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Redhat 9.0 Server for Newbies

Linux PenguinThe following is a guide to installing a Redhat 9 server to be used on a private network for the purpose of experimenting and learning how to administer a Redhat server. If you want to open your server up to the world, I STRONGLY recommend you read up on security first.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive "How-To", but rather a "how I did it". I also already had a version of Redhat installed on my PC, so there may be a few minor differences in the instructions if you are starting with a blank hard drive (or wiping a windows install).

If you follow these instructions you will end up with a server that will include:

  1. Web-server (Apache)
  2. FTP server (vsftpd)
  3. Mail server
  4. DNS server
  5. Windows file server
  6. SQL database

There will be no GUI (Graphical User Interface) installed, as I believe the best way to learn linux server administration is to learn the command prompt. If you do it this way, you will always be able to administer linux at the prompt, and the GUI will be easy to learn later. If you start with the GUI, there is a high chance you will never learn the prompt, which is by far the best, most reliable way to do it. If you DO want to start using a GUI, I suggest you go to www.redhat.com and look at the docs there, as they explain how to do it through the GUI.

  1. How to install Redhat 9 as a server
  2. How to add a user and set the password
  3. How to set the $PATH variable
  4. How to configure the IP address
  5. How to start the FTP server
  6. How to start the Apache web server
  7. How to configure the cgi-bin
  8. How to browse a users directory using /~user