Unified network administration using eBox

01     Running the eBox installer
This tutorial assumes that the machine you will be installing eBox on will be a dedicated network server with a blank hard drive. We will be skipping the steps in which the default values are acceptable. Burn the eBox installer ISO to a blank CD and boot your computer from it. You will be greeted with the eBox installer screen.

02    Setting up keyboard layout and installing the base system
Keyboard detection takes a long time and is not necessary if you already know the keyboard layout for your computer – select No on the keyboard layout detection screen. From the next screen, select the relevant keyboard for your computer. Proceed through the installer until you have installed the base system and created a user account.

03    Starting the eBox modules installer
Now that you have installed the basic system, it is time to install eBox on it. Upon restarting the system you will be prompted to insert the eBox installation disc. Hit Enter after inserting the disc. From the next screen, choose ‘simple – Select packages by task’. Tasks are also know as profiles.

04     Selecting a profile
From this screen you can select one or more eBox profiles. For this installation, select office and hit OK. The installer will start installing the eBox packages based on the selected profile.

05    Setting up a password for eBox web interface
Enter the password to be used with the eBox web interface. You will need to confirm the password in the next screen.

06    External interface configuration
If you have an Ethernet card on the server connected to the internet, you can select it here to enable a strict firewall system for a more secure server setup. You should not select the interface which is connected to your local area network.

07     Mail configuration
You can use a fully qualified host name as the virtual mail domain. The virtual mail domain name uses the format of <yourcompanyname>.com.

08    Completing the installation
Lastly, you will be greeted with the web access URL for the eBox server. Note it down and select OK.  eBox server will boot into text mode. You are installing the eBox server. It is important to note that eBox does not come with an X-based GUI interface (such as KDE or GNOME). eBox server is primarily used as a headless server.  All the configuration happens through the eBox web interface from a remote machine.