Home >> Installation Requirements

Getting Started with DirectAdmin:  What kind of server do I need?

Operating System:  

RedHat Enterprise / CentOS 5.x 32/64-bit, 6.x 32/64-bit, 7.x 64-bit
FreeBSD 8.x 64-bit, 9.x 32/64-bit     (9 may require an exim recompile)

Debian 6.x 32/64-bit, 7.x 32/64-bit (click for Ubuntu)
Which OS am I using?
Operating System End-of-Life Policy

We suggest a simple partition structure of:

/boot          40 meg 
swap          2 x memory
/                rest of drive

For a less simple partition structure:

/boot          40 meg 
swap          2 x memory
/tmp           1 Gig. Highly recommended to mount /tmp with noexec,nosuid in /etc/fstab
/                 6-10 Gig
/var             8-20 gig. Logs, and Databases with CentOS
/usr            5-12+ gig. DA data, source code, frontpage, mysql backups with custombuild option.
/home         rest of drive. Roughly 80% for User data. Mount with nosuid in /etc/fstab if possible.

Feel free to modify these numbers as needed. Note, if you plan on installing dovecot (recommended), all email data is stored under /home and not /var, so adjust as needed. Also FreeBSD and Debian store mysql databases in /home/mysql/.
For CentOS 7, use the xfs quota system. If you use ext4, add use_xfs=0 to the directadmin.conf.

Please have Basic development/compiling tools such as gcc, g++, and perl. If you will use customapache (apache 1.3, vm-pop3d, wu-imap) have xinetd up and running (inetd on FreeBSD). Custombuild does not require xinetd/inetd.

***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 500mhz even though DirectAdmin will run on slower systems.  A minimum 1 Gigabyte of memory is required (2+ Gig is preferred), with at least 2 gig of swap memory.  A hard drive with at least 2 gigabytes of free space (after the Linux install) is also required.  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.

Please ensure named (Name Daemon) is selected during the Redhat install.
gcc and g++ are required to compile apache and php.
The system kernel and filesystem must support quotas. The kernel should support IPv6.

Authority Level:

You must have root access on the server.

IP Addresses:

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

Your server IP must be an external IP address. Local IP addresses (192.168.x.x or 10.0.x.x) will not work. The IP in your network device must be the same IP in your license file, as well as the public IP that connects to our system to download the license and binaries. This means that LANs will not work. More info on IP requirements

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?

2.0 - requires CustomBuild 2.0.