_SKIP_CUSTOMBUILD : skip all the CustomBuild actions
DA_INTERACTIVE_CUSTOMBUILD : run interactive CustomBuild installation if DA_SKIP_CUSTOMBUILD is unset"
DA_FOREGROUND_CUSTOMBUILD  : run CustomBuild installation in foreground DA_SKIP_CUSTOMBUILD is unset"

And that way, when the setup.sh runs CustomBuild, it will use your settings without any changes.

The mysql_inst and mariadb/mysql versions variables are handled properly with setup.sh, so the setup.sh script can be used to compile proper database service at installation time.

Options for script installation mode

Options must be set in-place before calling the setup.sh in command-line mode.

  1. Configuration files options.conf and directadmin.conf can be set in place with desired options before running setup.sh. Doing so will do things like using your desired download server, using the desired php version/mode, webserver type, etc. Place the files in the following locations prior to running the setup.sh:

/usr/local/directadmin/custombuild/options.conf

/usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf

Ensure these files have your desired settings defined, so that when CustomBuild runs, it will use those settings instead of the defaults.

See this article for information on setting mysql_inst before running the setup.sh script.

  1. Custom Email and ns1/ns2 can be declared by exporting the following variables with your desired email and nameservers before running setup.sh:
export DA_EMAIL=email@example.com
export DA_NS1=ns1.example.com
export DA_NS2=ns2.example.com
  1. To use your desired hostname, specify it like this:
export DA_HOSTNAME="server.yourdomain.com"
  1. To skip mysql installation, export the following variable:
export DA_SKIP_MYSQL_INSTALL=true

Continue installation normally.

Note: If you use this option (set it before you run the setup.sh), then it will be your responsibility to ensure that the database is set up and running prior to the setup.sh being run, and that the da_admin has been set up in the mysql.conf, ready for DA to use.

  1. [To install the pre-release version of DirectAdmin when installing for the first time], you can use the flag 'beta'.
DA_CHANNEL=beta ./setup.sh LICENSE_KEY

The same pre-release version can be obtained using 'channel=beta' when updating an existing DirectAdmin installation to a pre-release version.

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