Introduction: DirectAdmin is a lightweight, efficient control panel that simplifies web server management. It offers a clean graphical interface to manage your websites, email accounts, databases, and more. This guide will walk you through installing DirectAdmin on a CentOS 7 system.

Requirements:

A clean installation of CentOS 7.
At least one static IP address.
At least 1GB of RAM (2GB recommended).
A valid DirectAdmin license.

Step 1: System Preparation Before installing DirectAdmin, ensure your system is up to date:

yum update -y

Set your hostname to a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) which isn’t already in use:

hostnamectl set-hostname your.hostname.com

Step 2: Install Required Packages Install the necessary dependencies:

yum install gcc gcc-c++ flex bison make bind bind-libs bind-utils openssl openssl-devel perl quota libaio libcom_err-devel libcurl-devel gd zlib-devel libstdc++-devel libstdc++-devel.x86_64 libxml2-devel bzip2 bzip2-devel

Step 3: Disable SELinux and Firewalld For compatibility, disable SELinux:

setenforce 0
sed -i 's/enforcing/disabled/' /etc/selinux/config

Stop and disable the Firewalld service:

systemctl stop firewalld
systemctl disable firewalld

Step 4: Download and Install DirectAdmin Download the installation script:

wget https://www.directadmin.com/setup.sh

Change the permission of the script:

chmod 755 setup.sh

Run the installation script:

./setup.sh

During installation, you'll be prompted to enter your Client ID, License ID, and hostname. The process can take some time, as it compiles software from source.

Step 5: Accessing DirectAdmin Once the installation is complete, you can access DirectAdmin from your web browser using:

http://your.server.ip.address:2222

Username: admin
Password: You’ll find this in the installation details or in the '/usr/local/directadmin/scripts/setup.txt' file.

Step 6: Post-Installation Configuration

Secure DirectAdmin using SSL.
Create and manage user accounts.
Set up DNS and nameservers.
Configure email and spam settings.

Step 7: Security Considerations

Enable a firewall and configure it to allow traffic on DirectAdmin's ports.
Regularly update your system and DirectAdmin to the latest versions.
Consider using additional security measures like ModSecurity and ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF).

Conclusion: DirectAdmin is a robust and user-friendly control panel for web hosting. It provides a straightforward way to manage your web server and is a great alternative to other control panels. By following this guide, you should have a fully functional DirectAdmin installation on CentOS 7. Remember to regularly maintain and update your system and DirectAdmin installation to ensure security and stability.