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Your server’s IP Address. This is the primary IP address of your server. Even if your server has multiple IP addresses, there will always be one primary IP address. This is the IP address that you will use to log into the Server Configuration web page. This is also the IP address that your server will automatically acquire (via dhcp) when operating system installation is being performed or when you invoke the operating system rescue mode.
Optionally, you may enter a host name instead of an IP address. The Server Configuration web page will try to look up that host name and convert it into an IP address. If your server has multiple host names, use one that maps into the server’s primary IP address.
Your account password. This is the password you will use to access the Server Configuration web page.This password will appear masked on the screen. If too much time has passed since you entered the account password, your session may expire, and you will need to re-enter the password.
Your account password has no connection with the desired root password on server (see below).
Desired root password on server. This is the root password that you would like to use on your server after the operating system installation has been completed. Note that this password appears on the screen in cleartext, i.e., it is not masked. For best security, this password should be used only for the installation. Once installation of the operating system is complete, log into your server as root and use the “passwd” command to set a new root password. Note: The desired root password that you enter on the Server Configuration screen is used only by the uninterruptible install. The interactive and manual installs will prompt you for a desired root password and use that instead.
Allow a2iroot access. If this box is checked, then after the operating system has been installed with the uninterruptible or interactive install, some additional things will be found on your server.
The root account will be initialized with an ssh access entry in the file “/root/.ssh/authorized_keys”. This will allow us to log into your server as root using our private ssh key and without using a password.
There will be an additional root account called a2iroot. It, too, will be initialized in the same way with an ssh access entry, in the file “/home/a2iroot/.ssh/authorized_keys. This will allow us to log into your server as a2iroot using our private ssh key and without using a password.
These logins and ssh access entries will allow us to more conveniently and efficiently provide free or paid support to you when needed. They will also allow us to recover a lost root password for you for a lower fee. (See “Miscellaneous Fees.”) They will also allow us to urgently examine your server if we should ever suspect that it has been subject to a security intrusion, without having to wait to be able to contact you. We do not use these features for exerting any control on the content residing on, or passing through, your server.
Our having root access to your machine does not in any way decrease or eliminate your duty to abide by our terms of service. Nor does our having root access impose on us any duty to actually use that root access.
You may uncheck the Allow a2iroot access box if you wish.
Alternately, after operating system installation has completed, you may remove the a2iroot account and the ssh access entries if you so wish.
The ssh access entry for root will be found in the file “/root/.ssh/authorized_keys”. It takes the form of a single long line that begins with "ssh-rsa" and ends with "support@rahul.net". You can either delete the file “/root/.ssh/authorized_keys” or remove the line with a text editor.
The a2iroot account is not created, and the ssh access entries are not installed, if you do a manual install of the operating system.
See also our FAQ entry: “In what ways does installation modify the operating system defaults?”
Without the root access described above, we can still provide you (possibly less efficiently) with the free or paid technical support described elsewhere.
Disk names. If your server has multiple disks, specify on which disk(s) you wish to install the operating system. If you specify the wrong disk names, operating system installation may fail in mysterious ways.
If your server has IDE disks, then its first disk will almost always be called hda and its second disk will be either hdb or hdc.
If your server has SATA disks, the disk names will always be sda and sdb. Note that even though SATA is just a newer form of IDE, the Linux kernel treats it as if it were SCSI and names the disks accordingly.
If you wish to enable software RAID during operating system installation, be sure that both disk1 and disk2 are correctly set.
If you are not enabling software RAID, the operating system will be installed on disk1. In most cases, you should set the value of disk1 to the disk name of the first disk in your server, which will be either hda or sda. Leave the value of disk2 as any.
If you set disk1 to the second disk (e.g., hdb or sdb) then that is where the operating system will get installed. Installing the operating system on the second disk may not be as reliable as installing it on the first disk. If for some reason you wish to install two different Linuxes, one on each disk, please see our FAQ entry, “Can I install two Linuxes on the same machine?.”
Software RAID. If the "Enable level 1 software RAID (mirroring) on disk1 and disk2" radio button is selected, then during operating system installation, level 1 RAID, also called mirroring, will be configured. Each of the non-swap partitions will be duplicated on two disks. The swap space will not be configured as RAID, but will be equally distributed over both disks. For more information about software RAID please see our FAQ entry, “Why software RAID?.”
Size of root (/) filesystem. The root filesystem should be big enough so that there is plenty of extra disk space left unused. Future updates or upgrades may require a bigger root filesystem than the current operating system currently does. See our FAQ entries, “How can I update the operating system?” and “How can I upgrade the operating system?”.
Leave other disks untouched. The intent of this radio button is to let you install the operating system on one disk while leaving the other disk of a dual-disk server not affected in any way. Depending on the operating system being installed, this option might or might not work. In some cases, especially with Mandrake Linux, all disks are always re-initialized when you do an uninterruptible or interactive install. If you wish to preserve data, then you should do a manual install. A manual install ignores the Server Configuration web page and gives you full control over the disk layout. Even then, remember that operating system installation is always a risky procedure and data loss can occur despite the best precautions.
Size of swap. Most system administration documentation recommends that swap space be two to three times the size of main memory. On a server with a gigabyte of main memory, this rule would suggest having two to three gigabytes of swap space. You may wish to allocate even more, so that there is enough swap space available even if a program misbehaves and eats up virtual memory. So you may want to have four or five times as much swap space as main memory.
Retrieve Button. The Retrieve Button causes any existing server configuration, for your server’s IP address, to be retrieved and shown on the screen. After retrieving a server configuration, you may edit it as needed. After editing, be sure to do a save before beginning an operating system install.
Reset Button. The Reset Button resets the web page to the way it was before you made any changes, provided you have not yet clicked on any of the buttons.
Defaults Button. The Defaults Button gives you a set of default values. We test these default values on each of our hardware platforms with each of the operating systems on our menus, so you can have some confidence that these default values will result in successful installation of the operating system. You will still need to set the values of disk1 and disk2 to be correct for your server. After using the Defaults Button to get the default values, be sure to do a save before beginning an operating system install.
Save Button. Always click on this after choosing a server configuration and before beginning an operating system install. If you forget to do a save, the operating system install might not give you the configuration you see on the screen.
The Power Cycle button will cause power to your server to be switched off for 30 seconds, then switched back on again.
Before you power-cycle your server, you should have a window open to the serial console of your server. Then you can watch the boot-time messages and you will know whether the power cycling achieved the desired result.
If you power-cycled your server while it was operating off its disk drives, then at boot time you may be prompted, on the serial console, to hit the y key within 5 seconds if you wish to check the filesystems. We recommend hitting the y key for better data integrity.
It’s not a good idea to unnecessarily power-cycle a machine. Power-cycling stresses the electronics, and may cause filesystems to get corrupted and data to be lost. Excessive power-cycling can cause permanent hardware damage, making machine repairs necessary. Industrial-grade computer servers perform best when they are left on continously.
Therefore you should power-cycle your server only when necessary.
The Log Out button invalidates your current session, so that new information entered on the same web page will not be accepted unless your password is re-entered. There is no guarantee that this is always effective, as old web pages cached in your web browser can still be misused. We don't recommend accessing our Server Configuration web page from any shared computer system. Despite this recommendation, if you do use a shared computer system, then after logging out you must (a) cause the web browser to delete all cached data, and then (b) make the browser software exit by closing all browser windows.
This document is part of a web site and should not be read in isolation. All information is subject to change without notice. Not everything described here applies equally to every possible combination of hardware and software. All products and services are provided on an “as is” basis; “with all faults” and “as available.” THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THOSE OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. We are not responsible for the content of external web sites.
TQMbox is a service mark of A2I COMMUNICATIONS.