Yesterday I wrote an intial entry about setting up a dedicated server at Pacificrack.com.  Today we'll continue with further DNS and apache configuration.

DNS configuration

The simple answer with DNS configuration is to allow the registrar to provide it.  Whether that's godaddy, name.com, etc, the registrar has several options for how to host your names.  You'll have to learn a little about the configuration interface to your registrar - if you follow my example, you won't be changing the name of the DNS servers, but rather changing the IP address only, but keeping the DNS server hosted by your registrar.

If you're with godaddy, just set the name to be hosted with Goddady, and use the "Total DNS" control to modify the A record, which is the main IP address for your website.

Apache Configuration

The default apache configuration locations for this distribution are /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf for the main apache config file, then /etc/httpd/conf.d/* for additional apache config files you choose to add.

I made the following changes to the main httpd.conf file: 

<VirtualHost *:80>
         DocumentRoot /home/drop/www
         ServerName palma-seo.com
         ErrorLog /home/drop/logs/error_log
         CustomLog /home/drop/logs/access_log common  
</VirtualHost>

Check out the excellent examples at the apache website for vhosts.

Finally, I created the drupal user:adduser drop

passwd drop

Next, log in as drop, set up the logs and www directories, and use sftp to upload the files.

I use name.com for all my DNS hosting and management, and it's great.  You also should set up the reverse IP for your domain (do this via a support ticket to pacificrack).

When you're ready to start with your mysql databases, here's a quick primer that includes a section on the basic centos mysql setup.