This is a brief introduction about how to set up a strato vServer. I’m not going into detail here. A vServer is a real server with fresh installed Linux operating system. You have to have at least a slight UNIX knowledge to maintain it. I highly recommend to set up a UNIX system (Linux, Mac OSX) on your local computer and tests things there first. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Strato Server Configuration

When your vServer is setup by strato the you receive an email including the hostname. First you have to login at https://config.stratoserver.net with your order number or hostname as login. The password is sent as short message to your mobile phone. After a successful login you see a menu on the right which very self-explaining. I recommend to change the password first. You also have to order a domain if you haven’t already done this. This process takes about two hours for a .org tld.

After my domain was set up I installed a new operation system under Serverkonfiguration -> NeuInstallation. Here you have to choose between different Linux distributions and versions with or without plesk (an easy setup interface). You receive an email after the installation process which takes about 30 minutes up to an hour. Then go to Serverkonfiguration -> Serverdaten an write down the root-password. Then activate and download your plesk license key under Serverkonfiguration -> Plesk.

Plesk

After the OS installation should login at plesk with your domainname and port 8443, e.g. https://www.vividbreeze.org:8443. Make sure that this port is open. Proxies or firewalls within a company might block this port. The login is admin and root-password. The certificates are not trusted by Firefox so you have to trust them manually.

I’m not really satisfied with plesk but for the first steps it’s easier than to configure your server with yast or edit the UNIX configuration files with vi. After a successful login you see a menu on the left side of the screen. First upload your License key under Server -> Lizenzverwaltung (System). Then change your password under Server -> Passwort ändern (Administrator-Informationen). You should also update your plesk version and components under Server -> Updater (Dienste).

Before you can set up your webserver you first have to add a new client under Kunden -> Neuen Kunden-Account hinzufügen. After your client is set up you can add a domain. In the domain menu you can add subdomains, add new databases, add new email accounts, alter the crontab, change the DNS settings etc. From here on plesk is self-explaining.

With each domain or subdomain you also change the webserver configuration - so the httpd.include is overwritten every time you make changes in plesk. This counts for any configuration file. I recommend to use plesk for the initial setup of your vServer. After that it’s more effective to login to your server via a UNIX shell and edit the configuration files with an editor.

Shell Login

You can now login to your server using a UNIX shell: ssh root@[servername], e.g. ssh root@vividbreeze.org. The password is the root-password shown on your strato account page. Your webserver content is initially located under /srv/www/vhosts/[domainname]. Here you’ll find a/conf directory with the httpd.include, the /httpdocs directory with your webpages etc. The /subdomains directory hosts your subdomains with a similar structure.

Before you proceed I recommend playing with plesk and get in touch with UNIX if you’re not already familiar with it. Try to setup subdomains, email accounts, databases, play with the apache webserver configuration, set up a weblog or wiki etc. You always have the chance to re-install a new operation system and to start again from scratch for your final server installation.