I am back on twitter so feel free to follow me or whatever: http://twitter.com/blong4life!

-Brandon

Long time no talk eh?

Well I've been thinking about ordering new monitors for quite awhile now and now that I found some that are decent price I decided to pick some up so I can start to get some work done, #likeaboss.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009316&Tpk=24-009-316

Got two of those bad boys to replace my 19" Widescreen and my 17" Normal, so I am pretty stoked.

Also I've been around doing various outsourced work and stuff helping people out so, stay tuned for some more updates.

Thanks,
Brandon

I know it's been a while, but today I took the time to update the blog with a new theme and I changed around my WordPress version. Within the next few days I hope to be providing more great tutorials for your viewing pleasure.

If you need any assistance or if you want a specific tutorial please feel free to request one by commenting on this post. As always I thank you for reading my blog.

Thanks,
Brandon

Ok, in today's tech tip I am going to be showing you how to use Easyapache through your web browser to recompile Apache/PHP for your server and enable suPHP. I won't go over the pros/cons to each setup but I do recommend suPHP for increased security.

Firstly,you'll need to navigate to your WHM and login. From there file the option "Easyapache (Apache Update)" and click on it.

Next from there you might have an existing profile you want to use (or you can download mine here). I am going to start off with "PHP Image Manipulation" and build off that.

Once you have that clickled your just going to press the "Start customizing based on profile".

The next screen should bring up the Apache version screen. Unless you have a reason to run the other versions, I recommend Apache 2.2, so click that and then press 'Next Step'.

The next screen will ask you what versions of PHP to compile. In this tutorial we will be compiling both in for the sake of showing everyone, so in my case I would check both and then click Next Step.

Now it will ask you to confirm the version. Again if you don't have any reason to choose an older version select them both (4.4.9 and 5.3.4 at the time of this tutorial). Next a short options list will come up, check what you need and if you are all set click Save and Build, or if you want to confirm certain modules are enabled click 'Exhaustive Options List". I can't really be of any assistance here but those are the basic steps to recompiling your Apache/PHP. My build profile is available below for review.

Next it'll build and show the progress in the screen.

This may take a while depending on your server. Just let it do it's thing; don't worry if the page stops responding or you close the browser it won't stop compiling. If that happens just wait for your server load to go down.

Once it's down this window will pop-up. I would leave them both at suPHP and then click save.

After that your new PHP is compiled.

Link to my profile .yaml: http://brandonlong.me/downloads/brandonlong_build.yaml

Please note this article is provided as a how-to and I can not be held responsible for any errors. If an error is occurred and you need any help please feel free to e-mail me at brandon[@]brandonlong[.]me and I will assist you as good as I can. With that said happy server administrating!

It's very easy and only takes one line to do. All you need to do is cd to the users home directory, for instance if the username of the user is blong we would cd to /home/blong with the following command.

# cd /home/blog

Then after that it's as easy as removing the .cpanel folder.

# rm -rf .cpanel

And now the user's cPanel cache is deleted...next time they reload there cPanel it'll feel like a fresh account just made. If this doesn't fix a problem you think it would it's more deep than that.

Please note this article is provided as a how-to and I can not be held responsible for any errors. If an error is occurred and you need any help please feel free to e-mail me at brandon[@]brandonlong[.]me and I will assist you as good as I can. With that said happy server administrating!

Requirments

• Basic SSH Knowleddge
• Root access to server

Ok, the first step is to login to the server with the root account (some people may need to login and use su to obtain this.) First we need to know if it's an addon domain or parked domain, but operate in different ways. A parked domain is just an extra DNS entry and then added to another domains 'ServerAlias' in their VirtualHost directive. An add-on domain is a sub-domain of the users main domain and then the actual domain is parked on that sub-domain.

First we will need to open the users cPanel users file and investigate more. To do this we will need the users cPanel username.

Now it's as easy as running the following command (I assume we are using nano, if not use your text editor).

# nano /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

This will bring up your Apache configuration file. From there use CTL + W to bring up the search dialog and paste the domain in. Press enter; if no results come up there was an error writing the VirtualHost line to the httpd.conf and just close the file. If the domain is found and it's parked to a subdomain of the users, it's an add-on domain and remove the entire <VIRTUALHOST> to </VIRTUALHOST> for that domain. If it's the users main domain and then another domain, it's probably a parked domain, just remove the two lines (domain.tld and www.domain.tld) from the ServerAlias line and then save it. If the user specifies which one go with that they say (they probley know more than I do, and sometimes cPanel's messed up).

Knowing this we can no go into the users cPanel file and remove the domain. It's as simple as running this command.

nano /var/cpanel/users/USERNAMEHERE

Now knowing that data we had from before, we can tell if it's a parked domain or add-on domain, if it's a parked domain there will be one line for it, and if it's a parked domain there will be two. Go ahead now and delete the lines from this file containing the DNS names of the domain. After that exit the file and run the following command.

/scripts/updateuserdomains

Now it's as easy as logging into WHM and making sure all DNS entries are removed and having the user re-add the domain.

Please note this article is provided as a how-to and I can not be held responsible for any errors. If an error is occurred and you need any help please feel free to e-mail me at brandon[@]brandonlong[.]me and I will assist you as good as I can. With that said happy server administrating!

Not sure if any of you are waiting for the second step process of the ultimate nginx box, but I lost my files when my computer decided to randomly reboot.

I will be working on them this week again along with a client account I am setting up.

Today I will be showing you folks how to do a Bare CentOS install for use in installing a custom Apache, PHP and MySQL setup (or maybe even changing out CentOS for nginx or lighttpd, which will be covered in some later tutorials.)

Please note that I am showing this as a how-to guide and data may be permanently deleted from your hard drive, please use caution when selecting options. If you are unsure on something Google it or leave a comment and I will help you ASAP.

The first step is to download the CentOS image, since you will be doing a base image you can use the NetInstall DVD (32-bit or 64-bit [Please note these must be burned to a CD-Rom to be used with a proper ISO program]) and also note this tutorial was created using the DVD, but the NetInstall process is similar.

Ok once you have the ISO image above burned to a disk, you'll want to pop it into the PC your going to use's CD/DVD drive and reboot the PC, make sure that the CD/DVD Drive is set to boot before the hard drive otherwise it might not boot from the CD/DVD Drive (on some computers, you can press ESC for a boot loader menu and select the drive manually.) Once you get that far, you'll get the following screen.

From here it's as easy as pressing the ENTER key and letting it do it's thing.

Next you will be prompted for a media check, if you download the DVD or CDs I recommend you check them before the install, but if your using the NetInstall image don't worry about it as any files will be downloaded over the internet.

If you want to check your install media now is the time to press Ok, if not press Skip.

Then press Test.

Now the check is running, this may take a few minutes depending on the computer you are using.

Once that is done it will let you know whether the disk passed or not. If the disk did not pass, you could have a bad download or you could have burned it too fast. Try buring the disks at 16x if CD or 8x if DVD. Here the media has passed.

Next press Ok and then press Done again, it will start to load the setup wizard which will bring you to this following screen.

From there press next and select the language you want to use during the install process.

Now select the correct keyboard layout for your computer (if you are unsure on this you should just leave it alone).

Next you might get a popup saying the disk layout needs to be initialized, press yes on this. (Please note this tutorial does not cover dual-boot system, if you are unsure on this please don't continue further, research some more data.)

Next you will be brought to a screen talking about partitions, select the top box and press the first option as outlined in the screen shot below (This will take your entire hard drive and repartition it.)

Press Next and a popup confirming that you want all data deleted on your drive, press yes to continue.

Next you will be configuring your network devices. Highlight your primary interference and press Edit and set a static IP address; and unless your network is IPv6 ready, please discheck the IPv6 box. You will also have to set your resolvers (aka DNS Servers) and primary gateway. You can set this now (for resolvers I usually use Google's, which are 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4).

Next you will confirm your time zone.

And now you will be setting your root password, this is like the 'Administrator' account to your CentOS box, please make sure you set it to something strong.

Next will be the packages selection, I left some notes in the image so please review them on how to make your decision.

Now you will be brought to a page that shows lists on the left and right. Everything should be unchecked except for the following groups.

Applications -> Editors, Text-based Internet
Base System -> Base

Then press yes, it will check for dependencies and go to the next step.

The next screen is the last screen before the install, please take a second to review it and then press Next, your almost there.

Now your hard drives will start to format.

And now the system will start to install, this may take a few minutes so go do a load of laundry or grab a cup of coffee and come back.

Once it's done you'll get a screen confirming the install and it'll ask you to remove the disk, remove the CD from the drive and press Reboot.

Now the computer will reboot, and once it POSTs BIOS it'll go into the Grub bootloader; wait three seconds and it will start too boot.

Once it's booted you'll get a screen like below (this is only for the first boot); I like to disable SELinux as I find it a pain so if you want to too go into Firewall Configuration -> and next to SELinux highlight disabled. Once done press Ok and it'll disable SELinux. Then go ahead and press Exit on the mainscreen and you will be brought into a login prompt...which we will continue the next tutorial.

And finally this is when we are done .

In my next tutorial we will begin installing some packages and playing around a bit.

Hey wanna cheat? Get the VirtualBox image for only $1.99

Been busy lately working on the new website, WSR.im, so I haven't really been updating the blog. But the other day I ordered a new 650 Watt generic power supply, and today I ordered a new HIS 5770 (link to the product on Newegg.com) and am now waiting for it to come. This is great, as I currently have a 5450, and can't play a lot of games because of the lag. The 5770 might not be the highest on the grade of cards, but for the price they have it at you can't beat it. It's $129.99 with a $30 Mail-in-rebate, bring the price to just $99.99 with free shipping. Now that's a deal; next will be getting a new case and a new motherboard so I can grab a second one of these put them into crossfire, which should be enough for the very little games I play.

Other nice part is now I can take my 5450 and put it into my HTPC, so I can use HDMI to view DVD's etc now instead of the VGA, which hey, might increase the quality a bit.

Once I get the new card and PSU this will I'll post with my experiences.

Cwsterling and me have been working on a great underground farm (good addon to your mine) so you can grow wheat to make bread (as Minepedia states one of the easiest and best foods to have as wheats stackable).

Here is the preview of the farm below.

It's still an ever expanding work in progress so once it's done you'll be sure to see it again.