Setting up hosting on Linux is still the same craft: DNS, websites, email, SSL, backups. What changed is the shortcut. The official autoinstaller sets up Apache or Nginx, MariaDB, Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, and the panel on port 8080. You stop editing vhosts by hand and start managing clients, domains, and mailboxes in the browser.
If you are starting now — infrastructure analyst, DevOps practitioner, someone working with PHP/WordPress, or someone who wants their own mail server — the path is a course + a lab, not a gist from 2017.
New students — enroll on Udemy
The course that covers ISPConfig in practice today is Email with Postfix 2.0: ISPConfig panel, Postfix, Dovecot, Roundcube, SSL. 11,5 h, in Portuguese, by Nilton Oliveira.
What you get
- Install ISPConfig 3 on a clean Debian/Ubuntu VPS (the 2026 way, not Jessie).
- Set up a website, client, and domain through the panel — Apache or Nginx.
- Real email: Postfix + Dovecot + Roundcube, the same stack as the course.
- SSL, backups, phpMyAdmin without leaving the door open to the world.
- WordPress, a Python, Go, or Java app behind the panel’s proxy — no HHVM, with PHP 8.
Prerequisite: basic Linux and a VM (VirtualBox, KVM, or an inexpensive VPS). SSH with keys, not passwords: updated how-to.
Start for free on YouTube
The Oficina do Tux / LinuxPro playlist is still the sample. Watch it, then join the full course on Udemy:
Playlist: hosting with ISPConfig
Current installation, step by step on the blog: ISPConfig on Debian. Project history: The history of ISPConfig.
Another LinuxPro course
GitLab in practice
Repositories, CI/CD, and automation — the natural companion for anyone deploying websites who needs a pipeline. Also on Udemy, also in Portuguese.
Who it is for
Hosting provider staff, DevOps practitioners, web designers tired of closed-source cPanel, PHP/Python/Go developers who want their own server, network admins. ISPConfig is a free software panel; the course teaches you not to depend on expensive reseller hosting to keep a website + email online.
The 2017 syllabus (archive)
The 25 lessons from that time (Debian 8.6, Ubuntu 16.04, OpenSUSE 42.2, CentOS 7, Tomcat, Django, Ruby, HHVM) remain in the archive below. Use them as a map of what the craft covers; do the lab on Debian 12/13 with the autoinstaller.
- Lesson 0–1: introduction and base server in a VM
- Lesson 2: history of ISPConfig
- Lesson 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15: automated installation (Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, CentOS, Nginx)
- Lesson 4: DNS
- Lesson 6: Apache vs Nginx
- Lesson 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 24: panel, clients, websites, structure, pt-BR
- Lesson 13, 17, 19, 21, 22: Tomcat, Django, Ruby, Go, WordPress
- Lesson 18, 20, 23, 25: phpMyAdmin, backups, Roundcube, where to host
Scripts from that time
Gists from 2017 — archive only, do not run in production in 2026:
Channel: youtube.com/linuxpro · code: github.com/jniltinho.