NethServer: A CentOS Based All-in-one Server Distribution

Enter the user name and password.

• Username: root
• Password: <your_root_password>

Note: if you install NethServer using ISO, the default user name and password might be:

• Default user name: root
• Default password: Nethesis,1234

We’re not finished yet. Click Next to continue.

Enter Hostname and Domain name. Click Next.

Select Timezone and click Next.

Change default SSH port and click Next. I go with the defaults.

Click Next.

Click Apply to save and proceed to next step.

Here is the important part. The Network page configures how the server is connected to the local network (LAN) or other ones (i.e. Internet). If the server has firewall and gateway functionality, it will handle extra networks with special function like DMZ and guests network. NethServer supports an unlimited number of network interfaces.

You can assign network interface cards to a particular zones. Here is the list of supported zones by NethServer.

• green: local network. Hosts on this network can access any other configured network
• blue: guests network. Hosts on this network can access orange and red network, but can’t access to green zone
• orange: DMZ network. Hosts on this network can access red networks, but can’t access to blue, orange and green zones
• red: public network. Hosts on this network can access only the server itself

As I have only one NIC in my server, I left this part as default.

Click NEW INTERFACE button to create logical interfaces.

The list of available logical interfaces are:

• alias: associate more than one IP address to an existing network interface. The alias has the same role of its associated physical interface
• bond: arrange two or more network interfaces, provides load balancing and fault tolerance
• bridge: connect two different networks, it’s often used for bridged VPN and virtual machine
• VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network): create two or more physically separated networks using a single interface

As I have only one NIC, I will assign my NIC to bridge mode.

Enter IP address, Subnet, and Gateway etc. Click Next to proceed.

That’s it. We have created logical interface.

If you want to create another one, click on the ‘NEW INTERFACE’ button and follow the onscreen instructions.

This is how my NethServer’s dashboard looked:

From now on, you can install any modules ( FTP, Mail, or Web Server etc.) directly from the Web UI.

NethServer Software center

We have installed NethServer’s base system. Now, we will install the modules.

NethServer’s Software center allows us to install and remove modules. it shows the all available and installed (checked) modules. The view can be filtered by category.

Here is the list of available modules.

NethServer Modules:

Like I said before, we can install any module with a ‘single click’. If you want to install a module, just check the corresponding box and click Add button.

Installing ownCloud Module:

For example, here I will show you how to install ownCloud module.

Scroll down and find the ownCloud module. Check the ownCloud checkbox and click Add button at the end.

Then. click APPLY CHANGES button.

Once you clicked the APPLY CHANGES button, NethServer will automatically download, install and configure ownCloud along with all it’s dependencies.

Once the installation completed, open a new tab and enter the URL: https://IP-Address/owncloud in your web browser to access your ownCloud dashboard.

• use admin/Nethesis,1234 as default credentials

Voila! We have installed ownCloud in our server. How easy, isn’t it?

This is how ownCloud dashboard looked at first log in.

Change the ownCloud Admin user password to something stronger. To do that, Click on the admin user on the top right corner.

Then, select Personal.

Enter your current and new password. Finally, click on Change password button.

That’s it. Log out and log in back to your ownCloud’s dashboard using the new password.

Similarly, you can install any modules of your choice.

Removing modules:

Go to the section called “Installed” in the software center and click the Remove button to uninstall any modules.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have seen how to install and configure NethServer, and how to install a module from the software center. I must say that the NethServer is definitely a worth distribution to deploy in your organization. Though, the Community edition has some limited features, It is capable of installing all major components such as FTP, Mail, Squid proxy, Or Web server. If you want to add specific modules which are not available in the Community edition, you can purchase and try them from the Enterprise edition. Whether you want to deploy a mail server or VPN server or anything, you can just install them in a couple of mouse clicks easily using the NethServer’s software center.

To know more about NethServer, I suggest you to have a look at the NethServer’s official documentation page.